KwD Edition - Transcription Guidelines

Transcription Guidelines

General Objectives
Orthography
Grammar
Morphology
Edition Symbols

General Objectives

Transcription aims to create a digital corpus that accurately represents the original text of the selected Kalīla wa-Dimna manuscripts, adhering to a standardized orthography, though not in classical Fuṣḥā or modern standard Arabic. The language, word choice, form, and manner of expression of each copyist must be preserved as closely as possible. Some editorial interventions, as detailed in the following sections, are recommended to facilitate reading the text and to highlight editorial decisions and scholarly insights. The general restriction for editorial interventions is that they should be minimal and only undertaken when they will markedly improve the readability of the text and clarify the (presumed) intent of the copyist.

Orthography

Grammar

Morphology

Edition Symbols

Edition symbols declare an editorial intervention or reflect a specific text phenomenon. The following table presents a summary of the meaning and role of each symbol:

Symbol	Symbol Name	Meaning	Editorial Intervention	Text Phenomenon
†	Dagger	Corrupt		✓
?	Question Mark	Unintelligible		✓
!	Exclamation Mark	Error		✓
*	Asterisk	Emended	✓
[]	Square Brackets	Superfluous	✓	✓
[[]]	Double Square Brackets	Crossed-out		✓
{}	Curly Brackets	Supplied		✓
<>	Angle Brackets	Added	✓
()	Parentheses or Round Brackets	Title		✓
***	Triple Asterisk	Lacuna	✓	✓
...	Ellipsis or Triple Dot	Damage		✓

`†` 🟰 Corrupt

Words that are unreadable due to unclear handwriting or manuscript damage, such as tearing of the paper or smudging of ink, are considered corrupt. To indicate this, try to recreate the appearance of the damaged word and place a dagger symbol before it.

Examples

TBA

`?` 🟰 Unintelligible

Clearly written word that are meaningless in both Standard and Middle Arabic. Type the word and place a question mark before it.

Examples

1. فنشطوا في تعليمه وخفّ عليهم قراءته وحفظه فإذا ?احتبو الحدث

BWII672, P.46, L12

2. عنه من غيره حتّى تملّكه ما كان ?أنفقين بين الناس بل كان

BWII672, P.48, L18

3. وشدّة عنايتهم ولما تناقضوا فيه من ?الأقتال والأشباه

P3475, P.2, L0

4. ?مغاناها وظنّ أنّه بالقراءة قد أحكم ما فيها ثم أنّه تكلّم في بعض

P3475, P.4, L15

5. ‭هافصأو?‬ إلى غير مفصح ولا مصرّح ومن الأفعال الّتي جعلها

P3471, P.46, L0

`!` 🟰 Error

Clearly written words that have meanings but are unfit for the context.

Examples

1.

P3471, P.291, L4

2.

P5881, P.19, L17

3. إنّ الأدب يجلو الرجل كما يجلو !الوكد النار ويزيد ضوؤها

P3475, P.5, L7

4. فاجتمعت خصال ثلاث فإمّا !أحديها فإنّهم وجدوا

P3475, P.2, L4

5. لهو والمتعلّمون من الأحداث فنشطوا لعلمه !وزجرت عليهم حفظه

P3471, P.45, L14

`*` 🟰 Emended

If a corrupt, unintelligible, or lexically erroneous word can be adjusted to fit the context with minimal changes, enter the corrected word and add an astresik before it.