Extended ASCII Character Assignments for Hebrew Characters and Transliteration: Evyoni MegaWriter 1  and Evyoni Palaeo        Denotes Assignments for the Evyoni Palaeo font; characters in red

Alternative transliteration not requiring font

*ascii column features the typical alt-number code, followed by the common key that can be typed to produce the character of the Evyoni MegaWriter Font if one exists.
 

BeGaDKePaT Letters
To produce "hard" or "soft" letter symbols, type according to the table. The proper characters will show when the Evyoni font is employed.

---

Letter	Hard/Geminate	Soft
bËt	, <	b B
gÏmel	;  :	g G
dÁlet	. >	d D
]af	] }	k K
peh	p	f
taw	[ {	t T

 
 

 Additional Vowels' Transliteration

Notes:

Revision 8/4/99 Due to problems between platforms, I have created fonts that have characters lower ASCII assignments. In other words, there are more fonts to download but all the characters will be within the regular keyboard without typing Alt codes.

This latest version of the Evyoni font is called Evyoni MegaWriter for a reason. Although I have no association with Paraclete Software, and its program, MegaWriter or Horstmann Software's ChiWriter, I did use MegaWriter. I designed a number of fonts with its included designer program, and used them to produce my first biblical translations in the mid 80s. In this version of the Evyoni font I wanted to use some of the same key mappings I used in those early days, and I felt it was only fitting to name it after the program that was so useful then.

¹ The problem of transliterating, that is, accurately bringing across the phonetic values from one tongue to another, is evident to anyone familar with biblical Hebrew. Without an exact system, Hebrew words in other languages, eg. English, the pronunciation is arbitrary and sometimes ridiculous. Compare, for example, how ç ÝËt is represented by things like: ch, kh, h, H, h|, etc. With names, we presently have English (and other language) bibles featuring personages, and places that never existed in their original milieu. Imagine millions of people calling on a man who would never recognize their invocation through such an odd, alien name. We, all of us, at least could respect the validity of the uniqueness of the culture that gave us these Writings.

It probably began as some inabilities of translation languages (Greek and Latin) in approximating a semitic language. Later, issues such as typography and economic limitations of printing may have prolonged the situation. But the digital age has allowed correction to this. But now there is traditional and even psychological factors to overcome, in letting the Hebrew Bible be acknowledged as a non-western accomplishment. To disregard that fact is unscholarly and disrespectful. While the above system is not my own, and enjoys wide use elsewhere, it is the best. And with the free distribution of ebyon.ttf, I hope you will also employ it. It requires upper "alt+" characters requiring extra work. Surely, multiple fonts in HTML are days away, retiring any special character coding. (See also: Names, and Tanak).

² These letters had, at one time and some still, both a "hard" and "soft" pronunciation. They are known by an acronym BeGaDKePaT. Seen in later Ashuri (or Square Script) Hebrew, these six letters could in cases appear with a dot "in its belly" called a dÁgÉþ. This hardened the pronunciation. (dÁgÉþ qal [Latin= dagesh lene] "light dagesh," or dÁgÉþ qaþyÁn "hardening dagesh.") (To confuse things), another dagesh, dÁgÉþ kaflÁn, doubles a consonant, including a BeGaDKePaT letter which is both doubled and hardened (dÁgÉþ ÝÁzÁq). I transliterate only V/B and F/P as they are most distinct and still so today.

³ Due to a Germanic-Eastern European Diaspora (Ashkenazi) influence, the wÁw is also called vav with a "V sound" and is in vogue in Yisrael today. Biblical Hebrew, maintained by Yeminite Hebrew, Arabic, and other Semitic languages, did not use a modern 'V' sound for this letter, nor is the "v" consonant sound found in Latin or English until very recent times. (Likewise, the 'J'.) It's a wÁw folks! wuh! wuh!

⁴ vÕfÏt indicates the final form of the character (i.e., the last letter of a word). The archaic Alef-Bet did not use final forms, but later square script does and I want to have a font compatible with other fonts being used.

Transliteration after Handbook of Biblical Hebrew: An Inductive Approach Based on the Hebrew Text of Esther- Volume Two, Grammar. William Sanford LaSor. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1980. pp. 220-1. Recommended.
 

 
  Alternative Transliteration

Not all pages feature the Evyoni Font to transliterate Hebrew, although it is prefered. Underlined characters sometimes represent certain Hebrew consonants and soft BeGaDKePaT letters. This, of course, leaves other characters in the word, especially vowels (naqdanim), very poorly represented. Vowels are standard ASCII characters whose alt-code can be seen above in the main table.Otherwise, vowels are compacted to represented by their "closest" vowel sound in English (a,e,i,o,u). (See, "Additional Vowels" Table above.)

Often BeGaDKePaT are not differentiated. Soft pË is always f, and waw is always w. Samek and Sin would always be undifferentiated under this alternative method. It is obvious that this alternative method is loose and lacks accuracy. Another method would be to use Claremont-Michigan BHS encoding. But it would be even more confusing than any of the above to the non-specialist, beginner, or casual reader.
 
 

[Search]       [Home]       [Contents]

Copyright © Ebionite Community. All rights reserved. Last updated 10/04/99