Greek circumflex rendition problem (inconsistent)

Francis
Francis Member Posts: 4,024 ✭✭✭
edited November 2024 in English Forum

If you compare in the picture below the headword in BDAG with its rendition in the context menu, the former has a circumflex accent while the latter (and the index of BDAG) has a tilde. 

Now I copy here a selection from wikipedia on greek accents:

"The circumflex (Ancient Greekπερισπωμένη perispōménē "twisted around") –  — marked high and falling pitch within one syllable. In distinction to the angled Latin circumflex, the Greek circumflex is printed in the form of either a tilde or an inverted breve. It was also known as ὀξύβαρυς oxýbarys "high-low" or "acute-grave", and its original form (like a caret: ^ ) was from a combining of the acute and grave diacritics. Because of its compound nature, it only appeared on long vowels or diphthongs".

So while it may be acceptable in some circumstances to use the tilde instead of the circumflex, the latter is the standard in all the Greek textbooks I have used (quite a few). In fact I was not even aware of this use of the tilde before today. And, no matter what, one would expect consistent usage, that is, the headword, the index entry and the context menu should match, not reflect different conventions.

Comments

  • George Somsel
    George Somsel Member Posts: 10,150 ✭✭✭

    I think which form of accent is used depends upon which font is being used.  In some cases it seems that the font is hard coded into the resource whereas in others you choose.  I'm a bit cheesed off since my favorite Greek font (Kadmos U) seems to have disappeared.

    george
    gfsomsel

    יְמֵי־שְׁנוֹתֵינוּ בָהֶם שִׁבְעִים שָׁנָה וְאִם בִּגְבוּרֹת שְׁמוֹנִים שָׁנָה וְרָהְבָּם עָמָל וָאָוֶן

  • Rick Brannan (Logos)
    Rick Brannan (Logos) Member, Logos Employee Posts: 1,862

    Francis said:

    So while it may be acceptable in some circumstances to use the tilde instead of the circumflex,

    This is true. And George is correct; this is completely font dependent. Rendering a circumflex as one form or the other (tilde or inverted breve) have no effect on meaning or intent. Either way, it is still a circumflex.

    One possible consideration for the interface font (your right-click menu example) is that it can be incredibly small at times, and at small point sizes the tilde form is more distinguishable from a macron than the inverted breve form is.

    Rick Brannan
    Data Wrangler, Faithlife
    My books in print

  • Mark Barnes
    Mark Barnes Member Posts: 15,432 ✭✭✭

    It's definitely a Greek font issue.  Several fonts display the accent in the way that your screenshot does, including Arial Unicode MS, GentiumAlt, Galatia SIL, and KadmosU. The font designers obviously had to choose between a ~ and a ^ form. If you don't like it, just choose a different font.

    This is my personal Faithlife account. On 1 March 2022, I started working for Faithlife, and have a new 'official' user account. Posts on this account shouldn't be taken as official Faithlife views!

  • Veli Voipio
    Veli Voipio MVP Posts: 2,102

    KadmosU seems to be available for example here http://www.fonts2u.com/kadmosu.font 

    You can test it using the drop down menus for the Greek alphabet or using your own text

    Gold package, and original language material and ancient text material, SIL and UBS books, discourse Hebrew OT and Greek NT. PC with Windows 11

  • Rick Brannan (Logos)
    Rick Brannan (Logos) Member, Logos Employee Posts: 1,862

    Checking print books to hand on my shelf, BDAG in print uses a tilde to render the circumflex. As does Muraoka's Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint.

    (Note: just because it is on my shelf doesn't mean it will be available for Logos. This is not a product announcement, to my knowledge we have no license for Muraoka's LXX Lexicon).

    Rick Brannan
    Data Wrangler, Faithlife
    My books in print

  • Francis
    Francis Member Posts: 4,024 ✭✭✭

    Confirmed: the default font does produce a tilde, whereas some other fonts replace it with the circumflex. Good to know.