Proposal for encoding Phoenician in ISO/IEC 10646

ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2/WG2 N____
Date: 1997-05-27
This is an unofficial HTML version of a document submitted to WG2.

Title: Proposal for encoding the Phoenician script in ISO/IEC 10646

Source: Michael Everson
Status: Expert Contribution
Action: For consideration by JTC1/SC2/WG2

This document contains the proposal summary (ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2/WG2 form N1352) and contains a complete proposal to encode the Phoenician script in ISO/IEC 10646. This proposal is a minor revision of a proposal by Rick McGowan, taken from Unicode Technical Report No. 3.

A. Administrative

1. Title Proposal for encoding the Phoenician script in ISO/IEC 10646

2. Requester's name Michael Everson, Evertype

3. Requester type Expert contribution

4. Submission date 1997-05-27

5. Requester's reference http://www.evertype.com/standards/iso10646/plane-1/ph.html

6a. Completion This is a complete proposal.

6b. More information to be provided? See notes on the Phoenician numerals below.

B. Technical -- General

1a. New script? Name? Yes. Phoenician.

1b. Addition of characters to existing block? Name? No

2. Number of characters 22

3. Proposed category Category C

4. Proposed level of implementation and rationale Phoenician requires Level 1 implementation.

5a. Character names included in proposal? Yes

5b. Character names in accordance with guidelines? Yes

5c. Character shapes reviewable? Yes (see below)

6a. Who will provide computerized font? Michael Everson, Evertype

6b. Font currently available? Michael Everson, Evertype

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? No.

2. Information on the user community? Scholarly community and script enthusiasts.

3a. The context of use for the proposed characters? Phoenician script is commonly used to write Phoenician.

3b. Reference Unicode Technical Report #3

4a. Proposed characters in current use? Yes

4b. Where? By scholars worldwide.

5a. Characters should be encoded entirely in BMP? Yes. Positions U+0790 - U+07AF are proposed for the encoding.

5b. Rationale Phoenician is a Category C script. Its allocation is in accordance with the Roadmap accepted by WG2

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, apart from the usual resemblences of related scripts like Latin and Greek

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

E. Proposal

User community

The Phoenician alphabet and its successors were widely used over a broad area surrounding the Medierranean Sea. Phoenician evolved over several hundred years from the end of the -2nd millenium (before -1100) with some modifications until the -2nd century, with the last neo-Punic inscriptions dating from about the 3rd century. The Phoenician alphabet is a forerunner of the Etruscan, Latin, Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, and Syriac scripts among others, many of which are still in modern use. It has also been suggested that Phoenician is the ultimate source of the Indic scripts descending from Brahmi and Kharoshthi.

Phoenician is quintessentially illustrative of the historical problem of where to draw lines in an evolutionary tree of contiuously changing scripts extending over thousands of years. The twenty two letters in the Phoenician block may be used, with appropriate font changes, to express Early Phoenician, Moabite, Early Hebrew, Later Phoenician, and Punic, and possibly some Early Aramaic. It is especially intended for use with Phoenician and Punic. The historical cut that has been made here considers the line from Phoenician to Punic to represent a single continuous branch of script evolution.

Processing

Phoenician is generally written from right to left horizontally. Phoenician language inscriptions usually have no space between words; there are sometimes dots between words in later inscriptions (e.g., in Moabite inscriptions). Typical fonts for the Phoenician and especially Punic have very exaggerated descenders. These descenders help distinguish the main line of Phoenician evolution toward Punic from the other (e.g., Hebrew) branches of the script, where the descenders instead grew shorter over time.

Issues

Phoenician numerals are imperfectly known. Faulmann is the only source I have found to date with a complete chart, giving a large number of glyph variants. Peignot gives an example on p. 22 showing that they are related to Aramaic numerals. The Phoenician character names' spellings should be verified.

