ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2/WG2 N2224
2000-06-09
Universal Multiple-Octet Coded Character Set
International Organization for Standardization
Organisation internationale de normalisationåæäóíàðîäíàß îðãàíèçàöèß ïî ñòàíäàðòèçàöèè
Doc Type: Working Group Document
Title:
Archaic Komi Cyrillic characters for the BMP of the UCS
Source:Michael Everson, (EGT, IE), Klaas Ruppel (Kotus, FI), Trond Trosterud (Finsk institutt,NO)
Status:Expert Contribution
Action:For consideration by JTC1/SC2/WG2 and UTC
Date:
2000-06-09
This document requests additional characters to be added to the UCS and contains the proposal summaryform.
A. Administrative
1. Title
Archaic Komi Cyrillic characters for the BMP of the UCS
2. Requester’s names
Michael Everson, (EGT, IE), Klaas Ruppel (Kotus, FI), Trond Trosterud (Finsk institutt, NO)
3. Requester type
Expert contribution.
4. Submission date
2000-06-09
5. Requester’s reference
6a. Completion
This is a complete proposal.
6b. More information to be provided?
No.

B. Technical -- General
1a. New script? Name?
No.
1b. Addition of characters to existing block? Name?
Yes. To the Cyrillic block or possibly a new Extended Cyrillic block.
2. Number of characters16
3. Proposed category
Category A though they are not used in current (post-1940) Komi orthography.
4. Proposed level of implementation and rationale
Level 1; no combining characters are used.
5a. Character names included in proposal?
Yes.
5b. Character names in accordance with guidelines?
Yes.
5c. Character shapes reviewable?
1Proposal for the Universal Character Set

Everson, Ruppel, Trosterud

Yes (see below).
6a. Who will provide computerized font?
Michael Everson, EGT.
6b. Font currently available?
Yes.
6c. Font format?
TrueType.
7a. Are references (to other character sets, dictionaries, descriptive texts, etc.) provided?
Yes, see bibliography below.
7b. Are published examples (such as samples from newspapers, magazines, or other sources) of use of
proposed characters attached?
Yes, see below.
8. Does the proposal address other aspects of character data processing?
Yes, see Unicode properties below.

C. Technical -- Justification
1. Contact with the user community?
Yes. The Library community (Library of Congress, ISO TC46/SC4); Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus, Helsinki; Finsk Institutt, Universitetet i Tromsø.
2. Information on the user community?
Specialists in Uralics and the Komi language, libraries.
3a. The context of use for the proposed characters?
Used to write the Komi language in the former Soviet Union, between 1919 and ca. 1940.
3b. Reference
See bibliography.
4a. Proposed characters in current use?
They are no longer part of current orthographies, but they are certainly found in literature and are used inlibrary records and linguistic citations.
4b. Where?
Documents printed during the period in question.
5a. Characters should be encoded entirely in BMP?
Yes.
5b. Rationale
All Cyrillic characters should be encoded in the BMP.
6. Should characters be kept in a continuous range?
No.
7a. Can the characters be considered a presentation form of an existing character or character sequence?
No. Erroneous unifications do exist: (cf. the ALA-LC romanization tables).
7b. Where?
7c. Reference
8a. Can any of the characters be considered to be similar (in appearance or function) to an existingcharacter?
No. Superficial resemblances which caused earlier unifications have been shown not to reflect actual
usage and identity of these characters.
8b. Where?
8c. Reference
9a. Combining characters or use of composite sequences included?
No.
9b. List of composite sequences and their corresponding glyph images provided?
No.
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10. Characters with any special properties such as control function, etc. included?
No.

E. Proposal
Komi Cyrillic characters are missing from the UCS. Document N1744 proposes the addition of 55
Cyrillic letters from ISO 10754:1996 which are not present in ISO/IEC 10646. Of those, 12 have since
been added to the UCS. This proposal deals with 16 of the remaining 43 letters, which 16 were used inKomi Cyrillic orthography from 1919–ca. 1940. These letters use glyphs which differ structurally fromother characters in the UCS that represent similar sounds, namely Serbian љ and њ, which are ligatures ofbase letters ë and í with a palatalizing front-yer ü. Unification of ½ and ¿ with љ and њ would imply
that the other Komi letters Ù, ¹, Ì, and Î could also be represented with ü-based glyphs, which is notsupported by Komi texts using this orthography. The palatalization hook used in the Molodcov
orthography is unrelated to the front yer.
Unification of ½ with љ and ¿ with њ has been made in the ALA-LC romanization tables where theSerbian letters are given in parentheses following the Komi letters. The evidence shows this to be anerror. The ALA-LC romanization tables also transliterate Serbian љ and њ as lj and nj, but Komi ½ and ¿as ĺ and ń.
Research clearly indicates that the number of Cyrillic characters in the UCS will continue to beaugmented. The Current Cyrillic block does not contain enough unused positions to accept the 16
characters proposed here; accordingly, we suggest the extension of the Cyrillic block to include the next
three free columns: U+0500–U+052F

