[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #23907: Scandinavian ligatures transcribed wrong in remove_accents()

[WordPress Trac]

#23907: Scandinavian ligatures transcribed wrong in remove_accents()
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 Reporter:  dnusim               |       Owner:
     Type:  defect (bug)         |      Status:  new
 Priority:  normal               |   Milestone:  Future Release
Component:  I18N                 |     Version:  3.6
 Severity:  minor                |  Resolution:
 Keywords:  has-patch 3.7-early  |
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Comment (by knutsp):

 Replying to [comment:17 dnusim]:
 > >`ø`and `å` have origins as accented characters with special accent
 types.
 >
 > Then this seems to be where we disagree. Though it may be a somewhat
 common misconception, `ø` and `å` don't have origins as accented
 characters. These characters' origins are as ligatures.

 My bad. The historical origins are a special kind of ligatures, at least
 the `å` as aa-ligature. For `ø` the "oe" origin seems a little more
 speculative. I don't know, and don't care that much. I see the slash and
 the ring.

 What I meant is that in modern use, very few/nobody sees the ligature
 origin, but rather a character with a simple stroke of the pen added, the
 slash and the small ring above. They can, today, in my view, be regarded
 as accented characters, or at least modified characters. The  name for
 such is diacritics. The origin of the two dots above the o in `ö` is also
 a small e.

 I don't know if the views here, the historical origins, or the a more
 practical modern functions, should have much to say. WordPress has a
 practice of removing accents, and have, rightfully or not, selected to
 view `ø` and `å` as accented, and just removes those. And I think that's
 fine. However, I see that transliterating `æ` to ae is then a bit
 inconsistent. I defend that also to be kept as is, just because the
 ligature origin is more clearly visible in this case, and we avoid both
 `å` and `æ` to transliterate to the same character.

 I have pointed out in my first comment here that use of the word
 "ligatures" in the summary of this ticket is wrong. These characters are
 not to be regarded as ligatures today, even if their history and origin is
 such. This is because they are regarded as characters in their own right,
 in the Scandinavian alphabets. (But even non-Scandinavians can see that
 `æ` still looks like a ligature)

 The Swedes invented `å` centuries ago, but it took a long time to be
 official. Norwegian adopted it early, as part of construction a Norwegian
 written language in the late 19. century. Danish only accepted it
 officially as late as 1948, but official Danish names still use "Aa" in
 some cases (city of Aarhus). This may be why it seems Norwegians and Danes
 differ in this matter.

 I mention this because understanding why we differ may be the key to
 resolve this, in lack of convincing arguments.

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Ticket URL: <http://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/23907#comment:19>
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