Dear syndicate, I have been using some ugly/naive macros for scientific transliteration of Arabic up to now. I recently overhauled these after studying the enco-def.tex method. These might be useful for others who have to transliterate Arabic. (I have written my own scientific transliteration by the way, based on the German ZDMG system:) http://www.gsp-online.org/journals/journaldocs/shi/transliteration.pdf imacron occurs very frequently in Arabic transliteration, in virtually every system. In Latin Modern the macron on the `i' is too large and looks really bad when used frequently. I've redefined it, and would suggest that, for lmr anyway, that something like the imacron definition below works much better than the default. On the other hand, I need to make the imacron definition more general to include the bold case (which needs a thicker macron). How can I add a conditional to the macro definition of \itextmacron so that it selects its argument based on whether \tf (and the like) or \bf (and the like) is in effect? I wish that TeX had a simple \iffont test but maybe there is an easy way to do that? If there are any other suggestions or comments to improve or streamline this, please let me know. Best Idris ===================arabic-trans.tex=================== \setupoutput[pdftex] %%%=====================low-level==================== \def\SHIFT#1{\dimen0=.00#1ex \multiply\dimen0 by\fontdimen1\font \kern-.0156\dimen0} % compensate for slant/italic in lower accents \def\USHIFT#1{\dimen0=.00#1ex \multiply\dimen0 by\fontdimen1\font \kern.0156\dimen0} % compensate for slant/italic in upper accents \def\buildtextbottombreve{\bottomaccent{.25ex}{0}{19}{\textbreve}} %%%=====================basic transliteration==================== \def\Al{\~a\~l} \unexpanded\def\h#1{{\buildtextbottombreve #1}} \unexpanded\def\.#1{{\buildtextbottomdot #1}} \unexpanded\def\:#1{{\buildtextaccent\textdotaccent #1}} %%%=====================ayn-hamzah==================== \def\cupd{\leavevmode% \USHIFT{14}\rotate[rotation=180,location=high]{\txx c}% \SHIFT{14}} \definecharacter AYN {\leavevmode\raise.9ex\hbox{\txx \USHIFT{1} c\SHIFT{0}}{}} \definecharacter HAMZAH {\leavevmode\kern.07em\raise.9ex\hbox{\cupd}{}} \def\'{\HAMZAH} \def\`{\AYN} %% replace grave and acute \unexpanded\def\Grave#1{{\accent"12 #1}} \unexpanded\def\Acute#1{{\accent"13 #1}} %%%=====================imacron==================== \unexpanded\def\itextmacron{\leavevmode\rlap{\USHIFT{14}\kern.033em\raise1.375 ex% \hbox to .21243em{\leaders\hrule height .067ex\hfill}}} \definecharacter imacron {\buildtextaccent\itextmacron \dotlessi} \starttext Long vowels: \blank[small] \=Adam \ kit\=ab \ {\it \=Adam \ kit\=ab } \=Im\=an \ M\=irz\=a \ {\it \=Im\=an \ M\=irz\=a} \=Ul\=a \ n\=un \ {\it \=Ul\=a \ n\=un} \blank Consonants: \blank[small] \b T\=ar \ \b ma\b tal \ {\it \b T\=ar \ \b ma\b tal} \.Husayn \ ma\.hall \ {\it \.Husayn \ ma\.hall} \h H\=alid \ ma\h hzan \ {\it \h H\=alid \ ma\h hzan} \b Dh\=at \ h\=a\b d\=a \ {\it \b Dh\=at \ h\=a\b d\=a} \.S\=ali\.h \ ma\.sdar \ {\it \.S\=ali\.h \ ma\.sdar} \.D\=amin \ mu\.dill \ {\it \.D\=amin \ mu\.dill} \.T\=ariq \ ma\.tar \ {\it \.T\=ariq \ ma\.tar} \.Z\=ahir \ ma\.zhar \ {\it \.Z\=ahir \ ma\.zhar} \:G\=afir \ \:gufr\=an \ {\it \:G\=afir \ \:gufr\=an} \blank Glottal stops: \blank[small] \`Al\=i \ ba\`du \ {\it \`Al\=i \ ba\`du} \'Alif \ Qur\'\=an \ {\it \'Alif \ Qur\'\=an} \blank Assimilation: \blank[medium] a. definite article \blank[small] Ibnu \~al-F\=aris {\it Ibnu \~al-F\=aris} Kit\=abu \Al-S\=ibawayh {\it Kit\=abu \Al-S\=ibawayh} \blank[medium] b. t\=a\' marb\=u\.ta\~h \blank[small] \h hal\=ifa\~h {\it \h hal\=ifa\~h} \h hal\=ifa\~tu \Al-nabiyy {\it \h hal\=ifa\~tu \Al-nabiyy} \stoptext ====================================================== ============================ Professor Idris Samawi Hamid Department of Philosophy Colorado State University Fort Collins, CO 80523