SHEQEL and L2/19-291

[Simon Montagu via Unicode]

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
>