This file illustrates the use of the one great new feature (tag/element) of XHTML 1.1, which is the Ruby text feature. This allows one bit of text to be affixed to another bit of text, to serve for purposes of translation, pronunciation, explanation, or whatever else to the main text to which it is affixed.
In this file I also demonstrate the use of the character set known as "iso-8859-7" which augments the standard 7-bit ASCII character set with the letters and some punctuation from the Greek character set. The modern Greek alphabet is mapped to the values (hex) C1 through D9, excluding only D2, for the upper case Greek letters: ΑΒΓΔΕΖΗΘΙΚΛΜΝΞΟΠΡΣΤΥΦΧΨΩ. The range from (hex) E1 through F9, including both versions of the letter "s" at F2 and F3, is for the lower case Greek letters: αβγδεζηθικλμνξοπρστυφχψω. The alternate version of the lower case letter "s" (used when it is the final letter of a word) which is (hex) F2, is ς. In addition, many Greek letters with additional marks are also included. As with any other version of ISO 8859, each character is one byte, be it English or Greek. Unfortunately, as this sample showcases ISO-8859-7 which only handles modern Greek (with far fewer dicritical marks than the ancient Biblical "koine" Greek), the Greek used herein is modern Greek, not that of the Bible.
Featured below is a small excerpt of what is known as an interlinear Bible translation. This is a Bible which features a Greek text as well as word-for-word translations to assist those unfamiliar with Greek with getting as close as possible to the Greek text without having to learn all of Greek. Such a volume is a great aid in learning Greek and also the New Testament. Such editions have also been prepared of the Hebrew (and Aramaic) Old Testament.
With a simple learning of the letters of the Greek alphabet, a person should be able to pronounce the Greek text (like somebody with a very thick accent but comprehendible to a Greek speaking person), and even make out some of the etymological roots of some of the words used. For example, the Greek expression "μονογενή" transliterates to the letters that spell "monogeny" and we can easily know "mono" as one (as in monophonic, only one speaker, or monotone, only one tone), and "geny" as in progeny or generation for genetic descendant. So this shows even to the person illiterate in Greek nevertheless the etymology of the Biblical word commonly translated "only-begotten." As one could see, an entire interlinear Bible could be posted online using Ruby text.
«
The phrase "
<ruby><rb><span xml:lang="el">μονογενή</span></rb><rp> (</rp><rt>only begotten</rt><rp>)</rp></ruby>
Notice the <rp> and </rp> sections. These are used for backward-compatibility to older user agents which don't support Ruby text. In user agents which understand Ruby it merely hides the contents falling between the <rp> and the </rp> but in older user agents (browsers) which don't understand Ruby the contents (parenthesis) simply print out after the main Greek text, containing the English translation. So what this expression would look like in a non-Ruby-supporting user agent would be:
"μονογενή (only begotten)" instead of "
Of course, this file only illustrates the simpler kind of Ruby text. There is also the more complex type of Ruby text, which allows text on top and bottom (or to the right and to the left for vertical scripts), allowing for more groupings within a single span of <ruby> text, and even for mapping one translation expression to two or more words.
This file, "rubytxt.htm," is XHTML 1.1 compliant.
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