Combining character
Encyclopedia
In digital typography
, combining characters are characters
that are intended to modify other characters. The most common combining characters in the Latin script are the combining diacritical marks (including combining accents).
Unicode
also contains many precomposed character
s, so that in many cases it is possible to use both combining diacritics and precomposed characters, at the user's or application's choice. This leads to a requirement to perform Unicode normalization before comparing two Unicode strings and to carefully design encoding converters to correctly map all of the valid ways to represent a character in Unicode to a legacy encoding to avoid data loss.
In Unicode, the main block of combining diacritics for European languages and the International Phonetic Alphabet
is U+0300–U+036F. Combining diacritical marks are also present in many other blocks of Unicode characters. In Unicode, diacritics are always added after the main character. It is thus possible to add several diacritics to the same character, although , few applications support correct rendering of such combinations.
has the ccmp "feature tag" to define glyphs that are compositions or decompositions involving combining characters.
Codepoints U+0346–034A are IPA
symbols,
U+0346 ◌͆: dentolabial;
U+0347 ◌͇: alveolar
;
U+0348 ◌͈: strong articulation
U+0349 ◌͉: weak articulation
U+034A ◌͊: denasal
Codepoints U+034B–034E are IPA diacritics for disordered speech:
U+034B ◌͋: nasal escape;
U+034C ◌͌: velopharyngeal friction;
U+034D ◌͍: labial spreading;
U+034E ◌͎: whistled articulation;
U+034F is the "combining grapheme joiner
" (CGJ) and has no visible glyph
Codepoints U+035C–0362 are double diacritics, diacritic signs placed across two letters.
Codepoints U+0363–036F are medieval superscript letter diacritics, letters written directly above other letters appearing in medieval Germanic manuscripts, but in some instances in use until as late as the 19th century. For example, U+0364 is an e written above the preceding letter, to be used for Early Modern High German umlaut
notation, such as uͤ for Modern German ü.
Digital typography
Digital typography is the arrangement of type using computers.- See also :* Typography* Computer font* Web typography* Desktop publishing* Font rasterization...
, combining characters are characters
Character (computing)
In computer and machine-based telecommunications terminology, a character is a unit of information that roughly corresponds to a grapheme, grapheme-like unit, or symbol, such as in an alphabet or syllabary in the written form of a natural language....
that are intended to modify other characters. The most common combining characters in the Latin script are the combining diacritical marks (including combining accents).
Unicode
Unicode
Unicode is a computing industry standard for the consistent encoding, representation and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems...
also contains many precomposed character
Precomposed character
A precomposed character is a Unicode entity that can be defined as a combination of two or more other characters. A precomposed character may typically represent a letter with a diacritical mark, such as é...
s, so that in many cases it is possible to use both combining diacritics and precomposed characters, at the user's or application's choice. This leads to a requirement to perform Unicode normalization before comparing two Unicode strings and to carefully design encoding converters to correctly map all of the valid ways to represent a character in Unicode to a legacy encoding to avoid data loss.
In Unicode, the main block of combining diacritics for European languages and the International Phonetic Alphabet
International Phonetic Alphabet
The International Phonetic Alphabet "The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic...
is U+0300–U+036F. Combining diacritical marks are also present in many other blocks of Unicode characters. In Unicode, diacritics are always added after the main character. It is thus possible to add several diacritics to the same character, although , few applications support correct rendering of such combinations.
OpenType
OpenTypeOpenType
OpenType is a format for scalable computer fonts. It was built on its predecessor TrueType, retaining TrueType's basic structure and adding many intricate data structures for prescribing typographic behavior...
has the ccmp "feature tag" to define glyphs that are compositions or decompositions involving combining characters.
Unicode ranges
- Combining Diacritical Marks (0300–036F), since version 1.0, with modifications in subsequent versions down to 4.1
- Combining Diacritical Marks Supplement (1DC0–1DFF), versions 4.1 to 5.2
- Combining Diacritical Marks for Symbols (20D0–20FF), since version 1.0, with modifications in subsequent versions down to 5.1
- Combining Half Marks (FE20–FE2F), versions 1.0, updates in 5.2
Codepoints U+0346–034A are IPA
International Phonetic Alphabet
The International Phonetic Alphabet "The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic...
symbols,
U+0346 ◌͆: dentolabial;
U+0347 ◌͇: alveolar
Alveolar consonant
Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli of the superior teeth...
;
U+0348 ◌͈: strong articulation
Manner of articulation
In linguistics, manner of articulation describes how the tongue, lips, jaw, and other speech organs are involved in making a sound. Often the concept is only used for the production of consonants, even though the movement of the articulars will also greatly alter the resonant properties of the...
U+0349 ◌͉: weak articulation
U+034A ◌͊: denasal
Denasal
In phonetics, denasalization is the loss of nasal airflow in a nasal stop or nasal vowel. This may be due to speech pathology, but also occurs when the sinuses are blocked from a cold, in which case it is called a 'nasal voice'...
Codepoints U+034B–034E are IPA diacritics for disordered speech:
U+034B ◌͋: nasal escape;
U+034C ◌͌: velopharyngeal friction;
U+034D ◌͍: labial spreading;
U+034E ◌͎: whistled articulation;
U+034F is the "combining grapheme joiner
Combining grapheme joiner
The combining grapheme joiner , is a Unicode character that has no visible glyph and is "default ignorable" by applications. Its name is a misnomer which does not describe the function of this character. Despite its name, it does not join graphemes...
" (CGJ) and has no visible glyph
Codepoints U+035C–0362 are double diacritics, diacritic signs placed across two letters.
Codepoints U+0363–036F are medieval superscript letter diacritics, letters written directly above other letters appearing in medieval Germanic manuscripts, but in some instances in use until as late as the 19th century. For example, U+0364 is an e written above the preceding letter, to be used for Early Modern High German umlaut
Umlaut (diacritic)
The diaeresis and the umlaut are diacritics that consist of two dots placed over a letter, most commonly a vowel. When that letter is an i or a j, the diacritic replaces the tittle: ï....
notation, such as uͤ for Modern German ü.
External links
- Combining diacritics chart (in Adobe PDFPortable Document FormatPortable Document Format is an open standard for document exchange. This file format, created by Adobe Systems in 1993, is used for representing documents in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems....
format) - Combining diacritics supplement chart (in Adobe PDFPortable Document FormatPortable Document Format is an open standard for document exchange. This file format, created by Adobe Systems in 1993, is used for representing documents in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems....
format) - Combining marks test page facing combined and precomposed letters
- Alan Wood’s Unicode Resources
- DecodeUnicode.org combining diacritical marks reference