Shopping on line can be easy, simple and save you lots of money. It can also take a lot of your time, frustrate you, and result in unwanted purchases. Now the same can be said for regular high street shopping, but with the vast opportunity presented by the Internet it will pay you to spend a few minutes reading this and understanding how to better optimize your Okina shopping experience:
1. Compare - without doubt the biggest advantage that the Okina offers shoppers today is the ability to compare thousands of Okina at a time. This is a great thing, but not necessarily all the time! Too much can be daunting at times so take advantage of the great comparison sites and where possible let them do the hard work for you.
2. Research - if it has been said it will be on the internet. Ignorance is no longer a justifiable reason for buying the wrong thing. Take the time to research in detail everything that you could possible want to know about
3. Testimonials - don't know anybody that has bought a Okina? Wrong! If the Okina is good the internet will let you know. Use the Internet as a friend and get testimonials before you buy.
4. Questions - Got a question about Okina then search the Forums, FAQ's, Blogs etc. Don't be afraid to ask .....
5. Reputation - Never heard of the company selling Okina? Don't worry, no reason why you should know every company in the world, but you know someone that does! Use the internet to find out what people are saying about Okina and build up a picture of their reputation for sales, returns, customer service, delivery etc.
6. Returns - still worried that even after all of the above your Okina wont be what you want? Check out the returns policy. There is so much competition now that someone, somewhere is bound to offer the terms that you are comfortable with.
7. Feedback - happy with your Okina then let people know, after all you are depending on others people input in your buying decision, so why not give a little back.
8. Security - check for the yellow padlock on the Okina site before you buy, and the s after http:/ /i.e. https:// = a secure site
9. Contact - got a question about Okina, or want to leave a comment then check out the sites contact page. Reputable companies have them and respond.
10. Payment - ready to pay for your Okina, then use your credit card or PayPal! Be aware of companies that don't accept them, there may be genuine reasons but given the huge amount of choice you have when buying online there is no reason at all not to buy via credit card or PayPal.
Okina-->{|align="right" width="300" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" class="wikitable" style="float:right;border:1px solid #999999;border-collapse:collapse;background:#F7F8FF;font-size:87%;text-align:center"|-!colspan="2" style="background:#CCCCCC;color:#000000"|
Okina letter forms|-||The
Tongan language fakaua letter or
Hawaiian language okina encoded as U+02BB (in Unicode 5.0), derived from the
Lucida Sans font.]
eta letter (or Wallisian language
fakamoga), currently not encoded correctly, derived from the
Lucida Sans font.] letter used within the
Latin script to mark the phonetic
glottal stop, as it is used in many
Polynesian languages.
{]|align="center"|
okina|align="center"| separator|align="center"| transitionally formalised|-|align="center"|
Tongan language|align="center"|
fakaua (honorific for
fakamonga)|align="center"| throat maker|align="center"| officially formalised|-|align="center"| Fakauvea|align="center"|
fakamoga|align="center"| throat maker|align="center"| no official or traditional status, may use
' or
‘ or
’|-|align="center"| Tahitian language|align="center"|
eta|align="center"|
etaeta = to harden|align="center"| no official or traditional status, may use
' or
‘ or
’|-|align="center"|
Cook Islands Maori language|align="center"|
amata or
akairo amata|align="center"| "Hamsah" or "Hamsah mark"|align="center"| no official or traditional status, may use
' or
‘ or
’ or nothing
|}
Encoding and displaying the Polynesian glottal
Old conventions
In plain
ASCII the glottal is sometimes represented by the apostrophe (mark) character ('), ASCII value 39 in
decimal and 27 in
hexadecimal, which in most fonts currently used renders as a straight, data-processing, typewriter apostrophe as is also specified in Unicode. But in some older fonts, especially those used on
Unix-like platforms and related platforms and on an MS-DOS screen, it renders as a right single quotation mark (which is the wrong shape).
A hypercorrect (but actually incorrect) method for plain ASCII text is to use U+0060 grave accent (incorrectly termed "back-quote character" (`), which in some older fonts does display a glyph similar to a left single quotation mark. However, in most newer fonts, it has a pronounced lean to the left and can look inappropriate. A (partial) advantage is when a wordlist is alphabetically sorted, the "`" often comes after the "z", exactly where it should be in the Tongan language (admittedly not so in most other Polynesian languages, where it should be ignored). It is still useful as a fallback when words are to be entered into a database with limited character-set ability to have the character distinct from the apostrophe.
