ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2/WG2 N 2656

2003-10-15

Universal Multiple Octet Coded Character Set
International Organization for Standardization
Organisation internationale de normalisationМеждународная организация по стандартизации

Doc Type:
Title:
Source:Status:Action:Related:Working Group Document
Proposal — Phonetic symbols used in dictionaries
Asmus Freytag
Expert contribution
For consideration by JTC1/SC2/WG2 and UTC
N2655. Responding to N2645 and other proposals

Document N2645 proposes another character used in phonetic notations in dictionaries.
This document intends to extend the research on this type of notation, document additional instances, and propose additional characters.

Phonetic symbols
Dictionaries use a number of different methods to indicate the pronunciation of terms.
Some are based on IPA, others employ other symbols, in particular barred or ligated diand trigraphs based on small Latin letters as well as the use of diacritics across two letters. While the systems are different, there is some common ground, and systems for use
in monolingual English and monolingual German dictionaries may sometimes use thesame symbol for the same sound.
However, the argument made in presenting the character proposed in document N2645 to
the Unicode Technical Committee, that only a single character is needed to complete thecoverage this type of practice is incorrect. The proposed character may be sufficient tocomplete the coverage of one particular US American system, but it is not sufficient tocover all systems common use in US dictionaries, let alone cover usages in extremely
widely used dictionaries in other languages.
This document researches (and unlike N2645 actually cites) several dictionaries andcompares their notational systems to each other and to the available characters in theUnicode standard. Characters that are readily available in Unicode are not separately
discussed, as they make up the vast majority of characters in any of the systems investigated.

Proposal — Phonetic symbols used in dictionaries

Widely used US dictionaries
The following two excerpts are from an American dictionary for college use, showing avariation of the phonetic transcription system for which the character th with strikethrough was requested in document N2645. Instead of strikethrough’s, ligatures are used.
(Note: there is some dirt on the page at the location of the ‘th’ ligature, there is no bar
across that h.)

The full pronunciation listing for that dictionary also shows a kh ligature (not shownhere), with the glyph constructed on the same principles. It is used for the ch sound inGerman ‘ach’. In addition, it shows a number of ligatures, some with overbar:

Note that this example shows an oi and an ou ligature, as well as an oo ligature. There isagain some dirt on the paper, making it look like the bar across the oo ligature for ooze iswider than the one further below, but that is not the case.
Not all dictionaries use either the TH with strike through or a even a ligated th. The
following sample is from a dictionary that uses an unligated digraph, but with italics toindicate voiced pronunciation.

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Proposal — Phonetic symbols used in dictionaries

3Proposal — Phonetic symbols used in dictionaries

Note the use of small caps K, H and N. Of these, only U+1D0B LATIN LETTERSMALL CAPITAL K is currently encoded.

Glyph representation in online reference works
Microsoft Office 2000 ships with a font that is used for the on-line reference works included with various versions of Microsoft Office. There are many characters that areprovided for phonetic representations and readily correspond to the phonetic notation
found in the printed sources, such as: The ligated and accented digraphs  and  are equivalent to the oo ligature withand without a bar, note the use of both ligation and double wide diacritic, matching thesample above (where the ligation is a bit difficult to spot). The symbol
is equivalent
to the th ligature or the TH WITH STRIKE THROUGH from document N2645, but this and are equivalent to some forms of oi, depending on the precise phonetic value, while time realized as an incomplete horizontal strikethrough. The two forms

represents the same sound as the ou ligature. The font contains additional ligated digraphs, constructed by the same principle, some of them for non-English sounds:The sounds that they intend to represent are immediately understandable from the constituent characters (some of which are from IPA). Nevertheless none of these characters
can be represented with existing Unicode characters.
While the sound could be represented by writing just the two base characters, the double
diacritic carries the essential information that the letters must be pronounced in an uninterrupted sequence. This document proposes encoding a double wide combining markfor the purpose of indicating the connection.

Non-US dictionaries
The use of such non-IPA systems to indicate pronunciation is not limited to US dictionaries. The following excerpt is from the pronunciation guide used by Duden.

