Alphabets of Languages with Bidirectional Scripts and their

Alphabets of Languages with Bidirectional Scripts and their Support Israel Ervin Gidali IBM Globalization Centre of Competency. Complex Text Languages 1

Alphabets of languages with Bi-directional scripts and their support Agenda n n n n 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 18 th International Unicode Conference 2 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) 18 th International Unicode Conference 3 Hong Kong, April 2001

Alphabets of languages with Bi-directional scripts and their support The Egyptian Hieroglyphs Pictograms Logograms Phonograms 18 th International Unicode Conference 4 Hong Kong, April 2001

Alphabets of languages with Bi-directional scripts and their support The Cuneiform Writing Systems logo-syllabic words 18 th International Unicode Conference 5 Hong Kong, April 2001

Alphabets of languages with Bi-directional scripts and their support The First Alphabets 18 th International Unicode Conference 6 Hong Kong, April 2001

Alphabets of languages with Bi-directional scripts and their support The First Semitic Alphabets Proto-Sinaic and Proto-Canaanite. n Originated around the 18 th or 17 th centuries BCE, under the influence of Egyptian hieroglyphs. 18 th International Unicode Conference 7 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). n Influenced originally by the polyphony practice in hieroglyphic and cuneiform scripts. n 18 th International Unicode Conference 8 Hong Kong, April 2001

Alphabets of languages with Bi-directional scripts and their support Proto-Canaanite n n n Limit the set of sounds to 22 consonants only, still without vowels. Acrophonic. Letters easy to distinguish and remember (their shapes resemble familiar objects). 18 th International Unicode Conference 9 Hong Kong, April 2001

Alphabets of languages with Bi-directional scripts and their support Proto-Canaanite Descendents 18 th International Unicode Conference 10 Hong Kong, April 2001

Alphabets of languages with Bi-directional scripts and their support The alphabet success Proto-Canaanite, Phoenician and Greek 18 th International Unicode Conference 11 Hong Kong, April 2001

Alphabets of languages with Bi-directional scripts and their support Ancient Hebrew and Samaritan 18 th International Unicode Conference 12 Hong Kong, April 2001

Alphabets of languages with Bi-directional scripts and their support South Arabian 18 th International Unicode Conference 13 Hong Kong, April 2001

Alphabets of languages with Bi-directional scripts and their support Aramaic 18 th International Unicode Conference 14 Hong Kong, April 2001

Alphabets of languages with Bi-directional scripts and their support The Square Hebrew Script 18 th International Unicode Conference 15 Hong Kong, April 2001

Alphabets of languages with Bi-directional scripts and their support Nabatean 18 th International Unicode Conference 16 Hong Kong, April 2001

Alphabets of languages with Bi-directional scripts and their support Direction of Writing n n Hieroglyphs were written in both directions. Starting from the 11 th century BCE, the writing direction of all Semitic scripts (except Ethiopic) is from right to left. 18 th International Unicode Conference 17 Hong Kong, April 2001

Alphabets of languages with Bi-directional scripts and their support The “Modern” RTL scripts חדש תחת השמש - אין כל )קהלת פרק א (' פסוק ט There is nothing new under the sun. (Qohelet/Ecclesiastes 1/9) 18 th International Unicode Conference 18 Hong Kong, April 2001

Alphabets of languages with Bi-directional scripts and their support Arabic 18 th International Unicode Conference 19 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: n n Arabic Persian (Farsi) Urdu Ottoman Turkish (until 1929) n n Uighur, Kazakh, Uzbek, Tajik, Kirghiz, Old Malay, Swahili, Hausa, Baluchi, Kashmiri, Sindhi, Pashto, Lahnda, Dargwa, Morrocan Arabic, Adighe, Ingush, Berber, Kurdish, Jawi/Javanese…… 18 th International Unicode Conference 20 Hong Kong, April 2001

Alphabets of languages with Bi-directional scripts and their support Arabic Vowels 18 th International Unicode Conference 21 Hong Kong, April 2001

Alphabets of languages with Bi-directional scripts and their support Hebrew Script עברית שפה יפה Used for: • Hebrew • Yiddish • Ladino (Judezmo) • Arabic • Karaite/Karaim • Turkish 18 th International Unicode Conference 22 Hong Kong, April 2001

Alphabets of languages with Bi-directional scripts and their support Hebrew Script 18 th International Unicode Conference 23 Hong Kong, April 2001

Alphabets of languages with Bi-directional scripts and their support Hebrew script and diacritics Hebrew text: בראשית ברא אלהים את השמים ואת הארץ Vocalized with “points” and cantillation marks: 18 th International Unicode Conference 24 Hong Kong, April 2001

Alphabets of languages with Bi-directional scripts and their support Syriac 18 th International Unicode Conference 25 Hong Kong, April 2001

Alphabets of languages with Bi-directional scripts and their support Thaana 18 th International Unicode Conference 26 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) Arabic-Indic digits: (Used in Arabic) Numbers are written from left to right regardless of their form and regardless of regional variety 18 th International Unicode Conference 27 Hong Kong, April 2001

Alphabets of languages with Bi-directional scripts and their support Bidirectionality n n 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 18 th International Unicode Conference 28 Hong Kong, April 2001

Alphabets of languages with Bi-directional scripts and their support Bidi Appearance Aspects- Directionality n Mixed direction of text segments: Page alignment on the right n Book binding on the right n Mirroring of GUI elements (only when translated) n 18 th International Unicode Conference 29 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 n Visual versus Logical text type n The Paragraph Orientation n Arabic script cursiveness: shaping and ligatures n Variety of text layouts in use n 18 th International Unicode Conference 30 Hong Kong, April 2001

Alphabets of languages with Bi-directional scripts and their support The Bidi Layout Challenges n n n Bidirectional text in different systems and applications has multiple possible layouts In heterogeneous environments proper layout transformations should be performed Higher order protocols integration 18 th International Unicode Conference 31 Hong Kong, April 2001

Alphabets of languages with Bi-directional scripts and their support The Challenge of GUI Mirroring n 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. 18 th International Unicode Conference 32 Hong Kong, April 2001

Alphabets of languages with Bi-directional scripts and their support Implementation Aspects n n n 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. 18 th International Unicode Conference 33 Hong Kong, April 2001

Alphabets of languages with Bi-directional scripts and their support Last Word n n 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. 18 th International Unicode Conference 34 Hong Kong, April 2001

Alphabets of languages with Bi-directional scripts and their support The End Thank You 18 th International Unicode Conference 35 Hong Kong, April 2001