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Transcript of 1 Alphabets of Languages with Bidirectional Scripts and their Support Israel Ervin Gidali IBM...
1
Alphabets of Languages
with Bidirectional Scripts
and their Support
Israel Ervin Gidali
IBM Globalization Centre of
Competency-
Complex Text Languages
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18th International Unicode Conference Hong Kong, April 2001
Alphabets of languages with Bi-directional scripts and their support
Agenda The predecessors of the first true alphabets The first alphabets Direction of writing The “modern” RTL scripts Bidirectionality Bidi – some of the challenges Implementation aspects
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18th International Unicode Conference Hong Kong, April 2001
Alphabets of languages with Bi-directional scripts and their support
The Alphabet Predecessors
The predecessors of the first true alphabets:
The Egyptian hieroglyphics (since 3000 BCE)
The Mesopotamian cuneiforms (since 3100 BCE)
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18th International Unicode Conference Hong Kong, April 2001
Alphabets of languages with Bi-directional scripts and their support
The Egyptian Hieroglyphs
PictogramsLogogramsPhonograms
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18th International Unicode Conference Hong Kong, April 2001
Alphabets of languages with Bi-directional scripts and their support
The Cuneiform Writing Systems
logo-syllabic syllabic words
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18th International Unicode Conference Hong Kong, April 2001
Alphabets of languages with Bi-directional scripts and their support
The First Alphabets
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18th International Unicode Conference Hong Kong, April 2001
Alphabets of languages with Bi-directional scripts and their support
The First Semitic Alphabets
Proto-Sinaic and Proto-Canaanite. Originated around the 18th or 17th
centuries BCE, under the influence of Egyptian hieroglyphs.
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18th International Unicode Conference Hong Kong, April 2001
Alphabets of languages with Bi-directional scripts and their support
The First Semitic Alphabets
The revolution: purely phonetic (only consonants without vowels).
Influenced originally by the polyphony practice in hieroglyphic and cuneiform scripts.
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18th International Unicode Conference Hong Kong, April 2001
Alphabets of languages with Bi-directional scripts and their support
Proto-Canaanite
Limit the set of sounds to 22 consonants only, still without vowels.
Acrophonic. Letters easy to distinguish and
remember (their shapes resemble familiar objects).
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18th International Unicode Conference Hong Kong, April 2001
Alphabets of languages with Bi-directional scripts and their support
Proto-Canaanite Descendents
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18th International Unicode Conference Hong Kong, April 2001
Alphabets of languages with Bi-directional scripts and their support
The alphabet success
Proto-Canaanite, Phoenician and Greek
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18th International Unicode Conference Hong Kong, April 2001
Alphabets of languages with Bi-directional scripts and their support
Ancient Hebrew and Samaritan
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18th International Unicode Conference Hong Kong, April 2001
Alphabets of languages with Bi-directional scripts and their support
South Arabian
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18th International Unicode Conference Hong Kong, April 2001
Alphabets of languages with Bi-directional scripts and their support
Aramaic
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18th International Unicode Conference Hong Kong, April 2001
Alphabets of languages with Bi-directional scripts and their support
The Square Hebrew Script
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18th International Unicode Conference Hong Kong, April 2001
Alphabets of languages with Bi-directional scripts and their support
Nabatean
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18th International Unicode Conference Hong Kong, April 2001
Alphabets of languages with Bi-directional scripts and their support
Direction of Writing Hieroglyphs were written in both
directions.
Starting from the 11th century BCE, the writing direction of all Semitic
scripts (except Ethiopic) is from right to left.
