Re: TEI element for a grapheme?

I observe that the Guidelines use the term 'grapheme' once or twice
(e.g. in defining a <c> element as containing a string of graphemes),
without defining it. But from that example I think we can infer the
intended meaning: an 'atom' (or minimal unit) of the formal writing
system;
whereas a character is a minimal unit of the semantic/semiotic writing
system. E.g. in Welsh, "ll" and "ch" are usually thought of as
*characters*
in their own right: dictionaries, for example, separate words beginning
with "ll- " and "ch- " from those beginning with "l- " and "c- ". But
'll' and 'ch' are not graphemes: they are characters composed of two
graphemes ('l' + 'l' or 'c' + 'h') each. And indeed, in alternative
Welsh
orthographies (such as that invented by Salesbury), the characters
in question still exist, but are composed of different graphic units
(an l with a dot over it, for example). Under that understanding, surely
the TEI method would be to capture "ch" as a character (<c>) and
the 'c' and 'h', if we wished to encode them at all, as opposed to  
relying on the Unicode inventory, as <g> elements.

But I am probably misunderstanding. In my experience, all discussions
of characters, glyphs, graphs, and symbols end in a metaphysical
muddle.

pfs

On Tue, Sep 27, 2016, at 11:49, Martin Holmes wrote:
> Hi Emmanuelle,
> 
> There's one thing I'm not clear on in your question: my understanding of 
> a grapheme is that it's the smallest unit in a writing system, so I'm 
> not sure what this means:
> 
> <g type="grapheme">th</g>
> 
> Is there a single grapheme in this particular script (thorn or eth, for 
> instance) which is what you're referencing here? I don't see how a 
> combination of two glyphs (apologies for loose terminology) can 
> constitute a single grapheme.
> 
> Cheers,
> Martin
> 
> On 2016-09-27 02:27 AM, Emmanuelle Morlock wrote:
> > Dear TEI list,
> >
> > Which tei element would you use to represent a grapheme (as opposed to a
> > phoneme)?
> >
> > If I get it well, a <fs> would be used for phoneme cf.
> > http://www.tei-c.org/release/doc/tei-p5-doc/en/html/FS.html#FSFL
> >
> > Is using<c> (character) possible when the grapheme is composed of more 1
> > graphic character?
> >
> > For example, if I want to say: "Dupond is reading <th> instead of <b>"
> >
> > - Dupond is reading <g type="grapheme'>th</g> instead of <g
> > type="grapheme'>b</g>
> >
> > - Dupond is reading <c>th</c> instead of <c>b</c>
> >
> > - Dupond is reading <g type="grapheme'>th</d> instead of <c>b</c>
> >
> > Thanks for your help!
> >
> > Best,
> >
-- 
Paul Schaffner  Digital Library Production Service
[email protected] | http://www.umich.edu/~pfs/