[NTG-context] italian words with apostrophe - hyphenation and discretionary

[NTG-context] italian words with apostrophe - hyphenation and discretionary

[mf]

Hello list,

I'd like to know how to specify the following rules of the Italian language.

Feminine words starting with a vowel change the preceding indefinite 
article ending with a vowel: the article loses the ending vowel, that is 
replaced by an apostrophe. Example:

una opera => un'opera ("a work", but also "an opera")
una opera => un’opera (with the unicode curly single quote)

In case of definite articles, that is true also for masculine words 
starting with a vowel.

la opera => l'opera ("the work", also "the opera", feminine)

lo operaio => l'operaio ("the worker", masculine)

This extends to articulate prepositions (preposition+article), like

nella opera => nell'opera ("in the work", "in the opera")

dello operaio => dell'operaio ("of the worker")

HYPHENATION

In Italian you can't hyphenate after an apostrophe:

un'opera => un'o-pe-ra
nell'opera => nel-l'o-pe-ra

so these are the allowed hyphenations:

un'o-
pera      typographically rather ugly

un'ope-
ra        better

nel-
l'opera   typographically the best (preposition-article split)

nell'o-   ugly
pera

nell'ope-
ra

but, though it's not used much anymore, you can go back to the version 
without apostrophe, as long as the uncut article or preposition is the 
last word in a line:

una
opera

nella
opera

These are seldom used, but they would be a good solution, especially 
when the line break occurs across pages.
Sometimes it's also the finest typographical solution when you have 
narrow columns.

The reason it is seldom used is because there's no automatic solution in 
typesetting software.
You can do it manually, but when a change in the text modifies the line 
breaking, the article/preposition could move away from the end of the 
line, and you'd get "una opera" or "nella opera" in the middle of a 
line, which is grammatically correct but definitely not something you 
would expect in a printed text, considered almost an error.

THE QUESTION

Is there a way to encode such rules with \hyphenation and \discretionary?

I tried

\hyphenation{nel{-l'o}{la}{o}-pe-ra}

but it does not seem to work.

Massi
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[NTG-context] Re: italian words with apostrophe - hyphenation and discretionary

[Tomáš Hála]

Hi Massi,

I do not know if there is the completely automated solution but I guess
that the following code might help you, the #3 way with \definetextmodediscretionary
seems the best to me.

Tomáš

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
% APOSTROPHE, HYPHENATED
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

% For number 3 you need:
\definetextmodediscretionary l' {\discretionary{-}{l'}{l'}}
%\definetextmodediscretionary l’ {\discretionary{-}{l’}{l’}}

\def\mycmd{\par\thinrule
\par 1.~\discretionary{nel-}{l'opera}{nell'opera} 
\par 2.~nel\discretionary{-}{l'}{l'}opera  
\par 3.~nel|l'|opera
}

\starttext
\hsize10cc \par \mycmd
\hsize1dd  \par \mycmd
\stoptext

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
% FULL WORDS, NO HYPHENATION
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

% For number 3 you need:
\definetextmodediscretionary ' {\discretionary{a}{}{'}}
%\definetextmodediscretionary ’ {\discretionary{a}{}{’}}

\def\mycmd{\par\thinrule
\par 1.~\discretionary{nella}{opera}{nell'opera} 
\par 2.~nell\discretionary{a}{}{'}opera  
\par 3.~nell|'|opera
}


