Lars, It's a good point. Especially since the mapping from one script to another might follow a specific algorithm that a computer can follow, but the user will type in their estimate of the pronounciation which will depend strongly on their dialect and their ear for the sounds used in the search phrase.
I used to call cross-country (USA) to speak with my wife Gail and the midwestern operator never understood what I was asking for. I would ask for Gail and they would say "You want to speak to a gal, any gal?" And only when I said "gay-yul" did they get it. So the search phrase I type in to a computer might not come close to the transliteration used. For example, some Japanese transliterations might mix up d, r, and l sounds. Perhaps some kind of universal soundex is needed... tex Lars Kristan wrote: > > I was about to complain about the transliteration 'Mikhail Gorbachev', but > then I saw that this was discussed before (I am new to the list) and that it > is how English does the transliteration of ë. > > Still... What I put here is U+00EB (Latin small letter E with diaresis) > which looks like U+0451 (Cyrillic small letter Io). One wonders, was the > English transliteration ë to e 'defined' for U00EB and should be ë to o (or > yo) for U0451? > > Anyway, after I browsed quickly through some previous postings, I realized > that transliteration is far from simple. But after playing with Tex's sample > for a day or two (and doing related searches on the web) I also realized > that some form of transliteration will need to be provided to implement > loose searching. Unicode will encourage more and more people to write names > (people, places, etc) 'correctly'. Without transliteration, searching will > become very unreliable - to say the least... > > My two cents. > > Regards to all, > > Lars > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: Tex Texin [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > > Sent: Friday, November 16, 2001 08:51 > > To: Unicoders > > Subject: Re: Compelling Unicode demo > > > > > > The page has been updated again. It is getting to be pretty > > cool, thanks > > to new submissions for Inuktitut, Eritrean, Ethiopean, and others. > > It also has a link for ICU's online transliteration page. > > If you have trouble displaying it, there is a link to the > > Unicode site's > > helper page. > > > > I have to fix a problem with the name for Thailand, that will be > > tomorrow. > > > > A few more entries, exotic or otherwise, would make my weekend! ;-) > > For the exotic ones, pointers to the relevant fonts would be helpful. > > > > I find IE 5.5 displays it well. I use Netscape 4.7 which has trouble > > with Hebrew among other things. > > If you use another browser, I would be interested in reports on which > > ones work well. > > (Don't bother to tell me which ones don't work.) > > > > thanks > > tex > > > > http://www.geocities.com/i18nguy/unicode-example.html > > > > -- > > ------------------------------------------------------------- > > Tex Texin Director, International Business > > mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Tel: +1-781-280-4271 > > the Progress Company Fax: +1-781-280-4655 > > ------------------------------------------------------------- > > "When choosing between two evils, I always like to try the > > one I've never tried before."- -Mae West > > -- ------------------------------------------------------------- Tex Texin Director, International Business mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Tel: +1-781-280-4271 the Progress Company Fax: +1-781-280-4655 ------------------------------------------------------------- For a compelling demonstration for Unicode: http://www.geocities.com/i18nguy/unicode-example.html
