Word Processing in Classical Languages

Word Processing in Classical Languages Latin, Germanic, Greek corue auis nimis nitida & splendida oque auis est tibi similis in pennis nisi solus cignusµ & super omnia places michi ymno si sol¯ u cantu¯ tu¯ u audire posse¯, inter ceteras aues te utique extollere¯ ¸ David J. Perry DRAFT FOR COMMENT #2: NOT FINAL ii Word Processing in Classical Languages [back of cover] DRAFT FOR COMMENT #2: NOT FINAL Word Processing in Classical Languages iii Word Processing in Classical Languages Latin, Germanic, Greek David J. Perry Rye High School, Rye, New York DRAFT FOR COMMENT #2: NOT FINAL iv Word Processing in Classical Languages This Draft for Comment may be obtained from <http://members.telocity.com/~perryd>. Please send comments or corrections to <[email protected]>. This document is set up like a printed book; even-numbered pages should be on the right and odd- numbered pages on the left. If you print out the document before reading it, turn each even-numbered page over, print down, and back it up with the preceding odd-numbered page. Then punch for a three-ring binder or staple at the spine. Body text of this book is set in Cardo, a Unicode font by David Perry; major heads are in Lithos and subheads in CG Omega. The Latin quotation on the cover is from a prose version of the version of the fable of the fox and the crow. These prose versions are found in the Wolfenbüttel manuscript of the fables attributed to ‘Wal- ter of England’ where they were added to help students struggling with the verse originals. “O corve, avis nimis nitida et splendida, que avis est tibi similis in pennis nisi solus cignus? et super omnia placet michi ymno si solum cantum tuum audire possem, inter ceteras aves te utique extollerem.” It is set in the Beowulf font by Peter Baker. This book refers to a number of company names and product names which are trademarks. These references are used in an editorial fashion to provide readers with information about the products mentioned, and no trademark infringement is intended. All trademarks are the property of their re- spective owners. Copyright © by David J. Perry. Information in this book is provided to help users find appropriate ways to prepare their documents. It is the responsibility of each user to evaluate any product mentioned to see whether it is suitable for his or her needs. In no event shall David J. Perry be liable for difficulties with or damage to any computer system caused by use of any product or procedure mentioned in this book. Second draft for comment, printed 1/12/01 with various corrections and additions to the draft of August 2000. DRAFT FOR COMMENT #2: NOT FINAL Word Processing in Classical Languages v Contents List of Tables and Figures vi Acknowledgements vi Introduction 1 Part I. Font and Keyboard Basics 1. Fonts, Character Sets and Unicode 5 2. Keyboard Entry and Other Useful Information 11 Part II. The Present 3. Latin 17 4. Interlude: Using Unicode Characters with Microsoft Word 25 5. Germanic 29 6. Interlude: What If I Need Characters That Aren’t in My Font? 33 7 Greek 37 8. Epigraphy 49 9. Metrics 53 10. Setting Type 55 11. Sharing Documents with Others 59 Part III. The Future 12. The Need for Standardization 65 13. OpenType 69 Part IV. Resources Sources of Information 71 Works Cited 72 Appendices Appendix 1. Macintosh character set 76 Appendix 2. Windows character set 77 Appendix 3. Windows 2000 Polytonic Greek Keyboard 78 Appendix 4. ISO Language Codes 83 DRAFT FOR COMMENT #2: NOT FINAL vi Word Processing in Classical Languages List of Tables and Figures DRAFT FOR COMMENT #2: NOT FINAL Word Processing in Classical Languages vii Table 1. Selected combining diacritical marks in Unicode. 10 Table 2. Unicode characters for classical and medieval Latin. 23 Table 3. Medieval Germanic characters in Unicode. 31 Table 4. The Greek and Coptic block of Unicode. 43 Table 5. The Greek Extended block of Unicode. 44 Table 6. Epigraphic characters in Unicode. 50 Figure 1. Adding languages and keyboard layouts. 13 Figure 2. The US-International keyboard. 14 Figure 3. Word’s Insert/Symbol dialog box. 25 Figure 4. add new figure 4 (PDF screenshot) here p. 57 Sample 1. Printing with CL Fonts. 