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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