Beta Codes for the ASCII Transcription of Greek

Introduction

For the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae project of the University of California at Irvine, a method for representing Greek characters in ASCII was devised, called Beta Codes.

The Greek alphabet (both uppercase and lowercase) are represented as in the chart (uppercase is distinguished by an asterisk after the code). Most of the Greek letters are represented by their Roman phonetic equivalents, except for eta (H), theta (Q), xi (C), psi (Y), omega (W), and Digamma (V), which are represented by a Roman letter that is similar in appearance to the Greek letter.

The accents and diacritics are represented as in the chart. Accents and diacritical marks are written directly before the coding for the character before which they appear and after the coding for the character above and below which they are occur, in the order in which they appear. In most cases, these marks are represented by a non-alphabetic character that is similar in appearance to the mark.

As an example, the beta-coded version of the first two lines of the Iliad are:

*MH=NIN A)/EIDE, QEA/, *PHLHI+A/DEW *)AXILH=OS
OU)LOME/NHN, H(\ MURI/' *)AXAIOI=S A)/LGE' E)/QHKE,
An `S' at the end of a word is automatically translated into terminal sigma, which can also be written explicitly as `J'. (The nonterminal sigma is retained before an apostrophe.)

For purposes of writing numbers, the standard Beta Code is extended with lower and upper primes (written <>), qoppa (written @) and sampi (written #); for example the Greek numerals for 2,996 are written `<B#@V>'.

BETA CODES

Greek Beta | Beta Greek | Mark in Beta Letter Code | Code Letter | Greek Text Code ------------------------------------------------------- Alpha A | A Alpha | Iota Subscript | Beta B | B Beta | Apostrophe ' Gamma G | C Xi | Uppercase * Delta D | D Delta | Hyphen - Epsilon E | E Epsilon | Comma , Zeta Z | F Phi | Period . Eta H | G Gamma | Raised Dot : Theta Q | H Eta | Question Mark (;) ; Iiota I | I Iota | Dash _ Kappa K | J Term. Sig. | Subscript Dot ? Lambda L | K Kappa | Smooth Breathing (') ) Mu M | L Lambda | Rough Breathing (`) ( Nu N | M Mu | Acute Accent / Xi C | N Nu | Grave Accent \ Omicron O | O Omicron | Circumflex Accent = Pi P | P Pi | Diaeresis + Rho R | Q Qoppa | Lower Prime < Sigma S | R Rho | Upper Prime > Term. Sig. J | S Sigma | Qoppa @ Tau T | T Tau | Sampi # Upsilon U | U Upsilon | Obscure letter ! Phi F | V Vau Chi X | W Omega Psi Y | X Chi Omega W | Y Psi Vau V | Z Zeta

Examples

An Example from Herodotus

*(/O TI ME/N NUN TA\ LOIPA\ TW=N XRHSTHRI/WN E)QE/SPISE, OU) LE/GETAI PRO\S OU)DAMW=N: E)N DE\ *DELFOI=SI W(S E)SH=LQON TA/XISTA E)S TO\ ME/GARON OI( *LUDOI\ XRHSO/MENOI TW=| QEW=| KAI\ E)PEIRW/TWN TO\ E)NTETALME/NON, H( *PUQI/H E)N E(CAME/TRW| TO/NW| LE/GEI TA/DE:
OI)=DA D' E)GW\ YA/MMOU T' A)RIQMO\N KAI\ ME/TRA QALA/SSHS,
KAI\ KWFOU= SUNI/HMI KAI\ OU) FWNEU=NTOS A)KOU/W.
O)DMH/ M' E)S FRE/NAS H)=LQE KRATAIRI/NOIO XELW/NHS
E(YOME/NHS E)N XALKW=| A(/M' A)RNEI/OISI KRE/ESSIN,
H(=| XALKO\S ME\N U(PE/STRWTAI, XALKO\N D' E)PI/ESTAI.
TAU=TA OI( *LUDOI\ QESPISA/SHS TH=S *PUQI/HS SUGGRAYA/MENOI OI)/XONTO A)PIO/NTES E)S TA\S *SA/RDIS.

From the Iliad

Here is another example from the Iliad, to show the use of digammas:

*V*I*L*I*A*S. *A. G>-D>.
POLLAS D' IFQIMOUS YUXAS *)AVIDI PROI+AYEN
*(HRWWN, AUTOUS DE VELWRIA TEUXE KUNESSIN,
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Last updated: Mon Sep 30 10:50:12 EDT 1996