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ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2/WG2 N1643
DATE: 1997-09-18

DOC TYPE: Expert contribution
TITLE: Proposal to encode Klingon in Plane 1 of ISO/IEC 10646-2
SOURCE: Michael Everson, EGT (IE)
PROJECT: JTC1.02.18.02
STATUS: Proposal.
ACTION ID: FYI
DUE DATE: --
DISTRIBUTION: Worldwide
MEDIUM: Paper and web
NO. OF PAGES: 4

A. Administrative

1. Title Proposal to encode Klingon in Plane 1 of ISO/IEC 10646-2
2. Requester's name Michael Everson
3. Requester type Expert request
4. Submission date 1997-09-18
5. Requester's reference  
6a. Completion This is a complete proposal.
6b. More information to be provided? No

B. Technical -- General

1a. New script? Name? Yes. Klingon
1b. Addition of characters to existing block? Name? No.
2. Number of characters 37
3. Proposed category Category B.1
4. Proposed level of implementation and rationale Level 1
5a. Character names included in proposal? Yes
5b. Character names in accordance with guidelines? Yes
5c. Character shapes reviewable? Yes
6a. Who will provide computerized font? Michael Everson, Everson Gunn Teoranta
6b. Font currently available? Michael Everson, Everson Gunn Teoranta
6c. Font format? TrueType
7a. Are references (to other character sets, dictionaries, descriptive texts, etc.) provided? Yes.
7b. Are published examples (such as samples from newspapers, magazines, or other sources) of use of proposed characters attached? No
8. Does the proposal address other aspects of character data processing? No

C. Technical -- Justification

1. Contact with the user community? Yes, with the Klingon Language Institute
2. Information on the user community? Klingon enjoys both scholarly and popular use.
3a. The context of use for the proposed characters? Used to write tlhIngan Hol, the Klingon language.
3b. Reference  
4a. Proposed characters in current use? Yes
4b. Where? By scholars and enthusiasts.
5a. Characters should be encoded entirely in BMP? No. Positions U+0001 CDD0 - U+0001 CD7F are proposed for the encoding.
5b. Rationale Accordance with the Roadmap.
6. Should characters be kept in a continuous range? Yes
7a. Can the characters be considered a presentation form of an existing character or character sequence? No.
7b. Where?  
7c. Reference  
8a. Can any of the characters be considered to be similar (in appearance or function) to an existing character? No
8b. Where?  
8c. Reference  
9a. Combining characters or use of composite sequences included? No
9b. List of composite sequences and their corresponding glyph images provided? No
10. Characters with any special properties such as control function, etc. included? No

D. SC2/WG2 Administrative

To be completed by SC2/WG2
1. Relevant SC 2/WG 2 document numbers:  
2. Status (list of meeting number and corresponding action or disposition)  
3. Additional contact to user communities, liaison organizations etc.  
4. Assigned category and assigned priority/time frame  
Other Comments  
This encoding at derives from the Linux kernel source code ("Documentation/unicode.txt" by H. Peter Anvin, hpa@zytor.com), from which some of the description here has been taken. This proposal differs from the Linux registration by including an additional character, KLINGON SYMBOL FOR EMPIRE at U+xxFF.

Several glyph forms for the Klingon alphabet are extant. The Qo'noS font, designed for Star Trek: The Motion Picture by the Astra Image Corporation, is the standard font used by the Klingon Language Instutute and Paramount (though Paramount appears to use the characters unsystematically vis ý vis the Klingon language). The Klinzhai font, derived from The U.S.S. Enterprise Officer's Manual (1980), predates Marc Okrand's Klingon Dictionary and does not have a standard relationship to tlhIngan Hol or to the Qo'noS font.)

Klingon has an alphabet of 26 characters, a positional numeric writing system with 10 digits, and is written left-to-right, top-to-bottom. Punctuation appears to be only used in Latin transliteration. The standard Okrand transliteration for Klingon runs as follows:

a b ch D e gh H I j l m n ng o p q Q r S t tlh u v w y '

In the names list below, "q" is written Q and "Q" is written QH.

This encoding has been endorsed by the Klingon Language Institute (http://www.kli.org/). 

U+xxD0	KLINGON LETTER A
U+xxD1	KLINGON LETTER B
U+xxD2	KLINGON LETTER CH
U+xxD3	KLINGON LETTER D
U+xxD4	KLINGON LETTER E
U+xxD5	KLINGON LETTER GH
U+xxD6	KLINGON LETTER H
U+xxD7	KLINGON LETTER I
U+xxD8	KLINGON LETTER J
U+xxD9	KLINGON LETTER L
U+xxDA	KLINGON LETTER M
U+xxDB	KLINGON LETTER N
U+xxDC	KLINGON LETTER NG
U+xxDD	KLINGON LETTER O
U+xxDE	KLINGON LETTER P
U+xxDF	KLINGON LETTER Q
U+xxE0	KLINGON LETTER QH
U+xxE1	KLINGON LETTER R
U+xxE2	KLINGON LETTER S
U+xxE3	KLINGON LETTER T
U+xxE4	KLINGON LETTER TLH
U+xxE5	KLINGON LETTER U
U+xxE6	KLINGON LETTER V
U+xxE7	KLINGON LETTER W
U+xxE8	KLINGON LETTER Y
U+xxE9	KLINGON LETTER GLOTTAL STOP
U+xxEA	(This position shall not be used)
U+xxEB	(This position shall not be used)
U+xxEB	(This position shall not be used)
U+xxED	(This position shall not be used)
U+xxEE	(This position shall not be used)
U+xxEF	(This position shall not be used)
U+xxF0	KLINGON DIGIT ZERO
U+xxF1	KLINGON DIGIT ONE
U+xxF2	KLINGON DIGIT TWO
U+xxF3	KLINGON DIGIT THREE
U+xxF4	KLINGON DIGIT FOUR
U+xxF5	KLINGON DIGIT FIVE
U+xxF6	KLINGON DIGIT SIX
U+xxF7	KLINGON DIGIT SEVEN
U+xxF8	KLINGON DIGIT EIGHT
U+xxF9	KLINGON DIGIT NINE
U+xxFA	(This position shall not be used)
U+xxFB	(This position shall not be used)
U+xxFC	(This position shall not be used)
U+xxFD	(This position shall not be used)
U+xxFE	(This position shall not be used)
U+xxFF	KLINGON SYMBOL FOR EMPIRE
HTML Michael Everson, everson@indigo.ie, http://www.indigo.ie/egt, Dublin, 1997-09-18