Re: FYI (Transliteration)

Forwarded from the WG-I18N mailing list of TERENA (From Borka Jerman-Blazic,
<borka@E5.IJS.SI>)

Representing characters in other alphabets using Unicode simply isn't
enough already :-)

///Peter

>- ------- Forwarded Message
>
>
>
>Transliteration standards
>
>I am the chair of the International Organization for Standardization
>subcommittee responsible for transliteration (ISO/TC46/SC2: Conversion of
>Written Languages).
>
>As a committee, with associated working groups, ISO/TC46/SC2 next meets in
>London from 12-14 May 1997, at the Headquarters of BSI (British Standards
>Institution). The current working groups are as listed below, although
>expansion beyond this to include other scripts will also be under
>consideration at the May 1997 meeting.
>
>WG:   Current scope:
>~~    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>WG1:  Transliteration of Cyrillic
>WG2:  Transliteration of Arabic
>WG3:  Transliteration of Hebrew
>WG4:  Transliteration of Korean
>WG5:  Transliteration of Greek
>WG6:  Transliteration of Chinese
>WG7:  Transliteration of Japanese
>WG8:  Joint SC/SC4 Working Group: Relations between transliteration
>        and machine representation of characters
>WG9:  Transliteration of Thai
>WG10: Transliteration of Mongolian
>WG11: Transliteration of Persian
>
>
>Despite all the work on ISO/IEC 10646 and Unicode, there will always be a
>need for transliteration as long as people do not have the same level of
>competence in all scripts besides the script used in their mother-tongue,
>and may have a need to deal with these languages, or when they have to
>deal with mechanical or computerised equipment which does not provide all
>the scripts of characters that they need.
>
>People are now begining to realise that transliteration may have more
>indirect impact on other aspects of multilingual computing than they had
>previously realised.
>
>
>A mailing list and Web Site for ISO/TC46/SC2
>
>The secretary (Evangelos Melagrakis from Greece) and I now intend to make
>transliteration and ISO/TC46/SC2 far more visible and far more relevant to
>end users than it has been in the past.
>
>To enable this, ELOT (the Greek national standards body) has set up an
>electronic mailing list for ISO/TC46/SC2 (tc46sc2@elot.gr) and a related
>Web site <http://www.elot.gr/tc46sc2/list/>.
>
>We hope this list will attract researchers and scientists who can add
>useful information which might assist in developing standards on the
>Conversion of Written Languages.
>
>We also hope to have an emphasis on issues of using computers to do
>appropriate transformations necessary in automated transliteration, and also
>look forward to having regular contact with those on this list who are
>interested in such issues.
>
>There are quite a few with an interest in transliteration in library
>catalogues on the list, but there are other potential users of
>transliteration too.
>
>There are now over 240 subscribers to tc46sc2@elot.gr, from 41 countries
>and territories which indicate the worldwide interest.
>
>One major advantage of email is the ability to involve far more people in
>the development of a common purpose than were involved before, to get user
>feedback, and expert opinion from various sources.
>
>
>Subscribing to the mailing list for ISO/TC46/SC2
>
>In order to join the list, send an email to
>
>        majordomo@elot.gr
>
>with this message in the body of the text:
>
>        subscribe tc46sc2 your@email.address
>
>(but with your real email address replacing the string your@email.address).
>
>
>To find out further commands you can use, send the command "help" as the text
>of an email either to tc46sc2-request@elot.gr or to: majordomo@elot.gr
>To unsubscribe, send the command "unsubscribe" instead, omitting the "quotes"
>marks in both cases. This will tell you how to obtain copies of past
>messages etc., and other useful features.
>
>Once you are subscribed, you can send messages to tc46sc2@elot.gr and receive
>messages from other members of the list. Please reply where possible to the
>list as a whole, so that all can benefit: using the Group Reply function
>(pressing G on some email software) is the simplest way to achieve this.
>
>Other members will also be interested to see who else is joining the list, so
>it is useful to send a brief introduction (say, one or two short paragraphs)
>to tc46sc2@elot.gr at the outset, saying what languages, scripts and other
>things you are involved in. That is the most likely way to stimulate others
>to write on the subjects you are interested in!
>
>You should also inform your national standards body to express your interest
>in participating in this list. I can provide some information on details of
>your national member body of ISO, if you send me an email requesting this.
>
>I look forward to seeing new participants on this list. Please feel free to
>forward this to anyone else who may be interested in transliteration
>standardisation issues, and to send any queries about the list to me.
>
>                                   Yours sincerely
>
>
>                                     John Clews
>- - --
>   John Clews (Chairman of ISO/TC46/SC2: Conversion of Written Languages)
>
>SESAME Computer Projects, 8 Avenue Rd.  *  email: Converse@sesame.demon.co.uk
>Harrogate, HG2 7PG, United Kingdom      *     telephone: +44 (0) 1423 888 432
>
>- ------- End of Forwarded Message
>

Received on Wednesday, 26 March 1997 18:39:06 UTC