[sword-devel] Module TischMorph & other Ancient Greek modules - getting rid of the quotation mark?

[Greg Hellings]

It sounds like the text is using the wrong character. Would it not be
better to go back to the source text and fix it there? That would benefit
everyone who consumes that text, and not just people looking at the
appearance of the text through a Sword client with sufficiently up-to-date
filters.

Why is the text using an apostrophe character in the first place, rather
than the appropriate accent character?

--Greg

On Sat, Mar 15, 2025 at 1:46 PM David Haslam <dfhdfh at protonmail.com> wrote:

> Further to my message sent to the *modules* team, I have suggestion for
> SWORD developers.
>
> Modify how *GlobalOptionFilter*=*UTF8GreekAccents* works with respect to
> U+2019.
>
> Currently the filter doesn't care how this codepoint is being used
> *semantically*.
>
> We could make a *practical change* as follows:
>
> *Rule*: Do *not* hide U+2019 if the preceding character is *not* a Greek
> letter.
>
> However, that would not be sufficient to cover all the cases in the
> *StatResGNT* module currently in CrossWire Beta.
>
> Here's one that's better:
>
> *Rule*: Do *not* hide U+2019 if the preceding character is *not* a word
> character.
>
> With this in operation, the source text would *not* need to be changed in
> those places where the RIGHT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK is immediately after a *punctuation
> mark*.
>
> Then what about the remaining places where it is immediately after a *Greek
> letter*?
>
> A simple *kludge* for an improved *source text* would be to insert a *zero
> width space* or a *zero width non joiner*. Doing so would protect the
> quotation mark from being treated *contrarily* as a *Greek diacritic*
> when its purpose is simply to close a quotation.
>
>
> Best regards,
>
> David
>
> Sent with Proton Mail <https://pr.tn/ref/SWXT9A5YZ67G> secure email.
>
> On Saturday, March 15th, 2025 at 6:02 PM, David Haslam <
> dfhdfh at protonmail.com> wrote:
>
> Thinking about the *teleological conflict* caused by using U+2019 RIGHT
> SINGLE QUOTATION MARK as a *Greek Diacritic*,
> I wish to suggest that in modules where this was the case, that we might
> replace all U+2019 by U+0315 COMBINING COMMA ABOVE RIGHT.
>
> This displays very similarly, viz
>
>    - U+2019 παρ’
>    - U+0315 παρ̕
>
> NB. The latter was *not* already used anywhere in the *TischMorph*
> module.
>
> The advantage would be that if we did this to all the *Ancient Greek*
> modules and to any other module that makes the same *contrary* use of
> U+2019,
> then eventually, we might update the SWORD engine such that it no longer
> hides it with *GlobalOptionFilter=UTF8GreekAccents*.
>
> This would free up U+2019 for it's *proper* use as a RIGHT SINGLE
> QUOTATION MARK to end speech begun with U+2018 LEFT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK.
> We have just encountered this use in Beta module *StatResGNT* which
> contains sections of text marked with both DOUBLE and SINGLE QUOTATION
> marks.
>
> I propose therefore that we perform an *experiment*, by implementing my
> suggestion first in module *TischMorph*, last updated 2012-01-09.
> This has 1218 instances of U+2019 and in each case, it's used *contrarily*
> as a *Greek Diacritic.*
>
> Here's a counted list of the Greek letters that are followed by a U+2019.
>
> 0031 δ’
> 0109 θ’
> 0232 τ’
> 0287 π’
> 0221 λ’
> 0135 φ’
> 0059 ρ’
> 0144 ι’
>
>
> This is how they would look if the proposed replacements were made:
>
> 0031 δ̕
> 0109 θ̕
> 0232 τ̕
> 0287 π̕
> 0221 λ̕
> 0135 φ̕
> 0059 ρ̕
> 0144 ι̕
>
>
> NB. The upstream source for this module is no longer found at
> http://morphgnt.org/
> The URL now just displays a *404* message saying "There isn't a GitHub
> Pages site here."
> If we can no longer find where it may have moved, we might have to use a
> "round trip" of *mod2imp* and *imp2vs* to rebuild the module with my
> suggested change.
>
> If my suggestion has any merit, we should also first discuss it with *NT
> scholars* such as our friends at *STEP Bible* and their friends at *Tyndale
> House*.
>
> Best regards,
>
> David
>
> Sent with Proton Mail <https://pr.tn/ref/SWXT9A5YZ67G> secure email.
>
>
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