[Comments-lgr-proposal-malayalam-script-07may20] Cross-Script Variant Relation for U+0D1F MALAYALAM LETTER TTA

[Wil Tan]

Dear colleagues,

I would like to raise a point regarding a potential cross-script variant
relationship between U+0D1F (ട) MALAYALAM LETTER TTA and U+0073 (s) LATIN
SMALL LETTER S, as well as U+0455 (ѕ) CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER DZE.

Although Appendix B of the Malayalam proposal has found the code points in
question similar but deemed the cross script variant analysis out of scope
for the script LGR proposal, they are in fact visually indistinguishable
when rendered by at least one user interface font viz. in the default
configuration of macOS.

Furthermore, U+0D1F may be also combined with another Malayalam code point
U+0D20 (ഠ) MALAYALAM LETTER TTHA to produce labels that are identical to
Latin labels composed of the letters ‘s’ and ‘o’.

For this reason, it is my opinion that U+0D1F should be made a cross-script
variant of U+0073 and U+0455.

This does not require any change to the Malayalam LGR proposal, however.
Should the Latin Generation Panel agree, the variant relations could be
included in the Latin LGR proposal when it is submitted, which would then
be integrated into the Root Zone LGR when approved.

I note that the Integration Panel has already flagged U+0D20 as part of a
variant set of characters having simple “circle” shapes, which should be
dealt with in the same way. [1]

[1] Root Zone Label Generation Rules — LGR-3 Overview and Summary,
available at:
https://www.icann.org/sites/default/files/lgr/lgr-3-overview-10jul19-en.pdf

--
Wil Tan
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