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This post will hopefully help you to get a general understanding of what coding a TEI file in XML language is and what it’s good for. Please note that I am definitely not an expert on this topic, and I … Continue reading
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Searching for nonexistent Errors The task is fun Should be easily done Fifteen mistakes Waiting to be found Happy to partake I start this round. …….. Going through every line This header looks fine. Searching for errors In this faulty … Continue reading
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<TEI xmlns=”http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0″> <teiHeader> <fileDesc> <titleStmt> <title> Coding for <term ref=gloss1> blutige Anfänger </term> </title> <author> Jule Wolters </author> >/titleStmt> </teiHeader> <text> <body> <div type=”introduction”> <head type=”subTitle”> Introduction</head> <p> Hello everyone! Welcome to my blog entry about our second Coding lesson … Continue reading
Hey everyone! I just attended my first university lesson on TEI & XML and I must say, it’s not just about codes and brackets. It’s like unveiling a secret language behind digital humanities! Let’s dive in. So, what’s the difference … Continue reading
Introduction Going into my first session of the Demarginalising Orature class I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I knew it was going to be something quite different from what I’d done before, and I was excited to learn something … Continue reading
This week we presented the codes we did for homework and talked about difficulties and problems. Some of the problems mentioned were: making sure that all the tags are closed, finding quotes in the text so it can be properly coded and the order in which the divisions need to be closed.
We also decided that we are going to use the English terms for the animals in the folktales in the titles, to make it more accessible for readers who don’t understand the Likpakpaln language. In the stories themselves the Likpakpaln words will still be used because we don’t only want to share the folktales but also the culture that they originate from.
This week we started the session going over some common mistakes and mishaps from our homework. After Anne and Michael pointed out the mistakes we got some time to correct our codes so we could move on to the next tasks with a perfect code.
Then we learned how to code a song. This is special because the songs are displayed in two columns: one for the Likpakpaln transcript and one for the English translation. In order to do that we need to create a table in the code. This is the code we were taught to use:
<div type= “song”>
<table type= “translation”>
<row role= “head”>
<cell><hi rend= “bold”>Likpakpaln transcription</hi></cell>
<cell><hi rend= “bold”>English translation</hi></cell>
</row>
<row></row>
<row> <cell><l>Maadim ee, bi koo’ pak Maadim ee too. (2x)</l></cell>
<cell><l>Maadim, all are full of praise for Maadim. (2x)</l></cell> </row>
</table>
</div>
In order for the lines of the song to be more legible we place an empty row between the lines.
We were also taught how to code footnotes and a glossary. Both codes work in a similar way where there needs to be a connection between the footnote or the word in the text and the corresponding number or explanation in the notes/glossary.
These are the examples we were given:
footnotes:
… <term xml:id=”footnote1″><hi rend=”superscript”>1</hi></term>
<div type=”Note”>
<head type=”subTitle”>Note</head>
<list type=”index”>
<label>1.</label><item><gloss target=”#footnote1″> explanation </gloss></item>
</list>
</div>
glossary:
<cell><l><term ref=”#gloss1″>Asantes</term> passed here</l></cell>
<div type=”glossary”>
<head type=”subTitle”>A Glossary of Likpakpaln Words</head>
<list type=”gloss”>
<label>Asantes:</label><item><gloss xml:id=”gloss1″>plural form of Asante.
The Asante people, who are commonly known as Ashanti people or Ashantis, are one of the ethnic groups in Ghana that make up the Akan group. They inhabit the southern part of Ghana, especially the Ashanti region.</gloss></item>
</list>
</div>
Finally, we were placed into groups of two for our group project.
In our 4th session, May 4th, first we did a recap of the previous session, elaborating on the header, followed by a quick exercise finding possible errors in the examples
Then, we reviewed basic elements of coding:
quotes/spoken word<q>
Then we focused on the header as an important part of codes.
A header includes Metadata and has the following mandatory elements:
<fileDesc>
<titleStmt></titleStmt>
<publicationStmt></publicationStmt>
<sourceDesc></sourceDesc>
</fileDesc>
Michael and Anne asked the class find all mistakes in the sample header, and nearly everyone detected 10 mistakes.
This is a part of one example of a sample header we discussed in the class:
<TEI xmlns=”http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0″
<teilleader>
<filedesc>
<titleStmt>
<title>Parents Should Love Their Children Equally</title
*The title is not closed properly-
Finally, the class was asked to continue coding the folktale “Parents Should Love their Children equally”.
