# Beta Code > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Beta_Code > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Beta_Code.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beta_Code > Source revision: 1354927340 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Short description|ASCII representation format for ancient Greek}} {{For|the software release stage|Beta software}} {{Special characters | special = [Greek text](/source/Greek_language) | fix = Help:Special characters | characters = [Greek letter](/source/Greek_letter)s }} '''Beta Code''' was a method of representing, using only [ASCII](/source/ASCII) characters, the characters, accents, and formatting found in [ancient Greek](/source/ancient_Greek) texts (and other ancient languages). Its aim was to be not merely a [romanization](/source/romanization) of the [Greek alphabet](/source/Greek_alphabet), but to represent faithfully a wide variety of source texts – including formatting as well as rare or idiosyncratic characters. For most applications, it has been obsoleted by Unicode. Beta Code was developed by [David W. Packard](/source/David_Woodley_Packard) in the late 1970s and adopted by [Thesaurus Linguae Graecae](/source/Thesaurus_Linguae_Graecae) in 1981. It became the standard for encoding [polytonic](/source/Polytonic_orthography) [Greek](/source/Greek_alphabet) and was also used by a number of other projects such as the [Perseus Project](/source/Perseus_Project), the [Packard Humanities Institute](/source/Packard_Humanities_Institute), the [Duke](/source/Duke_University) collection of Documentary Papyri, and the Greek Epigraphy Project at [Cornell](/source/Cornell_University) and [Ohio State University](/source/Ohio_State_University). Beta Code can be easily converted to a variety of systems for display, most notably [Unicode](/source/Unicode).A Beta to Unicode reference guide has been developed by the TLG project (http://www.tlg.uci.edu/encoding/quickbeta.pdf) Most of these projects have since converted their data to Unicode. For example, Perseus originally encoded all its Ancient Greek texts using Beta code,{{Cite web |title=Perseus Help and Information Center |url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/help?redirect=true |access-date=2022-12-26 |website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}} but now releases them as Unicode. == Encoding == === Greek alphabet === {| class="wikitable" border="1" |+ Standard Greek alphabet with Beta Code equivalents ! Upper case !! Beta Code !! Character name !! Lower case !! Beta Code |- | Α || *A || [Alpha](/source/Alpha_(letter)) || α || A |- | Β || *B || [Beta](/source/Beta_(letter)) || β || B |- | Γ || *G || [Gamma](/source/Gamma) || γ || G |- | Δ || *D || [Delta](/source/Delta_(letter)) || δ || D |- | Ε || *E || [Epsilon](/source/Epsilon) || ε || E |- | Ϝ || *V || [Digamma](/source/Digamma) || ϝ || V |- | Ζ || *Z || [Zeta](/source/Zeta_(letter)) || ζ || Z |- | Η || *H || [Eta](/source/Eta_(letter)) || η || H |- | Θ || *Q || [Theta](/source/Theta) || θ || Q |- | Ι || *I || [Iota](/source/Iota) || ι || I |- | Κ || *K || [Kappa](/source/Kappa) || κ || K |- | Λ || *L || [Lambda](/source/Lambda) || λ || L |- | Μ || *M || [Mu](/source/Mu_(letter)) || μ || M |- | Ν || *N || [Nu](/source/Nu_(Greek)) || ν || N |- | Ξ || *C || [Xi](/source/Xi_(letter)) || ξ || C |- | Ο || *O || [Omicron](/source/Omicron) || ο || O |- | Π || *P || [Pi](/source/Pi_(letter)) || π || P |- | Ρ || *R || [Rho](/source/Rho_(letter)) || ρ || R |- | rowspan="2" | Σ || rowspan="2" | *S || Medial [Sigma](/source/Sigma) || σ || S, S1 |- | Final [Sigma](/source/Sigma) || ς || S, S2, J |- | Ϲ || *S3 || Lunate [Sigma](/source/Sigma) || ϲ || S3 |- | Τ || *T || [Tau](/source/Tau) || τ || T |- | Υ || *U || [Upsilon](/source/Upsilon) || υ || U |- | Φ || *F || [Phi](/source/Phi_(letter)) || φ || F |- | Χ || *X || [Chi](/source/Chi_(letter)) || χ || X |- | Ψ || *Y || [Psi](/source/Psi_(letter)) || ψ || Y |- | Ω || *W || [Omega](/source/Omega) || ω || W |} ==== Notes ==== * Instead of upper-case Latin letters, lower-case Latin letters