numarch.txt

		OSL/PCSL/OID NUMBER ARCHITECTURE

Introduction
============

The Oracc Sign List (OSL) and the Proto-Cuneiform Sign List (PCSL)
provide separate coverage of Cuneiform and Proto-Cuneiform signs,
respectively.  Each corresponds to a domain of the Oracc ID (OID)
system: OSL corresponds to the 'sl' domain; PCSL to the 'pc' domain.
OIDs are unique across all domains, but OID::NAME correspondences are
unique only within domains: this means that sl A and pc A can have
different OIDs but the same name.

[[OSL/PCSL/OID should move to use Xsux instead of sl and Pcun instead
of pc but that will take some work; for now sl can be understood as an
alias for Xsux, and pc as an alias for Pcun]]

Temporally, PCSL covers signs from Archaic Uruk periods; OSL covers
Early Dynastic onward.  For ideographic signs, Unicode follows this
division (or vice-versa), with PC signs encoded separately from later
cuneiform signs.

A new proposal for "Archaic Cuneiform Numbers" (ACN), however,
acknowledges the continuity of certain Archaic number signs into the
Early Dynastic (and later; ED+ in the following) periods and unifies
the numbers across time in a way that cuts across PCSL and OSL.

This document describes how the unified PC/ED+ numbers in Unicode
U+125XX-U+126XX will be handled by OSL/PCSL and the OID system, where
each sign can only have one OID, which must be in either the 'pc' or
'sl' domain, but needs to appear in both sign lists in their respective
avatars.



Names
=====

Existing practice in PC transliteration assigns a simple set of labels
to number-signs which have the basic form:

   REPEATER '(' 'N' NUMBER-TYPE ')'

Existing practice in ED+ is to use the basic form:

   REPEATER '(' SIGN-NAME ')'

Thus, PC 1(N01) is ED+ 1(AŠ@c).



Listings
========

PCSL and OSL will list the ACN number-signs as follows:

  1) Signs that occur only in PC will only be in PCSL
  
  2) Signs that occur only in ED+ will only be in OSL
  
  3) Signs that continue from PC into ED+ will be listed in PCSL under
     their PC-style name and in OSL under their ED+-style name. Both
     listings will have the same Unicode data.  Cross-references
     between the sign lists will be handled using the @sys feature,
     with mutually referential @sys entries, e.g.:

     @sign 1(N01)
     @sys xsux 1(AŠ@c)

     ...

     @sign 1(AŠ@c)
     @sys pcun 1(N01)

     For PCSL signs that have no ED+ counterpart, e.g., the @f
     sequence, ASL will use a new tag, @pcun, to indicate that the
     sign name belongs to the pc domain but should be included in sl
     validation data:

     @pcun 1(N01@f)
     ...unicode data ...
     @end pcun