Two columns are required to encode Phoenician. The Phoenician block is divided into the following ranges:

	U+0790 -> U+07A5	Phoenician letters
	U+07A6 -> U+07A9	Phoenician numerals
	U+07AA -> U+07AF	currently unassigned

References

Faulmann, Carl. 1990 (1880). Das Buch der Schrift. Frankfurt am Main: Eichborn. ISBN 3-8218-1720-8
Gaur, Albertine. 1992. A history of writing. London: The British Museum. ISBN 0-7123-0270-0
Haarmann, Harald. 1990. Universalgeschichte der Schrift. Frankfurt: Cempus Verlag. ISBN 3-593-34346-0
Peignot, Jérôme. 1982. Du chiffre. Paris: Jacque Damase, Éditeur.
Robinson, Andrew. 1995. The story of writing. London: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 0-500-01665-8

Names and code table

000	0790	PHOENICIAN LETTER ALEPH
001	0791	PHOENICIAN LETTER BETH
002	0792	PHOENICIAN LETTER GIMEL
003	0793	PHOENICIAN LETTER DALETH
004	0794	PHOENICIAN LETTER HE
005	0795	PHOENICIAN LETTER WAW
006	0796	PHOENICIAN LETTER ZAIN
007	0797	PHOENICIAN LETTER HETH
008	0798	PHOENICIAN LETTER THETH
009	0799	PHOENICIAN LETTER YODH
010	079A	PHOENICIAN LETTER KAPH
011	079B	PHOENICIAN LETTER LAMED
012	079C	PHOENICIAN LETTER MEM
013	079D	PHOENICIAN LETTER NUN
014	079E	PHOENICIAN LETTER SAMEKH
015	079F	PHOENICIAN LETTER AIN
016	07A0	PHOENICIAN LETTER PE
017	07A1	PHOENICIAN LETTER SAN
018	07A2	PHOENICIAN LETTER QOPPA
019	07A3	PHOENICIAN LETTER RESH
020	07A4	PHOENICIAN LETTER SHIN
021	07A5	PHOENICIAN LETTER TAU
022	07A6	PHOENICIAN NUMERAL ONE
023	07A7	PHOENICIAN NUMERAL TEN
025	07A8	PHOENICIAN NUMERAL TWENTY
026	07A9	PHOENICIAN NUMERAL ONE HUNDRED
027	07AA	(This position shall not be used)
028	07AB	(This position shall not be used)
029	07AC	(This position shall not be used)
030	07AD	(This position shall not be used)
031	07AE	(This position shall not be used)
032	07AF	(This position shall not be used)

Michael Everson, Evertype, Dublin, 2001-09-21

A. Administrative
1. Title	Proposal for encoding the Phoenician script in ISO/IEC 10646
2. Requester's name	Michael Everson, Evertype
3. Requester type	Expert contribution
4. Submission date	1997-05-27
5. Requester's reference	http://www.evertype.com/standards/iso10646/plane-1/ph.html
6a. Completion	This is a complete proposal.
6b. More information to be provided?	See notes on the Phoenician numerals below.

B. Technical -- General
1a. New script? Name?	Yes. Phoenician.
1b. Addition of characters to existing block? Name?	No
2. Number of characters	22
3. Proposed category	Category C
4. Proposed level of implementation and rationale	Phoenician requires Level 1 implementation.
5a. Character names included in proposal?	Yes
5b. Character names in accordance with guidelines?	Yes
5c. Character shapes reviewable?	Yes (see below)
6a. Who will provide computerized font?	Michael Everson, Evertype
6b. Font currently available?	Michael Everson, Evertype
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?	No.
2. Information on the user community?	Scholarly community and script enthusiasts.
3a. The context of use for the proposed characters?	Phoenician script is commonly used to write Phoenician.
3b. Reference	Unicode Technical Report #3
4a. Proposed characters in current use?	Yes
4b. Where?	By scholars worldwide.
5a. Characters should be encoded entirely in BMP?	Yes. Positions U+0790 - U+07AF are proposed for the encoding.
5b. Rationale	Phoenician is a Category C script. Its allocation is in accordance with the Roadmap accepted by WG2
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, apart from the usual resemblences of related scripts like Latin and Greek
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

Title: Proposal for encoding the Phoenician script in ISO/IEC 10646

Source: Michael Everson Status: Expert Contribution Action: For consideration by JTC1/SC2/WG2

A. Administrative

B. Technical -- General

C. Technical -- Justification