Ruby characters or rubi characters () are small, annotative
glosses
A gloss is a brief notation, especially a marginal one or an interlinear one, of the meaning of a word or wording in a text. It may be in the language of the text or in the reader's language if that is different.
A collection of glosses is a ''g ...
that are usually placed above or to the right of
logographic
In a written language, a logogram, logograph, or lexigraph is a written character that represents a word or morpheme. Chinese characters (pronounced ''hanzi'' in Mandarin, ''kanji'' in Japanese, ''hanja'' in Korean) are generally logograms, as ...
characters of languages in the
East Asian cultural sphere
The East Asian cultural sphere, also known as the Sinosphere, the Sinic world, the Sinitic world, the Chinese cultural sphere, the Chinese character sphere encompasses multiple countries in East Asia and Southeast Asia that were historically ...
, such as
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...
''hanzi'',
Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
''
kanji
are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese ...
'', and
Korean
Korean may refer to:
People and culture
* Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula
* Korean cuisine
* Korean culture
* Korean language
**Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl
**Korean dialects and the Jeju language
** ...
''
hanja
Hanja (Hangul: ; Hanja: , ), alternatively known as Hancha, are Chinese characters () used in the writing of Korean. Hanja was used as early as the Gojoseon period, the first ever Korean kingdom.
(, ) refers to Sino-Korean vocabulary, ...
'', to show the logographs' pronunciation; these were formerly also used for
Vietnamese
Vietnamese may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia
** A citizen of Vietnam. See Demographics of Vietnam.
* Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam
** Overse ...
''
hán tự'' and ''
chữ nôm
Chữ Nôm (, ; ) is a logographic writing system formerly used to write the Vietnamese language. It uses Chinese characters ('' Chữ Hán'') to represent Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary and some native Vietnamese words, with other words represent ...
'', and may still occasionally be seen in that context when reading archaic texts. Typically called just ruby or rubi, such annotations are most commonly used as pronunciation guides for characters that are likely to be unfamiliar to the reader.
Examples
Here is an example of Japanese ruby characters (called ''
furigana
is a Japanese reading aid consisting of smaller kana or syllabic characters printed either above or next to kanji (logographic characters) or other characters to indicate their pronunciation. It is one type of ruby text. Furigana is also kn ...
'') for
Tokyo
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...
(""):
Most are written with the ''hiragana'' syllabary, but ''
katakana
is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji and in some cases the Latin script (known as rōmaji). The word ''katakana'' means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana characters are derived f ...
'' and ''
romaji'' are also occasionally used. Alternatively, sometimes foreign words (usually English) are printed with furigana implying the meaning, and vice versa. Textbooks usually write
on-readings with katakana and
kun-readings with hiragana.
Here is an example of ruby characters for
Beijing
}
Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
("") in Zhuyin (a.k.a. Bopomofo),
Xiao'erjing
Xiao'erjing or Xiao'erjin or Xiaor jin or in its shortened form, Xiaojing, literally meaning "children's script" or "minor script" (cf. "original script" referring to the original Perso-Arabic script; zh, s=本经, t=本經, p=Běnjīng, Xiao ...
, and Pinyin.
In Taiwan, the main syllabary used for Chinese ruby characters is ''
Zhuyin fuhao
Bopomofo (), or Mandarin Phonetic Symbols, also named Zhuyin (), is a Chinese transliteration system for Mandarin Chinese and other related languages and dialects. More commonly used in Taiwanese Mandarin, it may also be used to transcribe ...
'' (also known as ''Bopomofo''); in mainland China ''
pinyin
Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally writte ...
'' is mainly used. Typically, unlike the example shown above, zhuyin is used with a vertical traditional writing and zhuyin is written on the right side of the characters. In mainland China, horizontal script is used and ruby characters (pinyin) are written above the Chinese characters.
Xiao'erjing
Xiao'erjing or Xiao'erjin or Xiaor jin or in its shortened form, Xiaojing, literally meaning "children's script" or "minor script" (cf. "original script" referring to the original Perso-Arabic script; zh, s=本经, t=本經, p=Běnjīng, Xiao ...
is a Perso-Arabic alphabet, adopted by
Hui Muslims and at times utilized as ruby characters in various manuscripts. This system does have its shortcomings, mainly that it has no way of indicating tones. With the spread of pinyin, the usage of this system has been in decline in the past decades. Most manuscripts that do mark the characters with Xiao'erjing, do so from right-to-left, which is quite unique, compared to other systems. This is because usually such manuscripts include Arabic texts such as the Quran, and the Chinese writing is the explanation or translation.
Books with phonetic guides (especially pinyin) are popular with children and foreigners learning Chinese.
Here is an example of the Korean ruby characters for
Korea
Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...
(""):
Romaja is normally used in foreign textbooks until Hangul is introduced. Ruby characters can be quite common on signs in certain parts of South Korea.
Here is an example of the Vietnamese ruby characters (''Chữ Quốc Ngữ)'' for
Hanoi
Hanoi or Ha Noi ( or ; vi, Hà Nội ) is the capital and second-largest city of Vietnam. It covers an area of . It consists of 12 urban districts, one district-leveled town and 17 rural districts. Located within the Red River Delta, Hanoi is ...
