ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2/WG2 N1687
DATE: 1998-01-18

DOC TYPE:Expert contribution
TITLE:Draft Proposal to encode Old Permic in Plane 1 of ISO/IEC 10646-2
SOURCE:Michael Everson
PROJECT:JTC1.02.18.02
STATUS:Proposal.
ACTION ID:FYI
DUE DATE:--
DISTRIBUTION:Worldwide
MEDIUM:Paper and web
NO. OF PAGES:3 (printed at 80%)

A. Administrative

1. TitleProposal to encode Old Permic in Plane 1 of ISO/IEC 10646-2
2. Requester's nameMichael Everson
3. Requester typeExpert request
4. Submission date1998-01-18
5. Requester's reference 
6a. CompletionThis is a complete proposal.
6b. More information to be provided?No

B. Technical -- General

1a. New script? Name?Yes. Old Permic
1b. Addition of characters to existing block? Name?No.
2. Number of characters28
3. Proposed categoryCategory D
4. Proposed level of implementation and rationaleLevel 1
5a. Character names included in proposal?Yes
5b. Character names in accordance with guidelines?Yes
5c. Character shapes reviewable?Yes
6a. Who will provide computerized font?Michael Everson
6b. Font currently available?Michael Everson
6c. Font format?TrueType
7a. Are references (to other character sets, dictionaries, descriptive texts, etc.) provided?Yes.
7b. Are published examples (such as samples from newspapers, magazines, or other sources) of use of proposed characters attached?No
8. Does the proposal address other aspects of character data processing?No

C. Technical -- Justification

1. Contact with the user community?Yes, with the Centre for the Domestic Languages of Finland.
2. Information on the user community?Old Permic enjoys mostly scholarly use.
3a. The context of use for the proposed characters?Used to write the Komi and Komi Permyak languages in the 14th-16th centuries.
3b. ReferenceHaarmann 1992, Stipa 1990
4a. Proposed characters in current use?Yes, by scholars. Cyrillic is used for the Komi languages currently.
4b. Where?By scholars and enthusiasts.
5a. Characters should be encoded entirely in BMP?No. Plane 1.
5b. RationaleAccordance with the Roadmap.
6. Should characters be kept in a continuous range?Yes
7a. Can the characters be considered a presentation form of an existing character or character sequence? No.
7b. Where? 
7c. Reference 
8a. Can any of the characters be considered to be similar (in appearance or function) to an existing character?No
8b. Where? 
8c. Reference 
9a. Combining characters or use of composite sequences included?No
9b. List of composite sequences and their corresponding glyph images provided?No
10. Characters with any special properties such as control function, etc. included?No

D. SC2/WG2 Administrative

To be completed by SC2/WG2
1. Relevant SC 2/WG 2 document numbers: 
2. Status (list of meeting number and corresponding action or disposition) 
3. Additional contact to user communities, liaison organizations etc. 
4. Assigned category and assigned priority/time frame 
Other Comments 
The Old Permic script was devised in the 14th century by Russian missionary Stefan of Perm (fl. 1373-1395), and was used to write Komi and Komi Permyak languages. Its model was based on the Greek and Cyrillic alphabets (as can be seen from the order of the letters) but most of the glyphs were taken from the Komi "Tamga signs", used in their indigenous religious practices, by Stefan as a way of linking traditional signs, which had a great deal to do with the self-identity of the Komi, with Christian traditions.

