Help needed for transliteration of Greek words

[Carolus Raeticus]

Hello!

I've just finished transcribing Meissner's Latin Phrase Book which contains a few words in Greek script. Could you please help me transliterate these?

I put the passages into a 70kb-PDF and would ask you to check my (probably rather feeble) transliteration attempts. Note: this link will be active only until 14 November 2012. After that I will remove the file.

Thank you in advance,

Carolus Raeticus

[bedwere]

I didn't see anything wrong, but why transcribing? You could use Type Greek for polytonic Unicode characters.

[NateD26]

I didn't see anything wrong, but why transcribing? You could use Type Greek for polytonic Unicode characters.

I believe it's for a Latin phrasebook.

I've found some minor mistakes. ου is not transcribed to oy. It sounds like oo in loo or pool.
Wherever there is a breathing mark signifying aspirated vowel (last-quarter crescent),
add h, including to an initial rho which is also written (though not pronounced) like that in
English (Rhode Island for example).

Of course, the ch for χ and ph for φ is a contested issue here on the forum. I'd rather stay out of
it.

[Carolus Raeticus]

Hello!

I didn't see anything wrong, but why transcribing? You could use Type Greek for polytonic Unicode characters.

I am transcribing the text in a text editor (not a text processor like words) using some sort of self-made mark up (for italics, quotes, etc.) I then use a VBA-script to create a Word-document. That makes changing the formatting easier later on. Different scripts, e.g. Greek, are always a problem for plain text files. But bearing in mind NateD26's note (thank you!), perhaps it really is better not to transcribe. That way I can circumnavigate contentious issues. Starting with the web-site given by you I found a list of unicode-character numbers. Instead of giving the actual unicode-characters I shall use their hex-codes. This is rather unwieldy but a lot less problematic when dealing with plain text files.

Thank you both,

Carolus Raeticus

[bedwere]

Hello!

I didn't see anything wrong, but why transcribing? You could use Type Greek for polytonic Unicode characters.

I am transcribing the text in a text editor (not a text processor like words) using some sort of self-made mark up (for italics, quotes, etc.) I then use a VBA-script to create a Word-document. That makes changing the formatting easier later on. Different scripts, e.g. Greek, are always a problem for plain text files. But bearing in mind NateD26's note (thank you!), perhaps it really is better not to transcribe. That way I can circumnavigate contentious issues. Starting with the web-site given by you I found a list of unicode-character numbers. Instead of giving the actual unicode-characters I shall use their hex-codes. This is rather unwieldy but a lot less problematic when dealing with plain text files.

Thank you both,

Carolus Raeticus

For my edition of the Greek Ollendorff, I used Vim as text editor in conjuction with XeLaTeX (a typsetting system) to produce an index, which includes both Greek and Latin characters. I was pleased with the result.

[Carolus Raeticus]

Hello!

For my edition of the Greek Ollendorff, I used Vim as text editor in conjuction with XeLaTeX (a typsetting system) to produce an index, which includes both Greek and Latin characters. I was pleased with the result.

Admittedly, LaTeX would provide a better quality of the final product. I am just proof reading the transcribed book, and Microsoft Word is very poor at printing things agreeably, e.g. when shifting from italic to normal fonts there often is not enough space between the last letter of the italic word and the first letter of the following normal word. But I want to type in as little as possible, and using LaTeX would have considerably increased the work (at least judging from the little I know about LaTeX).

Instead I use a simplified mark-up which encapsules the necessary information to be able to format the work using a VBA-script. Actually, it ought to be possible to convert it into a format LaTeX could use. Also, I intend to upload not only the book itself as a PDF-version but also the plain-text file so that others can do with it as they see fit. One could, for example, create a Meissner's Latin phrase of the day-newsletter or rip it apart (i.e. into two columns for Latin and English) for use in a learning environment. All of that would be more difficult (although probably possible) when using a high-level language like LaTeX.

Bye,

Carolus Raeticus

[Stephen Hill]

It would be helpful to distinguish between omega and omicron in the transliteration, perhaps with a macron or circumflex. Otherwise someone who wants to look up the Greek has to guess.