CJKV Information Processing, 2nd Edition

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Chapter 2: Writing Systems and Scripts

indicate length, tone, or other phonetic attributes, and sometimes set with full-width met-

rics. Also included are the 10 numerals 0 through 9. Accented characters, usually vowels,

are oen required for transliteration or Romanization purposes. Table 2-1 lists the basic

set of Latin characters.

Latin charactersTable 2-1.

Character class Characters

Lowercase

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

Uppercase

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

Numerals

0123456789

ere is really nothing special about these characters. Latin characters are most oen

used in tables (numerals), in abbreviations and acronyms (alphabet), or for transcription

or transliteration purposes, sometimes with accented characters to account for tones or

other phonetic attributes.

Transliteration systems are distinguished from Romanization systems in that they are not

the primary way to write a language, and serve as a proununciation aid for those who are

not familiar with the primary scripts of the language.

Commonly used transliteration systems for CJKV text that use characters beyond the

standard set of Latin characters illustrated in Table 2-1 include Pinyin (Chinese), Hepburn

(Japanese), Kunrei (Japanese), and Ministry of Education (Korean). ese and other CJKV

transliteration systems are covered in the following sections. Quốc ngữ, on the other hand,

is a Romanization system, because it ...