Syriac character tables

This document lists the per-character shaping information needed to shape Syriac text.

Contents

• Syriac character table

• Syriac Supplement character table

• Miscellaneous character table

Syriac character table

Syriac glyphs should be classified as in the following table. Codepoints in the Syriac block with no assigned meaning are designated as unassigned in the Unicode category column.

The Joining type column indicates whether each codepoint is defined as joining with adjacent characters on the left side, right side, left and right sides (“DUAL”), or neither side (“NON_JOINING”). Codepoints designated TRANSPARENT in the Joining type column do not join with adjacent characters and, in addition, do not affect the joining behavior of surrounding characters. Non-spacing marks are of type TRANSPARENT. Codepoints designated JOIN_CAUSING force adjacent characters to join.

The Joining group column lists the fundamental letter that the listed codepoint behaves like for joining purposes.

Assigned codepoints with a null in the Joining group column evoke no special behavior from the shaping engine during the join-computation stage.

The Mark class column indicates the Canonical Combining Class for the codepoint. Marks are assigned non-zero combining classes so that sequences of adjacent marks can be reordered as required by the orthography.

For Syriac, a subset of marks in the 220 and 230 classes are also designated Modifier Combining Marks (MCM). These are denoted with 220_MCM and 230_MCM in the Mark class column. The MCM marks are treated differently during the mark-reordering stage.