The new standard and transitional problems
Unicode 5.0 (issued July 14, 2006) says the codepoint for okina is Unicode character U+02BB MODIFIER LETTER TURNED COMMA ( ) which can be rendered in HTML by the entity ʻ (or in hexadecimal form ʻ).
But lack of support for this character in older fonts (and many newer fonts) along with the large amount of legacy data and expense in time and money to convert has prevented easy and universal use of the new character.
As of 2006 Apple Mac OS X based computers have no problem with the glyph, but Microsoft Windows especially when using
Internet Explorer still has. U+02BB should be the value used in encoding new data when the expected use of the data permits.
This character is also a proper one for a Latin-letter transliteration of the Hebrew language letter Ayin and the
Arabic language letter
Ayin. They are sometimes also rendered by a superscript half ring with the opening to the right ( ) or even, as a typographical fallback, a superscript
c ( c ).
Unicode encodes a glottal stop at U+02C0 MODIFIER LETTER GLOTTAL STOP (ˀ), but this looks like an undotted question mark, which is inappropriate for okina.
Its orientation and curve should not depend on the font style for apostrophes (so using a left apostrophe is wrong too, because it can be drawn either like a superscript non-curved mirrored comma, or a superscript 6-shaped apostrophe).
True Polynesian texts however draw the okina very differently, and this looks as none of the apostrophe, mirrored apostrophe, turned comma, or accent letter. The Polynesian okina letter is more like 9-shaped left apostrophe, turned about 60 to 90 degrees counter-clockwise.
Tentative approximants
A display work-around
Because this character is not found in many fonts, it may not appear properly on all computer systems and in all configurations. Accordingly, where U+02BB should properly be used, the Unicode punctuation character U+2018 LEFT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK, ‘, represented by the HTML entity ‘, is sometimes used instead. It is nearly identical in appearance to U+02BB, but is treated as a punctuation mark rather than a letter by applications.
In practical terms, this only matters with regard to page breaks, hyphenation, and capitalisation; these usually cause few problems. This symbol is also used instead of the recommended turned comma letter symbol in transliterations from Semitic languages to assure proper display on the widest number of browsers.
The problem with this left single quotation mark character is that, depending on font style design, the single quotation mark may have two very different shapes, one of which is incompatible with the okina :
- a superscript straight mirrored comma, drawn from bottom to top and normally thicker on the bottom right than on the top left. The thicker end on the bottom is incompatible.
- the modifier letter turned comma, but it may still be wrong as it could be drawn in some font designs as an oblick strait line or a wedge without the needed curve, or the curve will be made so that its center will be on the left or top right, when the okina curve should be centered and opened on the bottom or bottom left.
A work-around problem
Nowadays many word-processors are equipped with 'smart quotes', which automatically change the straight apostrophe (') and the straight quotation mark (") into curly ones. If a quotation mark occurs after a space, it is assumed to be an open quote (the left quote), if elsewhere a close quote (the right quote). This policy also allows the apostrophe to be dealt with in the same way. Clearly this is not the behaviour one wants for the glottal. One would end up with text full with 'drunken' glottals, some pointing left, some pointing right. If a special Polynesian keyboard layout is not available, a workaround to the workaround is to insert a ‘dummy’ space before typing the quote (thus making it a left, open quote), then delete the space.
Another problem
In some sans-serif fonts non-bolded and at normal size, the left single quotation character does not appear distinctly different from the straight apostrophe or from the right single quotation character. In Hawaiian, where only one of these curly quotation forms is used as a letter, this matters little. It is more problematic in displaying transliterations from Semitic languages where both left-quotation and right-quotation characters are used with different meanings.
See also
External links
- The correct Unicode values and HTML entities for Hawaiian in Unicode
- Kualono: Unicode on the Web
- Apple Compatibility with Hawaiian added in OS 10.2
- Apple Computer Includes Hawaiian Language Support With Latest Operating System.
