Zero-width joiner

The zero-width joiner (ZWJ) is a non-printing character used in the computerized typesetting of some complex scripts, such as the Arabic script or any of the Indic scripts. When placed between two characters that would otherwise not be connected, a ZWJ causes them to be printed in their connected forms. In some cases, such as the second Devanagari example below, the ZWJ follows the second character, rather than the first.

The character's code point is U+200D zero width joiner (HTML ‍ · ‍). In the InScript keyboard layout for Indian languages, it is typed by the key combination Ctrl+Shift+1. However, many layouts use the ']' key for this character.[1]

Examples

Devanagari
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
Kannada
Character sequence Appearance
[na ನ] [virāma ್] ನ್
[na ನ] [virāma ್] [na ನ] ನ್ನ
[na ನ] [virāma ್] [ZWJ] [na ನ] ನ್‌ನ
[ra ರ‍] [virāma ್] [ka ಕ] ರ್ಕ
[ra ರ‍] [ZWJ] [virāma ್] [ka ಕ] ರ‍್ಕ
Malayalam
(Until Unicode 5.0; in later editions, specific code points are allotted[2])
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

See also

References

  1. ↑ "ചിത്രം:Inscript.jpg – Malayalam Computing" (in Malayalam). Malayalam.kerala.gov.in. Retrieved 2011-10-22.
  2. ↑ http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2007/07129-malayalam.pdf

External links