diff --git a/include/chaiscript/utility/unicode.hpp b/include/chaiscript/utility/unicode.hpp
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..294278ad
--- /dev/null
+++ b/include/chaiscript/utility/unicode.hpp
@@ -0,0 +1,91 @@
+// This file is distributed under the BSD License.
+// See "license.txt" for details.
+// http://www.chaiscript.com
+
+#ifndef CHAISCRIPT_UTILITY_UNICODE_HPP_
+#define CHAISCRIPT_UTILITY_UNICODE_HPP_
+
+#include <cstddef>
+#include <cstdint>
+#include <string>
+
+namespace chaiscript {
+  namespace utility {
+    namespace unicode {
+
+      inline constexpr std::uint32_t max_codepoint = 0x10FFFF;
+
+      constexpr bool is_surrogate(std::uint32_t cp) noexcept { return cp >= 0xD800 && cp <= 0xDFFF; }
+
+      // Append cp to out as UTF-8. Returns bytes written, or 0 if cp >= 0x200000.
+      // Surrogates are not rejected here; callers that care check is_surrogate() first.
+      inline std::size_t append_utf8(std::string &out, std::uint32_t cp) {
+        if (cp < 0x80) {
+          out += static_cast<char>(cp);
+          return 1;
+        }
+        if (cp < 0x800) {
+          out += static_cast<char>(0xC0 | (cp >> 6));
+          out += static_cast<char>(0x80 | (cp & 0x3F));
+          return 2;
+        }
+        if (cp < 0x10000) {
+          out += static_cast<char>(0xE0 | (cp >> 12));
+          out += static_cast<char>(0x80 | ((cp >> 6) & 0x3F));
+          out += static_cast<char>(0x80 | (cp & 0x3F));
+          return 3;
+        }
+        if (cp < 0x200000) {
+          out += static_cast<char>(0xF0 | (cp >> 18));
+          out += static_cast<char>(0x80 | ((cp >> 12) & 0x3F));
+          out += static_cast<char>(0x80 | ((cp >> 6) & 0x3F));
+          out += static_cast<char>(0x80 | (cp & 0x3F));
+          return 4;
+        }
+        return 0;
+      }
+
+      // Append cp to out as UTF-16. Returns code units written, or 0 if cp is
+      // a surrogate or > max_codepoint.
+      template<typename CharT>
+      inline std::size_t append_utf16(std::basic_string<CharT> &out, std::uint32_t cp) {
+        if (is_surrogate(cp) || cp > max_codepoint) {
+          return 0;
+        }
+        if (cp < 0x10000) {
+          out += static_cast<CharT>(cp);
+          return 1;
+        }
+        const std::uint32_t v = cp - 0x10000;
+        out += static_cast<CharT>(0xD800 | (v >> 10));
+        out += static_cast<CharT>(0xDC00 | (v & 0x3FF));
+        return 2;
+      }
+
+      // Append cp to a basic_string<CharT>. Dispatches on sizeof(CharT):
+      // 1 byte -> UTF-8, 2 bytes -> UTF-16, 4 bytes -> UTF-32.
+      // Returns code units written, or 0 if the codepoint is invalid.
+      template<typename CharT>
+      inline std::size_t append_codepoint(std::basic_string<CharT> &out, std::uint32_t cp) {
+        if constexpr (sizeof(CharT) == 1) {
+          std::string tmp;
+          const auto n = append_utf8(tmp, cp);
+          out.append(tmp.begin(), tmp.end());
+          return n;
+        } else if constexpr (sizeof(CharT) == 2) {
+          return append_utf16(out, cp);
+        } else {
+          static_assert(sizeof(CharT) == 4, "append_codepoint: unsupported CharT size");
+          if (is_surrogate(cp) || cp > max_codepoint) {
+            return 0;
+          }
+          out += static_cast<CharT>(cp);
+          return 1;
+        }
+      }
+
+    } // namespace unicode
+  } // namespace utility
+} // namespace chaiscript
+
+#endif