Re: proposed question: which languages are RTL?

Tex Texin wrote:

> Here is a start on this question-
> 
> Which languages are right-to-left (RTL)?
> 
> Background
> 
> This is a common question, although incorrectly phrased. Knowing
> which languages are right-to-left is important to web designers
> and authors, because the so called right-to-left languages are
> more complicated to work with and the organization and
> directionality of the page layout are affected. Therefore, knowing the writing
> direction can be relevant to estimating the work involved to create web pages
> in a new language.
> 
> Why is the question incorrectly phrased? There are 2 inaccuracies
> within this question. First, languages don't have a writing
> direction, the script used to write them determines the
> direction. For example, Yiddish is generally written in the
> Hebrew script, which is right-to-left. But it can also be written
> using the Latin script which is left-to-right.
> 
> The second inaccuracy concerns the use of the term "right-to-
> left". Although the majority of the text will be written right-
> to-left, numbers are still written left-to-right (LTR). In
> addition, right-to-left text will often include borrowed or
> foreign words written in their native left-to-right script, and
> so the text is mixed directionality. The proper term therefore is
> "bidirectional". However, "right-to-left" is very commonly used,
> and as long as it is understood that a script with a "right-to-left" writing
> direction is in fact bidirectional, the terms "right-to-left" and
> "bidrectional" can be used interchangeably.
> There is more information on the different directionalities of
> scripts in:
> http://www.unicode.org/faq/middleeast.html
> 
> Answer
> 
> Languages generally do have a preferred script and
> writing direction. The following scripts are bidirectional, and
> therefore languages written in these scripts are also
> bidirectional: Hebrew, Arabic, Syriac, Thaana
> 
> The following languages are generally written in bidirectional
> scripts:
> 
> Hebrew, Yiddish, Ladino,
> Arabic, Farsi/Persian, Syriac, Avesta, Kök Turki, Manchu, Middle
> Persian, Mongolian, Sogdian, South Arabic, Uighur, Maldivian,
> Urdu, Kazakh, Uzbek, Tajik. Malay, Swahili, Hausa, Algerian
> Tribal, old Malay, Baluchi, Kashmiri, Sindhi, Pashto, Landha,
> Dargwa, Morrocan Arabic, Adighe, Ingush, Berber, Kurdish,
> Jawi/Javanese.
> 

The script is Syriac, but I suspect that you wouldn't call the language 
Syriac. You'd have Assyrian, Neo-Aramaic and probbaly a few others.

Is it worth noting that some languages can be written with more than one 
script, eg Malay, Swahili, Hausa, Berber languages, Kurdish (Sorani), 
etc. just pulling out a couple form your list?

Although of those, Kurdish is the onlyy one that is commonly found in 
multiple scripts.



> Note that this list, of necessity, is not complete. There are too
> many languages in existence to identify them all here.
> 
> Note that languages written in Latin, Slavic, Cyrillic, (Modern) Greek and
> Thai scripts are left-to-right.
> 
> Ideographic languages are more flexible in their writing
> direction. They are generally written left-to-right, or
> vertically top-to-bottom (with the vertical lines perhaps
> proceeding from right to left). However, they may also,
> optionally, be written right-to-left. Chinese newspapers
> sometimes combine all of these writing directions on a page.
> Fortunately for web designers and authors, in this case, the
> direction is up to the designer.
> 


-- 
Andrew Cunningham
Multilingual Technical Officer
Online Projects Team, Vicnet
State Library of Victoria
328 Swanston Street
Melbourne  VIC  3000
Australia

andrewc@vicnet.net.au

Ph. +61-3-8664-7430
Fax: +61-3-9639-2175

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Received on Thursday, 10 July 2003 19:51:04 UTC