egypttranslit

Convert Egyptological transliteration to clean Unicode with Python or from the command line.

By default, egypttranslit uses the plain-text IFAO-style forms ȝ, ʿ and ỉ.

Install

python -m pip install egypttranslit

Python 3.10+.

Try it in 30 seconds

from egypttranslit import parse, parse_mdc, normalize_unicode

print(parse("nTr mAat"))
# nṯr mȝʿt

print(parse_mdc("nTr Htp xpr"))
# nṯr ḥtp ḫpr

print(normalize_unicode("ȝ ʿ ỉ"))
# ꜣ ꜥ ꞽ

What can it do?

Automatic conversion

Use parse() when the input may already contain normal text or Unicode transliteration.

from egypttranslit import parse

assert parse("nTr mAat") == "nṯr mȝʿt"
assert parse("A taxi on the X axis.") == "A taxi on the X axis."

parse() is conservative: ambiguous ASCII is left unchanged instead of being guessed.

convert() is an alias for parse().

Explicit Manuel de Codage

Use parse_mdc() when you know the input is MdC transliteration.

from egypttranslit import parse_mdc

assert parse_mdc("A a H x X S T D") == "ȝ ʿ ḥ ḫ ẖ š ṯ ḏ"
assert parse_mdc("nTr Htp xpr mAat") == "nṯr ḥtp ḫpr mȝʿt"

Gardiner/JSesh sign identifiers such as A1, D36 and T3 are preserved.

IFAO-style text

The default output uses ȝ, ʿ and ỉ instead of the raised-looking ꜣ, ꜥ and ꞽ glyphs.

Already-transliterated IFAO-style text stays stable:

from egypttranslit import parse

text = "ḏd-ḥr mȝʿ-ḫrw sȝ n ʿnḫ-ḥr"
assert parse(text) == text

Output profiles

Use a profile when you want a specific editorial convention.

from egypttranslit.converter import parse_mdc_profiled

assert parse_mdc_profiled("mAat", profile="ifao") == "mȝʿt"
assert parse_mdc_profiled("mAat", profile="unicode-canonical") == "mꜣꜥt"
assert parse_mdc_profiled("jr qd", profile="gardiner-1957") == "ꞽr ḳd"

Available profiles:

Batch conversion

from egypttranslit.batch import parse_mdc_many

result = parse_mdc_many(["nTr", "Htp", "mAat"])
assert result == ("nṯr", "ḥtp", "mȝʿt")

Batch helpers preserve order and accept lists, tuples and generators.

Diagnostics and validation

from egypttranslit.diagnostics import analyze, validate

result = analyze("mAat", mode="mdc")
assert result.text == "mȝʿt"
assert result.detected == "mdc"

validate("mAꜥt")  # raises ValueError: mixed encoding

Diagnostics can classify input as mdc, unicode, mixed, ambiguous or none.

Command line

egypttranslit "nTr mAat"
# nṯr mȝʿt

egypttranslit --mode mdc "nTr Htp xpr"
# nṯr ḥtp ḫpr

egypttranslit --mode mdc --profile unicode-canonical "nTr mAat"
# nṯr mꜣꜥt

For files or pipelines:

cat input.txt | egypttranslit --mode mdc > output.txt

Modes: auto, mdc, unicode.

Main API

parse(text)                         automatic, conservative conversion
convert(text)                       alias for parse()
parse_mdc(text)                     explicit MdC conversion
normalize_unicode(text)             canonical Unicode normalization
parse_mdc_profiled(text, profile)   explicit output profile
parse_mdc_many(texts)               batch MdC conversion
analyze(text, mode=...)              diagnostics
validate(text)                       reject dangerous mixed encodings

Citation

Citation metadata is in CITATION.cff.

Barrios, E. J. egypttranslit [Computer software]. https://github.com/edujbarrios/egypttranslit

References

• IFAO: https://www.ifao.egnet.net/publications/publier/outils-ed/polices/
• Unicode UAX #57: https://unicode.org/reports/tr57/

License

Apache-2.0. See LICENSE and NOTICE.