20 Acknowledgements I am grateful to the following people for comments and suggestions: Rob Latousek. Any errors or infelicities which remain are mine. DRAFT FOR COMMENT #2: NOT FINAL Word Processing in Classical Languages 1 Introduction About This Book Audience and Purpose This book is intended for anyone who works with text in classical or medieval Latin, medieval Ger- manic languages, or polytonic Greek.1 This includes teachers at all levels who produce materials for students and authors of textbooks as well as those who prepare scholarly articles or editions. This material may also be of help to some people outside the academic professions, such as type designers, font manufacturers, and typesetters or desktop publishers who sometimes need to work with classical languages. Both Microsoft Windows and the Macintosh operating system (Mac OS) are covered. The book is intended, first and foremost, to provide practical help for users in getting the characters that they need in their work. A secondary purpose is to educate academic users about some key concepts and issues concerning the use of type on computers. I have also provided some information about how to get non-English characters used in modern Western languages, partly because scholars frequently work in several languages and partly because some of the concepts apply to the information about classical languages. Although little of this information is original with the present author, it has never been available in one place before. I hope that this compilation will be a convenient source of help for the community of classical language users. Some may be surprised to find medieval Germanic languages (Old Eng- lish, Old Norse, etc.) treated together with Latin and Greek. You will find, however, that users of these languages need many of the same characters that are used in classical and medieval Latin— particularly vowels with macra and brevia. Hebrew could also be added her, since biblical scholars of- ten use it along with Greek and some software publishers provide support for both languages. How- ever, since I do not know Hebrew, I have not included much information about it.2 Origin of This Book This book is the outgrowth of an interest dating back years in the problems faced by classicists and others who need special characters. While developing the CL Fonts package for Latinists (described below on page 20) I became frustrated with the limitations of -character fonts and began to investigate Unicode. This research has convinced me that we need to educate ourselves about this technology and take advantage of it to solve some of the problems that we have faced over the years. 1 I use the term polytonic rather than classical Greek. Although many readers of this book will be classical scholars, the information will be of use to anyone who needs to represent a Greek text—ancient, Byzantine, or modern—that contains the various diacritics used prior to the promulgation of the monotonic system in . 2 The WinGreek, Son of WinGreek, Silver Mountain and Antioch packages discussed in the Greek section also support Hebrew. DRAFT FOR COMMENT #2: NOT FINAL 2 Word Processing in Classical Languages I have no financial interest in any of the products mentioned here; comments are my own opinions based on my experience with the various products. I welcome corrections or information about additional products. Email me at <[email protected]>. This document contains many <hyperlinks> (printed in blue between brackets) to Internet sites. If you are viewing the document on screen, you can click on the hyperlink and your browser will open and take you to the site. All links were valid as of January . Finding What You Need Because some users of this book may be relatively unfamiliar with the issues discussed, while others may be highly sophisticated computer users, I have tried to make it easy to find the information you need and to skip material you do not need to deal with. Part I of this book presents basic information about fonts used on computers, character sets, Unicode, and keyboard entry. Part II describes solutions that are available right now (January ) for users of Latin, Germanic languages, and Greek. The chapter for each language begins with an Overview that summarizes the characters needed for that language and provides any other necessary general information. Immediately after the Overview comes a How-To section that provides practical help for people who need to find out how to get macra, Greek characters, etc. in their documents. The How-To section is broken down into two parts: one that will apply to all users, discussing traditional -character fonts, and the other specific to users who have a Unicode-capable word processor such as Microsoft Word . If you do not understand the reasons for this distinction, you need to read the section below on fonts and Unicode. Part III goes beyond the question of practical help with documents and presents some information about where we will be in the future with characters and fonts. This section will be of interest to anyone who is seriously interested in these issues and is important for anyone who plans to work with classical languages in the future. There is a pressing need for standards which should be of con- cern to anyone in the profession.

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