Zero-width joiner
The zero-width joiner (ZWJ, Indic script. Sometimes the Roman script is to be counted as complex, e.g. when using a Fraktur typeface. When placed between two characters that would otherwise not be connected, a ZWJ causes them to be printed in their connected forms.
The exact behaviour of the ZWJ varies depending on whether the use of a
halant form as would be required by the zero-width non-joiner), but induces the use of conjuncts in Sinhala (which does not use them by default).[2] Similarly to Sinhala, when a ZWJ is placed between two emoji characters (or interspersed between multiple), it can result in a single glyph being shown, such as the family emoji, made up of two adult emoji and one or two child emoji.[3]
In some cases, such as the second Devanagari example below, the ZWJ can be used to display a joining form in isolation, when included after the character and combining halant code.
The character's code point is U+200D ZERO WIDTH JOINER (‍). In the
InScript keyboard layout for Indian languages, it is typed by the key combination Ctrl+Shift+1. However, many layouts use the position of QWERTY's ']' key for this character.[4]
Examples
Joiner.svg)
| Character sequence | Appearance |
|---|---|
| [ra র] [virāma ্ ] [ya য] | র্য |
| [ra র] [ZWJ] [virāma ্ ] [ya য] | র্য |
| Character sequence | Appearance |
|---|---|
| [ka क] [virāma ्] | क् |
| [ka क] [virāma ्] [ZWJ] | क् |
| [ka क] [virāma ्] [ṣa ष] | क्ष |
| [ka क] [virāma ्] [ZWJ] [ṣa ष] | क्ष |
| Character sequence | Appearance |
|---|---|
| [ra ರ] [virāma ್] [ka ಕ] | ರ್ಕ |
| [ra ರ] [ZWJ] [virāma ್] [ka ಕ] | ರ್ಕ |
| Character sequence | Appearance |
|---|---|
| [śa ශ] [virāma ්] [ra ර] | ශ්ර |
| [śa ශ] [virāma ්] [ZWJ] [ra ර] | ශ්ර |
| Character sequence | Appearance |
|---|---|
| [Na ണ] [virāma ്] [ZWJ] | ണ് |
| [na ന] [virāma ്] [ZWJ] | ന് |
| [ra ര] [virāma ്] [ZWJ] | ര് |
| [la ല] [virāma ്] [ZWJ] | ല് |
| [La ള] [virāma ്] [ZWJ] | ള് |
| Character sequence | Appearance | Description |
|---|---|---|
| [Man] [ZWJ] [Woman] [ZWJ] [Boy] | 👨👩👦 | Family: Man, Woman, Boy |
| [Waving white flag] [ZWJ] [Rainbow] | 🏳️🌈 | Rainbow Flag |
| [Runner] [Emoji Modifier Fitzpatrick Type-1-2] [ZWJ] [Female Sign] | 🏃🏻♀️ | Woman Running: Light Skin Tone |
| [Runner] [Emoji Modifier Fitzpatrick Type-6] [ZWJ] [Female Sign] | 🏃🏿♀️ | Woman Running: Dark Skin Tone |
| [Man] [ZWJ] [Red hair] | 👨🦰 | Man: Red Hair |
| [Person] [ZWJ] [Sheaf of rice] | 👨🌾 | Farmer |
See also
References
- ^ "113 New Unicode Emoji (plus skin tones)". Unicode Blog. 2016-11-28. Retrieved 2021-01-14.
- L2/04-279, Public Review Issue #37.
- ^ "Zero Width Joiner". Emojipedia. Retrieved 2015-09-21.
- ^ "ചിത്രം:Inscript.jpg – Malayalam Computing" (in Malayalam). Malayalam.kerala.gov.in. Archived from the original on 2011-10-11. Retrieved 2011-10-22.
- ^ "Changes related to Malayalam in Unicode 5.1.0 from 5.0" (PDF). Unicode.org. Retrieved 2015-06-12.