Unicode Character Properties
Spacing letters, category “Lu” (uppercase), bidi category “L” (strong left to right)
0500, 0502, 0504, 0506, 0508, 050A, 050C, 050E

Spacing letters, category “Ll” (lowercase), bidi category “L” (strong left to right)
0501, 0503, 0505, 0507, 0509, 050B, 050D, 050F

Bibliography
Barry, Randall K. 1997. ALA-LC romanization tables: transliteration schemes for non-Roman scripts.
Washington, DC: Library of Congress Cataloging Distribution Service. ISBN 0-8444-0940-5
èëßðåâñêèé, . ., & . . ðèâíèí. 1964. ïðåäåëèòåëü ßçûêîâ ìèðà ïî ïèñüìåííîñòßì.
îñêâà: àóêà.
èêóøåâ, . ., ed. 1979. ñòîðèß êîìè ëèòåðàòóðû. 3 òîìîâ. ûêòûâêàð: îìè êíèæíîåèçäàòåëüñòâî.
àõîâ, , . 1924. ðàòêèé êîìè-ðóññêèé ñëîâàðü.  ïðèëîæåíèåì ñòàòû . . èäîðîâà
„îðôîëîãè÷åñêàß ñòðóêòóðà êîìè ßçûêà“. ñòüñûñîëüñê: îìè çäàòåëüñòâî.

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TABLE XXX - Row 05: CYRILLIC EXTENDED B050

40Á

1Ï2Ø

3Ù4¸5¹6º7»8¼9½A

¾B

¿CË

DÌ

E

Í

FÎ051052

G = 00
P = 00Proposal for the Universal Character Set

Everson, Ruppel, Trosterud

TABLE XXX - Row 05: CYRILLIC EXTENDED B
dec hex
00
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
0A
0B
0C
0D
0E
0F
10111213141516171819
1A
1B
1C
1D
1E
1F
20212223242526272829
2A
2B
2C
2D
2E
2F

Group 00

Name

dec hexNameCYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER KOMI DECYRILLIC SMALL LETTER KOMI DECYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER KOMI DJECYRILLIC SMALL LETTER KOMI DJECYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER KOMI ZJECYRILLIC SMALL LETTER KOMI ZJECYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER KOMI DZJECYRILLIC SMALL LETTER KOMI DZJECYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER KOMI LJECYRILLIC SMALL LETTER KOMI LJECYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER KOMI NJECYRILLIC SMALL LETTER KOMI NJECYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER KOMI SJECYRILLIC SMALL LETTER KOMI SJECYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER KOMI TJECYRILLIC SMALL LETTER KOMI TJE(This position shall not be used)(This position shall not be used)(This position shall not be used)(This position shall not be used)(This position shall not be used)(This position shall not be used)(This position shall not be used)(This position shall not be used)(This position shall not be used)(This position shall not be used)(This position shall not be used)(This position shall not be used)(This position shall not be used)(This position shall not be used)(This position shall not be used)(This position shall not be used)(This position shall not be used)(This position shall not be used)(This position shall not be used)(This position shall not be used)(This position shall not be used)(This position shall not be used)(This position shall not be used)(This position shall not be used)(This position shall not be used)(This position shall not be used)(This position shall not be used)(This position shall not be used)(This position shall not be used)(This position shall not be used)(This position shall not be used)(This position shall not be used)

Plane 00

Row XX5

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Annex

Figure 1. Cover of óðò¶ñà Ïà ìóðò¶ñò¶ì ëûÏÏ¶ãÀàñ: âî»»à-¿´ãà, by Íèìà å¿ (. èñòà½îâ)(T́ima Veń (V. Čistaĺov)), 1928 (modern orthography óðò¶ñà äà ìóðò¶ñò¶ì ëûääßíúßñ: âîääçàíüèãà, by èìà åíü (. èñòàëÞâ) (Tima Ven’ (V. ČistalÞv)). (èêóøåâ 1979)

Figure 3. Cover of „óðêà ¿èíà“: â´ò-òîðÀà Ïðàìà, by óãû½ (Žugyĺ), 1928 (modern orthography„óðêà íüèíà“: âèò-òîðéà äðàìà, by óãûëü (Žugyl’)). Note the specifically Latin-shaped lowercase d in the subtitle. Note also the extremely reduced but connected form of the palatalization glyph inthe stylized font in the main title – but note also that it does not have the form one would expect if it werea front yer; in which case it should show a broad square glyph like the bowl of the  (cf.  and Serbian ¾with Komi ¾). The transliteration into modern orthography is as given in èêóøåâ 1979 which givesíèíà not íüèíà (presumably because of the palatalization inherent in the letter è).
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Figure 4. Cover of ûê ïîâåÌÎ, by åÙ å¿ (Ped´ Geń), 1936 (modern orthography ûê ïîâåñòü, byåäü åíü (Ped’ Gen’)). Note the reduced non-front-yer form of the palatalization mark in Ø, ¾, Ë,and Í. Note also the shape of capital letter Ø as in the other examples in this annex. Modern orthography
writes ïîâåñòü rather than ïîâåñüòü, transferring the palatalization to the entire consonant cluster as
opposed to marking each of the consonants explicitly (as in Roman orthographic practice). (èêóøåâ1979)

