1. Pipeline for v. 3.0 of the MUFI character recommendation

After the deadline for v. 2.0 of the MUFI character recommendation on 30 September 2006, we have received proposals for a number of new characters. They were discussed at the MUFI meeting held in Mainz 23 June 2008. The great majority of these characters were accepted for inclusion in the MUFI character recommendation v. 3.0.

New 30 October 2008! Missing code points have been supplied by Jost Gippert (the TITUS project, Frankfurt), indicated in bold & red type:

 

1. From Alex S. Kjeldsen, København, Denmark:

The five characters below are all found in the well-known Icelandic manuscript of Norwegian kings' sagas, GKS 1009 fol, often referred to as Morkinskinna (ca. 1275). The characters will be used in a planned new edition of this manuscript. The first character, COMBINING LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH BAR ABOVE, is also discussed in Hreinn Benediktsson, Early Icelandic Script (Reykjavík 1965). The second character is not uncommon as an abbreviation of þar ‘there’. The third and fourth characters are also used in abbreviations, e.g. for the name Hreiðarr.

Codepoints were assigned by the TITUS project October 2008:

▸ COMBINING LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH BAR ABOVE (= now assigned to TITUS F13F)
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER THORN LIGATED WITH ARM OF LATIN SMALL LETTER R (= now assigned to TITUS E8C1)
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER H LIGATED WITH ARM OF LATIN SMALL LETTER R (= now assigned to TITUS E8C3)
▸ LATIN CAPITAL LETTER H LIGATED WITH ARM OF LATIN SMALL LETTER R (= now assigned to TITUS E8C2)
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER K LIGATED WITH ARM OF LATIN SMALL LETTER R (= now assigned to TITUS E8C5)

 

2. From Karl Pentzlin, Schongau, Germany:

▸ DOUBLE STRAIGHT HYPHEN - Code point allocation has been postponed

Background:

The double straight hyphen is heavily used by the important German author Arno Schmidt (see e.g. http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arno_Schmidt). As Arno Schmidt lived 1914-1979, the proposed character is not Medieval, but since other characters in MUFI also originate from more recent sources, the character would not a priori seem to be inappropriate.

There is an example at http://www.acssoft.de/ArnoSchmidt1.jpg. This is a scan from Arno Schmidt, Abend mit Goldrand, p. 143 of the 1993 edition. The double hyphen can be found within the red circles, together with some single hyphens and (differently looking) equation signs on the same page, showing that the character is not a font variant of the latter two.

At http://www.acssoft.de/ArnoSchmidt2.jpg (a scan of Dieter E. Zimmer, Sprache im Zeichen ihrer Unverbesserlichkeit, Hamburg 2005, p. 169), there is a quotation of a text from Arno Schmidt. Here, the double hyphen is misprinted as an equation sign, due to lack of a proper double hyphen type. Note, however, that the double hyphen is cited beside single hyphens within the same text part. This shows that the double hyphen is really needed not only when transcribing or quoting from the text of the author, but also when writing about his work e.g. in Germanistic texts.

The proposed name has been chosen in contrast to the Unicode character U+2E17 DOUBLE OBLIQUE HYPHEN.

 

3. From Alexei Lavrentev, Lyon, France:

▸ DOUBLE OBLIQUE HYPHEN (Unicode = 2E17)
▸ LATIN PUNCTUATION MARK PARAPH - Code point allocation has been postponed

Background:

The first character is an oblique double hyphen used in the 15th century manuscripts and incunabulae. Unicode actually has such a character (2E17) but it is not listed in MUFI charts and, thus, not included in MUFI compliant fonts. The medieval character might probably qualify for its own codepoint, as its shape and function are considerably different from that of the Unicode character.

Fig. 3.1. Ms. Paris, BnF, fr. 2682 (15th century).

The second character is the 'paraph' (Parkes 1992, p. 43) or 'pied-de-mouche' (in French paleography). It is the ancestor of the pilcrow sign (Unicode 00B6) and a "brother" of 'paragraphus' (MUFI F1E1). Its shape is clearly different from these two, though (see illustrations), and I think it should have a codepoint of its own.

