Quote:
Originally Posted by charleski
I can see the page too. Here's the relevant passage (you need to set your browser encoding to utf-8 frabjous):
So there you are, if you trust whoever wrote that, it's actually a grapheme  . Actually, since that section is just lifted from Wikipedia, the page's history shows that the definition as a grapheme was inserted by OwenBlacker, FWIW, so we're relying on the opinions of a software development manager with a degree in molecular biology.
I think the real distinction is that ligatures are set for purely stylistic reasons, to avoid ugly shapes caused by character collisions. Æ and œ, on the other hand, have a well-defined history as characters that are distinct from their constituent letters. They are both (in English anyway) well on the way to being discarded just as the Old English þ became th in the 14th century. |
I would like it if that were the distinction but other references confirm that a ligature is any two characters combined into one without regard to the purpose. They are all graphemes as well as are all the letters and figures and other graphic entities like punctuation. Whether they are part of the alphabet depends on the language as are letters with accent marks. Some are and some are not. Try looking in a dictionary.
Dale