Ancient Greek:Glossing recommendations

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	pûr	anazésai	polù	ek	tês	gês
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)	[pû]r	anazés<a>i	polù	ek	\tês/	gês
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	pûr	anazésai	polù	ek	tês	gês
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 → pûr fire(N)[SG.NOM] ‘fire’
< >	leave brackets out	keep content	<π>ῦρ → pûr fire(N)[SG.NOM] ‘fire’
( )	leave parentheses out		ἀν(ὰ) → aná up ‘up’
\ / or ‘ ’	leave ‘slashes’ out		π\ῦ/ρ → pûr fire(N)[SG.NOM] ‘fire’
[ ]	leave brackets out	keep content or leave it out	[πῦ]ρ → pûr fire(N)[SG.NOM] ‘fire’ π[ῦρ] → p[__] ‘[-destroyed-]’
[[ ]]	leave brackets out	leave content out	πῦρ[[ρ]] → pûr fire(N)[SG.NOM] ‘fire’
{ }			πῦρ{ρ} → pûr 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.