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TRANSLITERATING GREEK into ASCII
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B-Greek has from the beginning allowed every poster to use
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any scheme he/she found comfortable, since we all could usually
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figure out what text was meant. For those who wish some
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guidance, a generally accepted scheme has evolved on the List,
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with two or three matters still not fully settled.
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(1) CAPITALS are used when transliterating Greek letters, on a
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one-to-one basis, reserving lower-case {i} to represent
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iota-subscript and lower-case {h} to represent rough breathing.
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No accents, no smooth breathings. And no distinction between
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medial and final Sigma.
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(2) If accents are really necessary, to distinguish otherwise
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identical words, acute is represented by {/}, grave by {\}, and
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circumflex either by tilde {~ [preferable]} or {=} -- always
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AFTER the vowel over which it would be written.
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(3) A few characters without Roman single-character form are
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usually done with almost-look-alike Roman characters otherwise
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Psi = Y (upsilon is always U)
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(4) Digraphs (in the usual Roman transliteration) are handled in
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three different ways to avoid two-letter transliterations, all
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involving otherwise-unused Roman letters:
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THeta uses Q ("look-alike", as above).
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PSi uses Y ("look-alike", as above).
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PHi uses F (sound equivalence).
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CHi uses C (first letter of traditional digraph).
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(5) Xi and Chi: There being no single Roman letter for "Xi"
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other than X, the "look-alike" use of X for "Chi" is confusing,
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though some use it. And some seem to like to use C for "Sigma."
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Since S is otherwise unused, and poses no confusion whatever,
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using C for "Sigma" makes for problems in decoding back to Greek,
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especially since it is the only letter available for "Chi"
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(unless X is used, thus posing a problem for "Xi"). And
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occasionally someone uses P for "Rho", making problems for how to
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*****************************************************************
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B-Greek (uses macrons and digraphs)