JTC1/SC2/WG2 N2543
SC2/WG2 Nxxxx
L2/02-394
L2/02-xxx
2002-11-01
ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 2/WG 2
PROPOSAL SUMMARY FORM TO ACCOMPANY SUBMISSIONSFOR ADDITIONS TO THE REPERTOIRE OF ISO/IEC 10646 / UNICODE

A. Administrative
1. Title:

Proposal for Encoding Devanagari Glottal Stop

2. Requesters’ names:

SIL International (contacts: Peter Constable, Steve Smith)

3. Requester type:

Expert contribution

4. Submission date:November 1, 2002

5. Requester’s reference(if applicable):
6a. Completion:

This is a complete proposal.

6b. More information to
be providedB. Technical—General
1a. New script? Name?
No.
1b. Addition of characters to existing block? Name?
Yes: Devanagari.
2. Number of characters
1
3. Proposed category
Category A
4. Proposed level of implementation and rationale
Level 1.
5a. Character names included in proposal?
Yes.
5b. Character names in accordance with guidelines?
Yes.
5c. Character shapes attached in a reviewable form?
Yes.

6a. Who will provide computerized font?
SIL International
6b. Font currently available?
Yes.
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 useof proposed characters attached?
Yes.
8. Does the proposal address other aspects of character data processing?
This character has no unusual behaviours in relation to text processing, but is comparable to otherDevanagari consonant characters.

C. Technical—Justification
1. Has this proposal for addition of character(s) been submitted before?
No.
2. Contact with the user community?
Yes.
3. Information on the user community for the proposed characters (for example: size,demographics, information technology use, or publishing use) is included?
The user community for this character are speakers of Limbu that write their language usingDevanagari script.
As reported in “Revised proposal to encode the Limbu script in the UCS” (WG2/N2410, L2/02-055),
while there is a distinct Limbu script, far more Limbus are literate in Nepali than in Limbu. For thisreason, many Limbu publications use both Limbu and Devanagari scripts. The use of Devanagari
script for Limbu is evidenced in digitized samples provided herein, digitized samples provided in
N2410, and also in the Limbu-Nepali-English Dictionary (Subba, B.B., 1979).
3b. Reference
WG2/N2410 (L2/02-055). Revised proposal to encode the Limbu script in the UCS.”
Subba, B.B., 1979. Limbu Nepali English Dictionary. Gangtok, Govt. of Sikkim, Directorate ofEducation. [Limbu and Devanagari scripts.]
4a. The context of use for the proposed characters (type of use; common or rare)?
In common use for Limbu materials published using Devanagari script.
4b.Reference5. Are the proposed characters in current use by the user community?
Yes.
5b. Where?
Nepal and India.
5c. Reference
6. After giving due considerations to the principles in N 1352 must the proposed characters be
entirely in the BMP?
Yes.
6b. Rationale
Living script.
6c. Reference
7. Should the proposed characters be kept together in a contiguous range (rather than beingscattered)?
N/A.
8. Can any of the proposed characters be considered a presentation form of an existing character orcharacter sequence?
No.
9a. Can any of the proposed character(s) be considered to be similar (in appearance or function) toan existing character?
In some typefaces, the character is similar in appearance to U+0294 LATIN LETTER GLOTTALSTOP, and in Limbu it is used to signify a glottal stop. In some typefaces, however, it appears withthe matra line. There is a likelihood that implementations for Devanagari script would not be able toaccommodate Devanagari text with an intermingled Latin character. Moreover, one of the designprinciples for the Universal character set is not to unify characters across scripts. For these reasons, adistinct DEVANAGARI GLOTTAL STOP character is preferable.
10a. Does the proposal include use of combining characters and/or use of composite sequences (seeclause 4.11 and 4.13 in ISO/IEC 10646-1)?
No.
10b. If YES, is a rationale for such use provided?
N/A.
10c. Reference
N/A.
10d. Is a list of composite sequences and their corresponding glyph images (graphic symbols)
provided?
N/A.
10e. Reference
N/A.

11. Does the proposal contain characters with any special properties such as control function orsimilar semantics? If YES, describe in detail (include attachment if necessary).
N/A.

D. Proposed Characters
The following character is proposed:Name

Representative glyph

DEVANAGARI GLOTTAL STOP

Unicode character properties for this character should be the same as those for other Devanagari
consonant characters.

E. Illustrative samples

Source: Tongsing tokma mundhum [‘Tongsing Ritual’]. Bairagi Kainla. 2052 B.S. [1995-1996]. Royal
Nepal Academy, Kathmandu. (Obtained from N2410.)

Source: Éçí²¹çƒ 3- «çüÉçøLü lçê¹™çê ¯ Lˆç [‘The beginning 3- life story of Joseph’] Isai Yakthung Sapsak
Thobo Yokchum. 1998. International Bible Society.