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L2/20-135NextstepsonBookPahlaviRoozbehPournader(WhatsApp)andLiangHaiApril28,2020

BackgroundBookPahlavimaybethebest-knowncomplexscriptnotyetencodedinUnicode.IthaswidespreadusageamongscholarsofIranianlanguages,buttherearestillissuestoberesolvedbeforethescriptcanbeencodedinUnicode.ThisdocumentisbasedonareviewofmostrecentdocumentsintheBookPahlaviTopicalDocumentlistathttps://unicode.org/L2/topical/bookpahlavi/,aswellasfurtheremailcommunicationswithAnshumanPandey.

ThisdocumentestablishessomequestionsthatneedtobeansweredbeforeUnicodecanencodethescript.Themainopenquestion,“Whatistherightmodeltoencodethescript?”remainsunanswered.Theauthorsconfesstheydon’thaveanansweryet,butbelievetheinformationrequestedherewouldhelparriveatthebestmodelormakelargeadvancestowardsit.

WeconsiderPandey2018(asopposedtoolderproposalssuchasPournader2013andMeyers2014)tobethebaselinefurtherproposalsshouldbebasedon,asit’sthemostcomprehensiveproposalyetsubmitted.Butwemakereferencetotheolderproposalstopointopenissues.

Technicalquestionsthatneedanswersfromexperts1. Meyers2014,p.11,mentionsthefollowingtwospecificformsthatdon’tappearto

bedescribedinPandey2018:

DosuchformsactuallyexistinBookPahlavitexts?Ifyes,howshouldtheybeanalyzed?Forexample,shouldMeyers’s“yh/1”beanalyzedasasequenceofgimel-daleth-yodandanothercharacter?(Ifyes,whichcharacter?)Shouldtheirnon-loopednon-joining“c/j”(notealoopedright-joiningc/j/palreadyexistsintheproposal)beconsideredjustavariantofsadheordoesithaveimportantdistinctionsfromtheloopedformsofsadhe?

NotethatMeyers2014,p.50includesimagesofatypesetBookPahlavitextthatappeartoshowthefirstglyph,althoughtheexamplesarenotright-joiningas

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Meyersclaims.Aretheseproperlytypeset,oraretheyartifactsofthetype?

Pournader2013p.12alsoincludesaformforsadhethatisopenandnon-looped,althoughheproposesitasright-joining:

SodoesSkjærvø2008p.8:

WhilePandey2018onlyshowsloopedforms(p.11):

2. Meyers2014,p.15considerswhatPandey2018andPournader2013proposeastheletterheadigraph:

Thespecificshapepresentedincludesaprotrudingpart,circledabove.IsthatafeatureofBookPahlaviorjustanartifactofthetypesettingtechnologyoratypo?NotethatPandey2018alsoincludessuchaprotrusiononpage21:

AsimilarexampleshappensonPandey2018,page23:

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IfsuchvariationactuallyexistsinPahlavitexts,isitsystematic?Doesthepresenceoftheprotrusionhinttowardaspecificreadingofthetext,suchasmnasopposedtoh/E?

3. Meyers2014,p.18mentionsthreediacriticsthatarenotproposedinPournader2013(whichisbasedonNyberg1964).Thesearecaronbelow,dotabove,andthreedotsbelow.TheyclaimitappearsinKatāyūnMazdāpūr’sDāstān-eGaršāsp,TahmūresoJamšīd,GelšāhoMatnhā-yedīgar.

Pandey2018includesallthesediacritics,butreversesthecaronbelow,callingita“hatbelow”:

Dosuchdiacriticsindeedexist?Ifyes,whichlettersaretheyusedwith?Whatisthephoneticvalueofthedottedletters?

4. Meyers2014,p.39,Figure4.3,containssomewordsorlettersinwhiteframes.Whatistheirreading?Whatdothedotdiacriticsindicate?

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5. Meyers2014,pp.46–48,containssomefour-dottedandmulti-dottedpunctuations.Arethesecommonorrare(orhapaxes)?Doesthedifferencewiththecommonthree-dotpunctuationssignifysomething?

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6. Meyers2014,p.47,includessometextatitstopright:

IsthisBookPahlavioranotherscriptlikeAvestanorArabic?IfitisBookPahlavi,what’sthereading?

7. Meyers2014p.53showsthesetwosamples:

Aretheythesamespelling?Couldtheyhavedifferentreadings?Whatdoestheextratoothinthegreenwordsignify?Isthisafeatureofmanuscripts,orsomethingthatonlyappearsintypesettexts?

