Iso/iec Jtc1/sc2/wg2 N2556 A. Administrative B. Technical General
ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2/WG2 N2556
2002-12-04
Universal Multiple-Octet Coded Character Set
International Organization for Standardization
Organisation internationale de normalisation
еждународная организация по стандартизации
Doc Type: Working Group Document
Title:
Revised proposal to encode the Avestan and Pahlavi script in the UCS
Source:
Michael Everson
Status:
Individual Contribution
Action:
For consideration by JTC1/SC2/WG2 and UTC
Date:
2002-12-04
A. Administrative
1. Title
Revised proposal to encode the Avestan and Pahlavi script in the UCS.
2. Requester’s name
Michael Everson
3. Requester type (Member body/Liaison/Individual contribution)
Individual contribution.
4. Submission date
2002-12-04
5. Requester’s reference (if applicable)
N1684
6. Choose one of the following:
6a. This is a complete proposal
No.
6b. More information will be provided later
Yes.
B. Technical -- General
1. Choose one of the following:
1a. This proposal is for a new script (set of characters)
Yes.
Proposed name of script
Avestan and Pahlavi.
1b. The proposal is for addition of character(s) to an existing block
No.
1b. Name of the existing block
2. Number of characters in proposal
87
3. Proposed category (see section II, Character Categories)
Category B.1.
4a. Proposed Level of Implementation (1, 2 or 3) (see clause 14, ISO/IEC 10646-1: 2000)
Level 3.
4b. Is a rationale provided for the choice?
Uses combining characters.
4c. If YES, reference
5a. Is a repertoire including character names provided?
Yes.
5b. If YES, are the names in accordance with the character naming guidelines in Annex L of ISO/IEC 10646-1: 2000?
Yes.
5c. Are the character shapes attached in a legible form suitable for review?
Yes.
1
6a. Who will provide the appropriate computerized font (ordered preference: True Type, or PostScript format) for
publishing the standard?
Michael Everson.
6b. If available now, identify source(s) for the font (include address, e-mail, ftp-site, etc.) and indicate the tools used:
Michael Everson, Fontographer.
7a. Are references (to other character sets, dictionaries, descriptive texts etc.) provided?
No.
7b. Are published examples of use (such as samples from newspapers, magazines, or other sources) of proposed
characters attached?
No.
8. Does the proposal address other aspects of character data processing (if applicable) such as input, presentation,
sorting, searching, indexing, transliteration etc. (if yes please enclose information)?
No.
9. Submitters are invited to provide any additional information about Properties of the proposed Character(s) or
Script that will assist in correct understanding of and correct linguistic processing of the proposed character(s) or
script. Examples of such properties are: Casing information, Numeric information, Currency information, Display
behaviour information such as line breaks, widths etc., Combining behaviour, Spacing behaviour, Directional
behaviour, Default Collation behaviour, relevance in Mark Up contexts, Compatibility equivalence and other Unicode
normalization related information. See the Unicode standard at http://www.unicode.org for such information on other
scripts. Also see Unicode Character Database http://www.unicode.org/Public/UNIDATA/UnicodeCharacter
Database.html and associated Unicode Technical Reports for information needed for consideration by the Unicode
Technical Committee for inclusion in the Unicode Standard.
C. Technical -- Justification
1. Has this proposal for addition of character(s) been submitted before? If YES, explain.
Yes. N1684.
2a. Has contact been made to members of the user community (for example: National Body, user groups of the script
or characters, other experts, etc.)?
Yes.
2b. If YES, with whom?
Jost Gippert, Desmond Durkin-Meisterernst, and the TITUS project in Frankfurt.
2c. If YES, available relevant documents
http://titus.fkidg1.uni-frankfurt.de/unicode/iranian/3tagung.htm
3. Information on the user community for the proposed characters (for example: size, demographics, information
technology use, or publishing use) is included?
Zoroastrians, Iranianists and other scholars.
4a. The context of use for the proposed characters (type of use; common or rare)
Used liturgically and by scholars.
4b. Reference
P. Oktor Skjærvø in Daniels & Bright 1996.
5a. Are the proposed characters in current use by the user community?
Yes.
5b. If YES, where?
Scholarly publications.
6a. After giving due considerations to the principles in Principles and Procedures document (a WG 2 standing
document) must the proposed characters be entirely in the BMP?
