Encoding cross-writing in TEI
April 27, 2020 6:27 PM   Subscribe

I'm working on a project to encode a handwritten diary using TEI (Text Encoding Initiative). A section of the diary is cross-written and for the life of me, I can't figure out how to encode it!

Unfortunately our project lead, who has more experience with TEI, is unsure how to encode this text format. So, any suggestions gladly received!

I have trawled through TEI's online manual, and various TEI project guides, but they seem to focus on specific types of writing/eras (early modern texts, plays, poetry) which don't include this type of text.

I'm surprised I can't find this, as it's a common format for C19th letters. Maybe TEI describes cross-writing using another term?
posted by brushtailedphascogale to Technology (5 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Have you asked on the mailing list? I feel like not enough people know to do that with projects/standards bodies/programming languages.

You can also sometimes search the archives of mailing lists, though generally mailing list search isn't great (sometimes it's even case sensitive), and I'd recommend posting to a mailing list if you don't see an answer in the first 20 or so entries.
posted by gryftir at 7:43 PM on April 27, 2020 [2 favorites]




See chapter 5.6. on writing modes. You’ll need to declare the writing mode and text orientation.

I think the way to approach it is not as encoding the nature of cross writing as a whole, but to encode the normal part normally and the cross part as a vertical writing mode with appropriate character orientation.

Example 5.7.3 Vertical Orientation in Horizontal Scripts — seems almost exactly like what you want except for perhaps top-to-bottom direction (I don’t know which is more common or which your example uses).
posted by SaltySalticid at 6:13 AM on April 28, 2020


Here they just do page breaks (pb) on orientation change and add a note:
https://docsouth.unc.edu/true/mss05-06/mss05-06.html
posted by jabah at 6:23 AM on April 28, 2020


Following on to my prior comment, you can use surfaces and zones to indicate that the cross-written stuff is written in the same place that the normal stuff is written. Then you’ve encoded the basic structure of cross writing. Two different orientations of text occurring in the same place.
posted by SaltySalticid at 6:32 AM on April 28, 2020


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