[XeTeX] "new-babel", was: Ancient Greek hyphenation

[Robert Spence]

On 28 Apr 2007, at 22:05 , Bruno Voisin wrote:

[snip]

> either babel, meltingpot or polyglossia reflects a
> markedly Western influence: European or North American history and
> languages. This doesn't reflect the variety of languages, alphabets,
> language directionality and so forth that XeTeX makes accessible to
> TeX. Are there words from Asian, Arabic, African, or any other non-
> Western language that would suggest the same concept?

Why not try "balal"?  It's the Hebrew word used in Genesis 11:9 to  
explain why Babel's name is "Babel":

"Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there  
confound ["balal"] the language of all the earth: and from thence did  
the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth." (KJV)

I guess that in English "balal" would be pronounced so as to rhyme  
with "halal" in the sense of "kosher for Moslems".

Greetings from sunny Sarrebruck, which the TGV is about to turn into  
yet another of the many outer suburbs of Paris...
:-)

-- Robert Spence