Pali in Thai Script

[Mark E. Shoulson]

On 03/27/2014 10:59 PM, Richard BUDELBERGER wrote:
>> Message du 28/03/14 03:34
>> De : Mark E. Shoulson
>> A : unicode at unicode.org
>> Objet : Re: Pali in Thai Script
>>
>> It's not at all uncommon. Consider Yiddish, which is essentially German
>> written in Hebrew script. Or various Judeo-Arabics written in Hebrew,
>> and the Talmud, which is Aramaic written in Hebrew letters (in pretty
>> much every printing and MS I've heard of).
> (What you call « Hebrew letters » are Aramaic letters of the alphabet adopted by Hebrew in Vth c. BC.)

Of course.  And the Samaritans still write both Hebrew and Aramaic as 
well using truly _Hebrew_ characters (ktav ivri, though of course 
developed by them through history), not the Aramaic-derived ones. But 
Aramaic is more associated with various Syriac alphabets. Still, I was 
reading Aramaic for a long time before I even knew there were Syriac 
alphabets that people wrote Aramaic in, and I still can't particularly 
read those.

I think I've seen colloquial Arabic in Hebrew letters (aimed at teaching 
Hebrew-speakers, to be sure; maybe mostly to avoid having to teach a new 
alphabet).  Someone once sent me a proposal for writing Esperanto in 
Hebrew letters (yes, Aramaic, of course: square Hebrew, ktav ashuri.  
What Unicode calls "HEBREW"), to what purpose I don't know (it was more 
or less the same as Yiddish writing). Sanskrit is also often seen in 
various scripts, I believe.

I don't think it's unusual to find one language written in a script 
generally associated with another, especially if the first language 
doesn't have a well-established script for itself (not all the above are 
examples of that).

~mark