Table 68 Syriac character table

Codepoint	Unicode category	Joining type	Joining group	Mark class	Glyph
U+0700	Punctuation	NON_JOINING	null	0	܀ End of Paragraph
U+0701	Punctuation	NON_JOINING	null	0	܁ Supralinear Full Stop
U+0702	Punctuation	NON_JOINING	null	0	܂ Sublinear Full Stop
U+0703	Punctuation	NON_JOINING	null	0	܃ Supralinear Colon
U+0704	Punctuation	NON_JOINING	null	0	܄ Sublinear Colon
U+0705	Punctuation	NON_JOINING	null	0	܅ Horizontal Colon
U+0706	Punctuation	NON_JOINING	null	0	܆ Colon Skewed Left
U+0707	Punctuation	NON_JOINING	null	0	܇ Colon Skewed Right
U+0708	Punctuation	NON_JOINING	null	0	܈ Supralinear Colon Skewed Left
U+0709	Punctuation	NON_JOINING	null	0	܉ Sublinear Colon Skewed Right
U+070A	Punctuation	NON_JOINING	null	0	܊ Contraction
U+070B	Punctuation	NON_JOINING	null	0	܋ Harklean Obelus
U+070C	Punctuation	NON_JOINING	null	0	܌ Harklean Metobelus
U+070D	Punctuation	NON_JOINING	null	0	܍ Harklean Asteriscus
U+070E	unassigned
U+070F	Other	TRANSPARENT	null	0	܏ Syriac Abbreviation Mark
U+0710	Letter	RIGHT	ALAPH	0	ܐ Alaph
U+0711	Mark [Mn]	TRANSPARENT	null	36	ܑ Superscript Alaph
U+0712	Letter	DUAL	BETH	0	ܒ Beth
U+0713	Letter	DUAL	GAMAL	0	ܓ Gamal
U+0714	Letter	DUAL	GAMAL	0	ܔ Gamal Garshuni
U+0715	Letter	RIGHT	DALATH_RISH	0	ܕ Dalath
U+0716	Letter	RIGHT	DALATH_RISH	0	ܖ Dotless Dalath Rish
U+0717	Letter	RIGHT	HE	0	ܗ He
U+0718	Letter	RIGHT	SYRIAC_WAW	0	ܘ Waw
U+0719	Letter	RIGHT	ZAIN	0	ܙ Zain
U+071A	Letter	DUAL	HETH	0	ܚ Heth
U+071B	Letter	DUAL	TETH	0	ܛ Teth
U+071C	Letter	DUAL	TETH	0	ܜ Teth Garshuni
U+071D	Letter	DUAL	YUDH	0	ܝ Yudh
U+071E	Letter	RIGHT	YUDH_HE	0	ܞ Yudh He
U+071F	Letter	DUAL	KAPH	0	ܟ Kaph
U+0720	Letter	DUAL	LAMADH	0	ܠ Lamadh
U+0721	Letter	DUAL	MIM	0	ܡ Mim
U+0722	Letter	DUAL	NUN	0	ܢ Nun
U+0723	Letter	DUAL	SEMKATH	0	ܣ Semkath
U+0724	Letter	DUAL	FINAL_SEMKATH	0	ܤ Final Semkath
U+0725	Letter	DUAL	E	0	ܥ E
U+0727	Letter	DUAL	PE	0	ܧ Pe
U+0727	Letter	DUAL	REVERSED_PE	0	ܧ Reversed Pe
U+0728	Letter	RIGHT	SADHE	0	ܨ Sadhe
U+0729	Letter	DUAL	QAPH	0	ܩ Qaph
U+072A	Letter	RIGHT	DALATH_RISH	0	ܪ Rish
U+072B	Letter	DUAL	SHIN	0	ܫ Shin
U+072C	Letter	RIGHT	TAW	0	ܬ Taw
U+072D	Letter	DUAL	BETH	0	ܭ Persian Bheth
U+072E	Letter	DUAL	GAMAL	0	ܮ Persian Ghamal
U+072F	Letter	RIGHT	DALATH_RISH	0	ܯ Persian Dhalath
U+0730	Mark [Mn]	TRANSPARENT	null	230	ܰ Pthaha Above
U+0731	Mark [Mn]	TRANSPARENT	null	220	ܱ Pthaha Below
U+0732	Mark [Mn]	TRANSPARENT	null	230	ܲ Pthaha Dotted
U+0733	Mark [Mn]	TRANSPARENT	null	230	ܳ Zqapha Above
U+0734	Mark [Mn]	TRANSPARENT	null	220	ܴ Zqapha Below
U+0735	Mark [Mn]	TRANSPARENT	null	230	ܵ Zqapha Dotted
U+0736	Mark [Mn]	TRANSPARENT	null	230	ܶ Rbasa Above
U+0737	Mark [Mn]	TRANSPARENT	null	220	ܷ Rbasa Below
U+0738	Mark [Mn]	TRANSPARENT	null	220	ܸ Dotted Zlama Horizontal
U+0739	Mark [Mn]	TRANSPARENT	null	220	ܹ Dotted Zlama Angular
U+073A	Mark [Mn]	TRANSPARENT	null	230	ܺ Hbasa Above
U+073B	Mark [Mn]	TRANSPARENT	null	220	ܻ Hbasa Below
U+073C	Mark [Mn]	TRANSPARENT	null	220	ܼ Hbasa-Esasa Dotted
U+073D	Mark [Mn]	TRANSPARENT	null	230	ܽ Esasa Above
U+073E	Mark [Mn]	TRANSPARENT	null	220	ܾ Esasa Below
U+073F	Mark [Mn]	TRANSPARENT	null	230	ܿ Rwaha
U+0740	Mark [Mn]	TRANSPARENT	null	230	݀ Feminine Dot
U+0741	Mark [Mn]	TRANSPARENT	null	230	݁ Qushshaya
U+0742	Mark [Mn]	TRANSPARENT	null	220	݂ Rukkakha
U+0743	Mark [Mn]	TRANSPARENT	null	230	݃ Two Vertical Dots Above
U+0744	Mark [Mn]	TRANSPARENT	null	220	݄ Two Vertical Dots Below
U+0745	Mark [Mn]	TRANSPARENT	null	230	݅ Three Dots Above
U+0746	Mark [Mn]	TRANSPARENT	null	220	݆ Three Dots Below
U+0747	Mark [Mn]	TRANSPARENT	null	220	݇ Oblique Line Above
U+0748	Mark [Mn]	TRANSPARENT	null	230	݈ Oblique Line Below
U+0749	Mark [Mn]	TRANSPARENT	null	230	݉ Music
U+074A	Mark [Mn]	TRANSPARENT	null	230	݊ Barrekh
U+074B	unassigned
U+074C	unassigned
U+074D	Letter	RIGHT	ZHAIN	0	ݍ Sogdian Zhain
U+074E	Letter	DUAL	KHAPH	0	ݎ Sogdian Khaph
U+074F	Letter	DUAL	FE	0	ݏ Sogdian Fe

Syriac Supplement character table

The Syriac Supplement block includes letters needed to write Suriyani Malayalam, also known as Garshuni or Syriac Malayalam.

