Re: Greek charset

On Tue, Nov 28, 2000 at 08:38:51PM -0600, Microtonal wrote:
> Oskar Gudlaugsson wrote:
> >
> > On Tue, 28 Nov 2000 14:03:23 -0500, John Cowan <jcowan@...>
> > wrote:
> >
> > >The safest way, in the current state of the art, is "frangovlakhika" (i.e.
> > >using Latin letters).  The usual conventions are omega=w, eta=h, theta=q,
> > >chi=c.  Latin j and v are not used.
> >
> > Fair enough, thanks (and to the rest of you for your input :) But still,
> > even with that scheme, how do I fit acutes, graves, and circumflexes into
> > it? Not to mention breathings? Okay, I could do ê or â etc, but the
> > circumflex can't be put on w or h...
> >
> > And why not chi=x? Seems closer, graphically, right?
>
> Because 'x' should be used for xi, as we use it for the same sound in
> English (for the most part).
>
> > And actually, omega=oo, eta=ee, theta=th, chi=kh, phi=ph, might be more
> > legible after all...(just a thought)
>
> This is the transcription I'm used to (except that chi is usually 'ch').
> I've also seen omega = o_ and eta = e_, but it strikes me as rather
> stilted. Perseus at Tufts simply uses the single vowels with
> circumflexes to indicate long vowels, and doesn't mark accent at all.
Perseus gives several options. One that can apparently show accent marks is
"beta code." For most characters, it used pretty traditional Latin
transliteration, plus omega=w, eta=h, theta=q, psi=y, chi=x, xi=c (contrary
to the above). It then uses punctuation marks to the right of the letters
for accents. Examples:

a/      =alpha with acute
a\      =alpha with grave
a=      =alpha with circumflex
a)      =alpha with soft breathing
a(      =alpha with rough breathing
a)/     =alpha with soft breathing and acute
a(/     =alpha with rough breathing and acute
a)\     =alpha with soft breathing and grave
a(\     =alpha with rough breathing and grave
a)=     =alpha with soft breathing and circumflex
a(=     =alpha with rough breathing and circumflex
a|      =alpha with iota subscript
a)/|    =alpha with soft breathing, acute, and iota subscript
a)=|    =alpha with soft breathing, circumflex, and iota subscript
i+      =iota with dieresis
*       put before a capital letter (Why not just capitalize it?)

Basically, / means acute, \ means grave, = means circumflex (is that the
right name?), ) means soft breathing, ( means rough breathing, | means iota
subscript, + means dieresis, and * marks capitals. Pretty good coverage, but
hard to read IMO (but then I don't even know Greek to begin with!)

I found this on at: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/Help/fonthelp.html

--
Eric Christopherson / *Aiworegs Ghristobhorosyo