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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Mozilla Thunderbird mail software

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Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

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  • From: Gerrit <g.de.blaauw2 AT chello.nl>
  • To: Jim West <jwest AT highland.net>
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Mozilla Thunderbird mail software
  • Date: Sat, 15 Jan 2005 18:33:02 +0100

Jim West wrote:

I'm not sure if you can see it or not- but in the sample I received the letters are separated by the vowels- a full space being devoted to each.

I can see them properly. For the Hebrew to be displayed correctly on a Windows computer:
- Your operating system should support Unicode (so it should be Windows 2000 or XP).
- In Mozilla Thunderbird, in the Fonts settings (Tools, Options, Fonts), select Unicode (UTF-8) as encoding scheme for both Incoming and Outgoing mail.
- In Mozilla Thunderbird, in the Fonts settings, specify your fonts for Hebrew; select fonts *above* the line, preferably Ezra SIL or SBL Hebrew (but all fonts above the line will probably do). E.g.:
Fonts for: Hebrew
Proportional: Serif
Serif: Ezra SIL
Sans-serif: Ezra SIL
Monospace: Ezra SIL

This is what I wrote earlier today, but somehow it didn't make it to the list:

My hunch is that additional transliteration will always be necessary, not only because of the many operating systems in use today (some of which cannot handle Hebrew fonts), but also because the online archives should be readable for anyone (what a pity, by the way, that the b-hebrew archives are no longer searchable!).

No one so far has brought up the subject of how to *write* Hebrew characters and vowels on a computer. Well, I didn't know how to, and I'll share what I found with those who are interested, for what it's worth.
For those who have an operating system that supports Unicode, the easiest way to write Hebrew would be (I think) to install the Biblical Hebrew (SIL) keyboard. "The SIL Biblical Hebrew keyboard tries as far as possible to match the positioning of Hebrew letters to English phonetic cognates, e.g. ק =Q, י =Y. This intuitive layout is only partial, due to dissimilarity between Hebrew and English graphemes, and some assignments are arbitrary, e.g. שׂ =F. Note that vocalisation and cantillation marks are distributed across all four states of this keyboard, and that some characters can be input in more than one way." (from BiblicalHebrew(SIL)Manual.pdf, which comes with the Ezra SIL Hebrew Unicode Fonts package and describes very clearly how to install the BH keyboard). (To use cantillation, you'll need MS Office (or at least Arial Unicode MS)).

http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=nrsi&id=EzraSIL_Home&_sc=1

שָׁלוֹם,
Gerrit






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