Allan Tsai Posted August 29, 2016 Share Posted August 29, 2016 Please consider underscoring proper names in Chinese Bible texts. In most (if not all) of the print versions of the Chinese Bible translations I've seen, proper names are underscored to help distinguish the names out of the rest of the Chinese characters. It is also done in the YouVersion Bible app. As far as I understand, proper names are made up of Chinese characters that sound similar to the original Biblical name and do not necessarily correspond to a meaning. For new Chinese learners (and I think new Christians even) it can be difficult to pick out the proper name from the text. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SimpleTheist Posted August 29, 2016 Share Posted August 29, 2016 While I don't speak Chinese and am probably not going to learn, it does seem like it would be useful. You can potentially do this yourself, though it may take some time. The obvious way is to highlight it with the underline style whenever you come to a name. An alternative would be to use one of the more complete dictionaries and search for all uses of a name and apply the underlining. Someone more familiar with accordance would need to comment on this, but hopefully it is possible to then share the highlights. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ιακοβ Posted August 29, 2016 Share Posted August 29, 2016 Please consider underscoring proper names in Chinese Bible texts. In most (if not all) of the print versions of the Chinese Bible translations I've seen, proper names are underscored to help distinguish the names out of the rest of the Chinese characters. It is also done in the YouVersion Bible app. I'm surprised to hear they are not underlined. I'd be surprised if the text that the accordance modules are based upon do not include the appropriate metadata to include the underlining. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ιακοβ Posted August 29, 2016 Share Posted August 29, 2016 You can potentially do this yourself, though it may take some time. ... Someone more familiar with accordance would need to comment on this, but hopefully it is possible to then share the highlights. Did you really just tell someone to highlight every transliterated name in their Chinese bible module? For those that don't know, Underlining transliterated names in Chinese is more akin to punctuation being missing, than to highlighting names. It solves a problem that is unique to Chinese (a problem not obvious to someone who only reads English). i.e. "Matthew" in the Chinese bible is written with the characters "horse" "big" "bless" "sound". Placing an underline under transliterated names ensures the reader is not confused by the transliterations. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SimpleTheist Posted September 1, 2016 Share Posted September 1, 2016 Did you really just tell someone to highlight every transliterated name in their Chinese bible module? For those that don't know, Underlining transliterated names in Chinese is more akin to punctuation being missing, than to highlighting names. It solves a problem that is unique to Chinese (a problem not obvious to someone who only reads English). i.e. "Matthew" in the Chinese bible is written with the characters "horse" "big" "bless" "sound". Placing an underline under transliterated names ensures the reader is not confused by the transliterations. Well to be fair I was suggesting that someone do it and then share with everyone else . Ideally I wouldn't anticipate anyone doing that all at once, but as they read the bible daily to underline the names. The preferred solution would obviously be if accordance did it, as it wouldn't be so time consuming. I completely understand why it is a problem and obviously Accordance should have a solution for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timothy Jenney Posted September 1, 2016 Share Posted September 1, 2016 Ah, we actually don't have anyone on staff that speaks Chinese. I don't think you want to see the results if one of us tried to do it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fabian Posted September 1, 2016 Share Posted September 1, 2016 Ah, we actually don't have anyone on staff that speaks Chinese. I don't think you want to see the results if one of us tried to do it. As far as I know, in a few years there are more born again Chinese people than Americans. So to add a Chinese person to the staff would be a good investment. Greetings Fabian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ιακοβ Posted September 15, 2016 Share Posted September 15, 2016 I don't have a pure Chinese bible at home right now, only an English-Chinese interlinear, however it should be sufficient to show what a Chinese bible looks. I've picked a page with genealogies to better illustrate the issue. Essentially, how do you tell the names apart from the rest of the words? Like this: 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timothy Jenney Posted September 15, 2016 Share Posted September 15, 2016 Very interesting! I was not aware of that convention. I can tell you the text we acquired did not have the names underlined. In fact, I just reviewed five different online sites with Chinese Bibles and not one of them has names underlined either. I used 1 Chr. 1:1 to check. