Typographic Conventions


-- Lines beginning, like this one, with two hyphens are not part of the
-- original text, but contain added documentation, page numbers, etc.
--
-- Typographic representation in ASCII
-- [...]   italics
-- <...>   bold
-- @G[...] Greek (always italics)
-- @+[...] superscript  (Seems to be used only for volume nos in journal refs)
-- /       acute on preceding letter
-- \       grave on preceding letter
-- ^       circumflex on preceding letter
-- @"      umlaut on preceding letter
-- @,      cedilla on preceding letter
-- @.      dot below preceding letter
-- @-      macron(?) (horizontal line) above preceding letter
-- @~      tilde above preceding letter
-- @o      ring above preceding letter
-- @u      breve(?) (tiny `u'-like mark) above preceding letter
-- @n      semi-circle like inverted breve above preceding letter (Greek)
-- @'      comma above preceding letter (Greek)
-- @`      backward comma above prededing letter (Greek)
-- @g      a curly lower case `g', distinct from an ordinary `g'
-- @?      other accent (to be inserted later) on preceding letter
-- @ae     "diphthong" `ae' character
-- @oe     "diphthong" `oe' character
-- @th     `thorn' character
-- @dh     `eth' character
-- ??      a character which cannot be identified, or appears wrong,
--            or something needing sorted out later
-- ++      dagger mark (indicates obsolete word)
--
-- Greek alphabet transliteration
--       alpha   a       nu      n
--       beta    b       xi      x
--       gamma   g       omicron o
--       delta   d       pi      p
--       epsilon e       rho     r
--       zeta    z       sigma   s
--       eta     c       tau     t
--       theta   q       upsilon u
--       iota    i       phi     f
--       kappa   k       chi     h
--       lambda  l       psi     y
--       mu      m       omega   w
-- The letter j also occurs in Greek words quoted in the Dictionary.
--
-- Lines of the text are strictly adhered to, except that words split
-- across successive lines by a hyphen are recombined and inserted
-- on the first line.
-- Punctuation is moved out of quotes where the logic of parsing dictates this,
-- e.g. "sharp bush or tree"; where the book has "sharp bush or tree;".
-- If a word referred to (i.e. an italicised word) has a capital letter 
-- purely because it is at the beginning of the sentence, I have changed
-- the capital letter to lower case.
-- Punctuation is corrected in the relatively small number of instances where
-- it is obviously incorrect according to the conventions used elsewhere in
-- the dictionary.
--
-- Comments added to the original text have put put on separate lines,
-- beginning with three dashes and the initials of the commentator.  e.g.
--         ---KPD: More likely to be from ...
-- Initials used:
--   KPD  Kevin P. Donnelly
--   JP   John Phillips  <john@uk.umist.ccl>
--
-- Suggestions for future modernisations:
--   - Change "aspirate" to "lenite"
--   - Change "small" to "slender"
--   - Change the likes of "see next word" to an explicit cross-reference.
--      This is needed if the dictionary is going to be updated, or 
--      supplementary words merged, or the dictionary stored in a database.
--      (Such instances have been marked with ">>" to facilitate future
--      editing.)
--   - Standardise references, which usually contain a volume number in
--      superscript (@+).
--   - Standardise the following abbreviations:
--       "Cor.", "Corn." for Cornish
--       "Sl.", "Slav." for Slavonic
--       "D.of L.", "D.of Lis." for Dean of Lismore
--
-- Air a chur air a' riomhadair aig Caoimhín Pádraig Ó Donnaíle
-- Earraid House, Biggar Road, Dún Éideann, EH10 7DX, Alba
-- Ag tòiseachadh 1990-03-14; criochdaichte 1990-10-10
--
-- --------------------------------------------------------------------------

   An asterisk (*) denotes always a hypothetical word; the sign (++) denotes
   that the word is obsolete.  The numeral above the line denotes the number
   of the edition or the number of the volume.