Sharada CCV clusters are inconsistent with CC and CV clusters

[dscorbett]

Font

NotoSansSharada-Regular.ttf

Where the font came from, and when

Site: https://github.com/googlei18n/noto-fonts/blob/64f57055a31ee72789437d786e969ded9a1231f9/hinted/NotoSansSharada-Regular.ttf
Date: 2018-11-09

Font version

Version 2.000;GOOG;noto-source:20181019:f8f3770

Issue

If a Sharada consonant cluster has a special ligature, and the lower consonant has a special ligature with a low vowel sign or the upper consonant with a high vowel sign, then the combination of the three should itself have a ligature, but in this font, the vowel sign takes its default form. For example, in rgu, the presence of the ra above the ga should not influence the form of the u below the ga.

An example of one such cluster that the font currently gets right is 𑆘𑇀𑆪𑆳 jyā.

Character data

𑆑𑇀𑆑𑆑𑆶𑆑𑇀𑆑𑆶
U+11191 SHARADA LETTER KA
U+111C0 SHARADA SIGN VIRAMA
U+11191 SHARADA LETTER KA
U+11191 SHARADA LETTER KA
U+111B6 SHARADA VOWEL SIGN U
U+11191 SHARADA LETTER KA
U+111C0 SHARADA SIGN VIRAMA
U+11191 SHARADA LETTER KA
U+111B6 SHARADA VOWEL SIGN U
𑆫𑇀𑆓𑆓𑆶𑆫𑇀𑆓𑆶
U+111AB SHARADA LETTER RA
U+111C0 SHARADA SIGN VIRAMA
U+11193 SHARADA LETTER GA
U+11193 SHARADA LETTER GA
U+111B6 SHARADA VOWEL SIGN U
U+111AB SHARADA LETTER RA
U+111C0 SHARADA SIGN VIRAMA
U+11193 SHARADA LETTER GA
U+111B6 SHARADA VOWEL SIGN U
𑆘𑇀𑆚𑆘𑆳𑆘𑇀𑆚𑆳
U+11198 SHARADA LETTER JA
U+111C0 SHARADA SIGN VIRAMA
U+1119A SHARADA LETTER NYA
U+11198 SHARADA LETTER JA
U+111B3 SHARADA VOWEL SIGN AA
U+11198 SHARADA LETTER JA
U+111C0 SHARADA SIGN VIRAMA
U+1119A SHARADA LETTER NYA
U+111B3 SHARADA VOWEL SIGN AA

Screenshot

[marekjez86]

Leave as is. The validity of this request cannot be verified.

[dscorbett]

Grierson 1916, “On the Sarada Alphabet”, p. 694 ff. has examples of ṅkhyā, ṅgyā, ṅghrā, jñā, ṭṭā, ṇṇau, ṇmā, etc., all of which are vertical conjuncts where the vowel signs ligate with their adjacent consonants as if the other consonants weren’t there. This is clearly a regular pattern and there should be no reason to doubt that it applies even to conjuncts for which we can’t find attestations.

Tikkoo, Śāradā Lipi Dīpikā, p. 62 has an interesting example of jjā where the vowel sign actually ligates with the bottom ja. On p. 71, there is an example of ṅku, which is similar to my initial example of kku. It has many more examples, too.

Moreover, not only is this pattern attested, it makes sense. For example, there is a rule of Sharada writing that the vowel sign ā (normally a short vertical line) becomes a loop after a consonant that itself has a short vertical line on the right side. I presume this is because two adjacent short vertical lines was historically unstable: maybe they were hard to write distinctly, or they were confusing when reading; the point is, it is because of the shapes of the glyphs, not their pronunciations. When the consonant gets a subscript, the top part looks the same, so it stands to reason that ā would get the same treatment and become a loop.

[simoncozens]

I think this is actually fixed now?

[dscorbett]

What about ⟨𑆘𑇀𑆚𑆳⟩? That still looks the same as in the previous version.

[simoncozens]

We don't seem to have a Jnyaa glyph, so I think this is a drawing issue.