\starttext
\hsize10cc \par \mycmd
\hsize1dd  \par \mycmd
\stoptext



On Tue, Oct 22, 2024 at 01:59:10PM +0200, mf wrote:
> Hello list,
> 
> I'd like to know how to specify the following rules of the Italian language.
> 
> Feminine words starting with a vowel change the preceding indefinite
> article ending with a vowel: the article loses the ending vowel,
> that is replaced by an apostrophe. Example:
> 
> una opera => un'opera ("a work", but also "an opera")
> una opera => un’opera (with the unicode curly single quote)
> 
> In case of definite articles, that is true also for masculine words
> starting with a vowel.
> 
> la opera => l'opera ("the work", also "the opera", feminine)
> 
> lo operaio => l'operaio ("the worker", masculine)
> 
> This extends to articulate prepositions (preposition+article), like
> 
> nella opera => nell'opera ("in the work", "in the opera")
> 
> dello operaio => dell'operaio ("of the worker")
> 
> HYPHENATION
> 
> In Italian you can't hyphenate after an apostrophe:
> 
> un'opera => un'o-pe-ra
> nell'opera => nel-l'o-pe-ra
> 
> so these are the allowed hyphenations:
> 
> un'o-
> pera      typographically rather ugly
> 
> un'ope-
> ra        better
> 
> nel-
> l'opera   typographically the best (preposition-article split)
> 
> nell'o-   ugly
> pera
> 
> nell'ope-
> ra
> 
> but, though it's not used much anymore, you can go back to the
> version without apostrophe, as long as the uncut article or
> preposition is the last word in a line:
> 
> una
> opera
> 
> nella
> opera
> 
> These are seldom used, but they would be a good solution, especially
> when the line break occurs across pages.
> Sometimes it's also the finest typographical solution when you have
> narrow columns.
> 
> The reason it is seldom used is because there's no automatic
> solution in typesetting software.
> You can do it manually, but when a change in the text modifies the
> line breaking, the article/preposition could move away from the end
> of the line, and you'd get "una opera" or "nella opera" in the
> middle of a line, which is grammatically correct but definitely not
> something you would expect in a printed text, considered almost an
> error.
> 
> THE QUESTION
> 
> Is there a way to encode such rules with \hyphenation and \discretionary?
> 
> I tried
> 
> \hyphenation{nel{-l'o}{la}{o}-pe-ra}
> 
> but it does not seem to work.
> 
> Massi
> ___________________________________________________________________________________
> If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki!
> 
> maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / https://mailman.ntg.nl/mailman3/lists/ntg-context.ntg.nl
> webpage  : https://www.pragma-ade.nl / https://context.aanhet.net (mirror)
> archive  : https://github.com/contextgarden/context
> wiki     : https://wiki.contextgarden.net
> ___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
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___________________________________________________________________________________

[NTG-context] Re: italian words with apostrophe - hyphenation and discretionary

[mf]

Thank you, Tomáš!

I chose this one:

nell\discretionary{a}{}{'}opera

It's not a general solution, but it's a local, elegant fix.

In my case I had "dell’Informazione", hyphenated as "del-l’Informazione".
That hyphenation is fine in general, but here it happens at the end of 
an odd page, so that you must turn the page to see what comes after "del-".

Now the page ends with "della", and the next one starts with 
"Informazione". Which is typographically better.

If the text preceding those words changes, they may end in the middle of 
a line, but as "dell’Informazione" instead of "della Informazione".

Moreover, I found a way to make it work with my XML workflow.
It's actually something like this:

... dell<ctx>\discretionary{a}{}{</ctx>’<ctx>}</ctx>Informazione ...

Think of the <ctx> tag as a way to inject ConTeXt code that is not part 
of the contents of the document, but it's important for a particular 
typesetting layout.

Once you expunge the <ctx> tags, you get back the pure, intact content:

... dell’Informazione ...


Massi

Il 22/10/24 15:33, Tomáš Hála ha scritto:
> Hi Massi,
> 
> I do not know if there is the completely automated solution but I guess
> that the following code might help you, the #3 way with \definetextmodediscretionary
> seems the best to me.
> 
> Tomáš
> 
> %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
> % APOSTROPHE, HYPHENATED
> %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
> 
> % For number 3 you need:
> \definetextmodediscretionary l' {\discretionary{-}{l'}{l'}}
> %\definetextmodediscretionary l’ {\discretionary{-}{l’}{l’}}
> 
> \def\mycmd{\par\thinrule
> \par 1.~\discretionary{nel-}{l'opera}{nell'opera}
> \par 2.~nel\discretionary{-}{l'}{l'}opera
> \par 3.~nel|l'|opera
> }
> 
> \starttext
> \hsize10cc \par \mycmd
> \hsize1dd  \par \mycmd
> \stoptext
> 
> %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
> % FULL WORDS, NO HYPHENATION
> %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
> 
> % For number 3 you need:
> \definetextmodediscretionary ' {\discretionary{a}{}{'}}
> %\definetextmodediscretionary ’ {\discretionary{a}{}{’}}
> 
> \def\mycmd{\par\thinrule
> \par 1.~\discretionary{nella}{opera}{nell'opera}
> \par 2.~nell\discretionary{a}{}{'}opera
> \par 3.~nell|'|opera
> }
> 
> 
> \starttext
> \hsize10cc \par \mycmd
> \hsize1dd  \par \mycmd
> \stoptext
> 
> 
> 
> On Tue, Oct 22, 2024 at 01:59:10PM +0200, mf wrote:
>> Hello list,
>> ...
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[NTG-context] Re: italian words with apostrophe - hyphenation and discretionary

