Re: Why incomplete subscript/superscript alphabet ?

Philippe Verdy <verdy_p_at_wanadoo.fr>:
>
> But if semantic is your issue, we could insert an invisible Unicode mark of abbreviation (notably the invisible abbreviation dot, which may be rendered as a dot in some contexts where distinctions by styles cannot be used, or could be rendered by using superscripts for letters glued after it).

Yes, the necessary marker I mentioned would not need to have a visible glyph. U+002E Full Stop and U+0027 Apostrophe or, preferably, U+2019 Right Single Quotation Mark (alias curly apostrophe) are just common choices in related languages and, of course, already exist. Some style guides allow or recommend to omit (some of) them: “e. g.”, “e.g.”, “eg.”, “eg”. In acronyms with non-initial capitals, in particular, they’ve almost died out, except in cases like “U.S.” vs. “US” vs. “ᴜꜱ” vs. “us” (next to “UK” and “UN”).

U+2065 would be an obvious choice (coming right after Invisible Times, Separator and Plus). Possible names:

- Invisible Terminator (as in “Inc.”)
- Invisible Ellipsis (as in “L…t…d”, “M…me”) alias Zero-Width Ellipsis
- Invisible Apostrophe (as in “Dos and Don’ts”)
- Invisible Full Stop (as in “L.L.C.”)
- Abbreviation Mark
- Contraction Mark

For “3ème” and “3e”, I could also imagine some XY Joiner character to make the most sense.
Received on Thu Oct 06 2016 - 16:09:12 CDT