(""):
Chinese characters and its derivations of it (''Chữ Hán'' and ''Chữ Nôm'') with the Vietnamese
Kinh people
The Vietnamese people ( vi, người Việt, lit=Viet people) or Kinh people ( vi, người Kinh) are a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to modern-day Northern Vietnam and Dongxing, Guangxi, Southern China (Jing Islands, Dongxing, Guangxi ...
have fallen out of use in favour of
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
-based script ''
Chữ Quốc ngữ
The Vietnamese alphabet ( vi, chữ Quốc ngữ, lit=script of the National language) is the modern Latin writing script or writing system for Vietnamese. It uses the Latin script based on Romance languages originally developed by Portuguese m ...
'' during the French colonial period when it was made a part of compulsory education (1920s onwards). Currently still used by
Gin people
The Gin or Jing people (; Yale: ''Gīng juhk''; Vietnamese: ''người Kinh'' tại Trung Quốc) are a community of descendants of ethnic Vietnamese people living in China. They mainly live on an area called the Jing Islands (京族三岛) off ...
.
Uses
Ruby may be used for different reasons:
* because the character is rare and the pronunciation unknown to many—personal name characters often fall into this category;
* because the character has more than one pronunciation, and the context is insufficient to determine which to use;
* because the intended readers of the text are still learning the language and are not expected to always know the pronunciation or meaning of a term;
* because the author is using a nonstandard pronunciation for a character or a term
Also, ruby may be used to show the meaning, rather than pronunciation, of a possibly-unfamiliar (usually foreign) or slang word. This is generally used with spoken dialogue and applies only to Japanese publications. The most common form of ruby is called ''furigana'' or ''yomigana'' and is found in Japanese instructional books, newspapers, comics and books for children.
In Japanese, certain characters, such as the
sokuon
The is a Japanese symbol in the form of a small hiragana or katakana '' tsu''. In less formal language it is called or , meaning "small ''tsu''". It serves multiple purposes in Japanese writing.
Appearance
In both hiragana and katakana, ...
() (little ''tsu'', ) that indicates a pause before the consonant it precedes, are normally written at about half the size of normal characters. When written as ruby, such characters are usually the same size as other ruby characters. Advancements in technology now allow certain characters to render accurately.
In Chinese, the practice of providing phonetic cues via ruby is rare, but does occur systematically in grade-school level text books or dictionaries. The Chinese have no special name for this practice, as it is not as widespread as in Japan. In Taiwan, it is known as "
zhuyin
Bopomofo (), or Mandarin Phonetic Symbols, also named Zhuyin (), is a Chinese transliteration system for Mandarin Chinese and other related languages and dialects. More commonly used in Taiwanese Mandarin, it may also be used to transcribe ...
", from the name of the phonetic system employed for this purpose there. It is virtually always used vertically, because publications are normally in a vertical format, and zhuyin is not as easy to read when presented horizontally. Where zhuyin is not used, other Chinese phonetic systems like
pinyin
Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally writte ...
are employed.
In academic settings, Vietnamese text written in or may be glossed with ruby for modern readers.
Sometimes
interlinear glosses are visually similar to ruby, appearing above or below the main text in smaller type. However, this is a distinct practice used for helping students of a foreign language by giving glosses for the words in a text, as opposed to the pronunciation of lesser-known characters.
Ruby annotation can also be used in handwriting.
History
![Hunmin jeong-eum](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c7/Hunmin_jeong-eum.jpg)
In British typography, ''
ruby
A ruby is a pinkish red to blood-red colored gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum ( aluminium oxide). Ruby is one of the most popular traditional jewelry gems and is very durable. Other varieties of gem-quality corundum are called ...
'' was originally the name for type with a height of 5.5
points, which printers used for interlinear annotations in printed documents. In Japanese, rather than referring to a font size, the word became the name for typeset ''furigana''. When transliterated back into English, some texts rendered the word as ''rubi'', (a typical
romanisation
Romanization or romanisation, in linguistics, is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and ...
of the Japanese word , instead of (''rubī''), the expected transliteration of ''ruby''). However, the spelling "ruby" has become more common since the
W3C
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the main international standards organization for the World Wide Web. Founded in 1994 and led by Tim Berners-Lee, the consortium is made up of member organizations that maintain full-time staff working to ...
published a recommendation for ''ruby
markup''. In the US, the font size had been called "
agate
Agate () is a common rock formation, consisting of chalcedony and quartz as its primary components, with a wide variety of colors. Agates are primarily formed within volcanic and metamorphic rocks. The ornamental use of agate was common in Anci ...
", a term in use since 1831 according to the ''
Oxford English Dictionary
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a co ...
''.
HTML markup
In 2001, the W3C published the Ruby Annotation specification
for supplementing
XHTML
Extensible HyperText Markup Language (XHTML) is part of the family of XML markup languages. It mirrors or extends versions of the widely used HyperText Markup Language (HTML), the language in which Web pages are formulated.
While HTML, prior ...
with ruby markup. Ruby markup is incorporated into the XHTML 1.1 specification and in HTML5.
