The Reverse Transcription Experiment

Project Team

Project Description (PLEASE READ THIS FIRST)

This project team has been engaged in an experiment involving the development of a transcription scheme for Ottoman Turkish texts that would be reversible to an Arabic/Ottoman script version as well as to versions both in the common Ottoman transcription alphabet and in the Modern Turkish alphabet. The first stage of this experiment has been the production of a model scheme, the development of conversion files for testing the scheme, and a paper outlining the experiment.

The Reversible Transcription Project has been very fortunate to have the help of Don Craig to model the elements of a Reversible Transcription Intake Site. This site is experimental and functioning as a test and development site for the creation of a working system for converting properly transcribed texts into several different formats.

Our system needs your participation and feedback. We urge you as interested transcribers to play with the site, to try out your own transcriptions, and to tell us when you find a problem with any part of the system. You can send an email to otap@u.washington.edu and tell us about your experiences and any problems you may have encountered.

Please read the “Getting Started” page next because there are some things that might seem strange to you when you start working with the system. Also, please note that we have made one major change in the usual Latin Ottoman transcription alphabet. The Arabic letter “tha” ( ث ) is usually represented by an “s” with a bar under it, which in many fonts can only be represented by a compound character (a bar with no space + an “s”). We have replaced that character with the single character ŝ which both reflects the dot pattern on “tha” and can easily be exchanged for the “bar under” character using find/replace.

At this point any work you do using the site makes you part of the Reversible Transcription Project team and we very much welcome your participation.

Resources

Send email to: otap@u.washington.edu

Disclaimer

Non-commerical use of files on this site is allowed with attribution, all other uses are prohibited.
Accepting these restrictions is a condition of entering the website.