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Proposal — Phonetic symbols used in dictionaries

Marking Stress
There are many different systems to mark stress. One common system uses oversizedprimes in two different weights to mark primary and secondary stress. See the following
sample:(This sample also shows one of the symbols used to show the pronunciation of voicelessth.)5

Proposal — Phonetic symbols used in dictionaries
Additional information about use of already encoded special characters in dictionaries
can also be found in Unicode Standard Annex #14, “Line Breaking Properties”, which
can be accessed at http://www.unicode.org/reports/tr14/.

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Proposal — Phonetic symbols used in dictionaries

Table of Proposed Symbols
GlyphCodeSuggested Name

0242

023C

LATIN SMALL LIGATURE CH
used for ‘ch’ sound as in English. IPA []LATIN SMALL LIGATURE KH> used for the sound of ch in German ‘ach’(actual glyph looks like the others in this series,)
LATIN SMALL LIGATURE SH
used for voiceless ‘sh’ sound, IPA []LATIN SMALL LIGATURE TH
used for voiceless ‘th’ sound, IPA []LATIN SMALL LIGATURE ITALIC TH
used for voidec ‘th’ sound, IPA[]LATIN SMALL LIGATURE ZH
used for voiced ‘sh’ sound, IPA []LATIN SMALL LETTER CH WITH BARch as in German ‘ach’
LATIN SMALL LETTER NG WITH BAR

023B

LATIN SMALL LETTER SCH WITH BAR

0238

LATIN SMALL LETTER TH WITH BAR

0239

LATIN SMALL LETTER TH WITH STROKE
this is the form of the letter proposed in N2645
LATIN SMALL LETTER DH WITH STROKE

0243<kh0244
0245
0246
0247
023D

023A
023F
02400241
1D7A

H

1D7B

N

2Exx205D

LATIN SMALL LIGATURE OI
used for transcribing the ‘oi’ sound in English
LATIN SMALL LIGATURE OO
used for transcribing the ‘oo’ sound in English
LATIN SMALL LIGATURE OU
used for transcribing the ‘ou’ sound in English
LATIN LETTER SMALL CAPITAL H
LATIN LETTER SMALL CAPITAL N
This is the un-reversed of 1D0E
COMBINING CONNECTOR BELOWLARGE THICK PRIME
primary stressThis prime is very prominent, it extends from above the topof a parenthesis, to below x height.

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Proposal — Phonetic symbols used in dictionaries
205E

LARGE THIN PRIME
secondary stresssame as the large thick prime, except thinner

Suggested Character Properties:
As appropriate for Latin digraphs, double combining marks, and primes, respectively.

References
Note that a large number of additional dictionaries were researched, but since they either
use no phonetic symbols, or use IPA and/or other symbols already encoded in Unicode,or simply duplicate the set of proposed symbols they have not been cited here.

American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 3rd ed., Houghton Mifflin,
Boston 1992, ISBN 0-395-44895-6
Der Große Duden, Band 1, Rechtschreibung, Bibliographisches Institut, 1968,
Mannheim, Zürich.
The Random House College Dictionary, revised edition, Random House, New York
1975, ISBN 0-394-436008-8
Webster’s New World Dictionary, Second College Edition, Williams Collins, Cleveland
1979, ISBN 0-529-05234-1
Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, ISBN 0-87779-508-8
Copyright 1989 by Merriam-Webster Inc.

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Proposal — Phonetic symbols used in dictionaries

PROPOSAL SUMMARY FORM TO ACCOMPANY SUBMISSIONS
1
FOR ADDITIONS TO THE REPERTOIRE OF ISO/IEC 10646
Please fill all the sections A, B and C below.
(Please read Principles and Procedures Document for guidelines and details before filling this form.)
See http://www.dkuug.dk/JTC1/SC2/WG2/docs/summaryform.html for latest Form.
See http://www.dkuug.dk/JTC1/SC2/WG2/docs/principles.html for latest Principles and Procedures document.
See http://www.dkuug.dk/JTC1/SC2/WG2/docs/roadmaps.html for latest roadmaps.

