If you are looking for something that is visually distinguishable from a macron, and not the same code point sequence internally, why not use a different character?
Maybe: U+0305 <http://unicode.org/cldr/utility/character.jsp?a=0305> ( ̅ ) COMBINING OVERLINE or one of the other 1,199 combining marks: http://unicode.org/cldr/utility/list-unicodeset.jsp?a=[:Mn:]&g=ccc Mark *— Il meglio è l’inimico del bene —* On Wed, Oct 27, 2010 at 16:49, Győző Dobner <[email protected]> wrote: > On Wed, 27 Oct 2010 07:41:13 -0400 > David Starner <[email protected]> wrote: > > > On Wed, Oct 27, 2010 at 7:23 AM, Győző Dobner <[email protected]> > > wrote: > > > Actually, it would be even better to have something like a > > > COMBINING PHONEME LENGTH MARK that can be used with both > > > vowels and consonants in any script or language whatsoever and that > > > would display differently in different languages, depending on the > > > language tag used. > > > > No. Unicode has pretty much declared it won't do anything of the sort. > > It would introduce ambiguity; there are already enough ways of > > encoding ā without adding another one. > > This latter one was only a quick idea of mine and I was actually going > to add something like "if it is compatible with the Unicode > guidlines/policies". > But my original question was not how to encode a combining macron in one > more possible way but how to encode a length mark that would display as > something _visually_ _distinguishable_ _from_ _a_ _macron_ (because the > macron is functionally ambiguous and hence unsuitable for my purposes). > Is it e.g. possible (i.e. is it Unicode-compliant) to combine a macron with > some > non-displaying character for this purpose, and if so, with which > non-displaying > character? I understand that ZERO-WIDTH JOINER is not supposed to be used > in this way (or am I mistaken?). > > Best Regards, > > Gy. Dobner > > >
