egypttranslit

A small Python library for converting Egyptological transliteration into clean Unicode.

It is intended for researchers, digital-humanities projects and scripts that need reliable Manuel de Codage-style transliteration conversion without a larger toolchain.

Starting with 1.1.0, the default presentation follows the plain-text forms commonly used in IFAO material: ȝ, ʿ and ỉ. This avoids the raised-looking ꜣ, ꜥ and ꞽ glyphs that some fonts render awkwardly.

A web version built on top of this library for non-technical users is planned for a future release.

Install

Requires Python 3.10 or newer.

python -m pip install egypttranslit

Quick guide

convert(text) is an alias for parse(text).

IFAO-style plain text by default

The default output intentionally uses regular plain-text forms instead of the Unicode Egyptological aleph/ayin characters that can look like superscripts in some fonts.

from egypttranslit import parse, parse_mdc

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

Already-transliterated IFAO-style text is stable under the default parser:

from egypttranslit import parse

text = (
    "ḏd-ḥr mȝʿ-ḫrw sȝ n ʿnḫ-ḥr sȝ ỉrỉ-pʿt ḥȝtỉ-ʿ wr ʿȝ n mšwš "
    "ḥȝtỉ-ʿỉmỉ-rȝ ḥmw-nṯr n bȝ-nb-ḏw ḏd-ḥr mwt=f nbt pr šp-n-spdt mȝʿ-ḫr"
)

assert parse(text) == text

The HTML entity  , sometimes copied after such text, is just a space entity and is not part of the transliteration itself.

Automatic conversion

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 intentionally conservative: ambiguous ASCII is preserved rather than guessed.

Explicit MdC

from egypttranslit import parse_mdc

assert parse_mdc("nTr Htp xpr mAat") == "nṯr ḥtp ḫpr mȝʿt"
assert parse_mdc("A1-nTr-D36-Htp-T3") == "A1-nṯr-D36-ḥtp-T3"

Common default mappings:

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

Canonical Unicode when you need it

The IFAO-style default is a presentation choice. The library still supports the canonical Egyptological Unicode characters explicitly.

For already-Unicode text, use normalize_unicode():

from egypttranslit import normalize_unicode

assert normalize_unicode("ȝ ʿ ỉ") == "ꜣ ꜥ ꞽ"

For known MdC input, use the unicode-canonical profile to reproduce the 1.0.x output convention without rewriting plain j or q:

from egypttranslit.converter import parse_mdc_profiled

assert parse_mdc_profiled(
    "jr qd nTr mAat",
    profile="unicode-canonical",
) == "jr qd nṯr mꜣꜥt"

Batch conversion

Use the batch helpers when each transliteration is a separate record. They preserve input order and return a tuple. Lists, tuples and generators are accepted.

from egypttranslit.batch import parse_mdc_many, parse_mdc_profiled_many

texts = ["nTr Htp", "xpr mAat", "jr qd"]

assert parse_mdc_many(texts) == (
    "nṯr ḥtp",
    "ḫpr mȝʿt",
    "jr qd",
)

assert parse_mdc_profiled_many(
    texts,
    profile="gardiner-1957",
) == (
    "nṯr ḥtp",
    "ḫpr mꜣꜥt",
    "ꞽr ḳd",
)

parse_many() and normalize_unicode_many() provide the same batch behavior for conservative automatic parsing and canonical Unicode normalization.

Profiles

The default behavior uses IFAO-style ȝ, ʿ and ỉ, while leaving plain j and q unchanged because editorial conventions differ.

from egypttranslit.converter import parse_mdc_profiled

assert parse_mdc_profiled(
    "jr qd nTr mAat",
    profile="default",
) == "jr qd nṯr mȝʿt"

assert parse_mdc_profiled(
    "jr qd nTr mAat",
    profile="ifao",
) == "jr qd nṯr mȝʿt"

assert parse_mdc_profiled(
    "jr qd nTr mAat",
    profile="gardiner-1957",
) == "ꞽr ḳd nṯr mꜣꜥt"

Profile metadata can be inspected programmatically:

from egypttranslit.profiles import get_profile_info, list_profile_info

info = get_profile_info("ifao")
assert ("ꜣ", "ȝ") in info.mapping
assert info.alias_of is None

available = tuple(profile.name for profile in list_profile_info())
# ("default", "ifao", "unicode-canonical", "gardiner-1957", "legacy-diacritics")

Diagnostics

from egypttranslit.diagnostics import analyze, validate

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

validate("mAꜥt")  # raises ValueError

detected is one of mdc, unicode, mixed, ambiguous or none. confidence is a deterministic heuristic score, not a philological probability.

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

egypttranslit --mode mdc --profile gardiner-1957 "jr qd nTr"
# ꞽr ḳd nṯr

egypttranslit --mode unicode "ȝ ʿ ỉ"
# ꜣ ꜥ ꞽ

For pipelines:

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

Modes are auto (default IFAO-style output), mdc and unicode (canonical normalization). Non-default profiles are valid only with --mode mdc.

Citation

Citation metadata is provided in CITATION.cff.

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

References

• Institut français d’archéologie orientale (IFAO), Polices de caractères: https://www.ifao.egnet.net/publications/publier/outils-ed/polices/
• Institut français d’archéologie orientale (IFAO), Convertisseurs vers Unicode: https://www.ifao.egnet.net/publications/publier/outils-ed/convertisseurs/
• Unicode Consortium, UAX #57: Unicode Egyptian Hieroglyph Database: https://unicode.org/reports/tr57/
• Unicode Consortium, Egyptian Hieroglyph Format Controls: https://www.unicode.org/charts/nameslist/n_13430.html

License

Apache-2.0. Attribution information is provided in NOTICE and citation metadata in CITATION.cff.