Non-standard characters

When texts are transcribed and added to the Institute of Australian Culture site, it is highly desired that the text be accurate (or as far as possible, considering that some texts may be damaged or illegible).

Earlier articles on the IAC site did not usually include non-standard alphabet characters, but instead rendered them as standard characters, due to the inability of some early browsers to handle some non-standard characters. Later articles normally include those characters; however, the earlier articles will likely remain as is, unless there is a need or opportunity to revisit and reassess those articles.

Many articles on this site have been sourced from the Trove website (which is run by the National Library of Australia). Some articles on the Trove site include non-standard alphabet characters; and, whilst the Trove site provides some non-standard characters (which can be inserted into corrections of their OCR text), they do not provide all such characters. Therefore, Trove users (or, Trovers) may find this list to be of some use.

This list should be of use to those who are correcting OCR texts on Trove, or who are transcribing texts from other sources. Links to the relevant Wikipedia or Wiktionary pages have been provided here (although Wikipedia and Wiktionary may not be highly regarded in academic circles, they do provide easy-to-read articles and can be useful starting points for many subjects).

It should be noted that on the IAC site the archaic “long s” character is transcribed as a standard “s”, so as to make it easier for the text to be read.

This list is divided into four basic sections: 1) alphabet characters (non-standard), 2) currency symbols, 3) fractions, 4) symbols (non-standard), and 5) keyboard symbols (standard) and keyboard keys (the fifth section was added as a matter of general interest).

———♦——— = dividing line with a diamond (this type of dividing line, or dinkus, is quite common in historical newspapers in Trove)

1) alphabet characters (non-standard)

Á á = A/a with acute
Â â = A/a with circumflex
À à = A/a with grave
Ā ā = A/a with macron
Ä ä = A/a with umlaut
Æ æ = AE/ae ligature; Ash; Ashe (e.g. encyclopædia, mediæval)
Ç, ç = C/c with cedilla
É é = E/e with acute (e.g. fiancée, née, resumé; the latter can also be spelt résumé)
ę = E/e with ogonek (see also: E/e with caudata; hooked e; looped e; tailed e)
Ê, ê = E/e with circumflex
È è = E/e with grave (e.g. blessèd)
Ē ē = E/e with macron; see: Macron (diacritic)
Ë ë = E/e with umlaut
Í í = I/i with acute
Î î = I/i with circumflex
Ì ì = I/i with grave
Ï ï = I/i with umlaut (e.g. naïve)
Ô ô = O with circumflex
Õ õ = O/o with tilde
Ö ö = O/o with umlaut
Œ œ = OE/oe ligature (e.g. phœnix)
ſ = long s (an archaic “s” character)
ß = sharp S; Eszett; scharfes S (a German “S” character)
Ú, ú = U/u with acute
Û û = U/u with circumflex (e.g. divûm, jeûne)
Ū ū = U/u with macron
Ü ü = U/u with umlaut

See also: The 26 letters of the modern English alphabet:
(These links include information on the accents and diacritics related to each letter.)
A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z.

2) currency symbols

¢ = cent
$ = dollar
€ = euro (European Union)
ƒ = florin (Aruban florin; Netherlands Antillean guilder; Dutch guilder 1434 to 2002)
₣ = franc (French franc)
£ = pound (United Kingdom; British Empire)
₽ = ruble (Russia)
¥ = yen (Japan); yuan (China)

3) fractions

(At the time of writing, most of the Wikipedia fraction pages were basically redirection pages, with the exception of “one half”.)

½ = one half
⅓ = one third
⅔ = two thirds
¼ = one quarter
¾ = three quarters
⅕ = one fifth
⅖ = two fifths
⅗ = three fifths
⅘ = four fifths
⅙ = one sixth
⅚ = five sixths
⅐ = one seventh
⅛ = one eighth
⅜ = three eighths
⅝ = five eighths
⅞ = seven eighths
⅑ = one ninth
⅒ = one tenth

Faction symbols not obtained: 2-6/7, 2-8/9, 3/10, 7/10, 9/10.
Faction symbols not obtained (presumably not generally used, as they can be replaced by other (common) faction symbols: 2/4 (replaceable by: 1/2), 2/6 (1/3), 3/6 (1/2), 4/6 (2/3), 2/8 (1/4), 4/8 (1/2), 6/8 (3/4), 2/10 (1/5), 4/10 (2/5), 5/10 (1/2), 6/10 (3/5), 8/10 (3/4).

↉ = zero-thirds (used in: baseball; Japan)
⅟ = one (not a fraction)

4) symbols (non-standard)

