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)).