



               A LaTEXperiment  of  hieroglyphic


			     typesetting



			   Serge  Rosmorduc

			 rosmord@inf.enst.fr



			    May  25,  1993
				   

1         Licence


    Sesh Nesout, a TeX package for hieroglyphic typesetting Copyright (C)

			 1993 Serge Rosmorduc


This  program  is  free  software;  you  can  redistribute  it  and/or  modify  it  un-

der  the  terms  of  the  GNU  General  Public  License  as  published  by  the  Free

Software Foundation; either version 1, or (at your option) any later version.

      This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITH-

OUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABI-

LITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General

Public License for more details.

      You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along

with  this  program;  if  not,  write  to  the  Free  Software  Foundation,  Inc.,  675

Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.



2         Introduction


This  is  a  package  that  allows  one  to  typeset  hieroglyphs;  one  more  !   It  is

now in a very early stage, but I want to come with a complete, easy-to-use,



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general program, that would allow one to build a database of Egyptian texts,

and  retrieve  information  in  it.  At  the  time  being,  I  am  quite  far  from  this

goal!  Yet I think the current program can be amusing and even useful.

      A second point is that there is also a hieroglyphic font with it.  It should

be  bettered,  but  it  exists.  So,  you  can  use  it  for  your  own  programs.  There

are  both  a  metafont  and  gsf  (postscript  type  I)  fonts.  The  fonts  were  made

with the GNU fontutils.



3         Installation


You  should  copy  the  three  style  files  where  they  belong;  then  make  a  1.2,

1,  1/1:2,  1/(1:2)^2  magnificated  version  of  each  hieroglyphic  font.  (A-Z  and

Aa.mf )

      You should also build the diacritic fonts diacr7,8,9,10 and 12.

      Now,  you  are  ready.   You  can,  if  you  want  to  use  it,  cd  to  SeshNesout

and  build  the  sesh  program.  It  is  a  text  to  latex  converter.  It  has  a  glyph-

like  syntax.   If  you  prefer  to  do  everything  in LaTEX,  make  a  list  of  each

hieroglyphic font with "tex  testfont".



4         Typesetting  hieroglyphs


To type hieroglyphs, you need two things:  the fonts, and the file hiero.sty,

which is to be given as an option to the \documentstyle macro.

      You might also want the Inventaire  des  signes  hieroglyphiques  en  vue  de

leur  saisie  informatique,   [1 ] hereafter called manuel  de  codage .



4.1         The  hard  way


To  type  a  hieroglyphic  text  directly,  you  can  use  the  \hieroglyphe  macro.

You type the signs like this:


                                            \hieroglyphe{A/1}

                                                       to get:

                                		(Sorry, there's no hieroglyphic sign
						 in the ASCII character set !)                            


Beware !  the numbers aren't exactly the one in Gardiner's grammar.



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      To  type  a  complicated  text,  you  can  ,  almost  like  in  glyph,  type  :  `-'  to

separate two groups horizontally, and `:' to separate two groups vertically.


                                   \hieroglyphe{{Q/3-X/1}:N/1}

nice, isn't it?



4.2         An  easier  way


There's  also  a  C  program,  sesh  that  follows  more  or  less  the  "manuel  de

codage".  It can be used to create hieroglyphic texts.  I use it personnally as
                                                                                
a  filter  in  emacs.   Its  name  is  sesh  (for  Sesh  Nesout  Ma^a  

which was a bit long to type)!

      Signs  are  named,   either  after  their  translitterations,   (  for  example,

xpr is     ).Or after their Gardiner Code.  For a complete list, see [1 ].

      You can type adjacent signs with `-' , stack signs with `:', group signs with

parenthesis, and use `*' to separate signs on the same level.  <....> writes a

cartouche.

      Example:


i-w-<ra-mn:n-xpr>-m-aH-a:Z1*pr-f-mi-i-r:a-ra-C2-m-(p-t):pt


Extensions:    There is a limited macro facility.  To define a macro, type


#def    MACRONAME  Body


on  a  line.   MACRONAME  can  be  any  unused  sequence  of  letters,  simple

quote, and point.

      This can be useful if a name appears often.  Example:


#def  'tA  tA:N23*Z1

tr-t:r-n-wn:n:n-k-tp-Z1-'tA


5         Typesetting  translitterations  and  references


The commands here described are defined in the egypto.sty file.



