Proposals for Additional Latin Characters in Unicode

 

 

NEWS ABOUT LATIN UNICODE PROPOSALS

7/16/06      Draft of proposal for additional Roman characters posted (PDF file, 2 megabytes due to large number of scanned examples).  Comments needed by July 30 so that the proposal can be considered at the August 8 meeting of the Unicode Technical Committee.  These are mainly characters of interest to epigraphers (centurial sign, I longa, etc.).  You can skip the first two pages, which are a cover sheet.

6/29/06      The proposal to Unicode for Roman weight and coin symbols was generally well received at the May meeting of Unicode Technical Committee, but some of the committee members had questions about the advisability of encoding one character that has many forms that differ greatly from each other.  I have prepared a paper that addresses this issue; comments welcome.

6/13/06      A paper discussing issues relating to Roman numerals in Unicode has been posted; comments are welcome!  The discussion in this document may lead to three new characters to be proposed.

5/8/06        The final draft of the proposal for Roman weight and coin symbols is now posted here.  This has been submitted to the Unicode Technical Committee for consideration at their May meeting.

4/18/06      Version 4 of the list of Latin characters posted; many changes and additions.

 

 

 

BACKGROUND INFORMATION AND RATIONALE

Although most characters that are needed for classical Latin are already in Unicode, some are not.  These are mainly characters needed by epigraphers and numismatists, some of which may occur in literary texts also.

 

It is important for Latinists to work to get the characters we need encoded now.  It may not be as easy in the future to get characters added as it is at the present time.  Greek is in very good shape thanks to the work done by the TLG staff; they carefully analyzed the texts in their database and submitted successful proposals for the characters that needed to be encoded.  Latinists need to do this same work.

 

I have been involved with computers and font issues since the mid-1980s, particularly as they relate to the needs of scholars.  Since no one else has undertaken this work, and since it really needs to be done, I have decided to tackle it.  I have a master’s degree in Latin but am not a professional epigrapher or numismatist, so I welcome input from those who know more about these fields than I do.

 

ENCODING PRINCIPLES

·        idiosyncratic characters (used infrequently by one author) are normally not good candidates for encoding

·        characters whose function or meaning is not understood will not meet with Unicode approval

·        ligatures of existing characters are not encoded

·        characters that can be made up of existing letters and combining accents (precomposed combinations) will not be added under any circumstances

·        if a character already exists in Unicode that might do the job, we need either to adopt it or show why it is not adequate

·        characters that are simply differently shaped variants of existing characters are normally not encoded (exceptions may occur; email me with any such questions)

·        evidence must be supplied to show the character in use.  The best evidence is scans of printed texts, backed up as appropriate by scans of manuscripts or photos of coins or inscriptions.

·        monograms on coins are a difficult issue, and I don’t think I can deal with them now (maybe later)

 

PROCESS

Right now I anticipate two proposals.  The first one will cover monetary signs (denarius, sestertius, etc.).  These are very important, easy to document, and should not be controversial.  If at all possible, I would like to get this one ready for the May meeting of the Unicode Technical Committee, which means it should be done by the end of April.  I’ve already written a draft which I will post here as soon as it is a bit more polished.  A second proposal will cover all additional characters and may be submitted in the fall.

 

 

 

HOW TO HELP WITH THIS PROJECT

If you know of characters needed by Latinists that are missing from Unicode, please do the following:

·        read the “Encoding Principles” in the section above

·        read the list of Latin characters that are already known

·        email me with any comments on characters in the list or characters to be added

·        if you have characters to be added, it will be most helpful if you can supply evidence to be used in the proposal (scans of books or clear photos of coins/inscriptions)

·        to see examples of well-prepared, successful proposals to Unicode, look at the University of California website where the TLG proposals are archived

 

GRÁTIÁS MAXIMÁS OMNIBVS 

 

 

 

UPDATE HISTORY

7/16/06         proposal for additional characters posted

6/29/06         discussion about characters with many different glyph variants posted

6/13/06         discussion about Roman numerals in Unicode posted

5/08/06        final version of the Unicode proposal for weights and money posted

4/23/06         first public version of the official Unicode proposal for weights and money posted; now archived here.

4/18/06         version 4 of the character list posted; version 3 is archived here.

4/10/06         version 3 of the character list posted; version 2 is archived here.

3/29/06:       first version of this page posted, along with version 2 (first public version) of the character list.

 

 

Last updated July 16, 2006

 

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