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18th International Unicode Conference Hong Kong, April 2001
Alphabets of languages with Bi-directional scripts and their support
The “Modern” RTL scripts
אין כל-חדש תחת השמש
)קהלת פרק א פסוק ט'(
There is nothing new under the sun. (Qohelet/Ecclesiastes 1/9)
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18th International Unicode Conference Hong Kong, April 2001
Alphabets of languages with Bi-directional scripts and their support
Arabic
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18th International Unicode Conference Hong Kong, April 2001
Alphabets of languages with Bi-directional scripts and their support
Arabic Script – the Script of Islam
The Arabic script, the script of Quran, used for: Arabic Persian (Farsi) Urdu Ottoman Turkish (until 1929)
Uighur, Kazakh,Uzbek, Tajik, Kirghiz, Old Malay, Swahili, Hausa, Baluchi, Kashmiri, Sindhi,
Pashto, Lahnda,Dargwa,Morrocan Arabic, Adighe, Ingush, Berber,Kurdish, Jawi/Javanese……
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18th International Unicode Conference Hong Kong, April 2001
Alphabets of languages with Bi-directional scripts and their support
Arabic Vowels
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18th International Unicode Conference Hong Kong, April 2001
Alphabets of languages with Bi-directional scripts and their support
Hebrew Script
Used for:•Hebrew•Yiddish•Ladino (Judezmo)•Arabic•Karaite/Karaim•Turkish
עברית שפה יפה
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18th International Unicode Conference Hong Kong, April 2001
Alphabets of languages with Bi-directional scripts and their support
Hebrew Script
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18th International Unicode Conference Hong Kong, April 2001
Alphabets of languages with Bi-directional scripts and their support
Hebrew script and diacritics
Hebrew text:
Vocalized with “points”
and cantillation marks:
בראשית ברא אלהים את השמים ואת הארץ
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18th International Unicode Conference Hong Kong, April 2001
Alphabets of languages with Bi-directional scripts and their support
Syriac
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18th International Unicode Conference Hong Kong, April 2001
Alphabets of languages with Bi-directional scripts and their support
Thaana
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18th International Unicode Conference Hong Kong, April 2001
Alphabets of languages with Bi-directional scripts and their support
Decimal digits forms
European digits (Arabic digits):(Used in Hebrew script and in some Arabic countries)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0
Arabic-Indic digits:
Numbers are written from left to right regardless of their formand regardless of regional variety
(Used in Arabic)
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18th International Unicode Conference Hong Kong, April 2001
Alphabets of languages with Bi-directional scripts and their support
Bidirectionality National language (Arabic, Hebrew, etc...)
text is written from Right to Left
TXET CIBARA Numbers and English (or French,Russian,
etc.) text is written from Left to Right
english text 123 TXET CIBARA
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18th International Unicode Conference Hong Kong, April 2001
Alphabets of languages with Bi-directional scripts and their support
Bidi Appearance Aspects- Directionality
Mixed direction of text segments:
Page alignment on the right Book binding on the right Mirroring of GUI elements
(only when translated)
means Hebrew is beautiful
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18th International Unicode Conference Hong Kong, April 2001
Alphabets of languages with Bi-directional scripts and their support
Bidi Data Processing Aspects –
some of the challenges Bidirectional text data entry Visual versus Logical text type The Paragraph Orientation Arabic script cursiveness:
shaping and ligatures Variety of text layouts in use
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18th International Unicode Conference Hong Kong, April 2001
Alphabets of languages with Bi-directional scripts and their support
The Bidi Layout Challenges
Bidirectional text in different systems and applications has multiple possible layouts
In heterogeneous environments proper layout transformations should be performed
Higher order protocols integration
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18th International Unicode Conference Hong Kong, April 2001
Alphabets of languages with Bi-directional scripts and their support
The Challenge of GUI Mirroring
When translating the interface of an application to a language with Bidirectional script, provisions must be made to ensure that the GUI is properly mirrored.
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18th International Unicode Conference Hong Kong, April 2001
Alphabets of languages with Bi-directional scripts and their support
Implementation Aspects Almost all platforms and Operating
Systems provide support for Bidirectional text entry and processing
New platforms should react to this challenge too
Except for adequately engraved keyboards, there is no need for special hardware for Bidi text support.
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18th International Unicode Conference Hong Kong, April 2001
Alphabets of languages with Bi-directional scripts and their support
Last Word
RTL scripts are not a novelty. As a matter of fact they have preceded the current Western world scripts
Their support is different but not necessarily much more complex, as long as one is prepared for it.
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18th International Unicode Conference Hong Kong, April 2001
Alphabets of languages with Bi-directional scripts and their support
The End
Thank You