Unicode uses Q consistently to transcribe U+05E7 in the names of other
Hebrew characters, e.g. U+0594 HEBREW ACCENT ZAQEF QATAN, U+05B8 HEBREW
POINT QAMATS and several others. The official English name of the
currency was "New Sheqel" at the time that U+20AA was encoded in
Unicode. I don't think that "shekel" should be described as "more
correct", at most it should be given as an alternative spelling.
There has been a trend in Israel in recent years to use K instead of Q,
because Q is considered "confusing for foreigners", though it escapes me
how blurring the distinction between two different characters (QOF and
KAF) makes things *less* confusing. The Academy for the Hebrew Language
has followed this trend to a limited extent, by introducing "simplified
transcription rules for signs and maps" in which U+05E7 is to be
transcribed by K, but in the official rules for "precise transcription"
Q is still used. See
https://hebrew-academy.org.il/%D7%9B%D7%9C%D7%9C%D7%99-%D7%94%D7%AA%D7%A2%D7%AA%D7%99%D7%A7/
(Hebrew)
On 25.7.2019 5:23, Mark E. Shoulson via Unicode wrote:
Just looking at document L2/19-291,
https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2019/19291-missing-currency.pdf "Currency
signs missing in Unicode" by Eduardo Marín Silva. And I'm wondering why
he feels it necessary for the Unicode standard to say that a more
correct spelling for the Israeli currency would be "shekel" (and not
"sheqel"). What criterion is being used that makes this "more
correct"? I think it's more popular and common, so maybe that's it.
But historically and linguistically, "sheqel" is more accurate. The
middle letter is ק, U+05E7 HEBREW LETTER QOF (which is not "more
correctly" KOF), from the root ש־ק־ל Sh.Q.L meaning "weight". It's true
that Modern Hebrew does not distinguish K and Q phonetically in speech;
maybe that is what is meant? Still, the "historical" transliteration of
QOF with Q is very widespread, and I believe occurs even on some
coins/bills (could be wrong here; is this what is meant by "more
correct"? That "shekel" is what is used officially on the currency and I
am misremembering?)
Just wondering about this, since it seems to be stressed in the document.
~mark
