Script (Unicode): Difference between revisions

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{{ISO 15924/unicode-script-illustration}}

In [[Unicode]], a '''script''' is a collection of [[Letter (alphabet)|letter]]s and other written signs used to represent textual information in one or more [[writing system]]s.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://unicode.org/glossary/|title=Glossary|website=unicode.org}}</ref> Some scripts support one and only one writing system and [[Written language|language]], for example, [[Armenian language|Armenian]]. Other scripts support many different writing systems; for example, the [[Latin script in Unicode|Latin script]] supports [[English alphabet|English]], [[French alphabet|French]], [[German alphabet|German]], [[Italian alphabet|Italian]], [[Vietnamese language|Vietnamese]], [[Latin alphabet|Latin]] itself, and several other languages. Some languages make use of multiple alternate writing systems and thus also use several scripts; for example, in [[Turkish language|Turkish]], the [[Ottoman Turkish alphabet|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 [[Unicode symbols|symbols]] and Unicode [[control character]]s.

The unified [[Combining Diacritical Marks for Symbols|diacritical character]]s and unified [[General Punctuation|punctuation characters]] frequently have the "common" or "inherited" script property. However, the individual scripts often have their own [[punctuation]] and [[diacritic]]s, so that many scripts include not only letters but also diacritic and other marks, punctuation, numerals and even their own idiosyncratic symbols and [[Space (punctuation)|space]] characters.

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== Character categories within scripts ==

Unicode provides a general category property for each character. So in addition to belonging to a script every character also has a general category. Typically scripts include letter characters including: uppercase letters, lowercase letterletters and modifier letters. Some characters are considered titlecase letters for a few [[Precomposed character|precomposed]] ligatures such as Dz (U+01F2). Such titlecase ligatures are all in the Latin and Greek scripts and are all [[Unicode compatibility characters |compatibility characters]], and therefore Unicode discourages their use by authors. It is unlikely that new titlecase letters will be added in the future.

Most writing systems do not differentiate between uppercase and lowercase letters. For those scripts all letters are categorized as "other letter" or "modifier letter". Ideographs such as Unihan ideographs are also categorized as "other letters". A few scripts do differentiate between uppercase and lowercase however: Latin, Cyrillic, Greek, Armenian, Georgian, and Deseret. Even for these scripts there are some letters that are neither uppercase nor lowercase.

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== Missing scripts in Unicode ==

The project Missing Scripts—with contributors from the [[Mainz University of Applied Sciences]], the L’Atelier national de recherche typographique (ANRT) in [[Nancy, France|Nancy]], and the [[University of California, Berkeley]]—has compiled a list of 131 scripts that have not yet been encoded in ''The Unicode Standard'', out of a total of 294 recognized scripts according to the current state of research.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The World's Writing Systems |url=https://www.worldswritingsystems.org/ |access-date=2024-10-04 |website=www.worldswritingsystems.org}}</ref>

{{norefs|section|date=April 2024}}

With each new version of Unicode, new writing systems are added to the international character code. According to a statement by linguist Dr Deborah Anderson of UC Berkeley, there are over 100 writing systems that have not yet been included in Unicode.

According to a list of the project Missing Scripts by the University of Applied Sciences Mainz, Germany, the ANRT Nancy, France and UC Berkeley, USA, there are 294 known writing systems of mankind according to the current state of research (January 2022). 131 of them have not yet been encoded in Unicode, i.e. cannot yet be used on a computer or mobile phone.

==See also==

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==External links==

* [https://linguisticssei.berkeley.edu/sei/index.html Script Encoding Initiative], A project at UC Berkeley, USA, working to get more scripts included in the Unicode standard.

* [https://www.worldswritingsystems.org The World’s Writing Systems], An overview of all 294 known writing systems, each with a typographic reference glyph and their Unicode status.