Orthography question

[michael]

What's probably the best way these days (internetl-y speaking) to write the dot under the a in Choctaw words: e.g., the word abi, which is usually written with a dot under the a. It doesn't make sense to try to use this letter over the internet, particularly since it's pretty much impossible to reproduce without creating its own font. What should be used in its place. Just a plain "u"?

Swanton (I know there are issues with Swanton) considered the "dot under a" letter to sound as following: "as u in tub, and a in above, around"

If we are going to write the Choctaw language in a contemporary setting, it would be useful to know how best to do this.

Thanks,

Mike

[Bob Burlison]

I've researched that a little. There is a Choctaw font which uses the greek upsilon character for that "uh" sound, like in the Bible; I think it has some of the Mississippi Choctaw letters too. However one would have to have an enormous site license to install it on all our computers, as well as the board. Perhaps sometime the CNO language department might develop it's own font and Choctaws could download if free and install it on their computers!

Of course, this board would have to be able to use that font as well- does the software allow you to use a non-standard font?


For my own use, there is a Choctaw keyboard that does the trick; you have to find a unicode font that it works with, especially the a function- it lines up better with some fonts than others. I use it when I type out my language homework:

http://languagegeek.com/se/keyboards/se_keyboards.html

The Muscogee use "v" for that sound- that might be one way to do it- "vbi" for instance.

[michael]

Hi Bob,

Yeah, I think just the plain v will work fine. I don't see the point in using unusual characters like a Greek upsilon to denote letters. I've written to the G-man to see what he thinks.

Mike

[Ryan]

I agree, if you can't reproduce the ʋ then you could just easily use a v. But the upsilon is built into the operating system of your computer and can be reproduced in things like MS Word. But I don’t have the foggiest idea how to do it in a forum setting without the languagegeek.com keyboard. I did find a site that has some html (υ), hex and something else, but that is out of my area of knowledge.

[Bob Burlison]

Hey Ryan, how did you post the upsilon? I have a mac and using the character viewer I can insert a ʋ, but that wouldn't be very practical in posting.

[Ryan]

I'm using the Choctaw keyboard from languagegeek.com. The ";" key is replaced with the "ʋ" key. I’m using a PC.

[Bob Burlison]

OK, let me see if the Mac version works too:

Ʋba
ʋhlpisa
a̱sha

Looks like the underline function shows a box in the posting box but posts OK in Preview.

Hey Mike I think this might be the answer for the Bulletin Board; wonder if it works in the Wiki project.

Thanks, Ryan!