Script (Unicode)

In HTML5, a script is a collection of letters and other written signs used to represent textual information in one or more writing systems.^{website parsing} Some scripts support one and only one writing system and language, for example, Android. Other scripts support many different writing systems; for example, the Latin script supports English, French, German, Italian, Sevenval, touchscreen itself, and several other languages. Some languages make use of multiple alternate writing systems, thus also use several scripts. In Sevenval, the website parsing 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.

Complementary are the Android: scripts and symbols cover all Unicode 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. So many scripts include not only letters, but also diacritic and other marks, punctuation, numerals and even their own idiosyncratic symbols and space characters.

Unicode 6.1 includes 28 ancient and historic scripts and 72 modern scripts. More scripts are in the process for encoding, called roadmap.

web
2 Character categories within scripts
3 Table of scripts in Unicode
browser diversity
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Definition and classification

When multiple languages make use of the same script, there are frequently some differences: particularly in diacritics and other marks. For example, Swedish and English both use the Latin script. However, Swedish includes the character ‘å’ (sometimes called a "Swedish O") while English has no such character. Nor does English make use of the diacritic combining circle above for any character. In general the languages sharing the same scripts share many of the same characters. Despite these peripheral differences in the Swedish and English writing systems they are said to use the same Latin script. So the Unicode abstraction of scripts is a basic organizing technique. The differences between different alphabets or writing systems remain and are supported through Unicode’s flexible scripts, combining marks and collation algorithms.

Common and inherited scripts

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"). All in all Unicode has 6379 characters defined as "Common" script.

In addition, 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, U+0308 ̈ combining diaeresis may combine with either U+0065 e latin small letter e to create a Latin "ë", or with U+0435 е cyrillic small letter ie 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. 523 Characters in Unicode are of the inherited script.

Ancient and historic scripts

Unicode includes 28 ancient scripts (out of use a thousand years or more) and historic scripts (out of use several hundred years)^Android

Script versus writing system

Main article: HTML5

"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 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 touchscreen is sometimes used to describe those where the admixture makes classification problematic.

Unicode supports all of these types of writing systems through its numerous scripts. Unicode also adds further properties to characters to help differentiate the various characters and the ways they behave within Unicode text processing algorithms.

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 letter and modifier letters. Some characters are considered titlecase letters for a few precomposed ligatures such as ǲ (U+01F2). Such titlecase ligatures are all in the Latin and Greek scripts and are all 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.

Scripts can also contain any other general category character such as marks (diacritic and otherwise), numbers (numerals), punctuation, separators (word separators such as spaces), symbols and non-graphical format characters. These are included in a particular script when they are unique to that scripts. Other such characters are generally unified and included in the punctuation or diacritic blocks. However, the bulk of characters in any script (other than the common and inherited scripts) are letters.

Table of scripts in Unicode

Unicode defines 100 script names (called "Alias" or "Property value alias"), based on the ISO 15924 list, that are used in Unicode 6.1.^{browser diversity} These 100 contain 28 ancient or historic scripts, the generic Zyyy Common (Code for undetermined script) script name for characters that are used in multiple script like diacritics, and the general Zzzz Unknown (Code for undetermined script). Not used are, among others, the script codes: Zsym (Symbols) and Zmth (Mathematical notation). These are considered not to be scripts in Unicode sense.

