Root Zone Label Generation Rules for the Lao Script

Overview

This file contains Label Generation Rules (LGR) for the Lao script for the Root zone. For more details on this LGR and its development, as well as background on the script, see "Proposal for a Lao Script Root Zone LGR [Proposal-Lao]". This file is one of a set of LGR files that together form an integrated LGR for the DNS Root Zone [RZ-LGR-4]. The format of this file follows [RFC 7940].

Repertoire

In addition to the 51 code points according to Section 5 “Repertoire” in [Proposal-Lao], the sequence 0EB2 0EB0 has been defined to facilitate implementation of WLE rule follows-vafter-context as a context rule. The repertoire only includes code points used by languages that are actively written in the Khmer script. The repertoire is based on [MSR-4], which is a subset of [Unicode 6.3].

As part of the Root Zone, this LGR includes neither digits nor the HYPHEN-MINUS.

Each code point or range is tagged with the script or scripts that the code point is used with, one or more categories, and one or more references documenting sufficient justification for inclusion in the repertoire; see "References" below.

Variants

According to Section 6, "Variants" in [Proposal-Lao], this LGR defines no variants.

Character Classes

Consonants: In regular syllables, consonants occur in limited combinations. However, arbitrary combinations are used for acronyms. The LGR therefore considers the restriction on syllabic combinations a matter of spelling and does not enforce them. Consonants may be followed by a semi-consonant mark. Some consonants have been given the tag "Cf", which indicates final consonants. See Section 5, "Consonants" in [Proposal-Lao].

Vowels: Vowels are divided into vowel-above, vowel-before, vowel-below and vowel-after so as to enforce some of the syllable structure using context rules. However, many details have been considered spelling issues and, for simplification, are not modeled in this LGR. See Section 5 in [Proposal-Lao].

Semi-consonant: The character U+0EBC (ຼ) LAO SEMIVOWEL SIGN LO follows consonants (see Section 5 in [Proposal-Lao]).

Tone-mark: Any of four tone marks can follow a consonant or vowel-above or vowel-below (see Section 5 in [Proposal-Lao]).

Signs: The character U+0ECC (໌) LAO CANCELLATION MARK follows a final consonant (Cf). The character U+0EC6 (ໆ) LAO KO LA is a repetition mark that can only occur up to 3 times at the end of the label (See Section 5 in [Proposal-Lao]).

Whole Label Evaluation (WLE) and Context Rules

Default Whole Label Evaluation Rules and Actions

The LGR includes the set of required default WLE rules and actions applicable to the Root Zone and defined in [MSR-4]. They are marked with ⍟. The default prohibition on leading combining marks is equivalent to ensuring that a label only starts with a consonant or vowel-before.

Lao-specific Rules

Rules provided in the LGR as described in Section 7 of [Proposal-Lao] reasonably restrict labels so that they conform to Lao syllable structure. These constraints are presented exclusively as context rules.

The rules are:

• follows-consonant — A context rule for semi-consonant. See Section 7 in [Proposal-Lao]. (WLE Rule 1)
• precedes-consonant — A context rule for vowel-before. See Section 7 in [Proposal-Lao]. (WLE Rule 2)
• follows-main-consonant — A context rule for vowel-below, and vowel-above. See Section 7 in [Proposal-Lao]. (WLE Rule 3)
• follows-C-tonemark-vabove — A context rule for vowel-after. See Section 7 in [Proposal-Lao]. (WLE Rule 4)
• follows-vbefore-consonant-cluster — A context rule for a vowel-after sequence. It incorporates consonant-cluster. See Section 7 in [Proposal-Lao]. (WLE Rule 5)
• follows-C-vabove-vbelow — A context rule for tone mark. See Section 7 in [Proposal-Lao]. (WLE Rule 6)
• follows-Cf — A context rule for U+0ECC (໌ ) LAO CANCELLATION MARK. See Section 7 in [Proposal-Lao]. (WLE Rule 7)
• repetition-mark-limit — A rule that limits the occurrence of U+0EC6 ( ໆ ) LAO KO LA at the label end. See Section 7 in [Proposal-Lao]. (WLE Rule 8)

No context rules apply to “consonant” code points. For discussion, see Section 5.1, “Consonants” in [Proposal-Lao].

Methodology and Contributors

The Root Zone LGR for the Lao script was developed by the Lao Generation Panel. For methodology and contributors, see Sections 4 and 8 in [Proposal-Lao], as well as [RZ-LGR-4-Overview].

References

The following general references are cited in this document:

[MSR-4]

Integration Panel, "Maximal Starting Repertoire — MSR-4 Overview and Rationale", 7 February 2019,
https://www.icann.org/en/system/files/files/msr-4-overview-25jan19-en.pdf

[Proposal-Lao]

Lao Generation Panel, "Proposal for Lao Script Root Zone LGR",
https://www.icann.org/en/system/files/files/proposal-lao-lgr-41jan17-en.pdf

[RFC 7940]

Davies, K. and A. Freytag, "Representing Label Generation Rulesets Using XML", RFC 7940, August 2016,
http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7940

[RZ-LGR-4-Overview]

Integration Panel, "Root Zone Label Generation Rules - LGR-4: Overview and Summary", 05 November 2020 (PDF),
https://www.icann.org/sites/default/files/lgr/lgr-4-overview-05nov20-en.pdf

[RZ-LGR-4]

Integration Panel, "Label Generation Rules for the Root Zone — LGR-4", 05 November 2020 (XML),
https://www.icann.org/sites/default/files/lgr/lgr-4-common-05nov20-en.xml
non-normative HTML presentation:
https://www.icann.org/sites/default/files/lgr/lgr-4-common-05nov20-en.html

[Unicode 6.3]

The Unicode Consortium. The Unicode Standard, Version 6.3.0, (Mountain View, CA: The Unicode Consortium, 2013. ISBN 978-1-936213-08-5)
http://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode6.3.0/

For references consulted particularly in designing the repertoire for the Lao script for the Root Zone please see details in the Table of References below. Reference [0] refers to the Unicode Standard version in which corresponding code points were initially encoded. References [201], [202], [203], [204], 205], [206], & [207] correspond to sources given in [Proposal-Lao] justifying the inclusion of or classification for the corresponding code points. Entries in the table may have multiple source reference values.