Fig. 3.2. Ms. Lyon, BM, 768 (15th century).

Fig. 3.3. Ms. Lyon, BM, 765 (15th century).

 

4. From Odd Einar Haugen, Bergen, Norway:

The characters “l”, “u”, “n”, “v” and “y” are used in many Medieval Danish documents, as documented by Peter Skautrup, Det danske sprogs historie, vol 1. (København: Gyldendal, 1944), pp. 217 and 223. The first two characters in this list are already in Unicode:

▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER L WITH BAR (Unicode = 019A)
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER U BAR (Unicode = 0289)

The latter three, “n”, “v” and “y” with bar, should be proposed for Unicode, and in the meantime, added to the Private Use Area of the MUFI character recommendation. Codepoints were assigned by the TITUS project October 2008:

▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER N WITH BAR (= now assigned to TITUS E7B2)
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER V WITH BAR (= now assigned to TITUS E74E)
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER Y WITH BAR (= now assigned to TITUS E77B)

Fig. 4.1. Peter Skautrup, Det danske sprogs historie, vol. 1, p. 217.

Fig. 4.2. Peter Skautrup, Det danske sprogs historie, vol. 1, p. 223.

 

5. From Andrea de Leeuw van Weenen, Leiden, Netherlands:

Characters not in the Unicode Standard; codepoints assigned by the TITUS project October 2008:

▸ LATIN ENLARGED LETTER SMALL LONG S (= now assigned to TITUS EEDF
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER AE WITH OGONEK AND ACUTE (= now assigned to TITUS E8D3)
▸ COMBINING LATIN SMALL LETTER E WITH OGONEK (= now assigned to TITUS F135)
▸ COMBINING LATIN SMALL LETTER E WITH MACRON (= now assigned to TITUS F136)
▸ COMBINING LATIN SMALL LETTER A SMALL CAPITAL R (= now assigned to TITUS F130)

Background:

These characters are attested in Alexanders saga (AM 519 a 4to), an Icelandic manuscript from c1280. They will be used in a forthcoming edition of this text.

 

6. From Florian Grammel, København, Denmark:

Texts and grammars in Middle Low German (Mittelniederdeutsch) use several characters which are lacking in the MUFI recommendation. All proposed characters are precomposed, i.e. combinations of base line Latin characters and one or two diacritical marks:

(A) Precomposed characters already in the Unicode Standard:

▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER U WITH DIAERESIS AND MACRON (Unicode = 01D6)
▸ LATIN CAPITAL LETTER U WITH DIAERESIS AND MACRON (Unicode = 01D5)
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH DIAERESIS AND MACRON (Unicode = 022B)
▸ LATIN CAPITAL LETTER O WITH DIAERESIS AND MACRON (Unicode = 022A)

▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH CARON (Unicode = 01D2)
▸ LATIN CAPITAL LETTER O WITH CARON (Unicode = 01D1)
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER U WITH CARON (Unicode = 01D4)
▸ LATIN CAPITAL LETTER U WITH CARON (Unicode = 01D3)

▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER U WITH RING ABOVE (Unicode = 016F)
▸ LATIN CAPITAL LETTER U WITH RING ABOVE (Unicode = 016E)

▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER W WITH RING ABOVE (Unicode = 1E98) [No capital form]
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER Y WITH RING ABOVE (Unicode = 1E99) [No capital form]

(B) Precomposed characters not in the Unicode Standard, but part of the TITUS Private Use Area (with which MUFI is coordinated):

▸ LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A WITH LATIN SMALL LETTER E ABOVE (= TITUS E02C)
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH LATIN SMALL LETTER E ABOVE (= TITUS E42C)
▸ LATIN CAPITAL LETTER O WITH LATIN SMALL LETTER E ABOVE (= TITUS E244)
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH LATIN SMALL LETTER E ABOVE (= TITUS E644)
▸ LATIN CAPITAL LETTER U WITH LATIN SMALL LETTER E ABOVE (= TITUS E32B)
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER U WITH LATIN SMALL LETTER E ABOVE (= TITUS E72B)

▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH DIAERESIS AND CIRCUMFLEX (= TITUS E62D)
▸ LATIN CAPITAL LETTER O WITH DIAERESIS AND CIRCUMFLEX (= TITUS E22D)
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER U WITH DIAERESIS AND CIRCUMFLEX (= TITUS E717)
▸ LATIN CAPITAL LETTER U WITH DIAERESIS AND CIRCUMFLEX (= TITUS E317)

Agathe Lasch, Mittelniederdeutsche Grammatik (Halle 1914) also has a number of precomposed characters used in transcriptions of Middle Low German manuscripts (cf. fig. 5.1). They may not be found in print outside this grammar, but the fact that have been used in this grammar (which still is the standard grammar of Middle Low German) is a sufficiently strong argument for including them in the MUFI recommendation. The majority of these characters are already part of the TITUS Private Use Area.

Fig. 6.1. Sample from Agathe Lasch, Mittelniederdeutsche Grammatik (Halle 1914), p. 24.

(C) Precomposed characters not in the Unicode Standard, but part of the TITUS Private Use Area. Page references to the grammar of Agathe Lasch:

▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH DIAERESIS AND CIRCUMFLEX - (Lasch, p. 36) (= TITUS E41A)
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH DIAERESIS AND DOT BELOW - (Lasch, p. 60) (= TITUS E41D)
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH RING AND CIRCUMFLEX - (Lasch, p. 64) (= TITUS E41F)
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER E WITH DIAERESIS AND MACRON - (Lasch, p. 75) (= TITUS E4CD)
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER E WITH DOT BELOW AND ACUTE - (Lasch, p. 77) (= TITUS E498)
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER E WITH LATIN SMALL LETTER A ABOVE - (Lasch, p. 59) (= TITUS E4E1)
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER E WITH LATIN SMALL LETTER I ABOVE - (Lasch, p. 80) (= TITUS E4E2)
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER E WITH OGONEK AND CIRCUMFLEX - (Lasch, p. 35) (= TITUS E49F)
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER E WITH RING ABOVE - (Lasch, § 21) (= TITUS E4CF)
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER I WITH LATIN SMALL LETTER E ABOVE - (Lasch, § 21) (= TITUS E54A)
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER N WITH CIRCUMFLEX - (Lasch, § 21) (= TITUS E5D7)
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH DIAERESIS AND ACUTE - (Lasch, p. 77) (= TITUS E62C)
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH LATIN SMALL LETTER U ABOVE - (Lasch, § 21) (= TITUS E646) 
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH LATIN SMALL LETTER V ABOVE - (Lasch, § 21) (= TITUS E647)
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH OGONEK AND CIRCUMFLEX - (Lasch, p. 64) (= TITUS E60E)
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH RING ABOVE - (Lasch, § 21) (= TITUS E637)
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER OPEN O WITH MACRON - (Lasch, p. 51) (= TITUS E7CC) 
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER U WITH LATIN SMALL LETTER I ABOVE - (Lasch, § 21) (= TITUS E72C)
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER V WITH RING ABOVE - (Lasch, § 21) (= TITUS E743)
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER Y WITH LATIN SMALL LETTER E ABOVE - (Lasch, § 21) (= TITUS E781)

(D) Precomposed characters not in the Unicode Standard; codepoints assigned by the TITUS project October 2008:

▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER AE WITH RING ABOVE - (Lasch, p. 47) (= now assigned to TITUS E8D1) 
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER E WITH LATIN SMALL LETTER E ABOVE - (Lasch, § 21) (= now assigned to TITUS E8E2)
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER I WITH LATIN SMALL LETTER A ABOVE - (Lasch, § 21) (= now assigned to TITUS E8E4)
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER I WITH LATIN SMALL LETTER U ABOVE - (Lasch, p. 44) (= now assigned to TITUS E8E6)
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER M WITH LATIN SMALL LETTER E ABOVE - (Lasch, § 21) (= now assigned to TITUS E8E8)
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER R WITH LATIN SMALL LETTER E ABOVE - (Lasch, § 21) (= now assigned to TITUS E8EA)
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER U WITH LATIN SMALL LETTER V ABOVE - (Lasch, p. 96) (= now assigned to TITUS E8EC)
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER U WITH LATIN SMALL LETTER W ABOVE - (Lasch, § 21) (= now assigned to TITUS E8ED)

Finally, there is a form of a "g" on p. 51 of the grammar by Agathe Lasch, as shown in. fig. 5.2.

