[B-Greek] changing transliteration on b-greek

Randall Buth randallbuth at gmail.com
Wed Sep 24 09:30:09 EDT 2008


I've noticed some mismatchings in the b-greek transliteration that could
be simplified and be made more congruent with both the Greek
graphic system and with the Greek keyboard.

Maybe in about 2-3 years this will be unnecesary because the
browsers and servers will all be unicode compatible.
Meanwhile  ...


"C" is a Greek shape for SIGMA,
yet it is used in b-greek for XEI (as in ECEIN =EXEIN to be having).
Score minus 2 for wrong symbol (1)
and wrong position on Greek keyboard (1).

"X" is the ancient Greek shape for XEI and is positioned on the same
place on the Greek keyboard.
Recommended.

"X" in b-greek is "ks" and is both the wrong symbol and wrong position on
a Greek keyboard. Score minus 2.


"Y" is the Greek shape for Y psilon and is positioned on the
same place on the Greek keyboard. Recommended.

"Y" in b-greek is "ps" but it is already "upsilon" in Greek
and on the wrong position for the Greek keyboard. Score minus 2.


Ancient Greek (pre-Euclidean)
used both ΦΣ FS (PS) and ΠΣ PS (PS) for ψ PSEI
and
ΧΣ XS (KS) and ΚΣ KS (KS) for ξ KSEI.
If we adopted those for b-greek,
1. they would be Greek,
2. they would clearly represent the sound,
but they would require two strokes.
Score minus 1, twice.

KS is clearer in  English than FS.
KS is recommended for ξει.

PS is clearer in English than FS.
KS is recommended for ψει.

PostScript:
"W" is OK for omega because of its similar shape. It conflicts with final
sigma on the Greek keyboard, but that is not a necessary symbol for writing
uncials. I often find that I write "V" for b-greek because of the
Greek keyboard
but I catch most of these. Double VV could work with some fonts but either
option would score -1. Recommended to keep W.

"Q" is close to QHTA in shape and doesn't conflict with a alphabet
letter on the
Greek keyboard. But is on wrong position on Greek keyboard. Minus 1.
Without good alternative on English keyboard. U is too easy to confuse with
Latin U.  @ is too big in some fonts and could be interpreted as a control
character in some programs.
Recommended to keep Q.

"F" is the symbol for BAY/waw in Greek, but it is on the same position on the
Greek keyboard for FEI.  score minus one-half, but without alternative.
REcommended to keep F.


RESULTS:
The recommendations would be less clashing with Greek
or the Greek keyboard.
Here is alphbetical order:

A  B  G  D  E     Z  H  Q  I  K  L  M  N  KS  O  P     R  S  T  Y  F  X  PS  W

h  DASEIA (aspiration), and
i YPOGEGRAMMENON (subscript), and
accents '   `  ~  can be added when desired for clarification.

Anyway, b-greek has always tolerated alternative, consistent, clear
transliterations. I just thought it might be nice to add it to the protocol
or consider changing the preference.

It will also be interesting to see responses.


Randall Buth

-- 
Randall Buth, PhD
www.biblicalulpan.org
randallbuth at gmail.com
Biblical Language Center
Learn Easily - Progress Further - Remember for Life


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