Jean-Luc Chevillard on Tamil unicode controversy

I would like to add  that one of the weaknesses of INFITT at the moment
is that anybody can become a member of INFITT even if that person does not has any real uptodate technical knowledge.

Any person who pays the fee can become a member of INFITT.

Because of that, debates in the GBINFITT mailing list are often more filled with emotional pleas than with technical arguments.The recent debate concerning the expression "EXTENDED TAMIL"
was a good example.

The people who took part in the debate did not seem to be aware of the fact that similar expressions exist in other geographical domains.

In the case of Europe (and of its  American satellite ;-)
the block called LATIN
was certainly not sufficient,
which is why it had to be supplement by
LATIN-1 SUPPLEMENT
LATIN EXTENDED-A
LATIN EXTENDED-B
LATIN EXTENDED-C
LATIN EXTENDED-D
LATIN EXTENDED ADDITIONAL

Note the technical use of the word EXTENDED

See <http://www.unicode.org/charts/>

The same can be said of CYRILLIC
which is accompanied by
CYRILLIC SUPPLEMENT
CYRILLIC EXTENDED-A
CYRILLIC EXTENDED-B

(see the same charts)

Russian people seem to be quite happy to have their alphabet used for writing other languages

As a member of INFITT since 2003,
I have already publicly voiced the opinion
(in the GBINFITT mailing list)
that the absence of technical selection in the membership of INFITT
(and even in its technical working groups)
is bad for INFITT's credibility and will have bad consequences in the long run
but I seem to be in the minority.

-- Jean-Luc Chevillard





Note: Mr Jean Luc Chevillard is originally belong to the CNRS (French National Center for Scientific
Research) in the linguistics section: special field "HISTORY OF LINGUISTICS".Currently on deputation to the EFEO. His specialization is the history of the Tamil grammatical tradition.He has made a French translation of சேனாவரையம், and written a number of articles on the history of Tamil grammar.He also worked on the தேவாரம். See my column in the forthcoming issue of Uyirmai for more details on him.