[Hans Hagen]

Hi Tomáš and Massi,

> I chose this one:
> 
> nell\discretionary{a}{}{'}opera
> 
> It's not a general solution, but it's a local, elegant fix.
> 
> In my case I had "dell’Informazione", hyphenated as "del-l’Informazione".
> That hyphenation is fine in general, but here it happens at the end of 
> an odd page, so that you must turn the page to see what comes after "del-".
> 
> Now the page ends with "della", and the next one starts with 
> "Informazione". Which is typographically better.
> 
> If the text preceding those words changes, they may end in the middle of 
> a line, but as "dell’Informazione" instead of "della Informazione".
> 
> Moreover, I found a way to make it work with my XML workflow.
> It's actually something like this:
> 
> ... dell<ctx>\discretionary{a}{}{</ctx>’<ctx>}</ctx>Informazione ...
> 
> Think of the <ctx> tag as a way to inject ConTeXt code that is not part 
> of the contents of the document, but it's important for a particular 
> typesetting layout.
> 
> Once you expunge the <ctx> tags, you get back the pure, intact content:
> 
> ... dell’Informazione ...

There's a fourh way ...

\starttext

\startexceptions
     nell{a}{}{a'}opera
\stopexceptions

\start \hsize 10cm nella'opera \par \stop
\start \hsize 01mm nella'opera \par \stop

\start \hsize 10cm nell\discretionary{a}{}{'}opera \par \stop
\start \hsize 01mm nell\discretionary{a}{}{'}opera \par \stop

\stoptext



-----------------------------------------------------------------
                                           Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE
               Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands
        tel: 038 477 53 69 | www.pragma-ade.nl | www.pragma-pod.nl
-----------------------------------------------------------------
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___________________________________________________________________________________

[NTG-context] Re: italian words with apostrophe - hyphenation and discretionary

[Tomáš Hála]

Hi Hans,

I have to admit that \startexceptions is new to me, thank you.

nell{a}{}{a'}opera very nicely solves the full word substitution
but I do not know how to figure out the hyphenatation case:

Using the exception "nel{-}{l'}{l'}opera" it will change also words with articles
where hyphenation is supressed (below). Is there any way how to fix it?

Tomáš

\starttext
\startexceptions
%    nell{a}{}{a'}opera   
    nel{-}{l'}{l'}opera
\stopexceptions

\start \hsize 10cm nell'opera \par l'operaio \par \stop
\start \hsize 01mm nell'opera \par l'operaio \par \stop

\stoptext

> There's a fourh way ...
> 
> \starttext
> 
> \startexceptions
>     nell{a}{}{a'}opera
> \stopexceptions
> 
> \start \hsize 10cm nella'opera \par \stop
> \start \hsize 01mm nella'opera \par \stop
> 
> \start \hsize 10cm nell\discretionary{a}{}{'}opera \par \stop
> \start \hsize 01mm nell\discretionary{a}{}{'}opera \par \stop
> 
> \stoptext
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[NTG-context] Re: italian words with apostrophe - hyphenation and discretionary

[Tomáš Hála]

Towards my previous post:

I know that one can use \hyphenation{l'operaio} for solving the particular
word with article. The question is how to fix it generally (i.e. for all
words with article) via exceptions or by another way.

