# Update on graphemes brackets

In a previous post, I encouraged using the LEFT-POINTING ANGLE BRACKET (U+2329) and the RIGHT-POINTING ANGLE BRACKET (U+232A) for graphemic transcriptions.

However, the new Unicode Standard (Version 8.0) has marked those characters as deprecated for mathematical use, due to their resemblance with the CJK punctuation (check out here). They suggest to use the following substitutes:

• MATHEMATICAL LEFT ANGLE BRACKET (U+27E8): ⟨
• MATHEMATICAL RIGHT ANGLE BRACKET (U+27E9): ⟩

It would be sensible then to use U+27E8 and U+27E9 as the new standard for graphemic transcription.

When I write linguistics documents, I normally use either the Brill or the Charis SIL typeface. Unfortunately, though, only Brill provides those characters. I believe that using the major ( > ) and minor ( < ) signs instead of angle brackets should be avoided: they look quite ugly when used for graphemic transcriptions and indeed they have a very different meaning and purpose both in mathematics and historical linguistics.