A. Administrative
1. Title:
Proposal — Phonetic symbols used in dictionaries
2. Requester's name: ____________________________Asmus Freytag___________________________________
3. Requester type (Member body/Liaison/Individual contribution):___ Individual Contribution ______________
4. Submission date:__2003-10-15___
5. Requester's reference (if applicable): _____________________________________________________________
6. (Choose one of the following:)
This is a complete proposal:____X_________or,More information will be provided later:_______________
B. Technical - General
1. (Choose one of the following:)
a. This proposal is for a new script (set of characters):_____________
Proposed name of script: ________________________________________________________.
b. The proposal is for addition of character(s) to an existing block:_____X_______Name of the existing block:_____Various______________________________________
2. Number of characters in proposal:____20_______
3. Proposed category (see section II, Character Categories):_____________
4. Proposed Level of Implementation (1, 2 or 3) (see clause 14, ISO/IEC 10646-1: 2000):_____1_______Is a rationale provided for the choice?
____No_______
If Yes, reference: _______________________________________________________________
5. Is a repertoire including character names provided?
_____________
a. If YES, are the names in accordance with the 'character naming guidelines
in Annex L of ISO/IEC 10646-1: 2000?
___Yes_______
b. Are the character shapes attached in a legible form suitable for review?
___Yes_______
6. Who will provide the appropriate computerized font (ordered preference: True Type, or PostScript format) for
publishing the standard? ___________________proposer_____________________________________
If available now, identify source(s) for the font (include address, e-mail, ftp-site, etc.) and indicate the tools
used:_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
7. References:a. Are references (to other character sets, dictionaries, descriptive texts etc.) provided?
Nob. Are published examples of use (such as samples from newspapers, magazines, or other sources)of proposed characters attached?
_____yes_______8. Special encoding issues:
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)?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
9. Additional Information:
Submitters are invited to provide any additional information about Properties of the proposed Character(s) …
C. Technical - Justification
1. Has this proposal for addition of character(s) been submitted before?
_____No_______
If YES explain _________________________________________________________________________
2. 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_____
If YES, with whom? ___Irish NB, Michael Everson______________________________________
1Form number: N2352-F (Original 1994-10-14; Revised 1995-01, 1995-04, 1996-04, 1996-08, 1999-03, 2001-05, 2001-09)

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Proposal — Phonetic symbols used in dictionaries
If YES, available relevant documents: ________________________________________________
3. Information on the user community for the proposed characters (for example:size, demographics, information technology use, or publishing use) is included?
______________
Reference: ___Publishers and users of common, widely available dictionaries of several languages______
4. The context of use for the proposed characters (type of use; common or rare)___common____Reference: ___In active use, see references section___________________________________________
5. Are the proposed characters in current use by the user community?
_____yes______
If YES, where? Reference: ___see references section______________________________________
6. After giving due considerations to the principles in Principles and Procedures document (a WG 2 standingdocument) must the proposed characters be entirely in the BMP?
_____no________
If YES, is a rationale provided?
______________
If YES, reference: ________________________________________________________
7. Should the proposed characters be kept together in a contiguous range (rather than being scattered)? __no___8. Can any of the proposed characters be considered a presentation form of an existing
character or character sequence?
_____no_______
If YES, is a rationale for its inclusion provided?
______________
If YES, reference: ________________________________________________________
9. Can any of the proposed characters be encoded using a composed character sequence of either
existing characters or other proposed characters?
_____no_______
If YES, is a rationale for its inclusion provided?
______________
If YES, reference:______________
10. Can any of the proposed character(s) be considered to be similar (in appearance
or function) to an existing character?
_____yes_______
If YES, is a rationale for its inclusion provided?
_____yes_______
If YES, reference: _________see attached_____________________________________
11. 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)?
____ no________
If YES, is a rationale for such use provided?
______________
If YES, reference: _______________________________________________________Is a list of composite sequences and their corresponding glyph images (graphic symbols)
provided?
______________
If YES, reference: _______________________________________________________
12. Does the proposal contain characters with any special properties such as
control function or similar semantics?
_____no_______
If YES, describe in detail (include attachment if necessary)______________
13. Does the proposal contain any Ideographic compatibility character(s)?
_____no_______
If YES, is the equivalent corresponding unified ideographic character(s) identified? ____________
If YES, reference: ________________________________________________________

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