5.1         Settings


\Montitre{...}             allows  you  to  define  the  document's  title  (To  be  used  in

         Cross-references )


\eg     to use the translitteration font


\def\SourceTexte{Name  of  the  text}                                to  tell  LaTeX  what  text  you  are

         typing


\def\EXEMPLE{example}                              To use this style in english



5.2         Translitteration


There  are  currently  three  ways  to  write  some  translitteration  (apart  from

"eg)


     1.  the translit environment:  it takes 3 arguments:


              o  name of the text

              o  page number or recto/verso (exxs {4} or {recto}

              o  line number(s) (could be column number) (exxs.  {4} {4-9}


         One  important  thing  is  that  TeX  "understands"  these  numbers.   i.e.

         there  are  commands  to  change  the  line  number  and  the  page  number.

         such things are usefull for cross-references

         you can type a translitteration, and use "\traduction" to start typing

         the translation.

         Example:


         \begin{translit}{O.  foobar  XIV}{verso}{10-15}

             iw.i  rx.kw  mdw  nTr

         \traduction

             I  know  the  hieroglyphs

         \end{translit}



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    O.  foobar  XIV, verso 10-15

            iw.i  rx.kw  mdw  nTr

            I  know  the  hieroglyphs


2.  the exemple environment.  a translit environment with the word "Exem-

    ple"   in   front   of   it,   and   numbered   .      To   write   "example",   use

    \def\EXEMPLE{Example}

    these two environments write a line in "*.dic" where * is the name of

    your TeX file.

    "translit" writes:



      \Citation{name  of  the  source}{references}{document's  title}{

    page  number  in  document}



    "exemple" writes:



      \Exemple{name  of  the  source}{references}{document's  title}

        {exemple  number}{page  number  in  document}



    (all on the same line)


3.  the  \traduction{}{}  macro.  It  takes  two  arguments,  the  first  beig  a

    translitteration, the second a translation.  you have separates foonotes

    and, by default, the text is given in two columns wich can spread over

    pages.  useful to translate poetry.  if you want the translation under the

    translitteration, you can type


                 \def\EcritTraduction{\EcritTraductionEnLigne}


    and


               \def\EcritTraduction{\EcritTraductionEnColonne}


    to switch back.  In the column version, the second column is a verse-like

    environment



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5.3         Varia


<  and >        can  be  used  to  stress  an  error.  (in  \traduction{}{}  only;  prone

         to change)

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\affligne        shows the line number above a vertical line:     |.


\affpage         shows the page number in a cartouche:   |_______verso_|.


\_      increases the line number and shows it.


\*      increases the page number and shows it.  (the line number becomes 1)


\numligne{VALUE}                      gives a value to the line number and shows it


\numpage{VALUE}                       the same for page number.


\dico  Y  :  translation  (comments)                          Can be used to make an index of terms.

         ex:

                             \dico  XAa :   to  free    (  transitive  verb  )


         it writes in the .dic file :



         \DicoIndex  {XAa}{  to  free  }{transitive  verb  }{P.  Leyde  I  350}

                              {verso,13}{name  of  the  text}{2}



         that is, what you wrote, plus the references .  It is to be used inside an

         environment.



5.4         Grammatical  signs  and  al.


The zero-subject (i.e.  the empty set) is bound to \zero

      There  is  a  environment  for  typesetting  grammatical  rules:   its  name  is

gramrule.  a word typed there appears in slanted font, and `~X ' writes X in

translitteration (the space is mandatory).

      The  possib  environment  allows  to  type  different  cases,  with  an  accolade

in front of them.  (\\ to part the cases)

      The pile environment allows to write some text in a column.

      Example of use:



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 \begin{gramrule}

 ~ir + \begin{possib}

infinitive""

prospective ~sDm.f \\

~mrr.f \\

\end{possib}

     + \pile{whatever\\you \\want\\}

  \end{gramrule}

            
            (infinitive                         whatever
            (
      ir  + (  prospective sDm.f            +      you
            (  mrr.f                              want



6         To  Do


      o  A right-to-left font !


      o  Capital  letters  for  translitteration  (currently,  it  is  quite  hard  to  type

         "Ra".


      o  A WYSYWIG interface, first using X.


      o  Improve  sesh  _  use  an  hash  table  for  the  signs.  The  program  is  cur-

         rently too huge.  Improve the macro mecanism.  Allow one to type some

         words  in  translitteration.  Write  a  translitteration  program.  Suppress

         the irritating problem of "z <> s".  Implement additional codes.


      o  Improve the signs (both baselines and look.)


      o  Add hieroglyphs in "dico....;



References


[1]   Jan  Buurman,  Nicolas  Grimal,  Michael  Hainsworth,  Jochen  Hallof,  and

      Dirk  Van  Der  Plas.  Inventaire  des  signes  hieroglyphiques  en  vue  de  leur

      saisie  informatique.   M'emoires  de  l'Acad'emie  des  Inscriptions  et  Belles

      Lettres. Institut de France, Paris, 1988.



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