I guess the situation is somewhat similar to the ff ligature or the German double s (ß): One cannot always tell just by looking at the text whether the two Vavs or two Yods are part of a double Vav or double Yod ligature or just happen to be next to each other.
Jony > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On > Behalf Of Ken Whistler > Sent: Wednesday, October 19, 2011 9:55 PM > To: Mark E. Shoulson > Cc: [email protected] > Subject: Re: Yiddish digraphs > > On 10/19/2011 12:08 PM, Mark E. Shoulson wrote: > > I think the issue here is (probably) a matter of legacy encodings, > > though someone else would need to confirm that. > > O.k., as self-appointed historian of the standard, I guess I need to be > the one to answer that. ;-) > > The Yiddish digraphs were added to the basic set of Hebrew letters for > Unicode 1.0 on behalf of the Research Libraries Group, for compatibility > with their existing usage on the Research Libraries Information Network > (RLIN). > > Digging very deep in the old mailbox, I located email from Joan Aliprand > of the Research Libraries Group, dating from July 11, 1991 confirming > this, and noting that "I pushed very hard for inclusion of the Yiddish > digraphs tsvey vovn and tsvey yudn." > > It is my recollection that the 3rd digraph was added during the > discussion of > the addition of those two. > > At any rate, there is your legacy encoding source for these. Whether or not > the digraphs are used in *current* Yiddish data (or would even be > recommended for such use) is not relevant to reasons for the original > inclusion. > > --Ken
