We are trying to import some pre-Unicode Scripture files into Paratext and running into issues finding the “correct” Unicode character for some of the representations that they chose. Unfortunately, some of them are fairly un-standard.
Here’s an example of the text as it currently is:
\v 16 No hua O:sa niyala: Dyisasi Kalasila: sa ma: he: /yomela: gele sa, gya dimo: a:la:we:. A:da:ka: ni ko:bo:xa homa:we: sa ma eiya:we: sa ma: aba/ale:. Ni hua hyala: hixitixinowa ke:lamo: niyala: ma: da:la:we:.
\v 17 Da: hixitixi God, hi hyala: ko/o:me:ya: ma: ko:la: hyala: sikasikale:la:me:ya:. A: gele ba: Da: hixitixinowa a:la:, “Yoba:yo kixe nowala:. No hya dimo: hixitiximo: atae:yahya ma: ho: hyala: du:lu pa:la:xa hya.”
\v 18 Ni Kalasi ma: o: /yaso:mo: halo ba: hya:ka: ni a: sa God he: to:lo:me:ya: yo dae:ya:we:.
Note, I have not converted anything to Unicode yet, so this has
-Underlines in the font instead of macrons/Unicode.
-A regular punctuation colon (U+003A).
-A regular forward slash (U+002F), which can occur at least word-initially and word-medially.
My questions are regarding those characters:
Underlined vowels are nasal. da:lixa. He: yo huanowa hyala: ma: da:lixa.
-We were thinking of using U+0331 (Combining Macron Below) for this. I also saw U+0320 (Combining Minus Sign Below), but that doesn’t seem like the right option.
Vowels with a colon are a different vowel than vowels without a colon.
-It seems that U+A789 (Modifier Letter Colon) is the best option for this.
The forward slash is a glottal mark.
-I looked at U+0338 (Combining Long Solidus Overlay), but that seems to be a diacritic rather than an actual “letter”. I’m looking for an actual word-forming character in Unicode.
Any ideas?
Thanks,
SIL+LSS+PNG
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SIL+LSS+PNG
Language Technology Consultant
SIL PNG Language Resources
Ukarumpa EHP 444 | Papua New Guinea
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