In our second session (April 27th), we were introduced to TEI and XML. First, we learned that TEI is an acronym for Text Encoding Initiative, which is used to create data from scratch, store data and transform data in machine/computer-readable formats. The type of information stored is varied: not only texts but also audios, pictures, and videos can be stored in digital form. XML is an acronym for Extensive Markup Language, a descriptive computer language that uses symbols to create a clear structure in a text document. TEI and XML are essential tools because they allow information, in our case Konkomba folktales, to be easily accessible for those interested in the stored data while simultaneously preserving it so it will not be lost in the future.
Next, we were shown how a TEI file is structured. A TEI file always contains a header and a text also referred to as a body. There are also main containers and sub-containers (short: sc) which contain elements. Their purpose is to define the Markup Language. For example, when coding we use an Open Tag (<), then we insert the elements/sc, and then use a Close Tag (>). We have to keep in mind that Tags are a very integral part of Markup Language. Without Tags a TEI file cannot be properly formed, resulting in an error. At the beginning of every TEI file, we need to type <TEI…> before we begin with the header and the text/body. Only when we are completely finished with creating a TEI file, we can type </TEI>. This is the first step.
The second step is to create a header. The header needs to be tagged as <teiHeader>. There, the main container is situated. It contains metadata, like the author, storyteller, publication information, editors, sponsors, etc. This is mandatory information that is typed as follows: <fileDesc>… </file Desc> (file Description), <titleStmt>…</titleStmt> (title statement), <publicationStmt>…</publicationStmt> (publication statement), and <sourceDesc>…</sourceDesc (source description). When all the mandatory information is in the TEI file, we use </fileDesc>. There are also optional elements, like <encodingDesc> (encoding description) which details editorial decisions or the relationship between a text and the source from which it was derived. When the header is completed, we use </teiHeader>.
We were shown an example of how the header is structured:
After that, the text is tagged as <text>. The text contains the body (tagged as <body>… </body>). First, we need to put the title or subtitle: This is done by putting <head>… </head>. To markup sections within a text, we need to use <div>… </div>. To create paragraphs, <p>…</p> is used. Finally, to encode line breaks or quotations we use <l>…</l> and <q>…</q>. When we are finished with the body, </body> needs to be put at the end. To finish the text section, we type </text>.
This was another example shown to us of how to successfully create a text/body section:
To conclude, I think the introductory lesson about TEI and XML has been easy to follow and was explained in a way that wasn’t too complicated. At first, I was a bit nervous about learning how to code because I don’t have a lot of experience with coding but after this session, I am interested to learn more about TEI and how we are going to implement coding in our future sessions of the seminar.
Orature is a living tradition precisely because orality, its base, is always at the cutting edge of the new and the experimental in word and experience.” (Ngugi wa Thiog’o. Globalectics: Theory and the Politics of Knowing. Columbia University Press, 2012, p.83.)
26th of Aprill, 2023
After our first session of getting to know each other, we finally dipped our toes into the topics orality, performance and literature.
Obviously, the first question that occurred was ‘What is orality?’. In order to answer this question, we put our focus on the African continent, specifically East Africa, Somalia. We learned that it is common and preferred in Somalia to distribute and share information orally, from person to person. People are more comfortable to hear information rather than reading it. This also has an effect on how they learn. A big part of the learning process happens through conversation and participation. This tradition of orality has often been falsely perceived as primitive by Western society. Luckily, this perception experiences a transformation as western scholars nowadays acknowledge the historical, cultural and social richness of orality and orature.
As we lay our focus on folktales in our seminar, we continued with discussing some aspects of storytelling. For instance, the fact that not every individual is skilled in telling stories, singing, playing the drums or dancing. This is why oftentimes more than one person is involved in telling and performing the story, which causes a uniqueness every time the story is told and performed. Hence, in contrast to literature it is bound to the present and can never truly be captured by written text only.
Finally, we touched upon Postcolonialism and the influence of Colonial languages on Indigenous languages. As many African societies did not have a significant literary tradition, many languages did / do not have their own script . Therefore, these languages currently use the Latin alphabet even though this oftentimes does not capture all qualities of the Indigenous language. Additionally, at present it is common that speakers are more proficient in the Colonial language than the Indigenous language.
As can be seen on this Moroccan sign, Colonial languages are predominant. But efforts to preserve Tamazight, a language indigenous to North Africa, with the help of the Tifinagh alphabet, are being made.
Preserving a language and stories ? This brings us back to the topic. Over the course of this semester, with the help of modern day technology, we will try to help preserve folktales from Ghana. I am looking forward to learn more about the Konkomba, an ethnic group in Ghana, and the technological methods we will use to secure their folktales.