⁂ = asterism (typography)
● = black circle large; see: bullet (typography) (Unicode: U+25CF) [see also: bullet]
◆ = black diamond large; see: Geometric Shapes (Unicode block)
♦ = black diamond small
■ = black square; black block; black box; see: Geometric Shapes (Unicode block)
▼ = black triangle large downward-pointing; arrow down
► = black triangle large right-pointing; arrow right
◀ = black triangle small left-pointing; see: Geometric Shapes (Unicode block)
▶ = black triangle small right-pointing; see: Geometric Shapes (Unicode block)
• = bullet; bullet point; black dot; see: bullet (typography) (Unicode: U+2022)
℅ = care of (normal case: c/o)
© = copyright symbol; copyright sign
† = dagger (mark); obelisk; obelus (see also: double dagger)
° = degree symbol; degree sign
÷ = division sign
‡ = double dagger; diesis; see: dagger (mark)
≈ = double tilde; approximately sign
… = ellipsis (three dots or periods in mid-sentence)
— = em dash
– = en dash (traditionally, an “en dash” is half the width of an “em dash”; but, in actual practise, it can be of differing lengths)
≥ = greater than or equal to [see also: less than or equal to]
« » = guillemets (sideways double chevrons, used as quotation marks)
∞ = infinity symbol; lazy eight; lemniscate
• = interpunct; interpoint; middle dot; middot; centered dot; centred dot
¡ = inverted exclamation mark
¿ = inverted question mark (commonly used in Spanish)
≤ = less than or equal to [see also: greater than or equal to]
◊ = lozenge; diamond
✠ = Maltese cross
☞ = manicule; hand pointing [the link includes various other hand symbols]
≠ = not equal sign; inequation; inequality
№ = numero sign
¶ = pilcrow; paragraph mark; paragraph sign
‰ = per mille; per mil; per mill; permil; permill; permille
± = plus–minus sign; plus or minus symbol
£ = pound sign
′ = prime symbol
※ = reference mark; reference symbol
® = registered trademark symbol
℺ = rotated capital Q
§ = section sign; section mark
√ = square root; radical
⁊ = Tironian et (used in shorthand)
★ = star (glyph) [the link includes various star symbols]
∴ = therefore sign
™ = trademark_symbol,

Some Greek symbols:
∆ = delta (upper case)
µ = mu (lower case); population mean
Ω = omega (upper case)
π = pipi (lower case)
∏ = pipi (upper case)
∑ = sigma (upper case); summation
For further information, see: Greek alphabet

See also:
Letterlike Symbols
Dingbat [the link includes various dingbats, including the following:]
❖ = black diamond minus white X
❦= floral heart; hedera (ivy leaf); see: fleuron (typography) (see also: reversed rotated floral heart bullet; rotated floral heart bullet)
☙ = reversed rotated floral heart bullet; see: fleuron (typography)
❧ = rotated floral heart bullet; see: fleuron (typography)
✿ = flower
❤ = heavy black heart
✺ = sixteen pointed asterisk
❀ = white florette

5) keyboard symbols (standard) and keyboard keys

Keyboards can differ, depending on their type (e.g. Windows, Apple Mac, desktop, laptop); the list below is for a standard Windows keyboard.

Some items listed here as a “symbol” can also be called a “sign” (e.g. the “equals symbol” can also be called the “equals sign”). The items are listed in the order that they appear on a standard keyboard.

Main section:
Esc = escape key
F1 to F12 = function keys
1 to 0 = number keys
~ = tilde; approximately
` = backtick; back quote; grave; grave accent
! = exclamation mark; exclamation point; bang
@ = at; at sign; at symbol
# = hash; hashtag; number; number sign; pound sign
$ = dollar; dollar sign
% = percent; percent sign; percent symbol
^ = caret; circumflex; hat; exponent symbol
& = ampersand; and; and symbol
* = asterisk [not to be confused with Asterix, the cartoon warrior from Gaul]
( = left parenthesis; open parenthesis; left bracket; open bracket; left rounded bracket
) = right parenthesis; close parenthesis; right bracket; close bracket; right rounded bracket
_ = underscore; low dash; low line
– = hyphen; dash; minus; minus sign; minus symbol
+ = plus; plus sign; plus symbol; addition
= = equals; equals sign; equals symbol
| = vertical bar; vbar; vertical divider; vertical pipe; pipe
\ = backslash; backward slash
[backspace] = backspace (an arrow pointing from right to left) =
Tab = tab key; tabulator key; tabular key
{ = left curly bracket; open curly bracket; left brace; open brace
[= left square bracket; open square bracket
} = right curly bracket; close curly bracket; right brace; close brace
] = right square bracket; close square bracket
Enter = enter; enter key; return; return key
Caps Lock = Caps Lock
: = colon
; = semicolon
” = quotation mark; double quotes; double quotation mark
‘ = apostrophe; single quote; single quotation mark
Shift [left] = Shift; Shift key (a modifier key)
< = left angle bracket; less than symbol
, = comma
> = right angle bracket; greater than symbol; more than symbol
. = full stop; period; decimal symbol; dot
? = question mark
/ = slash; forward slash
Shift [right] = Shift; Shift key (a modifier key)
Ctrl [left] = control; left control (a modifier key)
[Windows, left] = Windows key; Windows logo key
Alt [left] = alt key; left alt (a modifier key)
[space bar] = Space bar
Alt [right] = alt key; right alt (a modifier key)
[Windows, right] = Windows key; Windows logo key
[Menu] = Menu key
Ctrl [right] = control; right control

Near right section:
Print Screen [and Sys Rq] = Print Screen; System request
Scroll Lock = Scroll Lock
Pause [and Break] = Pause key; Break key
Insert = Insert key
Home = Home key
Page Up = Page Up key
Delete = Delete key
End = End key
Page Down = Page Down key
[Arrow keys] = arrow keys

Far right section:
Also called: numberpad; numeric keypad.
All of these keys are duplicates of numbers or functions found elsewhere on the keyboard, with one exception:
Num Lock = numeric lock; number lock

For further information, see:
Category:Computer keys
Fn key
IBM PC keyboard
Keyboard layout
Keyboard technology
Modifier key
Template:Keyboard

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