UNICODE Characters @a_character@glitch.social

Continuing with the trend of “new characters in #Unicode11 which probably won't show up anywhere”, these three characters represent the following newly-named elements: oganesson (atomic № 118), tennessine (atomic № 117), and nihonium (atomic № 113).

Moscovium (atomic № 114), another newly-named element, was given the already-encoded character U+9546 镆. The other three needed to be added to #Unicode: http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2017/17156-irgn2198-chem-term.pdf

https://r12a.github.io/uniview/?codepoints=9FEB_9FEC_9FED&char=9FEB

#UCotD

#Unicode11 was released today! Here's one of the characters, which probably won't display properly unless you have a *very* up-to-date font (but see the image below!).

The copyleft symbol was first proposed to #Unicode in February of 2016 and you can learn more about the symbol in the proposal here: https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2016/16059-copyleft.pdf

https://r12a.github.io/uniview/?codepoints=1F12F&char=1F12F

#UCotD

I used to think that the only options for twiddly dashes in #Unicode were U+223C ∼ TILDE OPERATOR (which is more of a hyphen than a dash) or U+301C 〜 WAVE DASH (which is fullwidth & designed for CJK languages). Then I discovered this character exists, which is (as best as I can tell) the proportional/Latin equivalent.

It was added in Unicode 4.0, based on this proposal (also describing lots of other characters): http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2002/02141-n2419-uralic-phonetic.pdf

https://r12a.github.io/uniview/?codepoints=2053&char=2053

#UCotD

In quantum mechanics, the left and right angle brackets are sometimes referred to as "bra" and "ket"; see this wikipedia article for more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bra%E2%80%93ket_notation

This meant that when U+2329 〈 was encoded into Unicode 1.0, it was given the name "BRA"—and I'm just young and immature enough to find this hilarious.

Generally speaking, you shouldn't use this character and should just use U+3008 〈 LEFT ANGLE BRACKET instead 😜.

https://r12a.github.io/uniview/?codepoints=2329&char=2329

🏳️‍🌈 RAINBOW FLAG is a ZWJ sequence of 🏳️ WHITE FLAG and 🌈 RAINBOW.

This is one of the very first ZWJ emoji, approved in Emoji 4.0 alongside emoji professions & genders. See the proposal here: http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2016/16183-rainbow-flag.pdf , and the letter to the mailing list which probably kicked it all off, here: http://unicode.org/pipermail/unicode/2015-June/002072.html .

Because ZWJ sequences aren't actual characters, I'm not planning on covering many of them on this account, but happy Pride! 🏳️‍🌈

https://r12a.github.io/uniview/?codepoints=1F3F3_FE0F_200D_1F308&char=1F308

If you read a lot you've probably seen those three asterisks in books separating chapter divisions.

* * *

This is also the syntax in Markdown to signify horizontal rules.

However! Did you know that these asterisks can also be stacked into one character, and that character is called an asterism??

It has the same significance as three asterisks in a line, but in one convenient package~.

https://r12a.github.io/uniview/?codepoints=2042&char=2042

#UCotD #Unicode

I don't have any stories to tell about this character, I just think it is really cool and deserves to be used in far more situations than it actually is. As far as “abstract symbols which represent concepts” go, this one is tops.

https://r12a.github.io/uniview/?codepoints=238B&char=238B

#UCotD #Unicode

The characters ᵬ, ᵭ, ᵮ, ᵯ, ᵰ, ᵱ, ᵲ, ᵳ, ᵴ, ᵵ and ᵶ (in addition to ɫ) are used in linguistics to denote velarization.

Unicode loves combining characters, so this range of codepoints is really interesting to me because it gives an example of where using them *doesn't* work.