Otherissues

8. Provideacompletelistofdottedletters:whichletterscombinewithwhichdiacriticsandwhatistheirphoneticalvalue?Nyberg1964providesthefollowinglist:gimel-daleth-yodh+twodotsabove=ggimel-daleth-yodh+hatabove=dgimel-daleth-yodh+twodotsbelow=ygimel-daleth-yodh+dotbelow=jshin+threedotsabove=šWhatothercombinationsareusedinBookPahlavi?

9. Nyberg1964,p.135,mentionsahookusedundermem-qoph.Howisthatanalyzed?Doesitneedaseparateencodingasacombiningmarkoranalternateformofmem-qoph?

10. Whatarethebasicgraphemesofnumbersandwhichofthemshouldbeunifiedwithletters?Whatarethejoiningpropertiesofnumbers?Aretherenumberswhichjointothepreviousornextcharactersometimesanddon’tjoinsomeothertimes?(SeeNyberg1964pp.173–174for“Figures”and“Ordinals”aswellasitspage131forthe

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suffixformofthenumberone.SeealsoSkjærvø2008pp.97–99andMeyers2014Section2.7.)

Recommendationsbyauthors• BookPahlavishouldbeencodedasacursivescript(usingrulessimilartoArabic

shaping)asproposedbyPandey2018andPournader2013.Otherwise,unreliablehackingwouldbeneededforimplementingidealcursive-joiningfonts.ContextualvariationsdeemedunnecessarybyMeyers2014(whichareactuallydesirableinmostfonts)wouldnotbereliablyrenderedifitisencodedasnon-cursive,astextengineswouldassumethescriptisnotcomplex,resultinginsubparrenderings.

• Ifthereareindeedtwoformsofupside-downAhrimanasmentionedbyMeyers2014Section2.4.1,twoAtomiccharactersshouldbeproposedforthem.Typographicinversionishardtoachieveinmoderntextprocessingenvironmentsandencodingtheseasspecialcharactershelpstheusercommunityavoidcomplextrickstotypesetcommontexts.

• Meyers2014proposesencodingasmootherformandasquarishformofb/1astwodifferentcharacters.Theyshouldnotbedisunified.Thevariationispredictableincontexts(e.g.becomingsquarishwhenhavinglettersinsidethebelly),seeMeyers2014p.38Figure4.2.

Alternatively,itmaybethecasethatnumbershaveadifferentcurvaturethanletters(ifthecyanboxisshowingnumbers),andinsuchacase,numbersshouldbedisunifiedfromletters.

• Meyers2014p.17Section2.5talksaboutoccasionalletterseparationandrecommendstheusageofU+304FCOMBININGGRAPHEMEJOINER(CGJ)forsuchcases.ThisisinconsistentwithotherusagesoftheCGJ.InsteadZWNJshouldbeusedtobreakjoining,oroneofthevariousthinspacescouldbeusedifmorespaceisneeded.

• Pandey2018introducestheconceptof“fixed-form”letters,toworkaroundcaseswhere“normaljoiningbehaviorissuspended”.Whileweagreethatagoodcaseismadeforsuchcharacters,wethinktheexactmodelproposedbyPandeywillcreateconfusionandambiguity.Wethinkthatinsteadofone“normal”letterandone“fixed-form”letter,weshouldconsidertwo“fixed-form”letters,onethatalwaysformsabellyandanotherthatneverdoes.Inthisway,usersofthescriptandfont

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designerswouldn’tneedtolearnthecomplexrulesonwhenabellyisformed,andtextismorepredictablewhilebeingtyped.(Notethatthismayresultinareductioninthenumberoflettersintotal,sincesomeofthesefixedformsmayneedtobeunifiedwithothercharacters.)

AmbiguityandencodingItiswell-knownthatBookPahlavitextsarequiteambiguous.ThisisindeedthesourceoftheradicalencodingmodelproposedbyMeyers2014,whichtriestoresolvethoseambiguitiesandreduceBookPahlavitexttoverybasicelements,whichinsomecaseslosetheirrelationtoletters.Asmentionedearlier,theauthorsdonothaveacompletemodelinmind,andtheambiguitiesofBookPahlaviconcernsthemtoo.TherightmodelmaylivesomewherebetweenthemodelofPournader/PandeyononesideandMeyersontheother.Whatfollows,issomeofourthoughtsaboutwhatmaybethebestmodel.First,therearesomeverybasiccasesofambiguityinBookPahlavi,whichareveryfrequent.Thesetwocometomind:

• Theconfusablebellypartinshinversusthebelliedformofaleph;and• samekhvstwoconsecutivegimel-daleth-yodhs.

