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From: wcs@ho95e.UUCP (#Bill_Stewart)
Newsgroups: net.text,net.nlang
Subject: Re: troff character names for Greek fonts
Message-ID: <586@ho95e.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 31-Mar-86 01:13:55 EST
Article-I.D.: ho95e.586
Posted: Mon Mar 31 01:13:55 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 1-Apr-86 08:19:26 EST
References: <492@ucbjade.BERKELEY.EDU>
Reply-To: wcs@ho95e.UUCP (Bill Stewart 1-201-949-0705 ihnp4!ho95c!wcs HO 2G202)
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Holmdel NJ
Lines: 34
Xref: watmath net.text:1014 net.nlang:4363

In article <492@ucbjade.BERKELEY.EDU> wolff@ucbopal.BERKELEY.EDU (Jane Wolff) writes:
>I'm working on ditroff font width tables for Greek fonts for our
>Autologic APS-Micro 5 phototypesetter.  There are quite a few
>characters on the APS's Greek fonts that I haven't seen before
>on other devices' Greek fonts, and some for which there seem to
>be different names on different devices. ...
>For the alpha-to-omega characters it makes sense to go with what
>we already have on our Versatec, where:
>	eta=H    theta=Q    xi=X    chi=C    psi=Y
>and everything else is as on the original troff special font.
>(Can anyone shed any light on why these are different?)
Well, Capital Eta is an H shape.  Are you sure you haven't mixed up 
xi and chi?  XI is often pronounced "si" by people who can't handle
"ksi", and chi is X-shaped (lowercase curved.)

>Has anyone assigned mappings to these characters (on any device)?
>	alternate lowercase sigma (terminal sigma)
One of my troff manuals at least has a \(ts for it
>....[lots deleted]
>	iota subscript
sure would be nice!
>	coppa (a Byzantine character? not Greek, but on these fonts)
Actually, it is Greek, but archaic.  The letter (sp qoppa?) is vaguely
q-shaped, and sounds about like the Arabic Q in Iraq or Qaddafi.

There's also a digamma, which is F-shaped (stack two capital Gammas),
and has a v or w sound - it shows up in oinos (wine), and a few other
words, or rather fails to show up (Homer may have used them ~800BC,
but by Plato's time ~500BC it was unused - still affects declension/
conjugation of a few words.  I think I saw more of this in Xenophon
(Ionic dialect) than Plato's Attic, but I barely survived that
semester.)
-- 
# Bill Stewart, AT&T Bell Labs 2G-202, Holmdel NJ 1-201-949-0705 ihnp4!ho95c!wcs