Thanks to all -- Werner, Keno, Javier and Karl -- for their comments
and information.
I've been persuaded that the way to go is to continue to separate the
"exceptional" hyphenations as a list, and not try to make them into a
new "language", although I don't know of any natural language group that
would likely treat these in any way *except* according to etymology.
I'm particularly delighted by Keno's mention of "Heliko-pter" in German.
Even UK English, which is so adamant about etymology, fails that test
and falls back on pronunciation, yielding "heli-cop-ter". Although
several extinct winged creatures have familiar names spelled beginning
with the "pter-" component, the "p" is invariably (to the best of my
knowledge) not pronounced in English, so when "pt" occurs in the middle
of a word, it's natural to separate the two sounds. And it's a point
about which I can (and do) tease my English friends.
So, I will continue to gather reported exceptions in these areas and
list them separately; then users who do not deal with the areas can
omit them from consideration. That should take care of the upcoming
installment of the exceptions list in TUGboat.
I'll be happy to hear other ideas and discussion on this list. The
matter of preferred hyphenation points vs. those that are possible but
less favored (i.e., likely to be more confusing) vs. some that should
be considered only in real emergencies remains an open question.
Once again, thanks for the information so far.
-- bb
