Inconsistencies in ETSI DES 202 130 V 2.1.1_27 (2007-04-23) Draft Report

 

Here we present notes on inconsistencies of Draft report with Lithuanian as well as with other European languages, using Latin script. Proposals ensuring consistency of standard and equal treatment of all languages are presented.

 

1. Current situation

 

There are some inconsistencies of keypad assignments of Lithuanian letters with the Lithuanian alphabet in the Table 102:

1.  23 Lithuanian letters (ABCDEFGHIYJKLMNOPRSTUZ) are allocated before numbers, and 9 letters (ĄČĘĖĮŠŲŪŽ) – after numbers. However all 32 Lithuanian letters according to this ETSI Standard are in the type A.

2.  3 foreign letters (QWX), which are not present in Lithuanian alphabet and according to this Standard are of type B, are allocated before numbers. Thus there their priority is higher than that of some Lithuanian type A letters.

3. The moving of some Lithuanian letters after numbers destroys sorting of Lithuanian alphabet. For example, the proper order of first 10 Lithuanian letters is as follows: AĄBCČDEĘĖF... However, according to this Standard order is changed to: ABC2ĄČDEF3ĘĖ... The numbers appears between the letters of type A on the same key because some type A letters are moved after numbers.

Let us note, that similar inconsistencies also exist for other languages based on Latin script, e. g. German letters Ä, Ü, etc., are allocated after numbers.

Those inconsistencies make the table caption „Table 102: Lithuanian keypad assignment“ misleading. Really Table 102 defines English keypad assignment where letters of English alphabet go before numbers and some letters of foreign languages go after numbers. The only difference from „Table 85: English keypad assignment“ lies in the repertoire of foreign letters after numbers. In this case Lithuanian letters are presented as foreign. Thus this assignments is another assignment for English alphabet, in this case with some extra Lithuanian letters.

Those inconsistencies are not incidental. The roots are in the Note 3 (Chapter 7.2.1):

 

NOTE 3:    Latin-script letters are assigned to a particular key in the following order:

•             Letters assigned to that particular key according to ITU-T Recommendation E.161 (e.g. “abc” to key “2”).

•             The number of the respective key according to ITU-T Recommendation E.161

•             Type A letters according to the tables in clause 6 (e.g. “ä” on key “2” for German).

•             Type B letters according to the tables in clause 6 (e.g. “à” on key “2” for German, with the resulting assignment for key “2” for German being “abc2äà”).

 

The note requires that only letters ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ should be before numbers. So this note is really applicable only for languages those alphabets coincide with the minimal Latin alphabet. Using it for other languages causes infringements language standards of these languages.

Meanwhile the analogous rules of this Standard for languages using other scripts (non Latin) ensures equal opportunities for all languages of the script. The rules allow to do key assignments without infringements of language standards. Example – Note for Cyrillic and Greek scripts.

 

NOTE 8:    Greek-script and Cyrillic-script letters are assigned to a particular key in the following order:

•             Letters assigned to that particular key in alphabetic order (e.g. “абвг” to key “2”).

•             The number of the respective key according to ITU-T Recommendation E.

•             Latin letters assigned to that particular key according to ITU-T Recommendation E.161 (e.g. abc to key “2”).
For example, the resulting assignment for key “2” for Russian is “абвг2abc”).

 

2. The proposal to edit the Draft Standard

 

In order to ensure equal opportunities for all languages using Latin script it is necessary to change Note 3, for example in such way:

 

NOTE 3:    Latin-script letters are assigned to a particular key in the following order:

•             Letters assigned to that particular key in alphabetic order (e.g. “aäabc” for German, “aąbcč” for Lithuanian to key “2”).

•             The number of the respective key according to ITU-T Recommendation E.161.

•             Type B letters according to the tables in clause 6 (e.g. “q” on key “7” for Lithuanian, with the resulting assignment for key “7” for Lithuanian being “prsš2q”).

To change Table 102 as follows:

 

7.3.50    Lithuanian

Table 102: Lithuanian keypad assignment

 

This table is consistent with Lithuanian language standards as well as with the spirit of this Standard: letter types A and B, and alphabetic key assignment

 

 

3. Standard de facto

 

Similar keypad assignment already exists for a number of Latin script languages (German, Lithuanian, Latvian, etc.) in Nokia mobile phones. Lithuanian table of keypad assignments is as follows:

 

Table Nokia 102: Lithuanian keypad assignment

 

This Table is close to Lithuanian language standards, except that three type B letters Q, W, and X are presented as type A letters and one letter Y is allocated not in the alphabetic order.

Our priority is the Table 102 presented in the Chapter 2. However if there are serious obstacles to include it into Standard, the Table Nokia 102 from Chapter 3 may be used instead.