Troubleshooting Kindle dictionaries don't support unusual Unicode characters.

[Nyarlathopian]

I want to create a custom dictionary for my Kindle Paperwhite 11th generation.

The caveat is that I use quirky Unicode characters in my dictionary that are not supported by Kindle.

That is bothersome, because terms in puzzling scripts require the most look-ups. Thus, especially dictionaries should support peculiar Unicode characters.

I've found that the following five technical limitations are thwarting my attempts.

First technical limitation: The device has no native display of unusual letters. It relies on custom font files (.ttf, .otf) to do so. In which sketches of letters are mapped to their Unicode storage. Despite those freakish characters having their own Unicode range. Without external font files, the device only shows empty rectangles or rectangles with an alphanumeric array in them. Many outlandish letters have their own Unicode, which is distinct from the Unicode range for the Latin script. Kindle's default UI font denotes only the Unicode range for the Latin alphabet or other common scripts. The rare Unicodes are dismissed, leaving such letters undefined.

Second technical limitation: Though it is possible with font files to render infrequent letters on e-books of newer formats (KF8, AZW3), it is impossible on older Kindle formats like mobi7. E-books in AZW3 format allow me to include custom fonts that properly render weird letters, whereas the dictionary pop-up is stuck with the deprecated mobi7 format, preventing the use of custom fonts and the proper display of kooky letters. That is a problem because of the

Third technical limitation: Kindle dictionaries can only be in the older mobi7 format. It is not possible to generate and use dictionaries that are formatted in KF8 or AZW3. Or is it? If so, how? I've tried Kindlegen and eCanCrusher+Kindle Previewer. Neither can do so.

Fourth technical limitation: It seems that custom fonts are disparaged anyway when it comes to the dictionary pop-up. The pop-up is rendered in the default system UI font, which disregards atypical letters, showing only enigmatic rectangles. So why not allow the pop-up to be rendered by an external custom font?

But regardless of font rendering, there is another problem:

Fifth technical limitation: The look-up function itself doesn’t seem to work if the word to look up is in an unsupported script; it only works if the word to look up is in Latin script or other supported scripts. Which is odd, because even if Kindles are incapable of rendering unaccustomed characters, Kindles can still identify unconventional letters with their unique Unicode. If a look-up is in Latin script, the dictionary finds matches. If I look up words spelled with offbeat letters, no definitions are found. Despite the entry for it being defined in the same way as it is defined for look-ups in Latin script. It is unclear how exactly the look-up works. It seems to be a technology to recognize word boundaries. In whichever way that mysterious technology might work, it is either visual or it uses the Unicodes to pick out the term to look up.

The only quasi-solution seems to be a jailbreak, in which the default system UI font is set to whatever font supports quirky Unicode characters. However, jailbreaks that mess with Kindle's basic operating system are cumbersome.

Conclusion: Kindle devices allow funky Unicode characters only for ordinary e-books, but not for Kindle dictionaries. It comes down to Kindles lack of support for quirky Unicode letters.

Are there any other solutions?