Transliteration standards
 
I am the new chair of the International Organization for Standardization
subcommittee responsible for transliteration (ISO/TC46/SC2: Conversion
of Written Languages).
 
I would be interested to hear the views of TEI list members what place
transliteration has had in encoding problems in the TEI and SGML
environments.
 
Transliteration of course has its own standards which in some ways
interact with TEI needs by the occasional need to encode entities for
both source and target characters. The new secretary of ISO/TC46/SC2
(Evangelos Melagrakis from Greece) and I hope to make this committee far
more visible and far more relevant to end users than it has been in the
past.
 
To enable this, an electronic mailing list for ISO/TC46/SC2
([log in to unmask]) has now been set up by ELOT (the Greek national
standards body). We hope this list will attract researchers who can add
useful information which might assist in developing standards on the
Conversion of Written Languages.
 
We also hope to have an emphasis on issues of using computers to do
appropriate transformations necessary in automated transliteration, and
also look forward to having regular contact with those on this list who
are interested in such issues.
 
One major advantage of email is the ability to involve far more people
in the development of a common purpose than were involved before, to get
user feedback, and expert opinion from various sources.
 
 
Subscribing to the mailing list for ISO/TC46/SC2
 
In order to join the list you should be actively involved in using
transliteration systems, or in developing transliteration systems, and
should be prepared to contribute to the list from time to time.
 
If you meet these criteria, and wish to join the list, send an email to
[log in to unmask] with this message in the body of the text:
 
        subscribe tc46sc2 [log in to unmask]
 
(but with your real email address replacing the string [log in to unmask]).
 
To find out further commands you can use, send the command "help" as the
text of an email either to [log in to unmask] or to:
[log in to unmask] To unsubscribe, send the command "unsubscribe"
instead, omitting the "quotes" marks in both cases. This will tell you
how to obtain copies of past messages etc., and other useful features.
 
Once you are subscribed, you can send messages to [log in to unmask] and
receive messages from other members of the list. Please reply where
possible to the list as a whole, so that all can benefit: using the
Group Reply function (pressing G on some email software) is the simplest
way to achieve this.
 
Other members will also be interested to see who else is joining the
list, so it is useful to send a brief introduction (say, one or two
short paragraphs) to [log in to unmask] at the outset, saying what
languages, scripts and other things you are involved in. That is the
most likely way to stimulate others to write on the subjects you are
interested in!
 
You should also inform your national standards body to express your
interest in participating in this list. I can provide some information
on details of your national member body of ISO, if you send me an email
requesting this.
 
I look forward to seeing new participants on this list. Please feel free
to forward this to anyone else who may be interested in transliteration
standardisation issues, and to send any queries about the list to me.
 
                                   Yours sincerely
 
 
                                     John Clews
--
   John Clews (Chairman of ISO/TC46/SC2: Conversion of Written Languages)
 
SESAME Computer Projects, 8 Avenue Rd. * email: [log in to unmask]
Harrogate, HG2 7PG, United Kingdom * telephone: +44 (0) 1423 888 432