Biblical Original Languages

There is only one Template for Biblical Original Language Studies: Biblical_original_language_studies - basic

Click here for technical details of the DBT translator table used by the Biblical original language studies template.

This special template and braille table handle the following languages:

• Hebrew
• Greek
• Syriac
• Coptic
• English
• Material written in the Nestle-Aland Notation
• Various European languages with accent marks
• Arabic
• Russian

No special language switching is needed to go from script to script. This single table handles them all.

Using the Translator

You get the best results importing your texts into DBT from Microsoft Word files. When you open your file, select the DBT template, Bibilical original language studies. You can translate your file immediately using the biblical translator, but before you do, we recommend that you save the Duxbury Print file (.dxp).

Braille to Print

The braille-to-print translator can use either the script indicators or the DBT language codes to determine the current language. You can use the back translator to write multi-lingual documents in braille and produce them in Word for distribution to others.

If writing in braille, you can use the following chart to switch scripts.

Using the Critical Apparatus

Once you have a Duxbury .dxp file that is prepared for the Biblical original language studies braille translation table, you need to turn on the Critical Apparatus mode in the translator. Do this by placing the cursor at the top of the Duxbury *.dxp file. Press ctrl+[ (that is, hold down the Ctrl key while pressing the left square bracket), then enter the letters vrn~ca, then press the Enter key. The ctrl+[ opens the dialog for entering a Duxbury code. The vrn code changes the mode of a translation table. After the tilde, the letters ca turn on "critical apparatus mode". The Enter key closes the dialog for entering the command. As an alternative, you can insert the string [[*vrn~ca*]] at the top of the Word file. When imported, DBT interprets this string as the DBT command vrn~ca (which is what we want).

What does this do? It adds a braille cell of dots 456 before each Greek word, and adds a double dot 6 before each Hebrew letter.

If you want to turn off this mode, use ctrl+[ as above, but the command is just vrn without ~ca.

This translation mode handles the 18 special characters used in the Nestle-Aland notation (found in the Unicode range: U+2713-275A) using a braille table supplied by Matthew Yeater, who consulted others as to the preferred code for rendering these symbols.

Sample Files

To gather sample files, we used the website www.sacred-texts.com. We also placed the following two sample files on the Duxbury website.

For a sample file of Syriac, see the Word file Syriac.docx.

For a sample file of highly technical material in the Nestle-Aland notation, see the Word file Matthew.docx.

Unfortunately, the fonts in this file were not preserved, so the specialized Nestle-Aland characters appear as dingbats instead of in the forms illustrated below. But the Matthew.docx sample does translate correctly into braille in DBT. This sample displays how technical the Nestle-Aland material can get. The opening line in the docx file automatically turns on vrn~ca (critical apparatus mode) to set the correct mode for translation to braille.

Nestle-Aland Notation

The Nestle-Aland Notation uses the Libronix Apparatus font.

This external link is one guide to the Nestle-Aland Notation system.

Key for the chart of text-critical signs below:

• Column 1: Unicode Number
• Column 2: Character appearance without the LbxApparatus font installed (the correct appearance is in the illustration above).
• Column 3: Braille encoding of this character
• Column 4: Description of this character

Separate Unicodes are assigned for some (2714, 2718, 2719, 2751, 2765), but 2767 can also appear with a dot. 2715, 2716, 2717, 2750, 2766, 2767, 274F, and 275A can also appear with superscript numbers.

Hebrew Table

Vowels and Other Marks

Advanced List - Cantillation Marks

You will see the terms "prepositive" and "postpositive" in the table below. "Prepositive" means that the symbol comes before the word (the first thing you see in the word). "Postpositive" means the symbol comes after the word (the last thing you see in the word).

Usually accents that do not have their position predetermined appear immediately after the vowel in the stressed syllable. However, if doing so would break up a contraction such as hiriq-yod, the accent is placed between the opening consonant and the vowel. In a word ending with a vowel where the stress is on the last syllable, a qadma would be placed before the vowel as well, so not to be confused with a postpositive pashta.

Examples