4.1 Character Classes

The following table lists all named and implicit classes with their definition and a list of their members intersected with the current repertoire (for larger classes, this list is elided).

Name	Definition	Count	Members or Ranges	Ref	Comment
Cf	Tag=Cf	14	{0E81 0E87 0E8A 0E8D 0E94 0E97 0E99-0E9A 0E9F 0EA1 0EA3 0EA5 0EA7 0EAA}		Any Lao final consonant
consonant	Tag=consonant	27	{0E81-0E82 0E84 0E87-0E88 0E8A 0E8D 0E94-0E97 0E99-0E9F 0EA1-0EA3 0EA5 0EA7 0EAA-0EAB 0EAD-0EAE}		Any Lao consonant
semi-consonant	Tag=semi-consonant	1	{0EBC}		Lao semi-consonant LO
tone-mark	Tag=tone-mark	4	{0EC8-0ECB}		Any Lao one mark
vowel-above	Tag=vowel-above	7	{0EB1 0EB4-0EB7 0EBB 0ECD}		Any Lao vowel above
vowel-below	Tag=vowel-below	2	{0EB8-0EB9}		Any Lao vowel below
implicit	Tag=sign	2	{0EC6 0ECC}		Any character tagged as sign
implicit	Tag=vowel-after	3	{0EB0 0EB2 0EBD}		Any character tagged as vowel-after
implicit	Tag=vowel-before	5	{0EC0-0EC4}		Any character tagged as vowel-before
implicit	Tag=sc:Laoo	51	{0E81-0E82 0E84 0E87-0E88 0E8A 0E8D 0E94-0E97 0E99-0E9F 0EA1-0EA3 0EA5 0EA7 0EAA-0EAB 0EAD-0EAE 0EB0-0EB2 0EB4-0EB9 0EBB-0EBD 0EC0-0EC4 0EC6 0EC8-0ECD}		Any character tagged as Lao

4.2 Whole label evaluation and context rules

The following table lists all named rules defined in the LGR and indicates whether they are used as trigger in an action or as context (when or not-when) for a code point or variant.

Name	Regular Expression	Used as Trigger	Anchor	Used as Context	Ref	Comment
leading-combining-mark	(start)[[\p{gc=Mn}] ∪ [∅=\p{gc=Mc}]]	✔				Default WLE rule matching labels with leading combining marks ⍟
follows-consonant	([:consonant:])← ⚓		✔	C		WLE Rule 1: A semi-consonant must follow a consonant
precedes-consonant	⚓ →([:consonant:])		✔	C		WLE Rule 2: A vowel-before precedes a main consonant cluster
follows-main-consonant	([:consonant:]|[:semi-consonant:])← ⚓		✔	C		WLE Rule 3: A vowel-above, and vowel-below follow a main consonant C
follows-C-tonemark-vabove	([:consonant:]|[:semi-consonant:]|[:tone-mark:]|[:vowel-above:])← ⚓		✔	C		WLE Rule 4: A vowel-after follows a main consonant, tone-mark or vowel-above
consonant-cluster	[:consonant:]{1,2}[:semi-consonant:]?					Defining consonant cluster for WLE Rule 5
follows-vbefore-consonant-cluster	(\u0EC0(:consonant-cluster:))← ⚓		✔	C		WLE Rule 5: The sequence U+0EB2 U+0EB0 (າະ) follows a vowel before, and a consonant cluster
follows-C-vabove-vbelow	([:consonant:]|[:semi-consonant:]|[:vowel-above:]|[:vowel-below:])← ⚓		✔	C		WLE Rule 6: A tone-mark follows a main consonant, vowel-above or vowel-below
follows-Cf	([:Cf:])← ⚓		✔	C		WLE Rule 7: The sign U+0ECC (໌) can only occur after final consonants
repetition-mark-limit	⚓ →(\u0EC6{0,2}(end))		✔	C		WLE Rule 8: The sign U+0EC6 (ໆ) can only occur 0 to 3 times at the end of the label

4.3 Actions

The following table lists the actions that are used to assign dispositions to labels and variant labels based on the specified conditions. The order of actions defines their precedence: the first action triggered by a label is the one defining its disposition.

#	Condition	Rule / Variant Set		Disposition	Ref	Comment
1	if label matches	leading-combining-mark	→	invalid		labels with leading combining marks are invalid ⍟
2	if at least one variant is in	{out-of-repertoire-var}	→	invalid		any variant label with a code point out of repertoire is invalid ⍟
3	if at least one variant is in	{blocked}	→	blocked		any variant label containing blocked variants is blocked ⍟
4	if each variant is in	{allocatable}	→	allocatable		variant labels with all variants allocatable are allocatable ⍟
5	if any label (catch-all)		→	valid		catch all (default action) ⍟