Regional indicator symbol
The Regional Indicator Symbols are a set of 26 alphabetic characters (A-Z) in the Universal Character Set intended to be used to encode ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 two-letter country codes in a way that allows optional special treatment.
These were defined as part of the Unicode 6.0 support for emoji, as an alternative to encoding separate characters for each country flag. Although they can be displayed as Roman letters, it is intended that implementations may choose to display them in other ways, such as by using national flags.[1][2] The Unicode FAQ indicates that this mechanism should be used and that further flags will not be directly encoded.[3]
They are encoded in the range U+1F1E6 🇦 REGIONAL INDICATOR SYMBOL LETTER A to U+1F1FF 🇿 REGIONAL INDICATOR SYMBOL LETTER Z within the Enclosed Alphanumeric Supplement block in the Supplementary Multilingual Plane.[4]
Example
This is a demonstration of how these characters appear in your browser: 🇦 🇧 🇨 🇩 🇪 🇫 🇬 🇭 🇮 🇯 🇰 🇱 🇲 🇳 🇴 🇵 🇶 🇷 🇸 🇹 🇺 🇻 🇼 🇽 🇾 🇿. Following is a demonstration of sample letter pairs in a variety of fonts.
| Sample pairs (default serif) | Sample pairs (default sans-serif) | Sample pairs (default mono) | Apple Color Emoji |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🇦🇺 🇨🇦 🇨🇭 🇨🇳 🇩🇪 🇪🇸 🇫🇷 🇬🇧 🇮🇱 🇮🇹 🇯🇵 🇰🇳 🇰🇷 🇳🇴 🇳🇵 🇵🇦 🇶🇦 🇷🇺 🇸🇸 🇺🇸 |
🇦🇺 🇨🇦 🇨🇭 🇨🇳 🇩🇪 🇪🇸 🇫🇷 🇬🇧 🇮🇱 🇮🇹 🇯🇵 🇰🇳 🇰🇷 🇳🇴 🇳🇵 🇵🇦 🇶🇦 🇷🇺 🇸🇸 🇺🇸 |
🇦🇺 🇨🇦 🇨🇭 🇨🇳 🇩🇪 🇪🇸 🇫🇷 🇬🇧 🇮🇱 🇮🇹 🇯🇵 🇰🇳 🇰🇷 🇳🇴 🇳🇵 🇵🇦 🇶🇦 🇷🇺 🇸🇸 🇺🇸 |
🇦🇺 🇨🇦 🇨🇭 🇨🇳 🇩🇪 🇪🇸 🇫🇷 🇬🇧 🇮🇱 🇮🇹 🇯🇵 🇰🇳 🇰🇷 🇳🇴 🇳🇵 🇵🇦 🇶🇦 🇷🇺 🇸🇸 🇺🇸 |
| Arial Unicode MS | Brampton | Quivira | Segoe UI Symbol |
| 🇦🇺 🇨🇦 🇨🇭 🇨🇳 🇩🇪 🇪🇸 🇫🇷 🇬🇧 🇮🇱 🇮🇹 🇯🇵 🇰🇳 🇰🇷 🇳🇴 🇳🇵 🇵🇦 🇶🇦 🇷🇺 🇸🇸 🇺🇸 |
🇦🇺 🇨🇦 🇨🇭 🇨🇳 🇩🇪 🇪🇸 🇫🇷 🇬🇧 🇮🇱 🇮🇹 🇯🇵 🇰🇳 🇰🇷 🇳🇴 🇳🇵 🇵🇦 🇶🇦 🇷🇺 🇸🇸 🇺🇸 |
🇦🇺 🇨🇦 🇨🇭 🇨🇳 🇩🇪 🇪🇸 🇫🇷 🇬🇧 🇮🇱 🇮🇹 🇯🇵 🇰🇳 🇰🇷 🇳🇴 🇳🇵 🇵🇦 🇶🇦 🇷🇺 🇸🇸 🇺🇸 |
🇦🇺 🇨🇦 🇨🇭 🇨🇳 🇩🇪 🇪🇸 🇫🇷 🇬🇧 🇮🇱 🇮🇹 🇯🇵 🇰🇳 🇰🇷 🇳🇴 🇳🇵 🇵🇦 🇶🇦 🇷🇺 🇸🇸 🇺🇸 |
References
- ^ Andrew West. "What's new in Unicode 6.0". Babelstone. Retrieved 2011-04-05.
- ^ Michael Everson and Ken Whistler. "Proposal to encode Regional Indicator Symbols in the UCS" (PDF). Working Group Document, ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2/WG2 and UTC. Retrieved 2011-04-05.
- ^ Unicode Frequently Asked Questions: Emoji and Dingbats
- ^ "Enclosed Alphanumeric Supplement, Range 1F100 - 1F1FF, The Unicode Standard, Version 6.0" (PDF). Unicode Consortium. 2010. Retrieved 2011-04-05.