Script (Unicode): Difference between revisions

Revision as of 03:54, 3 November 2016

Revision as of 17:43, 14 November 2016

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In [[Unicode]], a '''script''' is a collection of letters and other written signs used to represent textual information in one or more writing systems.<ref>[http://unicode.org/glossary/ Glossary of Unicode Terms]</ref> Some scripts support one and only one writing system and 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, thus also use several scripts. 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. For a list of languages supported by each script see the [[list of languages by writing system]]. More or less complementary to scripts are [[Unicode symbols|symbols]] and Unicode control characters.

The unified diacritical characters and unified punctuation characters frequently have the "common" or "inherited" script property. However, the individual scripts often have their own punctuation and diacritics., Soso 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 9.0 defines 135 separate scripts, including 84 modern scripts and 51 ancient or historic scripts.<ref>[http://www.unicode.org/Public/UNIDATA/Scripts.txt Unicode Character Database: Scripts]</ref><ref>{{cite book | title = The Unicode Standard, Version 6.2 | chapter = Chapter 14: Additional Ancient and Historic Scripts | publisher = Unicode, Inc | date = September 2012 | ___location = Mountain View, CA | pages = 473 | url = http://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode6.2.0/ch14.pdf | isbn = 978-1-936213-07-8 }}</ref> More scripts are in the process for encoding or have been tentatively allocated for encoding in roadmaps.<ref>http://www.unicode.org/roadmaps/ Roadmaps to Unicode</ref>

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=== Script versus writing system ===

"[[Writing system]]" is sometimes treated as a synonym for script. However it also can be used as the specific concrete writing system supported by a script. For example, the Vietnamese writing system is supported by the Latin script. A writing system may also cover more than one script, for example the Japanese writing system makes use of the [[Kanji|Han]], [[Hiragana]] and [[Katakana]] scripts.

Most writing systems can be broadly divided into several categories: '''logographic''', '''syllabic''', '''alphabetic''' (or '''segmental'''), '''abugida''', '''abjad''' and '''featural'''; however, all features of any of these may be found in any given writing system in varying proportions, often making it difficult to purely categorize a system. The term [[complex system]] is sometimes used to describe those where the admixture makes classification problematic.