Re: Questions about yeh, hamzah on yeh, alef maksura and dotless ba

[Meor Ridzuan Meor Yahaya <meor dot ridzuan at gmail dot com>]

Dear all,
The conclusion we can draw from this discussion is not exactly what I
had in mind, but that's ok. I think , for now most of us agree that
farsi yeh is probably the best code point to encode the yeh in the
Quran. Just for your info, let me quote from the following document:
http://www.nic.ps/idns/egypt.pdf
"Regarding this debate, we referred to Arabic linguistic experts and
to the Academy of the Arabic Language in Cairo (Magmaa Al Logha Al
Arabia), which is the Egyptian authority in charge of the
Arabic language. We were advised that YEH, in its form at the end of
the word with dots below, is not an original Arabic letter, rather it
was added to the language in some Arab countries, then it spread to
other parts of the Arab world. The dots below were
added to differentiate the YEH, at word endings, from the ALEF
MAKSOURA, which was historically written with SUPERSCRIPT ALEF
(U+0670) above. This is supported by the fact that old publications
and manuscripts have no occurrence of the
letter YEH (U+064A), written at the end of the word with dots below.
Therefore we recommend ADN not to support folding, except the folding
of YEH (U+064A) at the end of the word to ALEF MAKSOURA (U+0649)."

That's seems like a farsi yeh to me. Anyway, as Tom mentioned, if we
have a good Locale system, we can actually use 64A, without worrying
about the dots, isn't that right, Tom? Unfortunately, we don't have
that ATM.

However, to me, there are still 2 issues remaining. Yeh with hamza
above/below and alef maksura.
1. I would prefer to use 626 for the first case, since it does not,
actually represent yeh. So, probably it is a good idea to use a
different code for it. Also, if we were to use 649 + hamza
above/below, that is probably creates problems for the definition for
alef maksura (problem 2).
2. I'm still not satisfied with the definition of alef maksura. Is
alef, or yeh, or depends on the context? Is it true as what Greg
mentioned, it is not just the dotless yeh with alef sound, but
sometimes it is written as alefs? If alef maksura only at the end of
words, or it can happen in the middle as well? Does it always wirtten
with small alef, as the above document describe?

To solve this probem, I think we need the following information:
1. List of common words that uses alef maksura and how it changes when
combine  with suffixes/prefixes.
2. Investigate any other use of dotless yeh in initial/medial position
other than in combination with small alef and hamza.
3. To define what is exactly dotless yeh with small alef in
initial/medial position.

What do you guys think?

Regards.