Unicode Coptic Proposal
A proposal in which 114 characters would be used to represent all Coptic characters has been submitted to the Unicode Technical Committee. Funded in part by the SBL, this proposal corrects the shortcomings of an earlier proposal and provides for a separate block for Coptic. The proposal was authored by Michael Everson and Stephen Emmel (International Association for Coptic Studies, IACS).
The proposal, "Revision of the Coptic block under ballot for the BMP of the UCS," is more interesting than its title would indicate. SBL members thinking about proposing new characters will be interested in the documenting of proposed characters (pages 9-20). The process of adding characters is not quick and must include detailed examples of the proposed characters in actual use. (There are additional requirements but this is a good example of how to satisfy one of them.)
Support for this proposal is part of the SBL's ongoing commitment to shaping technology standards to meet the needs of biblical scholars. Questions or comments should be addressed to: mailto:Patrick.Durusau@sbl-site.org
Further resources:
The Coptic Proposal: http://www.sbl-site.org/assets/pdfs/n2744.pdf
International Association for Coptic Studies: http://rmcisadu.let.uniroma1.it/~iacs/
Becoming a Character: http://www.sbl-site.org/assets/pdfs/BecomingACharacter.pdf
Unicode Consortium: http://www.unicode.org
Citation: , " Unicode Coptic Proposal," SBL Forum , n.p. [cited May 2004]. Online:http://sbl-site.org/Article.aspx?ArticleID=267