Re: [predefined-counter-styles] ambiguity or insufficient specification for Latin-based Oromo-Qubee counter styles (#47)

Initially i was also surprised to see that AA could represent either 2 or 38, but then i thought that not many lists are long enough (>37 items) for this ambiguity to occur, and if it does occur it is probably strongly mitigated by the context, given that these counters are usually used in sequences where the adjacent items will inform the user what number is intended.

It's true that if i happened to be dealing with a long list and wanted to point to a specific item in that list, it may create some ambiguity without qualification in _written_ form (if i were to speak the counter there would be a difference between A=ɐ and AA=ɑː).  But then the same ambiguity appears with cyclical lists.

As for the suggestion to distinguish the diphthongs using marks, that is not afaik how the alphabet is used for Oromo. On the other hand, Oromo does use an apostrophe to clarify sequences of vowels and diphthongs using the same letter (eg. boba'aa means “fuel”). I'm not sure how to make that appear in listings using the alphabetic rules, though, since it would probably look odd to include an apostrophe unless you had an ambiguous sequence.

So i'm not sure whether your initial proposition is necessarily true:

> The "alphabetic" algorithm is not supposed to generate the same sequence for different integer values (such repetition is just allowed and properly described only for "cyclic" systems).

That said, @dyacob do you have any thoughts on this?

Btw, also note that the patterns described in this document are only suggestions. A content author is perfectly at liberty to modify the code so that it eliminates troublesome diphthongs, rather than just adopting it without change.

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Received on Tuesday, 5 July 2022 13:15:48 UTC