<ܬܸ݂> for Non-Western Scripts

Authors: Lück, Christian

Date: Thursday, 7 September 2023, 2:15pm to 3:45pm

Location: Main Campus, L 2.202 <campus:measure>

Abstract

Encoding right-to-left script in TEI-XML is a hassle unless one uses an editor that hides away the tags. The problem arises when element names in Latin script interrupt the right-to-left rendering on the editor screen by the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm. (Davis et al. 2022) However, hiding the tags is not the only solution. With <altIdent> TEI offers a means for declaring alternative names for elements and attributes: names in another language and even in another script. Thus, we can have valid right-to-left-only TEI documents in XML version 1.1, which are readable and editable while tags are visible.

However, using <altIdent> quickly feels like introducing entropy to the schema. Therefore, the paper suggests not to translate, but to transliterate identifiers. Compared to translation, transliteration is a mechanical process. The coding effort is low. An implementation is at hand in the Unicode ICU library,¹ and there is even an XPath binding for this library,² so that transliteration is available in XSLT and XQuery. Thus, generating a full ODD with element and attribute aliases in Arabic, Syriac, Hebrew, etc. script becomes simple and fast.³ It can be pre-built so that the hurdle for encoding non-western script in TEI becomes much lower. The <ܬܸ݂> from the paper’s title is a <TEI> tag transliterated to Syriac script: <altIdent xml:lang='en_Syrc'>ܬܸ݂</altIdent>.

Transforming a TEI document with alternative names to its equivalent with names in Latin script is always possible through the mapping of identifiers and alternative identifiers deposited in the ODD. Direct re-transliteration of alternative names is only possible under certain preconditions.

The paper will first analyze the problem when bidirectional text is displayed on a screen. It will show how well-formed tags look in a right-to-left script. It will then introduce the transliteration of XML names in documents and ODDs. It will discuss challenges regarding attributes in the XML namespace, especially @xml:id.

Bibliography

Davis, Mark et al. (2022): Unicode Standard Annex #9: Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm Latest version: https://www.unicode.org/reports/tr9/; Version 15.0.0: https://www.unicode.org/reports/tr9/tr9-46.html

About the author

Christian Lück has a PhD in German literature studies. He also studied few semesters in physics and computer science. He currently works as a research software engineer at University of Münster, Germany.

Notes

Contribution Type

Short Paper

Keywords

TEI non-western scripts internationalization ODD