Ancient Greek:Glossing recommendations

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Extra Glossing transcription line

Readers outside the field of Classics cannot be expected to be able to read Ancient Greek letters. Anyhow, it is good common practice to translate all not latin-based script systems into latin-based transliterations or transcriptions. Standards to transcribe Ancient Greek are already established. The encoder shall add the transcription in an an extra ‘Glossing transcription line’ between the original Greek line and the Glossing line.

Example (Paus. 2.34)
Greek πῦρ ἀναζέσαι πολὺ ἐκ τῆς γῆς
Glossing transcription pýr anazésai polý ek tḗs gḗs
Glosses fire(N)[SG.NOM] boil_up:AOR.INF much:N.SG.NOM ELAT DEF.F.SG.GEN earth(F):SG.GEN
‘fire that gushed in great volume from the ground’.
 

But there is also another issue.

Traditional philological editions of manuscripts use a system of punctuation (cf. the Leiden Conventions) which is partially in conflict with the punctuation as defined by the Glossing Rules.

Compare the following table:

Puctuation Meaning in
philological editions
Meaning in
Glossing transcription line
Meaning in
Glossing line
< > Emendation of a scribal error (addition) Infix
{ } Emendation of a scribal error (deletion)
[ ] Completely destroyed text (lacuna),
potentially with reconstructed content
‘Zero’ morpheme
[[ ]] Deleted text
( ) Non-overt part of an abbreviation Inherent category
dot below
(e.g. ọ)
Damaged or unclear characters
\ Addition/insertion above the line (\ / or ‘ ’) Ablaut phenomenon
/ Ambigous morpheme
~ Reduplication morpheme
_ Fixed phrase Fixed phrase

In order to prevent any confusion between the meaning of “[ ]” and “( )” in the Greek line and “[ ]” and “( )” in the Glossing line, it is strongly advisable to use these symbols in their traditional meaning in the Glossing transcription line directly above the Glossing line at all. As far as “< >” is concerned, it is even mandatory not to use it with the philological meaning (emendation) in the Glossing transcription line. (Keep in mind that the number and sequence of “-”, “=”, “~”, and “< >” in the Glossing transcription and the gloss needs to match exactly.)

Problematic examples
Greek (edited) [πῦ]ρ ἀναζέσ<α>ι πολὺ ἐκ \τῆς/ γῆς
Glosses fire(N)[SG.NOM/ACC] boil_up:AOR.INF much:N.SG.NOM/ACC ELAT DEF.F.SG.GEN earth(F):SG.GEN
‘fire that gushed in great volume from the ground’.
 
Transcription (edited) []r anazés<a>i polý ek \tḗs/ gḗs
Glosses fire(N)[SG.NOM/ACC] boil_up:AOR.INF much:N.SG.NOM/ACC ELAT DEF.F.SG.GEN earth(F):SG.GEN
‘fire that gushed in great volume from the ground’.
 

The advices to provide a latin-based transcription and to keep the line directly above the Glossing line free of philological markups are the two main reasons to provide the following three lines:

  1. a Greek line with philological markup,
  2. a Transcription line (without philological markup),
  3. the Glossing line.


Example
Greek (edited) [πῦ]ρ ἀναζέσ<α>ι πολὺ ἐκ \τῆς/ γῆς
Glossing transcription pýr anazésai polý ek tḗs gḗs
Glosses fire(N)[SG.NOM] boil_up:AOR.INF much:N.SG.NOM ELAT DEF.F.SG.GEN earth(F):SG.GEN
‘fire that gushed in great volume from the ground’.
 

In the Glossing transcription line, all symbols need to be used according to the Glossing Rules. In the Traditional transliteration line, however, the encoder may use all the symbols according to his/her philological tradition.

Expert Glossing Punctuation
X:C X-C X=C X~C X<C> C1...C1 X\C X\C X[C] X.C X(C) X_Y C/D
unspecified affix clitic reduplication infix circumfix ablaut transfix ø morpheme Portmanteau inherent phrase polysemous


Hands-on transcription transformation guidelines

To derive a valid Glossing transcription line from a Greek line with philological markup, the follwoing hands-on rules may help.

Compare the following table:

Greek (edited) Glossing transcription line Examples
dot below
(e.g. ọ)
leave dot below out keep character π̣ῦρ → pýr fire(N)[SG.NOM] ‘fire’
< > leave brackets out keep content <π>ῦρ → pýr fire(N)[SG.NOM] ‘fire’
( ) leave parentheses out ἀν(ὰ) → aná up ‘up’
\ / or ‘ ’ leave ‘slashes’ out π\ῦ/ρ → pýr fire(N)[SG.NOM] ‘fire’
[ ] leave brackets out keep content
or leave it out
[πῦ]ρ → pýr fire(N)[SG.NOM] ‘fire’
π[ῦρ] → p[__] ‘[-destroyed-]’
[[ ]] leave brackets out leave content out πῦρ[[ρ]] → pýr fire(N)[SG.NOM] ‘fire’
{ } πῦρ{ρ} → pýr fire(N)[SG.NOM] ‘fire’
Expert Glossing Punctuation
X:C X-C X=C X~C X<C> C1...C1 X\C X\C X[C] X.C X(C) X_Y C/D
unspecified affix clitic reduplication infix circumfix ablaut transfix ø morpheme Portmanteau inherent phrase polysemous


Common forms

(Please contribute) You might want to take Ancient Egyptian:Glossing recommendations as a model.