Yes. Proposed allocation is U+10B00-U+10B2F
6b. If YES, is a rationale provided?
6c. If YES, reference
Accordance with the Roadmap. Avestan is used in modern Zoroastrian religion.
7. Should the proposed characters be kept together in a contiguous range (rather than being scattered)?
Yes.
8a. Can any of the proposed characters be considered a presentation form of an existing character or character
sequence?
No.
8b. If YES, is a rationale for its inclusion provided?
8c. If YES, reference
2
9a. Can any of the proposed characters be encoded using a composed character sequence of either existing characters
or other proposed characters?
No.
9b. If YES, is a rationale for its inclusion provided?
9c. If YES, reference
10a. Can any of the proposed character(s) be considered to be similar (in appearance or function) to an existing
character?
No.
10b. If YES, is a rationale for its inclusion provided?
10c. If YES, reference
11a. Does the proposal include use of combining characters and/or use of composite sequences (see clauses 4.12 and
4.14 in ISO/IEC 10646-1: 2000)?
Yes.
11b. If YES, is a rationale for such use provided?
No.
11c. If YES, reference
12a. Is a list of composite sequences and their corresponding glyph images (graphic symbols) provided?
No.
12b. If YES, reference
13a. Does the proposal contain characters with any special properties such as control function or similar semantics?
No.
13b. If YES, describe in detail (include attachment if necessary)
14a. Does the proposal contain any Ideographic compatibility character(s)?
No.
14b. If YES, is the equivalent corresponding unified ideographic character(s) identified?
The Avestan script was derived as a rationalization and improvement on the original Pahlavi script,
which itself was derived from a variety of Aramaic. The Avestans used modified letterforms to
distinguish between signs which in Pahlavi had fallen together. Indeed, while Pahlavi words are
commonly used within Avestan texts, it was often the case that the scribes had no idea what the values of
the words were, because so many of the letters’ shapes were identical. The notion of archigrapheme has
been found to be useful in proposing several of the Pahlavi extension characters: it is often quite clear
that the scribes themselves were writing “a bowl and an ear” even though no such letter exists in Pahlavi
– the encoding of these enables scholars to represent the same kinds of ambiguities which the scribes
themselves were writing. This is not the same as encoding palaeographical variants.
In this encoding, Avestan is taken as the primary form. Letters unique to Pahlavi, or letters with a glyph
shape unrelated to the normalized Avestan letters, are encoded separately. In addition to this Pahlavi-
specific the combining marks and archigraphemes are added.
Both scripts are written from right to left. Pahlavi is a connected script with some Arabic-like shaping
behaviour; Avestan letters are written separately, or touch accidentally in normal cursive hands.
3
Proposal for the Universal Character Set
