Tuesday, June 21, 2016

Announcing The Unicode® Standard, Version 9.0

🥂Version 9.0 of the Unicode Standard is now available. Version 9.0 adds exactly 7,500 characters, for a total of 128,172 characters. These additions include six new scripts and 72 new emoji characters.

The new scripts and characters in Version 9.0 add support for lesser-used languages worldwide, including:
  • Osage, a Native American language
  • Nepal Bhasa, a language of Nepal
  • Fulani and other African languages
  • The Bravanese dialect of Swahili, used in Somalia
  • The Warsh orthography for Arabic, used in North and West Africa
  • Tangut, a major historic script of China
Important symbol additions include:
  • 19 symbols for the new 4K TV standard
  • 72 emoji characters such as the following
Smileys & people 🤣  ROLLING ON THE FLOOR LAUGHING
🤦  FACE PALM
Hand gestures 🤞  HAND WITH INDEX AND MIDDLE FINGERS CROSSED
Animals 🦋  BUTTERFLY
Food 🥑  AVOCADO
🥘  SHALLOW PAN OF FOOD
Drink 🥂  CLINKING GLASSES
Travel 🛵  MOTOR SCOOTER
Sports 🤸  PERSON DOING CARTWHEEL

For the full list, see emoji additions for Unicode 9.0. For a detailed description of support for emoji characters by the Unicode Standard, see UTR #51, Unicode Emoji.

Three other important Unicode specifications have been updated for Version 9.0:
Some of the changes in Version 9.0 and associated Unicode technical standards and reports may require modifications in implementations. For more information, see Unicode 9.0 Migration and the migration sections of UTS #10, UTS #39, UTS #46, and UTR #51. For full details on Version 9.0, see http://unicode.org/versions/Unicode9.0.0/