- Honolulu Advertiser (September 2, 2002): I mua! Macintosh 'speaks' Hawaiian
- Starbulletin (September 16, 2002): Macs upgrade to isle punctuation
- SFGate (September 9, 2002): Hawaiian language advocates applaud new Mac operating system.
- Honolulu Advertiser (June 28, 2004): Hawaiian spellings catch on, but slowly. (On slow progress in using proper Hawaiian spellings instead of makeshift English spelling.)
- Ulukau: The Hawaiian Electronic Library: Browser information for viewing Hawaiian characters
- The Okina in French Polynesian, a graphic example on the top of the page of the official website of the commune of Faa'a, capital of the French Polynesia (this explains why the INSEE still encodes it like the French apostrophe).
- Cook Islands Maori Curriculum (Cook Islands Ministry of Education),see p.6
Okina-->{|align="right" width="300" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" class="wikitable" style="float:right;border:1px solid #999999;border-collapse:collapse;background:#F7F8FF;font-size:87%;text-align:center"|-!colspan="2" style="background:#CCCCCC;color:#000000"|
Okina letter forms|-||The
Tongan language fakaua letter or
Hawaiian language okina encoded as U+02BB (in Unicode 5.0), derived from the
Lucida Sans font.]
eta letter (or Wallisian language
fakamoga), currently not encoded correctly, derived from the
Lucida Sans font.] letter used within the
Latin script to mark the phonetic
glottal stop, as it is used in many
Polynesian languages.
{]|align="center"|
okina|align="center"| separator|align="center"| transitionally formalised|-|align="center"| Tongan language|align="center"|
fakaua (honorific for
fakamonga)|align="center"| throat maker|align="center"| officially formalised|-|align="center"| Fakauvea|align="center"|
fakamoga|align="center"| throat maker|align="center"| no official or traditional status, may use
' or
‘ or
’|-|align="center"|
Tahitian language|align="center"|
eta|align="center"|
etaeta = to harden|align="center"| no official or traditional status, may use
' or
‘ or
’|-|align="center"| Cook Islands Maori language|align="center"|
amata or
akairo amata|align="center"| "Hamsah" or "Hamsah mark"|align="center"| no official or traditional status, may use
' or
‘ or
’ or nothing
|}
Encoding and displaying the Polynesian glottal
Old conventions
In plain ASCII the glottal is sometimes represented by the apostrophe (mark) character ('), ASCII value 39 in decimal and 27 in
hexadecimal, which in most fonts currently used renders as a straight, data-processing,
typewriter apostrophe as is also specified in Unicode. But in some older fonts, especially those used on Unix-like platforms and related platforms and on an MS-DOS screen, it renders as a right single quotation mark (which is the wrong shape).
A
hypercorrect (but actually incorrect) method for plain ASCII text is to use U+0060 grave accent (incorrectly termed "back-quote character" (`), which in some older fonts does display a glyph similar to a left single quotation mark. However, in most newer fonts, it has a pronounced lean to the left and can look inappropriate. A (partial) advantage is when a wordlist is alphabetically sorted, the "`" often comes after the "z", exactly where it should be in the Tongan language (admittedly not so in most other Polynesian languages, where it should be ignored). It is still useful as a fallback when words are to be entered into a database with limited character-set ability to have the character distinct from the apostrophe.
The new standard and transitional problems
Unicode 5.0 (issued July 14, 2006) says the codepoint for okina is Unicode character U+02BB MODIFIER LETTER TURNED COMMA ( ) which can be rendered in
HTML by the entity ʻ (or in hexadecimal form ʻ).
But lack of support for this character in older fonts (and many newer fonts) along with the large amount of legacy data and expense in time and money to convert has prevented easy and universal use of the new character.
As of 2006 Apple
Mac OS X based computers have no problem with the glyph, but
Microsoft Windows especially when using
Internet Explorer still has. U+02BB should be the value used in encoding new data when the expected use of the data permits.
This character is also a proper one for a Latin-letter transliteration of the
Hebrew language letter
Ayin and the
Arabic language letter
Ayin. They are sometimes also rendered by a superscript half ring with the opening to the right ( ) or even, as a typographical fallback, a superscript
c ( c ).
Unicode encodes a glottal stop at U+02C0 MODIFIER LETTER GLOTTAL STOP (ˀ), but this looks like an undotted question mark, which is inappropriate for okina.