Michael Everson 2002-12-01
TABLE XXX - Row XX: AVESTAN AND PAHLAVI
xx0
xx1
xx2
xx3
xx4
xx5
0
Ä
ê
† ∞ ¿
–
1
Å ë ° ± ¡
—
2
Ç í
¢ ≤ ¬
“
3
É ì £ ≥ √ ”
4
Ñ î
§
¥ ƒ
‘
5
Ö ï
•
µ
≈
’
6
Ü
ñ
¶
∂
∆
÷
7
á
ó ß
∑
«
◊
G = 00
8
à ò ®
∏
»
ÿ
P = 00
9
â ô ©
π
…
Ÿ
A
ä ö ™ ∫
~
˙
⁄
B
ã õ ´ ª
À
˙
¤
C
å
ú ¨
º
Ã
˙
‹
D
ç ù
≠
Ω
Õ
˙
›
E
é
û Æ
æ
Œ
˙
fi
F
è
ü
Ø
ø œ
fl
4
Michael Everson
Proposal for the Universal Character Set
TABLE XXX - Row XX: AVESTAN AND PAHLAVI
hex
Name
hex
Name
00
AVESTAN LETTER A
59
AVESTAN LETTER PAHLAVI QA
01
AVESTAN LETTER AA
5A
AVESTAN ARCHIGRAPHEME PAHLAVI PA
02
AVESTAN LETTER AO
5B
AVESTAN ARCHIGRAPHEME PAHLAVI MA
03
AVESTAN LETTER AAO
5C
AVESTAN ARCHIGRAPHEME PAHLAVI YA
04
AVESTAN LETTER AN
5D
AVESTAN ARCHIGRAPHEME PAHLAVI EAR
05
AVESTAN LETTER AEN
5E
AVESTAN ARCHIGRAPHEME PAHLAVI ELBOW
06
AVESTAN LETTER AE
5F
AVESTAN ARCHIGRAPHEME PAHLAVI BELLY
07
AVESTAN LETTER AEE
08
AVESTAN LETTER E
09
AVESTAN LETTER EE
0A
AVESTAN LETTER O
0B
AVESTAN LETTER OO
0C
AVESTAN LETTER I
0D
AVESTAN LETTER II
0E
AVESTAN LETTER U
0F
AVESTAN LETTER UU
10
AVESTAN LETTER KA
11
AVESTAN LETTER XA
12
AVESTAN LETTER XYA
13
AVESTAN LETTER XVA
14
AVESTAN LETTER GA
15
AVESTAN LETTER GYA
16
AVESTAN LETTER GHA
17
AVESTAN LETTER CA
18
AVESTAN LETTER JA
19
AVESTAN LETTER TA
1A
AVESTAN LETTER THA
1B
AVESTAN LETTER DA
1C
AVESTAN LETTER DHA
1D
AVESTAN LETTER TTA
1E
AVESTAN LETTER PA
1F
AVESTAN LETTER FA
20
AVESTAN LETTER BA
21
AVESTAN LETTER WA
22
AVESTAN LETTER NGA
23
AVESTAN LETTER NGYA
24
AVESTAN LETTER NGVA
25
AVESTAN LETTER NA
26
AVESTAN LETTER NYA
27
AVESTAN LETTER NNA
28
AVESTAN LETTER MA
29
AVESTAN LETTER MYA
2A
AVESTAN LETTER YYA
2B
AVESTAN LETTER YA
2C
AVESTAN LETTER VA
2D
AVESTAN LETTER RA
2E
AVESTAN LETTER SA
2F
AVESTAN LETTER ZA
30
AVESTAN LETTER SHA
31
AVESTAN LETTER ZHA
32
AVESTAN LETTER SHYA
33
AVESTAN LETTER SHHA
34
AVESTAN LETTER HA
35
(This position shall not be used)
36
(This position shall not be used)
37
(This position shall not be used)
38
(This position shall not be used)
39
(This position shall not be used)
3A
(This position shall not be used)
3B
(This position shall not be used)
3C
AVESTAN PUNCTUATION END OF WORD
3D
AVESTAN PUNCTUATION END OF SENTENCE
3E
AVESTAN PUNCTUATION END OF VERSE
3F
AVESTAN PUNCTUATION FLEURON
40
AVESTAN PAHLAVI NUMBER ONE
41
AVESTAN PAHLAVI NUMBER TWO
42
AVESTAN PAHLAVI NUMBER THREE
43
AVESTAN PAHLAVI NUMBER FOUR
44
AVESTAN PAHLAVI NUMBER TEN
45
AVESTAN PAHLAVI NUMBER TWENTY
46
AVESTAN PAHLAVI NUMBER FORTY
47
AVESTAN PAHLAVI NUMBER ONE THOUSAND
48
(This position shall not be used)
49
(This position shall not be used)
4A
AVESTAN COMBINING PAHLAVI G
4B
AVESTAN COMBINING PAHLAVI D
4C
AVESTAN COMBINING PAHLAVI Y
4D
AVESTAN COMBINING PAHLAVI S
4E
AVESTAN COMBINING PAHLAVI SH
4F
AVESTAN PAHLAVI KASHIDA
50
AVESTAN LETTER PAHLAVI HA
51
AVESTAN LETTER PAHLAVI GA
52
AVESTAN LETTER PAHLAVI DA
53
AVESTAN LETTER PAHLAVI HE
54
AVESTAN LETTER PAHLAVI WA
55
AVESTAN LETTER PAHLAVI AYIN
56
AVESTAN LETTER PAHLAVI RA
57
AVESTAN LETTER PAHLAVI FINAL STROKE
58
AVESTAN LETTER PAHLAVI LLA
Group 00
Plane 00
Row xx
5