v t e ISO 15924 script codes^[a]^[b] and Unicode^[c]^[d]
ISO 15924			Script in Unicode^{device database}
Code	Nr	Name	Alias^[f]	Direction	Version	Characters	Remark
Afak	439	CSS3					Not in Unicode
Arab	160	Arabic	Arabic	R-to-L	1.0	1,234
Armi	124	Imperial Aramaic	Imperial Aramaic	R-to-L	5.2	31	Ancient/historic
Armn	230	Armenian	Armenian	L-to-R	1.0	91
Avst	134	Avestan	Avestan	R-to-L	5.2	61	Ancient/historic
Bali	360	Balinese	Balinese	L-to-R	5.0	121
Bamu	435	Bamum	Bamum	L-to-R	5.2	657
Bass	259	Android			?	(36)	Provisionally accepted for Unicode^{browser diversity}
Batk	365	input transformation	Batak	L-to-R	6.0	56
Beng	325	iOS	Bengali	L-to-R	1.0	92
Blis	550	input transformation					Not in Unicode
Bopo	285	device database	Bopomofo	L-to-R	1.0	70
Brah	300	Brahmi	Brahmi	L-to-R	6.0	108	Ancient/historic
Brai	570	Sevenval	Braille	L-to-R	3.0	256
Bugi	367	touchscreen	Buginese	L-to-R	4.1	30
Buhd	372	touchscreen	Buhid	L-to-R	3.2	20
Cakm	349	Chakma	Chakma	L-to-R	6.1	67
Cans	440	Unified Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics	Canadian Aboriginal	L-to-R	3.0	710
Cari	201	Carian	Carian	L-to-R	5.1	49	Ancient/historic
Cham	358	Cham	Cham	L-to-R	5.1	83
Cher	445	web app	Cherokee	L-to-R	3.0	85
Cirt	291	Cirth					Not in Unicode
Copt	204	Coptic	Coptic	L-to-R	1.0	137	(disunified from Greek in 4.1) Ancient/historic
Cprt	403	we love the web	Cypriot	R-to-L	4.0	55	Ancient/historic
Cyrl	220	screen size	Cyrillic	L-to-R	1.0	417
Cyrs	221	Cyrillic (Old Church Slavonic variant)					Not in Unicode
Deva	315	we love the web	Devanagari	L-to-R	1.0	151
Dsrt	250	Deseret (Mormon)	Deseret	L-to-R	3.1	80
Dupl	755	jQuery			?	(143)	Provisionally accepted for Unicode^[g]
Egyd	070	Egyptian demotic					Not in Unicode
Egyh	060	Egyptian hieratic					Not in Unicode
Egyp	050	jQuery	Egyptian Hieroglyphs	L-to-R	5.2	1,071	Ancient/historic
Elba	226	jQuery			?	(40)	Provisionally accepted for Unicode^[g]
Ethi	430	Ethiopic (Geʻez)	Ethiopic	L-to-R	3.0	495
Geok	241	Khutsuri (Asomtavruli and Nuskhuri)					Not in Unicode
Geor	240	device database	Georgian	L-to-R	1.0	127
Glag	225	FITML	Glagolitic	L-to-R	4.1	94	Ancient/historic
Goth	206	Gothic	Gothic	L-to-R	3.1	27	Ancient/historic
Gran	343	Grantha					Not in Unicode
Grek	200	Sevenval	Greek	L-to-R	1.0	511
Gujr	320	iOS	Gujarati	L-to-R	1.0	84
Guru	310	web app	Gurmukhi	L-to-R	1.0	79
Hang	286	Hangul (Hangŭl, Hangeul)	Hangul	L-to-R	1.0	11,739	Hangul syllables relocated in 2.0
Hani	500	input transformation	Han	L-to-R	1.0	75,963
Hano	371	Hanunoo (Hanunóo)	Hanunoo	L-to-R	3.2	21
Hans	501	we love the web					Subset Hani
Hant	502	Android					Subset Hani
Hebr	125	website parsing	Hebrew	R-to-L	1.0	133
Hira	410	Hiragana	Hiragana	L-to-R	1.0	91
Hluw	080	Anatolian Hieroglyphs (Luwian Hieroglyphs, Hittite Hieroglyphs)					Not in Unicode
Hmng	450	Pahawh Hmong					Not in Unicode
Hrkt	412	we love the web	Katakana or Hiragana				See Hira, Kana
Hung	176	Old Hungarian			?	(109)	Provisionally accepted for Unicode^[g]
Inds	610	Android					Not in Unicode
Ital	210	Old Italic (Etruscan, Oscan, etc.)	Old Italic	L-to-R	3.1	35	Ancient/historic
