Should a Hebrew surname like בן גביר fill the patronymic view? (איתמר בן גביר gives patronymic 'בן גביר') #1210

R9 (the patronymic view) reads a particle the vocabulary marks patronymic as naming a parent. he.toml marks בן that way, so every modern Israeli surname written בן X with a space fills the view, though it names no parent (measured on master 5f22996):

Measured (2026-11-08):

• The Knesset's person table (1,236 people): all 10 family names written בן X with a space fill the view; none is a patronymic.
• Wikidata, Israeli citizens with a family name item labelled בן X: all 126 written with a space fill it.
• JRC-Names, Hebrew spellings: of 15 names with בן inside them, about 10 are Arab names transcribed from news text (מוחמד בן סלמאן), where the word does name the father.

So in Hebrew script the word is a surname particle in Israeli names and a patronymic in Arab ones written in Hebrew, and the script cannot tell them apart. The family reading is right in both; only the view differs.

Proposal

Read בן and בת in Hebrew script as a family-name particle (kind = "particle") rather than a patronymic. Lexicon.default().remove("בן", kind="patronymic").add("בן", kind="particle") keeps every family reading above and empties the view in all four rows. A caller reading Arab names in Hebrew script adds the patronymic reading back.

Questions

• Is an empty view on a transcribed Arab name an acceptable cost? The view is the one thing that changes; the roles stay.
• Should this wait on Should a family name after a بن chain stay out of the patronymic? (خالد بن سعد القحطاني gives patronymic 'بن سعد القحطاني') #1155 (a family name after a بن chain), whose last row above is the Hebrew-script form? A comment there is the alternative to this issue.