Issue

  • I have used the term "Old Permic" as the name for this script. Stipa calls it "Permisch"; Põllu uses the terms "vanapermi", "drevnepermskij", and "Ol d-Permian" in Estonian, Russian, and English respectively. Haarmann, however, calls it "Abur" and "Altsyrjänisch" (= 'Old Komi'); Abur may be its proper native designation. 
    U+xxD0	OLD PERMIC LETTER A
U+xxD1	OLD PERMIC LETTER BA
U+xxD2	OLD PERMIC LETTER GA
U+xxD3	OLD PERMIC LETTER DA
U+xxD4	OLD PERMIC LETTER E
U+xxD5	OLD PERMIC LETTER ZHA
U+xxD6	OLD PERMIC LETTER DZHA
U+xxD7	OLD PERMIC LETTER ZA
U+xxD8	OLD PERMIC LETTER DZA
U+xxD9	OLD PERMIC LETTER I
U+xxDA	OLD PERMIC LETTER KA
U+xxDB	OLD PERMIC LETTER LA
U+xxDC	OLD PERMIC LETTER MA
U+xxDD	OLD PERMIC LETTER NA
U+xxDE	OLD PERMIC LETTER OO
U+xxDF	OLD PERMIC LETTER PA
U+xxE0	OLD PERMIC LETTER RA
U+xxE1	OLD PERMIC LETTER SA
U+xxE2	OLD PERMIC LETTER TA
U+xxE3	OLD PERMIC LETTER U
U+xxE4	OLD PERMIC LETTER CA
U+xxE5	OLD PERMIC LETTER CHA
U+xxE6	OLD PERMIC LETTER SHA
U+xxE7	OLD PERMIC LETTER YA
U+xxE8	OLD PERMIC LETTER EE
U+xxE9	OLD PERMIC LETTER VA
U+xxEA	OLD PERMIC LETTER O
U+xxEB	OLD PERMIC LETTER OE
U+xxEB	(This position shall not be used)
U+xxED	(This position shall not be used)
U+xxEE	(This position shall not be used)
U+xxEF	(This position shall not be used)

    Bibliography

  • Èpifanij Premudryj. 1862. "Povest' o Stepane, episkope Permskom", in Pamjatniki starinnoj russkoj literatury 4: 119-71. S. Peterburg.
  • Hämäläinen, A. 1909. Èpifanij Viisan tiedot Pyhästä Tapanista ja syrjääneistä", in Suomi 4,6,2: 1-27. (Tr. of Èpifanij Premudry 1862.)
  • Haarmann, Harald. 1990. Universalgeschichte der Schrift. Frankfurt/Main; New York: Campus. ISBN 3-593-34346-0
  • Kuznecova, Z. I. 1958. "Obzor pamjatnikov komi pis'mennosti XVIII v.", in Istoriko-filologicheskij sbornik 4: 213-41. Syktyvkar.
  • Lepechin, I. I. 1790. "Histoire de l'Académie Imperiale des Sciences année MDCCLXXXVIII", in Nova Acta Acadamiae Scientiarum Imperiales Petropolitanae 6: 1-34. Petropoli.
  • Lytkin, G. S. 1889. Zyrjanskij Kraj pri èpiskopax permskix i zyrjanskii jazyk. Sanktpeterburg.
  • Lytkin, V. I. 1952. Drevnepermskij jazyk: chtenie tekstov, grammatika, slovar'. Moskva.
  • Lytkin, V. I. 1957. Istoricheskaja grammatika komi jazyka. 1: Vvedenie. Fonetika. Syktyvkar.
  • Lytkin, V. I. 1962. "Über die Geschichte der syrjänischen Literatur", in Ural-Altäische Jahrbücher 34: 214-22.
  • Sidorov, A. S. 1962. "Novye pamjatniki drevnekomi pis'mennosti". Ed. V. I. Lytkin. In Voprosy 1962: 178-211.
  • Põllu, Kaljo. 1990. Tallinna Kunstiülikooli kümme soome-ugri uurimisreisi. Tallin: Olion. ISBN 5-450-00582-2
  • Stipa, Günter Johannes. 1961. "Der Ursprung der permischen Schrift", in Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 110: 342-64. Wiesbaden.
  • Stipa, Günter Johannes. 1963. "Der Ursprung der permischen Schrift", in Congressus internationalis Fenno-ugristarum Budapestini habitus 20-24. Pp. 281-87. Budapest.
    Michael Everson, Evertype, Dublin, 2001-09-21