Generally,wethinkinordertoreduceambiguityintheencoding,phonemicspellingshouldbedeprioritized,andthegrapheticdisplayofthetextshouldbecometheprimarysourceofencodingdecisions.Forexample,ifaphonemicmisspellingofsomewordwouldresultintherightdisplay,itmaybepreferabletorepresentthewordusingthatmisspelling,asopposedtoaphonemicallycorrectspellingthatwouldresultinadifferentdisplay.Thislineofthinkingleadstoaneedforinvestigatingwhetherwecanreducethenumberoflettersencodedwhilekeepingeveryknownwordrepresentable.Alternatively,inamorephoneticmodelliketheoneproposedbyPandey2018,werecommendusingthemostsimplepieced-togetherrepresentationaccordingtohowawordappears.Forexample,considerthecaseMeyers2014p.32bringsup,wherethewordsgyʾhandsydʾarespelledthesamewayvisually:

TheauthorshaveconfirmedthisdoublereadingbycheckingwithMacKenzie1986(p.167),whichalsogivestheirspellingsasgyʾh(p.36)andsydʾ(p.78):

AssumingMeyers’sanalysisoftheelementsofthewordiscorrect,perhapsthewordshouldbeencodedasitappearsonthepage,saygyʾh,regardlessofthephonetic/semanticinterpretation,usingthespellingthatdoesnotrequirethefontknowaboutanalternatecurl-lessformofyforthespellingsydʾ.

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Anexampleofthismorevisualmodelwouldbehandlingtheconfusionbetweenthefinalformsofpeandsadhe.Therightpartofpefrequently(butnotalways)mergesintoaprecedingstroke,makingitindistinguishablefromthefinalformofsadhe.Insuchcases,thewordsusingsuchformsofpeshouldbeencodedusingsadhe.Therearesomemorecomplexsituations,suchasMeyers2014’sclaiminitspage16thatacurvedbellyinsome<aleph-heth,taw>sequencescouldcarrysemanticinformation,asopposedtosayan<aleph-heth,aleph-heth>sequence.ThisisincontrastwithPandey2018,whichconsidersthesituationstobethesame.Thisneedsfurtherinvestigation.Finally,webelieveUnicodeshouldtryitsbesttoavoidsub-letterencoding.Wefindthemismatchbetweenletterboundariesandcharacterboundaries(Meyers2014,p.33)concerning.Bibliography

1. D.N.MacKenzie.1986.AConcisePahlaviDictionary.OxfordUniversityPress.London.ISBN0-19-713559-5.http://www.rabbinics.org/pahlavi/MacKenzie-PahlDict.pdf

2. AbeMeyers.2014.“ProposalforEncodingBookPahlaviintheUnicodeStandard.Version1.2.”UTCDocumentRegisterL2/14-077R.TheUnicodeConsortium.https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2014/14077r-book-pahlavi.pdf

3. AbeMeyers.2018.“ACritiqueofL2/18-276.”UTCDocumentRegisterL2/18-334.TheUnicodeConsortium.https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2018/18334-book-pahlavi.pdf

4. HenrikSamuelNyberg.1964.AManualofPahlavi.VolumeI:Texts,Alphabets,Index,Paradigms,Notes,andanIntroduction.OttoHarrassowitz,Wiesbaden.ReprintedbyAsatir,Tehran,2003.ISBN964-331-131-7.

5. AnshumanPandey.2018.“PreliminaryproposaltoencodeBookPahlaviinUnicode.”UTCDocumentRegisterL2/18-276.TheUnicodeConsortium.https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2018/18276-book-pahlavi.pdf

6. RoozbehPournader.2013.“PreliminaryproposaltoencodetheBookPahlaviscriptintheUnicodeStandard.”UTCDocumentRegisterL2/13-141.TheUnicodeConsortium.https://unicode.org/L2/L2013/13141-book-pahlavi.pdf

7. ProdsOktorSkjærvø.2008.“IntroductiontoPahlavi”.Cambridge,Mass.https://bayanbox.ir/view/8882150498859088732/Pahlavi-Primer-Prods-Oktor-Skjaerv.pdf