Re: Why is 〇 not a Unified Ideograph?

[Martin J. Dürst]

On 2023-02-24 02:33, Gabriel Tellez via Unicode wrote:
> Why is 〇 (U+3007) not a CJK Unified Ideograph?

This is an interesting question. Essentially, this character is "about 
half" an ideograph. That means that in some respect, it is an ideograph, 
but not in others. Let's look at some of these:

For:
- Used together with other ideographs in running text
- Has pronunciations,... like other ideographs
- Has same width as other ideographs


Against:
- Shape: A circle not composed of strokes
   (there are other ideographs that contain round strokes,
    e.g. 丸 (round), but none with an actual circle)
- Doesn't have a radical
- History: Not used in really old texts (where 万千百十
   are used)
- Isn't encoded with other ideographs in the original Japanese/
   Chinese/Korean standards

There may be other reasons.

I think in one of his dictionaries, Jack Halpern described that he 
discovered 〇 as a new ideograph. But it's really just a matter of 
viewpoint, and Unicode took the viewpoint of the preceding national 
standards that 〇 isn't a CJK ideograph.

Regards,   Martin.