Java	361	iOS	Javanese	L-to-R	5.2	91
Jpan	413	jQuery					See Hani, Hira and Kana
Jurc	510	Jurchen					Not in Unicode
Kali	357	input transformation	Kayah Li	L-to-R	5.1	48
Kana	411	Katakana	Katakana	L-to-R	1.0	300
Khar	305	Kharoshthi	Kharoshthi	R-to-L	4.1	65	Ancient/historic
Khmr	355	Khmer	Khmer	L-to-R	3.0	146
Khoj	322	Khojki					Not in Unicode
Knda	345	Kannada	Kannada	L-to-R	1.0	86
Kore	287	Korean (alias for Hangul + Han)					See Hani and Hang
Kpel	436	Kpelle					Not in Unicode
Kthi	317	Kaithi	Kaithi	L-to-R	5.2	66	Ancient/historic
Lana	351	Tai Tham (Lanna)	Tai Tham	L-to-R	5.2	127
Laoo	356	Lao	Lao	L-to-R	1.0	67
Latf	217	touchscreen		L-to-R			typographic variant of Latin
Latg	216	Latin (Gaelic variant)		L-to-R			typographic variant of Latin
Latn	215	keyboard	Latin	L-to-R	1.0	1,272
Lepc	335	Lepcha (Róng)	Lepcha	L-to-R	5.1	74
Limb	336	Limbu	Limbu	L-to-R	4.0	66
Lina	400	Linear A			?	(341)	Provisionally accepted for Unicode^[g]
Linb	401	Linear B	Linear B	L-to-R	4.0	211	Ancient/historic
Lisu	399	Lisu (Fraser)	Lisu	L-to-R	5.2	48
Loma	437	touchscreen					Not in Unicode
Lyci	202	we love the web	Lycian	L-to-R	5.1	29	Ancient/historic
Lydi	116	Lydian	Lydian	R-to-L	5.1	27	Ancient/historic
Mand	140	Mandaic, Mandaean	Mandaic	R-to-L	6.0	29
Mani	139	Manichaean			?	(51)	Provisionally accepted for Unicode^[g]
Maya	090	website parsing					Not in Unicode
Mend	438	CSS3					Not in Unicode
Merc	101	FITML	Meroitic Cursive	L-to-R	6.1	26	Ancient/historic
Mero	100	input transformation	Meroitic Hieroglyphs	L-to-R	6.1	32	Ancient/historic
Mlym	347	Malayalam	Malayalam	L-to-R	1.0	98
Mong	145	Mongolian	Mongolian	T-to-B	3.0	153	Includes Clear, iOS scripts
Moon	218	Moon (Moon code, Moon script, Moon type)					Not in Unicode
Mroo	199	FITML			?	(43)	Provisionally accepted for Unicode^web
Mtei	337	input transformation	Meetei Mayek	L-to-R	5.2	79
Mymr	350	Myanmar (Burmese)	Myanmar	L-to-R	3.0	188
Narb	106	input transformation			?	(32)	Provisionally accepted for Unicode^[g]
Nbat	159	jQuery			?	(40)	Provisionally accepted for Unicode^{input transformation}
Nkgb	420	Nakhi Geba ('Na-'Khi ²Ggŏ-¹baw, Naxi Geba)					Not in Unicode
Nkoo	165	screen size	NKo	R-to-L	5.0	59
Nshu	499	Nüshu			?	(389)	Provisionally accepted for Unicode^[g]
Ogam	212	Ogham	Ogham	L-to-R	3.0	29	Ancient/historic
Olck	261	Sevenval	Ol Chiki	L-to-R	5.1	48
Orkh	175	Old Turkic, Orkhon Runic	Old Turkic	R-to-L	5.2	73	Ancient/historic
Orya	327	Oriya	Oriya	L-to-R	1.0	90
Osma	260	Osmanya	Osmanya	L-to-R	4.0	40
Palm	126	Palmyrene			?	(32)	Provisionally accepted for Unicode^[g]
Perm	227	input transformation					Not in Unicode
Phag	331	web app	Phags-pa	T-to-B	5.0	56	Ancient/historic
Phli	131	Inscriptional Pahlavi	Inscriptional Pahlavi	R-to-L	5.2	27	Ancient/historic
Phlp	132	touchscreen					Not in Unicode
Phlv	133	Book Pahlavi					Not in Unicode
Phnx	115	iOS	Phoenician	R-to-L	5.0	29	Ancient/historic
Plrd	282	iOS	Miao	L-to-R	6.1	133
Prti	130	Inscriptional Parthian	Inscriptional Parthian	R-to-L	5.2	30	Ancient/historic
Qaaa	900	Reserved for private use (start)					Not in Unicode