For browsers that don't support Ruby natively, Ruby support is most easily added by using
CSS rules that are available on the web.
[CSS Ruby Support](_blank)
—Works in all modern browsers
Ruby markup is structured such that a fallback rendering, consisting of the ruby characters in parentheses immediately after the main text, appears if the browser does not support ruby.
The W3C is also working on a specific ruby module for
CSS level 2, which additionally allows the grouping of ruby and automatic omission of furigana matching their annotated part.
Markup examples
Below are a few examples of ruby markup. The markup is shown first, and the rendered markup is shown next, followed by the unmarked version. Web browsers either render it with the correct size and positioning as shown in the table-based examples above, or use the fallback rendering with the ruby characters in parentheses:
Note that Chinese ruby text would normally be displayed in vertical columns to the right of each character. This approach is not typically supported in browsers at present.
This is a table-based example of vertical columns:
Complex ruby markup
Complex ruby markup makes it possible to associate more than one ruby text with a base text, or parts of ruby text with parts of base text.
[Complex ruby markup](_blank)
/ref>
Unicode
Unicode
Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology standard for the consistent encoding, representation, and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems. The standard, wh ...
and its companion standard, the Universal Character Set
The Universal Coded Character Set (UCS, Unicode) is a standard set of characters defined by the international standard ISO/IEC 10646, ''Information technology — Universal Coded Character Set (UCS)'' (plus amendments to that standard), w ...
, support ruby via these ''interlinear annotation'' characters:
* Code point FFF9
( hex)—Interlinear annotation anchor—marks start of annotated text
* Code point FFFA
(hex)—Interlinear annotation separator—marks start of annotating character(s)
* Code point FFFB
(hex)—Interlinear annotation terminator—marks end of annotated text
Few applications implement these characters. Unicode Technical Report #20 clarifies that these characters are not intended to be exposed to users of markup languages and software applications. It suggests that ruby markup be used instead, where appropriate.
ANSI
ISO/IEC 6429
ISO/IEC JTC 1, entitled "Information technology", is a joint technical committee (JTC) of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). Its purpose is to develop, maintain and p ...
(also known as ECMA-48) which defines the ANSI escape code
ANSI escape sequences are a standard for in-band signaling to control cursor location, color, font styling, and other options on video text terminals and terminal emulators. Certain sequences of bytes, most starting with an ASCII escape char ...
s also provided a mechanism for ruby text for use by text terminals, although few terminals and terminal emulators implement it. The PARALLEL TEXTS (PTX) escape code accepted six parameter values giving the following escape sequences for marking ruby text:
* CSI 0 \
(or simply CSI \
since 0 is used as the default value for this control) – end of parallel texts
* CSI 1 \
– beginning of a string of principal parallel text
* CSI 2 \
– beginning of a string of supplementary parallel text
* CSI 3 \
– beginning of a string of supplementary Japanese phonetic annotation
* CSI 4 \
– beginning of a string of supplementary Chinese phonetic annotation
* CSI 5 \
– end of a string of supplementary phonetic annotations
See also
*, and Furigana
is a Japanese reading aid consisting of smaller kana or syllabic characters printed either above or next to kanji (logographic characters) or other characters to indicate their pronunciation. It is one type of ruby text. Furigana is also kn ...
(Japanese)
*Emphasis point
The emphasis mark or emphasis dot is a typographic marking used in some East Asian languages to indicate emphasis. The markings takes in many forms like, a dot or a bullet, a circle, or a triangle. It was used more traditionally, but nowadays, ...
s, marks use for emphasis, which can be implemented similarly to ruby
*Harakat
The Arabic script has numerous diacritics, which include: consonant pointing known as (), and supplementary diacritics known as (). The latter include the vowel marks termed (; singular: , ').
The Arabic script is a modified abjad, where s ...
– vocalised Arabic script diacritical marks that provide phonetic assistance for reading texts in Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
.
*Niqqud
In Hebrew orthography, niqqud or nikud ( or ) is a system of diacritical signs used to represent vowels or distinguish between alternative pronunciations of letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Several such diacritical systems were developed in the ...
– vocalised Hebrew script
The Hebrew alphabet ( he, אָלֶף־בֵּית עִבְרִי, ), known variously by scholars as the Ktav Ashuri, Jewish script, square script and block script, is an abjad script used in the writing of the Hebrew language and other Jewish ...
vowel pointings that provide phonetic assistance for reading Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
. (The Hebrew abjad
An abjad (, ar, أبجد; also abgad) is a writing system in which only consonants are represented, leaving vowel sounds to be inferred by the reader. This contrasts with other alphabets, which provide graphemes for both consonants and vowels ...
represents only the consonants.)
References
Further reading
* {{cite book, title=CJKV Information Processing, first=Ken, last=Lunde, author-link=Ken Lunde, location=Sebastopol, California, publisher= O'Reilly Media, year=2009, isbn=978-0-596-51447-1, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SA92uQqTB-AC&pg=PA529, via=Google Books
Sino-Tibetan languages
Japanese writing system
Phonetic guides
Typography
HTML
East Asian typography