U+172D: HANUNOO LETTER RA (ᜭ) should be updated to modern Ra.

[NickEman132]

Defect Report

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Title

U+172D: HANUNOO LETTER RA (ᜭ) should be updated to modern Ra.

Font

NotoSansHanunoo-Regular.ttf

Where the font came from

Preinstalled on Android 7.0

OS name and version

Android 7.0

Issue

The Hanunoo Letter Ra is not updated to the Ra currently used by the Hanunoo-Mangyans. The modern Ra glyph was created by artist and font creator Norman de los Santos from the old Ra that was inspired by the Hanunoo Letter Ra.

Character data

U+172D

Screenshot

› Unicode Hanunoo Letter Ra

Fig. 1 U+172D HANUNOO LETTER RA (ᜭ) in Noto Sans Hanunoo font

Fig. 2 Current Unicode Consortium Chart

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› Proof of Modern Ra in use

Fig. 3 (Modern Ra in different font styles)

Fig. 4 (Modern Ra written in a demonstration and explanation of an Ambahan)

Fig. 5 (Logo of Mangyan Heritage Site written in hanunoo with modern Ra)

[NickEman132]

this is my first time issuing on github, i now this is a pretty meta comment but i'm just letting y'all now

[mahalisyarifuddin]

This comment may be late, but I think it would be better if you just submit a proposal to the Unicode Consortium first, so there will be solid solution to the shape difference.

[NickEman132]

Oops, I know this has been posted years ago but realized a mistake. The modern Ra was actually a Mangyan effort and was then updated by Nordenx in his fonts.

[simoncozens]

OK; I'm not clear what the way forward is on this one. Is the "straight line" form of RA also in use? Should the "modern" (m-shaped) RA be provided as a stylistic alternative, or as a separate Unicode codepoint, or something else?

[NickEman132]

Apologies if i have responded months late, i just saw this reply through my emails and never in my notifications. My original intention years back was to petition to completely change the "straight"-RA into the "modern"-RA, but I clearly don't know much about how fonts handle changes like this so I'll leave the case here with only information about it.

To answer your question about the use of the straight-RA it is used mostly by people outside the tribe and was used for a while in the tribe until they dropped it in favor of modern-RA. The Hanunoo straight-RA is borrowed from the Buhid script's RA. However in recent years (probably a decade ago), the Hanunoo community started to replace the straight-RA in favor of modern-RA. Evidence of this can be seen in Facebook pages promoting Mangyan heritage, new bamboo literature, and fonts. Despite this, because of pre-downloaded fonts like Noto with the unchanged character, the straight-RA is still being used by non-Mangyan folks who attempt to learn the writing system for their own novelty.

[simoncozens]

Right, thank you. So we need the modern RA drawn; we need this to replace the straight RA; and we probably want to leave "straight ra" as a stylistic alternate.

[NickEman132]

Sounds right to me!