LINGUIST List 21.2971 Sun Jul 18 2010 Qs: Pashto in Unicode Editor for this issue: Elyssa Winzeler <elyssalinguistlist.org> We'd like to remind readers that the responses to queries are usually best posted to the individual asking the question. That individual is then strongly encouraged to post a summary to the list. This policy was instituted to help control the huge volume of mail on LINGUIST; so we would appreciate your cooperating with it whenever it seems appropriate. In addition to posting a summary, we'd like to remind people that it is usually a good idea to personally thank those individuals who have taken the trouble to respond to the query. To post to LINGUIST, use our convenient web form at http://linguistlist.org/LL/posttolinguist.cfm. Directory         1.    Ron Artstein, Pashto in Unicode Message 1: Pashto in Unicode Date: 15-Jul-2010 From: Ron Artstein <linguistartstein.org> Subject: Pashto in Unicode E-mail this message to a friend Hi, I'm interested in knowing if there is a standard way to encode the various Pashto y-characters in Unicode, and if so, what it is. This question is a bit more complicated than it sounds, so here's the background. Pashto is written using a derivative of the Arabic script. The Arabic language uses a single character for both /j/ and /i:/ sounds. Like many Arabic characters, this one is composed of a base form (which changes shape based on its position in a word) and dots (in this case, two dots below the base form). In most of the Arabic-speaking world the dots are present with both the medial and final form, though in Egypt (and possibly other places) the convention is to have two dots on the medial form but leave them off the final form. The standard arrangement of the two dots is horizontal, but they can be placed vertically or diagonally with no change in meaning. Arabic has a separate character derived from an etymological /j/ with phonetic value /a/ which is written with the same base form but no dots; it only ever appears at the end of a word. Persian also uses a single character for /j/ and /i:/, with the convention of two dots on the medial form, no dots on the final form (same as in Egypt). The two conventions for the /j/-/i:/ character were given distinct code points in unicode despite the fact that they do not contrast; documentation is scarce, but presumably this was done in order to allow writing both Arabic and Persian in the same document. Therefore, Unicode has the following code points: U+064A two dots medially and finally (/j/-/i:/ Arabic convention) U+06CC two dots medially, none finally (/j/-/i:/ Persian convention) U+0649 no dots medially or finally (/a/ in Arabic, etymological /j/) U+06D0 two dots medially and finally in vertical arrangement (Pashto /e/, see below) As it so happens, there is much confusion in how these characters are used in actual electronic documents, which is not surprising given that U+06CC looks like U+064A in medial position but like U+0649 in final position. There is an excellent article by Jonathan Kew that sorts out what this means for various languages that use derivatives of the Arabic script. http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/render_download.php?site_id=nrsi&format=file&media_id=arabicletterusagenotes&filename=ArabicLetterUsageNotes.pdf Unfortunately, this article does not discuss Pashto. I have little knowledge of the language, but here's what I managed to understand (and please correct me if I'm wrong). First of all, Pashto makes a distinction between a character with two dots arranged horizontally, representing /j/ or /i:/ as in Arabic and Persian, and a character with two dots arranged vertically, representing the sound /e/. I have very little access to Pashto documents from before the computer age, but from what little I saw, my impression is that the /j/-/i:/ character used the same convention as in Persian, of two dots in the medial form and none on the final form. I don't have access to documents that would allow me to determine whether or not the /e/ character traditionally had dots on its final form. With the advent of computer typesetting, a new convention appears to have arisen, which as far as I can tell is unique to Pashto in that it distinguishes between /j/ and /i:/ (though only in word-final position): /j/ is written with two dots medially, none finally /i:/ is written with two dots both medially and finally /e/ is written with two dots in vertical arrangement, both medially and finally Which brings me to my original question, of how to represent Pashto in Unicode. The linguist in me notices a correspondence between sounds and Unicode code points (which, given the history I have just described, is most certainly accidental): /j/ corresponds to U+06CC /i:/ corresponds to U+064A /e/ corresponds to U+06D0 However, the wikipedia article on the Pashto alphabet http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pashto_alphabet gives a different correspondence, based on visual appearance: forms with dots: U+064A (standing for /i:/ and /j/ medially and /i:/ finally) forms without dots: U+0649 (only /j/ in word-final position) forms with vertical dots: U+06D0 (/e/ in any position) And there is yet a third convention, which I encountered in an electronic lexicon: U+06CC: medial forms with dots (/i:/ and /j/) and dotless final form (/j/) U+064A: final form with dots (/i:/) U+06D0: all forms with vertical dots (/e/) To wrap up, are my observations about the Pashto writing conventions correct? And is there a standard for assigning the Pashto characters to Unicode code points? Any resources or insight on Pashto writing conventions would be appreciated. -Ron. Linguistic Field(s): Computational Linguistics Subject Language(s): Pashto, Central (pst) Read more issues|LINGUIST home page|Top of issue Page Updated: 18-Jul-2010       About LINGUIST    |   Contact Us       While the LINGUIST List makes every effort to ensure the linguistic relevance of sites listed on its pages, it cannot vouch for their contents.