may also be used (e.g. a for α and *a for Α). * The TLG Beta Code Manual uses upper-case ASCII letters to represent Greek letters. A variant (used by the [Perseus Project](/source/Perseus_Project)) uses lower-case ASCII letters instead. In both cases, the unadorned ASCII letter represents a lower-case Greek letter, and an asterisk must be added to indicate an upper-case Greek letter. *In general, one encoding character '''S''' for Greek sigma is sufficient; it is interpreted as a final sigma at the end of words or when followed by punctuation, and as a medial sigma in other positions. In cases where this auto-disambiguation is not correct, the specific codes '''S1''' and '''S2''' are available. * Some representations use '''J''' for the final sigma and '''S''' for the medial sigma. However, '''J''' is not supported/output by many applications such as Morpheus and uni2beta. === Punctuation === {| class="wikitable" |+ Punctuation ! Punctuation !! Beta Code !! Name |- |.||.|| [Period](/source/Full_stop) |- |,||,|| [Comma](/source/Comma_(punctuation)) |- |·||:|| [Colon](/source/Colon_(punctuation)) ([Ano Stigme](/source/Interpunct)) |- |;||;|| [Question Mark](/source/Question_mark) |- |’||'|| [Apostrophe](/source/Apostrophe) |- |-||-|| [Hyphen](/source/Hyphen) |- |—||_|| [Dash](/source/Dash) |- |ʹ||#|| [Numeral](/source/Numerical_digit) ([Keraia](/source/Greek_numerals)) |} The character ' is used both for encoding an apostrophe and for adding a metrical breve to a vowel. The intention is disambiguated because the apostrophe is used in Greek only for elision, which normally occurs after a consonant. === Accents and diacritics === {| class="wikitable" |+ Polytonic Greek accents and diacritics ! Diacritic !! Beta Code !! Name !! Examples !! Coded as |- |  ̓ || ) || [Smooth breathing](/source/Spiritus_lenis) || ἐν || E)N |- |  ̔ || ( || [Rough breathing](/source/Spiritus_asper) || ὁ, οἱ || O(, OI( |- | ́ || / || [Acute accent](/source/Acute_accent) || πρός || PRO/S |- |  ͂ || = || [Circumflex accent](/source/Circumflex) || τῶν || TW=N |- | ̀ || \ || [Grave accent](/source/Grave_accent) || πρὸς || PRO\S |- |  ̈ || + || [Diaeresis](/source/Diaeresis_(diacritic)) || προϊέναι || PROI+E/NAI |- |  ͅ || {{pipe}} || [Iota subscript](/source/Iota_subscript) || τῷ || TW={{pipe}} |- |  ̄ || & || [Macron](/source/Macron_(diacritic)) || μαχαίρᾱς || MAXAI/RA&S |- |  ̆ || ' || [Breve](/source/Breve) || μάχαιρᾰ || MA/XAIRA' |} These are normally postfix operators, as in the examples above, but for capitalized words, accents come between the * and the letter. The documentation does not otherwise define a required or canonical order for accents. In some data sources, breathing is normally seen before a tonal accent,Crane, Morpheus stem library, https://github.com/perseusdl/morpheus and one implementation defines a canonical order of breathing, accent, iota subscript.{{cite web | url=https://github.com/perseids-tools/beta-code-rb/tree/master/vendor/beta-code-json | title=Beta-code-rb/Vendor/Beta-code-json at master · perseids-tools/Beta-code-rb | website=[GitHub](/source/GitHub) }} In some implementations, the ordering of the accents can determine the arrangement of the combining characters after conversion to Unicode.Paul Hardy, beta2uni utility Many implementations do not implement macronization. == References == {{Reflist}} == External links == * [http://stephanus.tlg.uci.edu/encoding.php TLG Beta Code Summary] * [http://stephanus.tlg.uci.edu/encoding/BCM.pdf The TLG Beta Code Manual] * [https://www.benjaminblonder.org/sophokeys/ Sophokeys Polytonic Greek for Mac OS X] * [http://www.translatum.gr/converter/beta-code.htm Beta-Code-to-Unicode converter and Beta-Code-to-Polytonic-Greek type tool] Category:Romanization of Greek Category:Computer-related introductions in 1979 Category:Writing systems introduced in the 1970s --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Beta Code](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beta_Code) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beta_Code?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.