Realised Signs

Textual signs rendered graphically within the text as Unicode glyphs.

Syntax

Any number of Unicode characters not in STOP_SET, i.e. those special characters used to notate other phenomena.

Overview

Notation	Conceptual AST	Paper Output
`𝑆×𝑁`	`Plain(𝑆×𝑁)`	`𝑆×𝑁`

𝑆 = any sign (Unicode character) ∉ STOP_SET (cf. Technical Catalogue of Symbols) otherwise preceded by the escape character \.
𝑁 = number of characters (represented by char or digits).

Examples

Notation	Paper Output
`𒀭𒂗𒆤`	𒀭𒂗𒆤
`𓄤𓆑𓂋`	𓄤𓆑𓂋
`φῶς`	φῶς
`𐌀𐌕𐌉`	𐌀𐌕𐌉
`rēs`	rēs
`𐭬𐭫𐭪`	𐭬𐭫𐭪

EpiDoc Outputs

Notation	EpiDoc (XML)
`𒀭𒂗𒆤`	`<ab>𒀭𒂗𒆤</ab>`
`𓄤𓆑𓂋`	`<ab>𓄤𓆑𓂋</ab>`
`φῶς`	`<ab>φῶς</ab>`
`𐌀𐌕𐌉`	`<ab>𐌀𐌕𐌉</ab>`
`rēs`	`<ab>rēs</ab>`
`𐭬𐭫𐭪`	`<ab>𐭬𐭫𐭪</ab>`

Structural Analysis (Conceptual AST)

Notation	AST
`𒀭𒂗𒆤`	`Plain("𒀭𒂗𒆤")`
`𓄤𓆑𓂋`	`Plain("𓄤𓆑𓂋")`
`φῶς`	`Plain("φῶς")`
`𐌀𐌕𐌉`	`Plain("𐌀𐌕𐌉")`
`rēs`	`Plain("rēs")`
`𐭬𐭫𐭪`	`Plain("𐭬𐭫𐭪")`

Whilst this input method is ideal for commonly used characters, it proves inadequate for rare glyphs or those belonging to historical writing systems. Indeed, the direct insertion of specific Unicode characters not only risks generating incorrect substitute characters if the font being used is incomplete, but also compromises the logical consistency of the editorial layout. This occurs in particular when introducing graphemes with opposing writing directions (as in the case of Middle Persian characters inserted into a Latin transcription), causing unpredictable alterations to the text layout.