(See §F.2 in the proposal for a good explanation why: http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2003/03174r2-mid-tilde.pdf )

https://r12a.github.io/uniview/?codepoints=1D6C_1D6D_1D6E_1D6F_1D70_1D71_1D72_1D73_1D74_1D75_1D76&char=1D6C

#UCotD #Unicode

‘ISO-IR-47: Alphanumerics for viewdata and broadcast teletext’ didn't encode # with its usual location (2/3) or name (“Number sign”). Instead, it was encoded at 5/15 as “SQUARE”—a synonym referring to the hash sign on keypads. (See: https://www.itscj.ipsj.or.jp/iso-ir/047.pdf )

When Unicode encoded the ISO-IR-47 character set, they didn't unify 5/15 SQUARE with U+0023 NUMBER SIGN, instead giving it its own character, U+2317 ⌗ VIEWDATA SQUARE.

https://r12a.github.io/uniview/?codepoints=2317&char=2317

#UCotD #Unicode

U+019B ƛ LATIN SMALL LETTER LAMBDA WITH STROKE

This character is used in Americanist Phonetic Notation to represent [t͡ɬ]. In Unicode 1.0 it was called LATIN SMALL LETTER BARRED LAMBDA.

Transitioning from 1.0 to 1.1, Unicode got feedback from the Greek National Body that the spelling "LAMDA" was preferred for the Greek letter Λ/λ. However, as ƛ is a Latin character unused in Greek, its spelling went unchanged. (See https://www.unicode.org/mail-arch/unicode-ml/y2010-m06/0063.html )

https://r12a.github.io/uniview/?codepoints=019B&char=019B

U+226B ≫ MUCH GREATER-THAN
　　　　&
U+22D9 ⋙ VERY MUCH GREATER-THAN

Have you ever seen someone type “toot >>> tweet”, where the multiple U+003E > GREATER-THAN SIGNs signify “extremely greater than”?? It turns out Unicode has dedicated characters for that!!

(There's also U+226A ≪ MUCH LESS-THAN and U+22D8 ⋘ VERY MUCH LESS-THAN for going the other way.)

These characters have existed since Unicode 1.0 (although without the hyphen in their names).

https://r12a.github.io/uniview/?codepoints=226B_22D9&char=226B

U+218A ↊ TURNED DIGIT TWO
　　　　&
U+218B ↋ TURNED DIGIT THREE

Although they are categorized by Unicode as “Symbols”, these characters are actually digits, used for “ten” and “eleven” in the duodecimal (base-12) system.

You will note that ↊ looks kind of like a U+A786 Ꞇ LATIN CAPITAL LETTER INSULAR T (for “Ten”) and ↋ looks kind of like a U+0190 Ɛ LATIN CAPITAL LETTER OPEN E (for “Eleven”)!

See this proposal for more: https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2013/13054-duodecimal.pdf

https://r12a.github.io/uniview/?codepoints=218A_218B&char=218A

1F5A7 🖧 THREE NETWORKED COMPUTERS

This character was added in Unicode 7.0 as a part of the project to Encode All of Wingdings/Webdings ( https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2011/11344-wingdings.pdf )—in particular, it's from the Webdings font.

There's not really anything useful or significant about it but it reminded me of the federation diagrams I see going around sometimes and I thought it looked cute.

https://r12a.github.io/uniview/?codepoints=1F5A7&char=1F5A7

U+2E3A ⸺ TWO-EM DASH
　　　　&
U+2E3B ⸻ THREE-EM DASH

I frequently use two- or three-em–dashes, but used to write them using successive single-em–dashes (——/———). Then I discovered these characters exist!

They were added in Unicode 6.1 for compatibility with the Chicago Manual of Style, which recommends two-em–dashes for omitted material and three-em—dashes for repeated authors in a bibliography. See the proposal here: https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2010/10037r-longdashes.pdf

https://r12a.github.io/uniview/?codepoints=2E3A_2E3B&char=2E3A

U+2304 ⌄ DOWN ARROWHEAD

This character has been around since Unicode 1.1.

It is similar to U+02C7 ˇ CARON but pointier and sitting on the baseline.

(However, there is a modifier letter version, U+02C5 ˅ MODIFIER LETTER DOWN ARROWHEAD, which is raised.)

https://r12a.github.io/uniview/?char=2304