Semitic Language Transcription

Table Designator

qak

This is the technical description of a DBT Translation table. If you want more general information about languages and template choices, please see the list of templates.

Initially, the language table for braille translation is determined by the selected template, and may be changed using the Document / Translation Tables menu. Using those menus does not require use of the table designator. However, to switch to a different translation table partway through a file, one must enter a DBT code and the designator for the table to switch to. For switching secondary languages within a base language table, see the [lng~X] command. For switching from one base language to another, see the [lnb~...] command.

Functional Summary

The Semitic Language Transcription tables support print-to-braille translation of English-language, Arabic, Hebrew, Greek, Syriac and Coptic, European languages, in a manner designed to support the needs of braille-reading biblical scholars. This table is a work in progress. Those wishing to participate should contact languages@duxsys.com.

This table is a close relation to the Biblical Original Language Studies table.

This Biblical Languages and the Semitic Languages templates handle the following languages:

• English
• Hebrew
• Greek
• Syriac
• Coptic
• Ethiopic
• 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.

The centerpiece of this table is handling of the diacritics uses to show the pronunciation of various Semitic languages. This code has been worked on for about a year.

Summary of Braille Code

Accents (All these occur before the letter in Braille):

• Acute is dots 23 (2)
• Breve is dots 23456 (()
• Breve reversed is dots 12356 ())
• Caron is dots 46 (.)
• Circumflex is dots 56 (;)
• Dot above is dot 4 (@)
• Dot below is dot 5 (")
• Grave is dots 25 (3)
• Hook above is dots 1256 (\)
• Line below is dots 456 (_)
• Macron is dots 45 (^)

Supported Characters:

This table is subject to change. It is largely in alphabetical order of the base letter.

The Semitic Language Transcription table is based on the Biblical Original Language Studies table, but is expressly designed to handle the various systems used to transcribe a vast number of Semitic Languages into (accented) Roman letters. The handling of Roman script text follows the specifications of Unified English Braille (UEB, also formerly known as UBC) that was developed by the International Council on English Braille (ICEB) from 1992 to 2004 and that has been maintained by that body since then. In early April 2004, the ICEB General Assembly declared that UEB was sufficiently complete and ready for possible adoption by the ICEB's constituent national authorities.

Braille to Print (a.k.a., Back-translation)

Braille-to-print translation is supported for this table.

Supported DBT Translation Codes

The DBT translation codes may or may not be supported in the same way that they are supported in the English/Unified table. Users can test whether these codes work.

Characters Supported

The table is designed to work with the following groups of characters:

All ASCII printable characters

Accented characters and punctuation marks typical of French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese

Arabic, Greek, Hebrew, and Syriac and Coptic scripts

British pound, Japanese yen, Euro, and other miscellaneous signs (DUSCI pages D+ec..., D+ed..., D+ee..., D+f5...)

References, History and Credits

The earliest versions of this table were created in 2014 by mixing the translation tables for English/Unified with Arabic, Greek, and Hebrew tables. A table for Syriac and Coptic was added based on the work of a committee described below.

This committee (listed in alphabetic order) consisted of:

• Sarah Blake LaRose (blind biblical scholar)
• Eric Harvey (blind biblical scholar)
• David Holladay (Duxbury Systems)
• Ray McAllister (blind biblical scholar)
• Caryn Navy (Duxbury Systems)
• Matthew Yeater (blind biblical scholar)

Because so much of this work is new, we all wanted to form a committee that could work together on this common goal. We should acknowledge the role of Matthew Yeater for initiating this work when he needed a braille translation table specially crafted to handle "Critical Analysis" notation (Nestle-Aland notation). Everyone in the committee wishes to thank Duxbury Systems for their help in producing this tool for the blind biblical scholar.

(Documentation reviewed: October 2018)