CJKV Information Processing, 2nd Edition

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Chapter 6: Font Formats, Glyph Sets, and Font Tools

• Chinese transliteration, specically Pinyin, requires not only macroned vowels for

the rst or “at” tone, and vowels with the acute and grave diacritic marks for the sec-

ond (or “rising”) and fourth (or “falling”) tones, respectively, but also vowels adorned

with the caron diacritic mark for the third or “falling-rising” tone. e Chinese words

xìnxī chl () and zīxùn chl (資訊處理), both of which mean “informa-

tion processing,” exemplify three of the four tones that require glyphs adorned with

diacritic marks. Interestingly, complete Pinyin transliteration requires additional

base forms, specically ê (e circumex) and ü (u umlaut), which can take on a dia-

critic mark to indicate tone, along with m and n that can do the same.

Vietnamese, specically its Romanized script called • Quốc ngữ, is even more com-

plex in its use of multiple diacritic marks and additional base characters that are

exemplied by the name of the script itself. Even the Vietnamese word Vit Nam,

which means “Vietnam,” makes use of glyphs that are not found in typical Latin fonts.

Vietnamese is also unique in that some of its base forms, such as ơ (horned o) and ư

(horned u), and one of its diacritic marks, specically the hi (also called hook above

or curl), are not used by any other transliteration or Romanization system. ...