Fig. 6.2. Agathe Lasch, Mittelniederdeutsche Grammatik (Halle 1914), p. 51.

Odd Einar Haugen: I believe this character, which seems to be intended as a phonetic variant of "g", should be unified with LATIN SMALL LETTER EZH (Unicode 0292).

 

7. From several Old English scholars, USA:

Old English scholars have asked for another precomposed character, in addition to the selection in the MUFI spec PUA subrange 24:

▸ LATIN SMALL LIGATURE OE WITH MACRON AND BREVE (= TITUS E660)
▸ LATIN CAPITAL LIGATURE OE WITH MACRON AND BREVE (= TITUS E260)

 

8. From Pascale Sutter, Zürich, Switzerland:

A number of precomposed characters used in the encoding of Middle and Early New High German sources from Switzerland (Rechtsquellenstiftung des Schweizerischen Juristenvereins).

▸ Full list of characters with samples (Pascale Sutter, June 2008) - PDF 4.5 MB

 

(A) Precomposed characters not in the Unicode Standard, but already in the MUFI character recommendation:

▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER Q WITH STROKE THROUGH DESCENDER (= E68A in the MUFI spec PUA subrange 5)

(B) Precomposed characters not in the Unicode Standard, but part of the TITUS Private Use Area (with which MUFI is coordinated):

▸ LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A WITH LATIN SMALL LETTER E ABOVE (= TITUS E02C)
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH LATIN SMALL LETTER E ABOVE (= TITUS E42C)
- already proposed by Florian Grammel, cf. 6 B above
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH LATIN SMALL LETTER O ABOVE (= TITUS E42D)
– not to be unified with the Scandinavian character LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH RING (00E5)
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH LATIN SMALL LETTER V ABOVE (= TITUS E42E)
▸ LATIN CAPITAL LETTER E WITH LATIN SMALL LETTER A ABOVE (= TITUS E0E1)
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER E WITH LATIN SMALL LETTER A ABOVE (= TITUS E4E1)
- already proposed by Florian Grammel, cf. 6 C above
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER I WITH LATIN SMALL LETTER E ABOVE (= TITUS E54A)
- already proposed by Florian Grammel, cf. 6 C above
▸ LATIN CAPITAL LETTER O WITH LATIN SMALL LETTER E ABOVE (= TITUS E244)
- already proposed by Florian Grammel, cf. 6 B above
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH LATIN SMALL LETTER E ABOVE (= TITUS E644)
- already proposed by Florian Grammel, cf. 6 B above
▸ LATIN CAPITAL LETTER O WITH LATIN SMALL LETTER U ABOVE (= TITUS E246)
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH LATIN SMALL LETTER U ABOVE (= TITUS E646)
- already proposed by Florian Grammel, cf. 6 C above
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH LATIN SMALL LETTER V ABOVE (= TITUS E647)
- already proposed by Florian Grammel, cf. 6 C above
▸ LATIN CAPITAL LETTER U WITH LATIN SMALL LETTER E ABOVE (= TITUS E32B)
- already proposed by Florian Grammel, cf. 6 B above
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER U WITH LATIN SMALL LETTER E ABOVE (= TITUS E72B)
- already proposed by Florian Grammel, cf. 6 B above
▸ LATIN CAPITAL LETTER U WITH LATIN SMALL LETTER O ABOVE (= TITUS E32D)
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER U WITH LATIN SMALL LETTER O ABOVE (= TITUS E72D)
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER U WITH LATIN SMALL LETTER I ABOVE (= TITUS E72C)
- already proposed by Florian Grammel, cf. 6 C above
▸ LATIN CAPITAL LETTER W WITH LATIN SMALL LETTER E ABOVE (= TITUS E353)
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER W WITH LATIN SMALL LETTER E ABOVE (= TITUS E753)
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER W WITH LATIN SMALL LETTER O ABOVE (= TITUS E754)

