Index talk:The sculptures and inscription of Darius the Great on the Rock of Behistûn in Persia.djvu

Transcription guidelines

Style guide

• As always, WS:MOS is to be observed
• Sidenotes should be formatted as described at Help:Sidenotes
• Lines of text in the cuneiform and translation sections have hanging indents. Wrap each line in {{hi}} to preserve this convention. If a line crosses over a page break:
  • Place {{hi/s}} at the beginning of the line on the first page
  • Place <noinclude>{{hi/e}}</noinclude> at the end of the line on the first page (or else the hanging indent will affect the "transcription" section below it)
  • Place {{hi/e}} at the end of the line on the second page (or on the final page, if the line spans more than two pages).
• When a new section appears within a single line, put a {{gap|4em}} before it (e.g. before § V. on page 3)
• In general, Page:The sculptures and inscription of Darius the Great on the Rock of Behistûn in Persia.djvu/123 is a good example of how to format and structure the text.

Handling of Cuneiform

• Use {{?}} to stand in for cuneiform text that you are unable to accurately transcribe.
• Use {{cuneiform}} to markup cuneiform text that you are able to accurately transcribe.
  • Non-cuneiform text appearing inline, such as section markers or references, should be excluded from this template.
  • Aside: Future editors may choose to improve the text by adding a language parameter to this template: peo for the Persian Text, elx for Susian, and akk for the Babylonian Text. See w:Template:Script/Cuneiform for details. This is not currently implemented in our text. (It will probably be easier to add these with a bot after all text is proofread, rather than to add them manually while proofreading.)
• There should be a single space [ ] between every cuneiform character. I have only found one exception to this in the text, namely numbers (e.g., the number 9 is written 𐏒𐏒𐏒𐏒𐏑 rather than 𐏒 𐏒 𐏒 𐏒 𐏑).

Note on parallel texts

• Use section labels "cuneiform", "translation", and "transliteration" for these respective sections of each page
  • This will allow each section to be transcluded properly in mainspace
  • The section label names can be changed if the community wishes; I chose descriptive labels rather than convenient ones since it will be easier for reviewers
• See The Sculptures and Inscription of Darius the Great on the Rock of Behistûn in Persia/The Persian Text/Epigraphs for how to transclude this in a manner that best suits the original formatting in a digital medium.

Feel free to add to this, or discuss below. —Beleg Tâl (talk) 13:36, 29 May 2019 (UTC)

Do we transcribe the Persian text?

When transcribing parallel texts, it is up to the editors of a particular work to decide whether to transcribe the whole thing, or only the English part. I have no intention of completing this work beyond migrating the text that has already been imported to Wikisource, and I have no knowledge of cuneiform, so I myself will only work on the English part. The decision to transcribe the Persian or leave it for Persian Wikisource will need to be made by other editors. —Beleg Tâl (talk) 13:40, 29 May 2019 (UTC)

Note, the cuneiform transcription exists at http://titus.uni-frankfurt.de/texte/etcs/iran/airan/apers/apers.htm - with the following differences

• In our edition 𐏐 is replaced with 𐏓 (see footnote on page 1) As far as I can tell this is incorrect both as per the meaning of the symbols, and per the actual inscription, but it still must be preserved as published.
• In our edition there is a single space between every cuneiform character
  • [Edit: Numbers appear to be an exception, e.g. 𐏒𐏒𐏒𐏒]
• In their edition, words that are split at the end of a line are rejoined, with the split indicated by a slash (/). In our edition the word fragments are kept on their own separate lines.
• In their edition, the gap between sections is rendered as !!; in ours it is {{gap|4em}} followed by the § number as per the scan.

—Beleg Tâl (talk) 15:14, 29 May 2019 (UTC)

Just to add—since the link above is to the full Old Persian corpus—the specific text is the DB set, beginning here. The original texts in Parts II and III are in "Susian" (i.e., Elamite) and Babylonian rather than Persian, so aren't present in that particular corpus. —Nizolan (talk) 15:30, 29 May 2019 (UTC)

I have fully imported the text from this resource, now it just needs to be proofread against the scan to fix any discrepancies. —Beleg Tâl (talk) 02:05, 26 July 2019 (UTC)

My suggestion #1: Split each version of the inscription into subpages: one for each column and one for the epigrams. On each column subpage transclude the full cuneiform text (or {{?}} template(s)), followed by the full translation, followed by the full transcription (followed by the references). I think that this is the best way to accurately follow the source material. The presence of {{?}} will have to do until someone with enough knowledge and patience fills in the actual text. —Beleg Tâl (talk) 00:46, 31 May 2019 (UTC)

My suggestion #2: Ignore all cuneiform and transcriptions and only proofread and transclude the English part —Beleg Tâl (talk) 00:46, 31 May 2019 (UTC)

I have decided to proceed as per suggestion #1. If future editors decide to move to a different model, they are free to do so. I have started with The Sculptures and Inscription of Darius the Great on the Rock of Behistûn in Persia/The Persian Text/Epigraphs. —Beleg Tâl (talk) 17:26, 29 July 2019 (UTC)

TemplateScript to assist with special characters in the transcription

I've made a TemplateScript that will assist with special characters in the transcription of the Persian text. Specifically, it will change a^ to â, and s^ to š.

To enable it, add the following line to Special:MyPage/common.js :

mw.loader.load('//en.wikisource.org/w/index.php?title=User:Beleg Tâl/Behistun.js&action=raw&ctype=text/javascript');

Then to use it:

1. Type a^ and s^ in the editing window in Page namespace
2. Select the text containing these characters
3. Click the "Behistun" link in the sidebar

That is all. —Beleg Tâl (talk) 12:52, 26 July 2019 (UTC)