[Biblical-languages] Greek monotonic and polytonic characters

Joseph Weaks j.weaks at tcu.edu
Tue Nov 2 21:09:52 EST 2004


On Nov 2, 2004, at 6:56 PM, Norbert Rennert wrote:
> There seems to be some overlap in the Greek unicode characters. 16 
> characters in the monotonic range (0370-03FF) are also represented in 
> the polytonic range (1F00-1FFF). These characters are mainly 
> characters with the acute accent. My question is which ones are the 
> right ones to use when writing koine Greek? My gut feeling is to use 
> only the polytonic range characters when they have accents. But my 
> Greek Unicode keyboard for Tavultesoft Keyman puts in the monotonic 
> characters instead of the polytonic ones.
>  Any advice on this would be appreciated.

Norbert,
It is a good observation--one I have made myself. I'm not sure you can 
get a "supposed to" from any source. But, I think what you describe as 
your gut feeling is right on. The accented vowels in the first Greek 
range are monotonic. Using the acute vowels in the polytonic range 
seems more consistent to me. It is what I do, as do other conversion 
systems I've noted.

My 2¢,
Joe Weaks

**************************************************************
Rev. Joseph A. Weaks
Senior Minister, Bethany Christian Church, Dallas
Ph.D. (Cand.), Brite Divinity School, Ft. Worth
j.weaks at tcu.edu
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