(C) Precomposed characters not in the Unicode Standard; codepoints assigned by the TITUS project October 2008:

▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH LATIN SMALL LETTER U ABOVE (= now assigned to TITUS E8E1)
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER E WITH LATIN SMALL LETTER E ABOVE (= now assigned to TITUS E8E2)
- already proposed by Florian Grammel, cf. 6 D above.
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER J WITH LATIN SMALL LETTER E ABOVE (= now assigned to TITUS E8E7)
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH LATIN SMALL LETTER O ABOVE (= now assigned to TITUS E8E9)
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER U WITH LATIN SMALL LETTER A ABOVE (= now assigned to TITUS E8EB)

▸ LATIN CAPITAL LETTER U WITH VERTICAL BAR ABOVE (= using existing codepoint TITUS E324)
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER U WITH VERTICAL BAR ABOVE (= using existing codepoint TITUS E724)

 

9. From the font Mediaevum by Joachim Hamm, Würzburg, Germany:

A number of characters in this font are not yet in the MUFI spec, but should be included for full coverage.

Link: Mediaevum font

(A) Precomposed characters already in the Unicode Standard:

▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER SCHWA (= Unicode 0259)

▸ LATIN CAPITAL LETTER W WITH CIRCUMFLEX (= Unicode 0174)
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER W WITH CIRCUMFLEX (= Unicode 0175)
▸ LATIN CAPITAL LETTER W WITH GRAVE (= Unicode 1E80)
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER W WITH GRAVE (= Unicode 1E81)

▸ LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Y WITH CIRCUMFLEX (= Unicode 0176)
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER Y WITH CIRCUMFLEX (= Unicode 0177)
▸ LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Y WITH GRAVE (= Unicode 1EF2)
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER Y WITH GRAVE (= Unicode 1EF3)

(B) Precomposed characters not in the Unicode Standard, but part of the TITUS Private Use Area (with which MUFI is coordinated):

▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER L WITH RING BELOW (= TITUS E5A4)
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER M WITH RING BELOW (= TITUS E5C5)
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER N WITH RING BELOW (= TITUS E5EE)
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER R WITH RING BELOW (= TITUS E6A3)

▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER P WITH BAR ABOVE (= TITUS E665)
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER Q WITH BAR ABOVE (= TITUS E681)

▸ LATIN CAPITAL LETTER V WITH CIRCUMFLEX (= TITUS E33B)
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER V WITH CIRCUMFLEX (= TITUS E73B)

▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER E WITH LATIN SMALL LETTER V ABOVE (= TITUS E4E3)
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER I WITH LATIN SMALL LETTER V ABOVE (= TITUS E54B)
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH LATIN SMALL LETTER A ABOVE (= TITUS E643)
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH LATIN SMALL LETTER I ABOVE (= TITUS E645)

(C) Precomposed characters not in the Unicode Standard; codepoints assigned by the TITUS project October 2008:

▸ LATIN CAPITAL LETTER W WITH MACRON (= now assigned to TITUS E357)
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER W WITH MACRON (= now assigned to TITUS E757)

▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH LATIN SMALL LETTER I ABOVE (= now assigned to TITUS E8E0)
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER E WITH LATIN SMALL LETTER O ABOVE (= now assigned to TITUS E8E3)
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER I WITH LATIN SMALL LETTER O ABOVE (= now assigned to TITUS E8E5)
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER W WITH LATIN SMALL LETTER A ABOVE (= now assigned to TITUS E8F0)
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER W WITH LATIN SMALL LETTER I ABOVE (= now assigned to TITUS E8F1)
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER W WITH LATIN SMALL LETTER U ABOVE (= now assigned to TITUS E8F2)
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER W WITH LATIN SMALL LETTER V ABOVE (= now assigned to TITUS E8F3)

▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH DIAGONAL TREMA (= now assigned to TITUS E8D5)
▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH DIAGONAL TREMA (= now assigned to TITUS E8D7)

▸ LATIN SMALL LETTER Q WITH BAR ACROSS DESCENDER AND TILDE ABOVE (= now assigned to TITUS E68B)

References