Its orientation and curve should not depend on the font style for apostrophes (so using a left apostrophe is wrong too, because it can be drawn either like a superscript non-curved mirrored comma, or a superscript 6-shaped apostrophe).
True Polynesian texts however draw the okina very differently, and this looks as none of the apostrophe, mirrored apostrophe, turned comma, or accent letter. The Polynesian okina letter is more like 9-shaped left apostrophe, turned about 60 to 90 degrees counter-clockwise.
Tentative approximants
A display work-around
Because this character is not found in many fonts, it may not appear properly on all computer systems and in all configurations. Accordingly, where U+02BB should properly be used, the Unicode punctuation character U+2018 LEFT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK, ‘, represented by the HTML entity ‘, is sometimes used instead. It is nearly identical in appearance to U+02BB, but is treated as a punctuation mark rather than a letter by applications.
In practical terms, this only matters with regard to page breaks, hyphenation, and capitalisation; these usually cause few problems. This symbol is also used instead of the recommended turned comma letter symbol in transliterations from Semitic languages to assure proper display on the widest number of browsers.
The problem with this left single quotation mark character is that, depending on font style design, the single quotation mark may have two very different shapes, one of which is incompatible with the okina :
- a superscript straight mirrored comma, drawn from bottom to top and normally thicker on the bottom right than on the top left. The thicker end on the bottom is incompatible.
- the modifier letter turned comma, but it may still be wrong as it could be drawn in some font designs as an oblick strait line or a wedge without the needed curve, or the curve will be made so that its center will be on the left or top right, when the okina curve should be centered and opened on the bottom or bottom left.
A work-around problem
Nowadays many word-processors are equipped with 'smart quotes', which automatically change the straight apostrophe (') and the straight quotation mark (") into curly ones. If a quotation mark occurs after a space, it is assumed to be an open quote (the left quote), if elsewhere a close quote (the right quote). This policy also allows the apostrophe to be dealt with in the same way. Clearly this is not the behaviour one wants for the glottal. One would end up with text full with 'drunken' glottals, some pointing left, some pointing right. If a special Polynesian keyboard layout is not available, a workaround to the workaround is to insert a ‘dummy’ space before typing the quote (thus making it a left, open quote), then delete the space.
Another problem
In some sans-serif fonts non-bolded and at normal size, the left single quotation character does not appear distinctly different from the straight apostrophe or from the right single quotation character. In Hawaiian, where only one of these curly quotation forms is used as a letter, this matters little. It is more problematic in displaying transliterations from Semitic languages where both left-quotation and right-quotation characters are used with different meanings.
See also
External links
- The correct Unicode values and HTML entities for Hawaiian in Unicode
- Kualono: Unicode on the Web
- Apple Compatibility with Hawaiian added in OS 10.2
- Apple Computer Includes Hawaiian Language Support With Latest Operating System.
- Honolulu Advertiser (September 2, 2002): I mua! Macintosh 'speaks' Hawaiian
- Starbulletin (September 16, 2002): Macs upgrade to isle punctuation
- SFGate (September 9, 2002): Hawaiian language advocates applaud new Mac operating system.
- Honolulu Advertiser (June 28, 2004): Hawaiian spellings catch on, but slowly. (On slow progress in using proper Hawaiian spellings instead of makeshift English spelling.)
- Ulukau: The Hawaiian Electronic Library: Browser information for viewing Hawaiian characters
- The Okina in French Polynesian, a graphic example on the top of the page of the official website of the commune of Faa'a, capital of the French Polynesia (this explains why the INSEE still encodes it like the French apostrophe).
- Cook Islands Maori Curriculum (Cook Islands Ministry of Education),see p.6
Okina - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Megumi Okina - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Megumi Okina
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Megumi Okina - Eigapedia
Megumi Okina (奥菜恵, Okina Megumi) is an actress and singer. She made her acting debut in 1992, appearing in FujiTV's drama special, Patio. In August of 1995 she released ...
Megumi Okina (Shutter, The Grudge, Red Shadow - The Ninja Movie and ...
actor: Megumi Okina - filmography (including Shutter, The Grudge, Red Shadow - The Ninja Movie and Saint John's Wort), bio and film news from LOVEFiLM.com.