Figure 5. Cover of Áîìå¿ë¶í ìûæ, by §çÀóð §âàí (Izjur Ivan), 1936 (modern orthography îìåíüë¶íìûæ, by çúþð âàí (Iz”jur Ivan)). Note the extremely reduced size of the non-yer-like palatalization
stroke in ¿ and compare it with the shape of the yer in û. (èêóøåâ 1979)
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Figure 5. Cover of îì´ ôî½êëîð: âàæ ìîÀÏêûâÀàñ Ïà ÌûëàíêûâÀàñ, 1938 (modern orthography îìèôîëüêëîð: âàæ ìîéäúßñ äà ñüûëàíêûâúßñ). Note the very specific form of the ½, which is clearlyunrelated to the shape of the front yer ü: it is not the Serbian љ (compare it with the yer in û inìîÀÏêûâÀàñ). Note also the special shape of the capital Á; this alternates with small d. Despite theresemblance of Latin d and Komi Cyrillic Ï, the capital can certainly not be unified with Latin D,
especially because of its relation to the palatalized pair Ø and Ù. (With regard to the transliteration ofìîÀÏêûâÀàñ into ìîéäúßñ in modern orthography, it is as given in èêóøåâ 1979 and is possibly aquestion of lexical choice, if it is not an error for ìîéäêûâßñ.)Figure 6. Komi orthography as used in 1964. Additional characters for Molodcov’s orthography are also
identified, with the text “To the end of the 1930s the supplementary letters Ï, Ù, ¹, ½, ¿, Ì, Î, ¬, » wereused.” The text also notes that the Komi language had 230,000 speakers in 1964. (èëßðåâñêèé &ðèâíèí 1964:36)

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Figure 7. (Below and following three pages) From ðàòêèé êîìè-ðóññêèé ñëîâàðü, 1924. Molodcov’s
orthography, introduced into Komi schools in 1919, is used here. On page iii, the alphabetic repertoire ofthis orthography is given (retyped with our translation following):ëß êîìè ßçûêà ò. îëîäöîâ óñòàíîâèë ñëåäóþùèå 33 áóêâû: à, á, â, ã, Ï, Ù, å, æ, ¬, ç, ¹, », ´, À, ê, ë, ½,ì, í, ¿, î, ¶, ï, ð, ñ, Ì, ò, Î, ó, ÷, ø, ù, û. ñíîâîþ äëß êîìè øðèôòà ïîñëóæèë ðóññêèé øðèôò ñïðèâíåñåíèåì 3-õ áóêâ (Ï, ´, À), èç ëàòèíñêîãî øðèôòà. ëß ìßãêèõ ñîãëàñíûõ âûðàáîòàíû ñâîè îñîáûå
îáîçíà÷åíèß: Ù = äü, ¹ = çü, ½ = ëü, ¿ = íü, Ì = ñü, Î = òü. óêâà å ïðîèçíîñèòñß êàê ðóññêîå ý, ù – êàêòø (àôðèêàò). ëß îáîçíà÷åíèß îñîáûõ çâóêîâ, íå èìåþùèõñß ðóññêîì ßçûêå, ââåäåíû áóêâû ¬, », ¶.
åðâûå äâà èç íèõ àôðèêàòû, êîòîðûå ïðèáëèçèòåëüíî ìîæíî îáîçíà÷èòü ðóññêèìè áóêâàìèñëåäóþùèì îáðàçîì: ¬ = äæ; » = äçü. ðè ïðîèçíåñåíèè ¶ ðîò óæå, ÷åì ïðè ïðîèçíåñåíèè ðóññêîãî ý.
For the Komi language Comrade Molodcov established the following 33 letters: à, á, â, ã, Ï, Ù, å, æ, ¬, ç, ¹, »,´, À, ê, ë, ½, ì, í, ¿, î, ¶, ï, ð, ñ, Ì, ò, Î, ó, ÷, ø, ù, û. Basically the Komi script followed the Russian scriptwith the introduction of 3 letters (Ï, ´, À) from the Latin script. For soft consonants Komi-specific symbols werecreated: Ù = äü, ¹ = çü, ½ = ëü, ¿ = íü, Ì = ñü, Î = òü. The letter å is pronounced like ý, and ù like òø(affricate). For the designation of special sounds, not found in Russian, the letters were introduced ¬, », ¶. The
first two of these are affricates, which can be represented approximately by Russian letters in the following
manner: ¬ = äæ; » = äçü. For the pronunciation of ¶ the mouth is something like the pronunciation of Russian ý.

Here we see samples from the 1924 dictionary where entries are given in a lower-case Latinski font, andthe letter headings in an upper-case Bastion font. Note the distinct capital Á (not ) and the distinctly
non-yer shapes of the palatalization modifier in Ø, ¼, ¾, Ë, and Í.
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10Proposal for the Universal Character Set

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