Character Mapping
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Character Mapping
There is no standardized character mapping of the tengwar. However, a Unicode standardization has been proposed. The Free Tengwar Font Project largely follows Michael Everson’s 2001-03-07 tengwar discussion paper for that proposal. That discussion paper assigns the tengwar to the Unicode Private Use Area characters U+e000 – U+e07d.
Everson’s 2001-03-07 discussion paper introduces a number of changes from an earlier proposal. Therefore, the Free Tengwar Font Project is not compatible with James Kass’s Code2000 font.
The Free Tengwar Font Project diverges in some details from Everson’s 2001-03-07 discussion paper. Some of these differences were first proposed by Johan Winge, see tengtelc-discussion-008.pdf.
This page does not claim to be authoritative or complete or anything. It only serves as an overview on the Free Tengwar Font Project’s current character mapping, and as a brief explanation why this mapping was chosen. This mapping is very likely to change in the future.
Mapping Table
On some browsers, this table may not be displayed properly unless you have a suitable font installed. Since some browser don’t display properly the tehtar, they are placed on a dotted circle (◌). The tengwar names and the characters’ Unicode numbers will show up when you keep the mouse pointer over a table cell.
The characters added in addition to Everson’s 2001-03-07 discussion paper are highlighted with a green background. A gray background highlights character of Everson’s discussion paper that are not required for the fonts of this project.
| e00x | e01x | e02x | e03x | e04x | e05x | e06x | e07x | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| xxx0 | | | | | ◌ | ◌ | | |
| xxx1 | | | | | ◌ | ◌ | | |
| xxx2 | | | | | ◌ | ◌ | | |
| xxx3 | | | | ◌ | ◌ | | | |
| xxx4 | | | | | ◌ | ◌ | | |
| xxx5 | | | | | ◌ | ◌ | | |
| xxx6 | | | | | ◌ | ◌ | | |
| xxx7 | | | | | ◌ | ◌ | | |
| xxx8 | | | | | ◌ | | | |
| xxx9 | | | | | ◌ | ◌ | | |
| xxxa | | | | | ◌ | ◌ | | |
| xxxb | | | | | ◌ | | | |
| xxxc | | | | | ◌ | | | |
| xxxd | | | | | ◌ | ◌ | ||
| xxxe | | | | ◌ | ||||
| xxxf | | | ◌ |
Here is the same table shown as a picture, in case your browser does not display the above table correctly:
Differences from Michael Everson’s 2001-03-07 Discussion Paper
This is a brief overview on the differences. For more detailed discussions, see Johan Winge’s tengtelc-discussion-008.pdf, and the discussions at the Tengwestaron mailing list.
- U+e030: TENGWAR LETTER REVERSED OSSE ()
- This sign has been added because it has been attested in DTS 78.
- U+e035: TENGWAR LETTER ANNA SINDARINWA ()
- This sign has been marked as deprecated because it is nothing more than a glyph variant of U+e016: TENGWAR LETTER ANNA ().
- U+e038: TENGWAR LETTER REVERSED FORMEN ()
- This sign has been marked as deprecated because it can be considered a glyph variant of U+e029: TENGWAR LETTER HWESTA SINDARINWA ().
- U+e03b: TENGWAR LETTER BELERIANDIC MH ()
- This sign has been added because it has been attested in DTS 31.
- U+e03c: TENGWAR LETTER LOWDHAM HW ()
- This sign has been added because it is not clear whether it really constitutes a ligature of halla and rómen. It might also be a form of rómen with raised stem.
- U+e03d: TENGWAR LETTER VAIYA ()
- This sign has been added because it has been attested in DTS 65.
- U+e047: TENGWAR SIGN ACUTE BELOW (◌)
- This sign has been added because it has been attested in DTS 51.
- Doubled tehtar: U+e048 (◌), U+e04e (◌), U+e04f (◌)
- These signs have been marked as deprecated because they can be considered mere sequences of single tehtar.
- U+e058: TENGWAR SIGN SA-RINCE ENDING ()
- This sign has been added because it is not clear whether it really constitutes a ligating form of silme. In many words, it would not correspond to silme at all, but to esse.
- U+e059: TENGWAR SIGN COMBINING SA-RINCE (◌)
- This sign may contrast with U+e058: TENGWAR SIGN SA-RINCE ENDING.
- U+e05a: TENGWAR SIGN DOT INSIDE (◌)
- This sign has been added because it has been attested in DTS 71 and in DTS 78.
- Dotted tengwar punctuation marks: U+e060 (), U+e061 (), U+e062 (), U+e063 (), U+e064 ()
- These signs have been marked as deprecated because instead of them, existing Unicode punctuation marks shall be used. This means the following punctuation marks:
- U+2e31: WORD SEPARATOR MIDDLE DOT (⸱)
- U+003a: COLON (:)
- U+205d: TRICOLON (⁝)
- U+2058: FOUR DOT PUNCTUATION (⁘)
- U+2e2d: FIVE DOT MARK (⸭)
Additionally, there are two more Unicode punctuation marks that shall be used together with the tengwar:
- U+2e2c: SQUARED FOUR DOT PUNCTUATION (⸬)
- U+10fb: GEORGIAN PARAGRAPH SEPARATOR (჻)
- U+e06a: TENGWAR LEFT QUOTATION MARK ()
- This sign has been added because it has been attested in DTS 51.
- U+e06b: TENGWAR RIGHT QUOTATION MARK ()
- This sign has been added because it has been attested in DTS 51.
- U+e06c: TENGWAR THORIN EXCLAMATION MARK ()
- This sign has been added because it has been attested in DTS 71.