Unicode Explained

Therefore, we now have the independent characters “V” and “U.” They are, in turn,

written with stylistic variation, though now the general idea is that the variation should

not obscure the difference between these two characters. Yet, you might still see “V”

used for “U” for stylistic reasons, especially to imitate ancient inscriptions (SENATVS

POPVLVSQVE ROMANVS).

The letters “U” and “V” have later given birth to new characters that have originally

been formed as their typographic variants, as well as the letter “W,” originally a digraph

(VV). Special forms of this letter have been recognized as separate characters, such as

the modifier letter small w, ʷ. The story goes on. In different areas that need new sym-

bols, characters are created as variants or modifications of old characters. This seems

to suit the human mind better than the invention of new character shapes from scratch.

Characters and “abstract characters”

The Unicode standard defines different meanings for the term character. The first one

is: “The smallest component of written language that has semantic value; refers to the

abstract meaning and/or shape, rather than a specific shape (see also glyph), though in

code tables some form of visual representation is essential for the reader’s understand-

ing.” The second meaning is that “character” is a synonym for “abstract character,”

which is defined as “a unit of information used ...