Script (Unicode)

In Unicode, a script is a collection of letters and other written signs used to represent textual information in one or more writing systems. Some scripts support only one writing system and language, for example, Armenian. Other scripts support many different writing systems; for example, the Latin script supports English, French, German, Italian, Vietnamese, Latin itself, and many other languages. Some languages make use of multiple alternate writing systems and thus also use several scripts; for example, in Turkish, the Arabic script was used before the 20th century but transitioned to Latin in the early part of the 20th century. More or less complementary to scripts are symbols and Unicode control characters. The unified diacritical marks and unified punctuation characters frequently have the "common" or "inherited" script property. However, the individual scripts often have their own punctuation and diacritics, so that many scripts include not only letters but also diacritic and other marks, punctuation, numerals and even their own idiosyncratic symbols and space characters. Unicode defines 175 separate scripts, including 102 modern scripts and 73 ancient or historic scripts. More scripts are in the process for encoding or have been tentatively allocated for encoding in roadmaps.

In Unicode, a script is a collection of letters and other written signs used to represent textual information in one or more writing systems. Some scripts support only one writing system and language, for example, Armenian. Other scripts support many different writing systems; for example, the Latin script supports English, French, German, Italian, Vietnamese, Latin itself, and many other languages. Some languages make use of multiple alternate writing systems and thus also use several scripts; for example, in Turkish, the Arabic script was used before the 20th century but transitioned to Latin in the early part of the 20th century. More or less complementary to scripts are symbols and Unicode control characters. The unified diacritical marks and unified punctuation characters frequently have the "common" or "inherited" script property. However, the individual scripts often have their own punctuation and diacritics, so that many scripts include not only letters but also diacritic and other marks, punctuation, numerals and even their own idiosyncratic symbols and space characters. Unicode defines 175 separate scripts, including 102 modern scripts and 73 ancient or historic scripts. More scripts are in the process for encoding or have been tentatively allocated for encoding in roadmaps. === Special script property values === In addition to explicit or specific script properties, Unicode uses three special values: Common: Unicode can assign a character in the UCS to a single script only. However, many characters—those that are not part of a formal natural-language writing system or are unified across many writing systems—may be used in more than one script (for example, currency signs, symbols, numerals, and punctuation marks). In these cases Unicode defines them as belonging to the "common" script (ISO 15924 code "Zyyy"). Inherited: Many diacritics and non-spacing combining characters may be applied to characters from more than one script. In these cases Unicode assigns them to the "inherited" script (ISO 15924 code Zinh), which means that they have the same script class as the base character with which they combine, and so in different contexts they may be treated as belonging to different scripts. For example, may combine either with to create a Latin ë or with for the Cyrillic ё. In the former case, it inherits the Latin script of the base character, whereas in the latter case, it inherits the Cyrillic script of the base character. Unknown: The value of "unknown" script (ISO 15924 code Zzzz) is given to unassigned, private-use, noncharacter, and surrogate code points. == List of encoded scripts == , Unicode defines 178 script aliases ("property value aliases") for codes in the ISO 15924 list. Unicode assigns the alias "Common" for ISO 15924's code for undetermined scripts, "Inherited" for ISO 15924's code for inherited scripts, and "Unknown" for ISO 15924's code for uncoded scripts. There are script codes defined by ISO 15924 that are not used in Unicode, including (Symbols) and (Mathematical notation). ==See also== Latin script in Unicode Unicode characters Unicode symbols Phonemic and phonetic orthography ==References== ==External links== Script Encoding Initiative, A project at UC Berkeley, USA, working to get more scripts included in the Unicode standard. The World’s Writing Systems, An overview of all 294 known writing systems, each with a typographic reference glyph and their Unicode status.

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