Table 69 Syriac Supplement character table

Codepoint	Unicode category	Joining type	Joining group	Mark class	Glyph
U+0860	Letter	DUAL	MALAYALAM_NGA	0	ࡠ Malayalam Nga
U+0861	Letter	NON_JOINING	MALAYALAM_JA	0	ࡡ Malayalam Ja
U+0862	Letter	DUAL	MALAYALAM_NYA	0	ࡢ Malayalam Nya
U+0863	Letter	DUAL	MALAYALAM_TTA	0	ࡣ Malayalam Tta
U+0864	Letter	DUAL	MALAYALAM_NNA	0	ࡤ Malayalam Nna
U+0865	Letter	DUAL	MALAYALAM_NNNA	0	ࡥ Malayalam Nnna
U+0866	Letter	NON_JOINING	MALAYALAM_BHA	0	ࡦ Malayalam Bha
U+0867	Letter	RIGHT	MALAYALAM_RA	0	ࡧ Malayalam Ra
U+0868	Letter	DUAL	MALAYALAM_LLA	0	ࡨ Malayalam Lla
U+0869	Letter	RIGHT	MALAYALAM_LLLA	0	ࡩ Malayalam Llla
U+086A	Letter	RIGHT	MALAYALAM_SSA	0	ࡪ Malayalam Ssa
U+086B	unassigned
U+086C	unassigned
U+086D	unassigned
U+086E	unassigned
U+086F	unassigned

Miscellaneous character table

Other important characters that may be encountered when shaping runs of Syriac text include the dotted-circle placeholder (U+25CC), the combining grapheme joiner (U+034F), the zero-width joiner (U+200D) and zero-width non-joiner (U+200C), the left-to-right text marker (U+200E) and right-to-left text marker (U+200F), and the no-break space (U+00A0).

The dotted-circle placeholder is frequently used when displaying a combining mark in isolation. Real-world text syllables may also use other characters, such as hyphens or dashes, in a similar placeholder fashion; shaping engines should cope with this situation gracefully.

In addition, Syriac text runs may include the “Tatweel” or kashida codepoint (U+0640) from the Arabic block, because the Syriac block does not encode a separate kashida character.

Table 70 Miscellaneous character table

Codepoint	Unicode category	Joining type	Joining group	Mark class	Glyph
U+00A0	Separator	NON_JOINING	null	0	No-break space
U+034F	Other	NON_JOINING	null	0	͏ Combining grapheme joiner
U+0640	Letter modifier	JOIN_CAUSING	null	0	ـ Arabic Tatweel
U+200C	Other	NON_JOINING	null	0	‌ Zero-width non-joiner
U+200D	Other	JOIN_CAUSING	null	0	‍ Zero-width joiner
U+200E	Other	NON_JOINING	null	0	‎ Left-to-Right marker
U+200F	Other	NON_JOINING	null	0	‏ Right-to-Left marker
U+2010	Punctuation	NON_JOINING	null	0	‐ Hyphen
U+2011	Punctuation	NON_JOINING	null	0	‑ No-break hyphen
U+2012	Punctuation	NON_JOINING	null	0	‒ Figure dash
U+2013	Punctuation	NON_JOINING	null	0	– En dash
U+2014	Punctuation	NON_JOINING	null	0	— Em dash
U+25CC	Symbol	NON_JOINING	null	0	◌ Dotted circle

The combining grapheme joiner (CGJ) is primarily used to alter the order in which adjacent marks are positioned during the mark-reordering stage, in order to adhere to the needs of a non-default language orthography.

The zero-width joiner (ZWJ) is primarily used to force the usage of the cursive connecting form of a letter even when the context of the adjoining letters would not trigger the connecting form.

For example, to show the initial form of a letter in isolation (such as for displaying it in a table of forms), the sequence “Letter,ZWJ” would be used. To show the medial form of a letter in isolation, the sequence “ZWJ,Letter,ZWJ” would be used.

The right-to-left mark (RLM) and left-to-right mark (LRM) are used by the Unicode bidirectionality algorithm (BiDi) to indicate the points in a text run at which the writing direction changes.

The no-break space is primarily used to display those codepoints that are defined as non-spacing (such as vowel or diacritical marks and “Hamza”) in an isolated context, as an alternative to displaying them superimposed on the dotted-circle placeholder.