L2/00-135
ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2/WG2 N_____
DATE: 2000-04-07
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DOC TYPE: |
Expert contribution |
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TITLE: |
Proposal to Add Urdu
Epethit and Abbreviation Diacritics to Arabic Block |
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SOURCE: |
Paul Nelson (Redmond, WA, USA),
Ashhar Farhan (Hyderabad, India), Arif Hisam and Kashif Hisam (Pakistan Data
Management Services, Karachi, Pakistan), John Clews (UK) |
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PROJECT: |
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STATUS: |
Proposal |
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ACTION ID: |
FYI |
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DUE DATE: |
-- |
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DISTRIBUTION: |
Worldwide |
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MEDIUM: |
Paper and web |
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NO. OF PAGES: |
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A. Administrative |
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1. Title |
Proposal to Add Urdu Epethit
and Abbreviation Diacritics to Arabic Block. |
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2. Requester's name |
Paul Nelson (Redmond, WA, USA),
Ashhar Farhan (Hyderabad, India), Arif Hisam and Kashif Hisam (Pakistan Data
Management Services, Karachi, Pakistan), John Clews (UK) |
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3. Requester type |
Expert request. |
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4. Submission date |
2000-04-07 |
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5. Requester's reference |
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6a. Completion |
This is a complete proposal. |
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6b. More information to be
provided? |
Only as required for
clarification. |
B. Technical -- General |
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1a. New script? Name? |
No. |
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1b. Addition of characters to
existing block? Name? |
Yes. Arabic. |
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2. Number of characters |
10. |
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3. Proposed category |
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4. Proposed level of
implementation and rationale |
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5a. Character names included
in proposal? |
Yes. |
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5b. Character names in
accordance with guidelines? |
Yes. |
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5c. Character shapes
reviewable? |
Yes. |
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6a. Who will provide
computerized font? |
Paul Nelson. |
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6b. Font currently available? |
Paul Nelson. |
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6c. Font format? |
TrueType. |
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7a. Are references (to other character
sets, dictionaries, descriptive texts, etc.) provided? |
Yes. |
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7b. Are published examples
(such as samples from newspapers, magazines, or other sources) of use of
proposed characters attached? |
Yes. |
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8. Does the proposal address other
aspects of character data processing? |
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C. Technical -- Justification |
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1. Contact with the user
community? |
Yes. Farhan is Director of
Computer Corp, Urdu software company for PCs. Arif and Kashif are pricinples of
Pakistan Data Management Systems, Urdu software systems. |
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2. Information on the user
community? |
Native. |
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3a. The context of use for
the proposed characters? |
Urdu has commonly used characters
that are not included in Unicode 3.0 specification. The proposal includes
characters identified by the National Language Authority of Pakistan. |
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3b. Reference |
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4a. Proposed characters in
current use? |
Yes. |
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4b. Where? |
Native speakers in Pakistan,
India and worldwide. |
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5a. Characters should be
encoded entirely in BMP? |
Already in BMP and in accordance with Roadmap. |
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5b. Rationale |
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6. Should characters be kept
in a continuous range? |
N/A. |
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7a. Can the characters be
considered a presentation form of an existing character or character
sequence? |
No. |
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7b. Where? |
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7c. Reference |
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8a. Can any of the characters
be considered to be similar (in appearance or function) to an existing character? |
No. |
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8b. Where? |
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8c. Reference |
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9a. Combining characters or
use of composite sequences included? |
N/A. |
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9b. List of composite
sequences and their corresponding glyph images provided? |
N/A. |
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10. Characters with any special
properties such as control function, etc. included? |
No. |
D. SC2/WG2 AdministrativeTo be completed by SC2/WG2 |
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1. Relevant SC 2/WG 2
document numbers: |
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2. Status (list of meeting number
and corresponding action or disposition) |
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3. Additional contact to user
communities, liaison organizations etc. |
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4. Assigned category and
assigned priority/time frame |
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Other Comments |
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Urdu has characters that are commonly
used in printed material that have not yet been encoded into the Unicode
Standard. These characters fall into three categories: Combining Diacritics,
Epithets, and a ligature.
Urdu typesetting
software/devices from Monotype and Urdu page composition software from
companies like Computer Corporation currently support the input, storage and
output of these characters. Adding these proposed characters to the Unicode
Standard would facilitate the movement of data from proprietary data points to
a universally accepted standard.
The characters we are proposing
to add to the Unicode Standard are listed below by category type. We have also
included a proposed location for the placement of these characters.
Combining Diacritics
These characters are used to assist
in pronunciation.
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Suggested Unicode |
Glyph |
Name |
Example |
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0656 |
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ARABIC LETTER SUBSCRIPT ALEF |
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0657 |
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URDU LETTER JAZM |
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0658 |
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URDU LETTER ULTA PESH |
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Epithets
These are characters that are
commonly used as indicators of the standing, usually religious (Islamic), of a
person. For example, one would normally place the ARABIC SMALL HIGH AIN over a
person's name to indicate that they are a saint.
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Suggested
Unicode |
Glyph |
Name |
Example |
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ARABIC SMALL HIGH REH HAH - Urdu symbol for rahmatullah |
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ARABIC SMALL HIGH REH DAD - Urdu symbol for raziallah |
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ARABIC SMALL HIGH SAD - Urdu symbol for salla |
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ARABIC SMALL HIGH AIN - Urdu symbol for alayhe assalam |
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ARABIC SMALL HIGH TALHALUS - Urdu symbol used above the name of a poet |
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ARABIC SMALL HIGH MISRA - Urdu poetic symbol
which comes before starting a poetic verse |
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Ligatures
This ligature is commonly used
in religious publications. It is much like other Arabic ligatures currently
found in the FDFx range.
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Suggested Unicode |
Glyph |
Name |
Example |
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ARABIC LIGATURE ALAYHE ASSALAM = <isolated> + 0639 + 0644 + 064a + 0647 + 0020 + 0627 + 0644 + 0633 + 0644 + 0627 + 0645 |
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References
Reading Nastaliq, William L. Hanaway and Brian Spooner,
Mazda Publishers, 1995
Kallyat Aqbal, 1995
Diwan Galab, 1995
Urdu Page Composer Software,
Computer Corporation, Hyderabad, India.
Urdu 98 Software and other Urdu
software solutions by Pakistan Data Management Systems, Karachi, Pakistan