ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2/WG2 N3xxx L2/07-xxx - Evertype

It can be seen that there are some differences between the order in Figure 1 and Gardiner’s order in
Figure 2, but note that Gardiner’s is not algorithmically derived. For instance, Gardiner orders gbb < Gb
< Gbtñw < gb¨ < gbgb; according to Gardiner’s own alphabetical order one might expect Gb < gb¨ < gbb
< gbgb < Gbtñw (though perhaps Gardiner is using a root-based ordering). Our results gave gb¨ < gbb <
Gb < gbgb < Gbtñw, because the underlying spelling is g-b-(b-¨)-¨-ù < g-b-b-(g-b) < (g-b)-b-ï <
g-b-g-b-ì < g-b-(t-ñ-w)-∫.
Something else that will need to be dealt with is the question of characters with multiple readings.
T019, the harpoon head of bone Ω, has two readings, gn and k. s, and it is uncertain how a decision about
“primary” values will be made. Second- and third-level ordering for homophones like ƒ g and √ g is also
something we have not attempted in this exercise. Nevertheless, it seems clear that a phonetic-based
ordering for Egyptian hieroglyphs yields results which are more useful than binary ordering would yield.
Another way of illustrating this is to choose a set of words each beginning with a different letter of the
Egyptian alphabet and order that according to phonetic value and according to binary order. The use of
binary order apparently transforms Egyptian alphabetical order into r, Æ, d, b, h, ¨, m, w, f, d, ñ, k. , n, sˇ, s/z,
¯ ¯
h, p, t,
h. , k, g, t, y, h. Figure 3 shows the same set of words sorted in binary order. When we consulted
¯
with Egyptologists,
˘
they agreed that this order would not be useful to them.
úó…—… dñ h. r gs
üº° gh. s
®ß gmñ
®ß®ßÕ gmgm
®ß¡ô gmh.
®ß¡«ª gmh. t
®ßÃ~ gmw
≠†ï Gb
≤ƃõ«µ ñwgrt
≤ƒõ«µ ñgrt
≥ grh.
ΩΩ gnwt
Ω∆«¿~ gnwt
Ω«À gnwty
æ grg
√†† Gbb
√†∫ Gbtñw
√√Æ«ò~ ggwt
√√ºÀ∫ Gsy
ƒõ gr
ƒõë gr
ƒõæ grg
ƒõæ grg
ƒõ¡ù grh.
ƒõ¡≥ grh.
ěľ grg
ěľ grg
ƒõ« grt
ƒ†ù¥… gb¨
ƒ††¨ gbb
ƒ†©•ù gb¨
ƒ†ƒ†ì gbgb
ƒ•ö g¨w
ƒ•Ø¬¬¬ g¨wt
ƒ•¬´ g¨w
ƒ•Œ´ g¨w
ƒß« gmt
ƒ∞¢ gf1
ƒ∞∑ö gfn
ƒ∑∞öë gnf
ƒ∑∞öë gnf
ƒ∑∑í gnn
ƒ∑∆Æ«Ω¿∂ gnwt
ƒ∏” gs
ƒº“•π gs¨
ƒºÆœ»»» gsw
ƒ¡ºü£ gh. s
ƒ¡º° gh. s
ƒƒÆÀô ggwy
ƒƒ«§ ggt
ƒ–ø≤ gstñ
œ∏û gs
ϸŔ gs
œ…Æêñ~ gsw
œ…‘ gs-pr
œ…ø≤± gstñ
—… gs
Figure 3. The words in Gardiner’s grammar beginning with ƒ g-, expanded to plain-text strings of
characters and sorting in binary order.
10. The UniKemet database and future expansion of the repertoire. The database containing source
references for the characters encoded has been named the UniKemet database after ø¿¡ Kmt “Egypt”
since we considered a name like UniHieroglyph to be too general (given Anatolian Hieroglyphs, Maya
Hieroglyphs, and Míkmaq Hieroglyphs). This database provides the means for Egyptologists to work
with ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2/WG2 and with the Unicode Consortium to add Egyptian Hieroglyphs to the
standard in future. Its structure is relatively straightforward; it contains the following fields:
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