rosettatype / hyperglot

Hyperglot: a database and tools for detecting language support in fonts
http://hyperglot.rosettatype.com
GNU General Public License v3.0
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Add local morphology of Ʒ as reversed Σ in Dagbani #138

Closed clauseggers closed 7 months ago

clauseggers commented 7 months ago

The capital Ʒ has the form of a reversed Σ, which is still preferred for Dagbani in Ghana.

moyogo commented 7 months ago

What do you mean "preferred"?

moyogo commented 7 months ago

Just to be clear, in my notes the Bureau of Ghana Languages, Language Guide: Dagbani, 1976 (and 1991 reprint) uses the ʒ-form with previous editions (1961, 1968) using the Σ-form. But I can’t find the scan.

clauseggers commented 7 months ago

I took it verbatim from the note 2 on this page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africa_Alphabet The claim is repeated here https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Ʒ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ezh

moyogo commented 7 months ago

A citation would be nice, otherwise it looks like it’s outdated or at least inaccurate as both forms occur relatively frequently.

See for example the ʒ-form in the Dagbani Bible Naawuni Kundi Kasi, 2006:

Screenshot 2023-11-22 at 11 42 55

The indication in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ezh that Aja in Benin uses the reversed-Σ-form is rather odd, condisering: Centre national de linguistique appliquée (CENALA), Alphabet des langues nationales, Cotonou, CENALA, 1990 (online)

Screenshot 2023-11-22 at 11 52 19

Centre national de linguistique appliquée (CENALA), Alphabet des langues nationales béninoises, Cotonou: CENALA & IFADEM, 2008

Screenshot 2023-11-22 at 11 53 54
kontur commented 7 months ago

I've included this in the database as:

note: Ʒ is sometimes encountered written as reversed "Σ" without unicode encoding, see https://github.com/rosettatype/hyperglot/issues/138

Since the character is not encoded (that is my understanding) it is additional information. I don't think it warrants a design_requirement, since it is not, per se, a requirement, and seems possibly historical. I added @moyogo 's references to the source since it informed the note and why the main orthography uses Ʒ.