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allan Tsai Posted October 2, 2016 Author Share Posted October 2, 2016 (edited) @Timothy, Thank you for giving some attention to this issue. From Accordance's perspective I understand that you: Do not have Chinese staff Do not have the underline data in your current texts Have seen that some Chinese Bible's online do not have underlining. May I ask Accordance to consider the perspective of the both actual and potential Chinese-language users who: Are used to using underlining in print Bibles, small groups, Bible studies, sermons, presentations, announcements etc. (And this even in nations that have Chinese as their national language). Can find other popular websites that do have underlined Chinese Bibles. See https://www.bible.com/bible/139/1ch.1 and https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matthew+1&version=CSBT Might expect (as I do) a premier Bible study software like Accordance to include the underlining for Chinese texts because it is so common in print. Might be disappointed in and repelled from using Accordance for Chinese Bible study and (as I am) because of the lack of underlining. For more than 10 years I have been quite pleased with not only Accordance's utility but also your openness to consider it's users in making changes to the software. I hope that such user focus will continue and that Accordance will take this issue into greater consideration. Thank you! Edited October 2, 2016 by Allan Tsai 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ιακοβ Posted October 2, 2016 Share Posted October 2, 2016 (edited) 1. Given that the data files don't have the underlining it does make the task somewhat more difficult. That said, an intern should be able to get a complete list of chinese transliterated names, and after a "search/replace" sanity check the results. If there were any minor issues created by a "search/replace" that were missed, I am sure people could report them. 2. I find it difficult to find an analogy to help English readers understand the importance or unimportance of the underlining. The closest analogy I can think of, would be like having an English bible that didnt have quote/talking marks. It would still be possible to read, but would create a "strain" of sort having to mentally create the "boundaries" in the text that have been missing. Edited October 2, 2016 by Ιακοβ 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fabian Posted March 6, 2017 Share Posted March 6, 2017 (edited) You mean the Chinese Contemporary Bible https://www.bible.com/de/bible/36/gen.7 I see Accordance has to sign a contract with the http://www.biblica.com to get all their recourses. And with https://www.wycliffe.org too. Edited March 6, 2017 by Fabian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fabian Posted March 6, 2017 Share Posted March 6, 2017 (edited) For User Bibles it would be good if http://htmlarrows.com/punctuation/underscore/ is supported. Edited March 6, 2017 by Fabian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ιακοβ Posted June 29, 2018 Share Posted June 29, 2018 I stumbled across the way this is handled in the USFM format today. It is \pn for names, and \png for names of geographical locations:https://ubsicap.github.io/usfm/characters/index.html?highlight=comment 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fabian Posted January 28, 2020 Share Posted January 28, 2020 Is this feature planned? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dataduffy Posted January 28, 2020 Share Posted January 28, 2020 don't know how I missed this post. this feature would be great. I tried to post an image of my Chinese bible to show it, but can't seem to add it to the message. When I click "Image" above, and drop a link to a picture on my Mac, I just get a question mark. Any ideas? Thanks John 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Λύχνις Δαν Posted January 28, 2020 Share Posted January 28, 2020 Save the image as a PNG (or TIFF). Hit More Reply Options below the posting text box. Attach the image Thx D 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dataduffy Posted January 28, 2020 Share Posted January 28, 2020 Not sure if this has worked with the attachment.. I hope it shows that proper names are underlined. Some translated names into Chinese are obvious (eg Mary) , but others are essentially a phonetic spelling ( Just think Bee Leaf for believe, for example) so underlining them is a great help. but thanks for the tips!!!! John 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fabian Posted April 11, 2021 Share Posted April 11, 2021 +1 for this feature. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fabian Posted April 30, 2021 Share Posted April 30, 2021 Like so? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fabian Posted April 30, 2021 Share Posted April 30, 2021 On 8/29/2016 at 2:52 AM, SimpleTheist said: While I don't speak Chinese and am probably not going to learn, it does seem like it would be useful. You can potentially do this yourself, though it may take some time. The obvious way is to highlight it with the underline style whenever you come to a name. An alternative would be to use one of the more complete dictionaries and search for all uses of a name and apply the underlining. Someone more familiar with accordance would need to comment on this, but hopefully it is possible to then share the highlights. I think it would be easier to use a Chinese Bible with underscore proper names. And with a script transfer this to the other Chinese texts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fabian Posted May 1, 2021 Share Posted May 1, 2021 (edited) deleted Edited May 1, 2021 by Fabian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fabian Posted May 3, 2022 Share Posted May 3, 2022 AFAIK the Chinese NET Bible has underscore proper names. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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