Re: Dzongkha (dz) - Bhutan (BT)

["Christopher John Fynn" <cfynn druknet bt>]

"Pablo Saratxaga" <pablo@mandrakesoft.com> wrote:

> Kaixo!

On Mon, May 26, 2003 at 04:42:49PM +0100, Christopher John Fynn
wrote:

> > This work has included developing several OpenType fonts for
Dzongkha
> > (Tibetan script),

> Are those fonts freely distributable? (I suppose they are
modern
> OpenType fonts). And do they also work for Tibetan (are there
> other languages using that script?)

A  free  version of these fonts will be made available
from the Dzongkha Development Commission website
which is still "under construction" right now.

 The fonts are in OpenType format with TT outlines. They will
also work  for Tibetan and other languages which use this
script..

(Other languages which use Tibetan script include Ladhaki
(Ladakh India), & Sharchop (E. Bhutan) and quite a few minority
languages in Nepal -  however although people who speak these
languages use Tibetan script  for personal communication  there
almost no other written material in these languages. The
literary
 language in these areas is usually Classical Tibetan)

Another OpenType font for Tibetan script which will be freely
distributable
is being developed by the Tibetan & Himalayan Digital  Library
at the University of Virginia.

> > and defining keyboard layout,
> >locale data and collation rules  for Dzongkha.

> Have you already sent those to XFree86/glibc maintainers?

Do you have an email address or URL for this? - I couldn't
discover
where this information should be sent from the www.xfree86.org
site.


The keyboard & locale information is straight forward.  However
the culturally correct collation rules for Dzongkha are probably
more complex than for any other language.
Dzongkha collation rules also work for Tibetan  (the rules
for collating Tibetan are a sub-set of those for Dzongkha).

Regards

- Chris