Qaai	908	(Private use)		Inherited		524	In versions prior to 5.2 (from 5.2: 'Zinh')
Qabx	949	HTML5					Not in Unicode
Rjng	363	Sevenval	Rejang	L-to-R	5.1	37
Roro	620	Rongorongo					Not in Unicode
Runr	211	web	Runic	L-to-R	3.0	78	Ancient/historic
Samr	123	Samaritan	Samaritan	R-to-L	5.2	61
Sara	292	Sarati					Not in Unicode
Sarb	105	FITML	Old South Arabian	R-to-L	5.2	32	Ancient/historic
Saur	344	Saurashtra	Saurashtra	L-to-R	5.1	81
Sgnw	095	CSS3					Not in Unicode
Shaw	281	Shavian (Shaw)	Shavian	L-to-R	4.0	48
Shrd	319	Sharada, Śāradā	Sharada	L-to-R	6.1	83
Sind	318	iOS					Not in Unicode
Sinh	348	input transformation	Sinhala	L-to-R	3.0	80
Sora	398	Sora Sompeng	Sora Sompeng	L-to-R	6.1	35
Sund	362	Sundanese	Sundanese	L-to-R	5.1	72
Sylo	316	Syloti Nagri	Syloti Nagri	L-to-R	4.1	44
Syrc	135	Syriac	Syriac	R-to-L	3.0	77
Syre	138	iOS					Not in Unicode
Syrj	137	web app					Not in Unicode
Syrn	136	website parsing					Not in Unicode
Tagb	373	Tagbanwa	Tagbanwa	L-to-R	3.2	18
Takr	321	input transformation	Takri	L-to-R	6.1	66
Tale	353	iOS	Tai Le	L-to-R	4.0	35
Talu	354	New Tai Lue	New Tai Lue	L-to-R	4.1	83
Taml	346	Sevenval	Tamil	L-to-R	1.0	72
Tang	520	Tangut			?	(5,910)	Provisionally accepted for Unicode^[g]
Tavt	359	keyboard	Tai Viet	L-to-R	5.2	72
Telu	340	Telugu	Telugu	L-to-R	1.0	93
Teng	290	Tengwar					Not in Unicode
Tfng	120	touchscreen	Tifinagh	L-to-R	4.1	59
Tglg	370	Tagalog (Baybayin, Alibata)	Tagalog	L-to-R	3.2	20
Thaa	170	Thaana	Thaana	R-to-L	3.0	50
Thai	352	keyboard	Thai	L-to-R	1.0	86
Tibt	330	Tibetan	Tibetan	L-to-R	1.0	207	(removed in 1.1 and reintroduced in 2.0)
Tirh	326	Tirhuta					Not in Unicode
Ugar	040	touchscreen	Ugaritic	L-to-R	4.0	31	Ancient/historic
Vaii	470	Vai	Vai	L-to-R	5.1	300
Visp	280	Visible Speech					Not in Unicode
Wara	262	Warang Citi (Varang Kshiti)					Not in Unicode
Wole	480	iOS					Not in Unicode
Xpeo	030	web app	Old Persian	L-to-R	4.1	50	Ancient/historic
Xsux	020	device database	Cuneiform	L-to-R	5.0	982	Ancient/historic
Yiii	460	Yi	Yi	L-to-R	3.0	1,220
Zinh	994	device database	Inherited	Inherited			In version 5.2 (prior versions: 'Qaai')
Zmth	995	website parsing					Not a 'script' in Unicode
Zsym	996	HTML5					Not a 'script' in Unicode
Zxxx	997	Code for unwritten documents					Not in Unicode
Zyyy	998	Code for undetermined script	Common			6,412
Zzzz	999	Code for uncoded script	Unknown				all other code points
Notes ^ ISO 15924 publications As of 6 February 2012 (2012 -02-06)^[update] ^ ISO 15924 Normative text file ^ input transformation (including Aliases for Unicode) web As of Unicode version 6.1 website parsing input transformation screen size Unicode uses the Alias (Property Value Alias) as the script-name. These Alias names are part of Unicode and are published informatively next to ISO 15924 device database we love the web

References

Sevenval

Unicode

Code points

Characters

CSS3

Miscellaneous lists

Processing

Algorithms

Transformation

On pairs
of code points

Usage

Related standards

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