Tomáš


On Tue, Oct 22, 2024 at 06:32:47PM +0200, Tomáš Hála wrote:
> Hi Hans,
> 
> I have to admit that \startexceptions is new to me, thank you.
> 
> nell{a}{}{a'}opera very nicely solves the full word substitution
> but I do not know how to figure out the hyphenatation case:
> 
> Using the exception "nel{-}{l'}{l'}opera" it will change also words with articles
> where hyphenation is supressed (below). Is there any way how to fix it?
> 
> Tomáš
> 
> \starttext
> \startexceptions
> %    nell{a}{}{a'}opera   
>     nel{-}{l'}{l'}opera
> \stopexceptions
> 
> \start \hsize 10cm nell'opera \par l'operaio \par \stop
> \start \hsize 01mm nell'opera \par l'operaio \par \stop
> 
> \stoptext
> 
> > There's a fourh way ...
> > 
> > \starttext
> > 
> > \startexceptions
> >     nell{a}{}{a'}opera
> > \stopexceptions
> > 
> > \start \hsize 10cm nella'opera \par \stop
> > \start \hsize 01mm nella'opera \par \stop
> > 
> > \start \hsize 10cm nell\discretionary{a}{}{'}opera \par \stop
> > \start \hsize 01mm nell\discretionary{a}{}{'}opera \par \stop
> > 
> > \stoptext
> ___________________________________________________________________________________
> If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki!
> 
> maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / https://mailman.ntg.nl/mailman3/lists/ntg-context.ntg.nl
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> ___________________________________________________________________________________
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[NTG-context] Re: italian words with apostrophe - hyphenation and discretionary

[Hans Hagen via ntg-context]

On 10/22/2024 7:22 PM, Tomáš Hála wrote:
> 
> Towards my previous post:
> 
> I know that one can use \hyphenation{l'operaio} for solving the particular
> word with article. The question is how to fix it generally (i.e. for all
> words with article) via exceptions or by another way.

I'll send you both a file to play with

% \enabletrackers[languages.goodies]
% \enabletrackers[languages.applied]

\setuplanguage[italian][goodies={lang-it-test.llg}]

\mainlanguage[italian]

\starttext
     \start \hsize 10cm nella'opera \par \stop
     \start \hsize 01mm nella'opera \par \stop
\stoptext



-----------------------------------------------------------------
                                           Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE
               Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands
        tel: 038 477 53 69 | www.pragma-ade.nl | www.pragma-pod.nl
-----------------------------------------------------------------
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[NTG-context] Re: italian words with apostrophe - hyphenation and discretionary

[mf]

Il 22/10/24 21:22, Hans Hagen via ntg-context ha scritto:
> On 10/22/2024 7:22 PM, Tomáš Hála wrote:
>>
>> Towards my previous post:
>>
>> I know that one can use \hyphenation{l'operaio} for solving the 
>> particular
>> word with article. The question is how to fix it generally (i.e. for all
>> words with article) via exceptions or by another way.
> 
> I'll send you both a file to play with
> 
> % \enabletrackers[languages.goodies]
> % \enabletrackers[languages.applied]
> 
> \setuplanguage[italian][goodies={lang-it-test.llg}]
> 
> \mainlanguage[italian]
> 
> \starttext
>      \start \hsize 10cm nella'opera \par \stop
>      \start \hsize 01mm nella'opera \par \stop
> \stoptext
> 
The test should be:

\starttext
      \start \hsize 10cm nell'opera \par \stop
      \start \hsize 01mm nell'opera \par \stop
\stoptext

"nell'opera" is an elision of the last vowel of "nella".
At the primary school I've been taught that the apostrophe was a 
teardrop of the first word, crying for the loss of its last letter (a 
nice allegory for kids).

Normally you'd never transform "nell'opera" back into "nella opera", 
even when there's a line break. These are usually preferred:

nel-l'opera   the best one
nell'o-pera   acceptable but a bit ugly
               (only one letter between the apostrophe and the hyphen)
nell'ope-ra   better than the previous one

That's because in "nella opera" you have two vowels one next to the 
other ("a" and "o"), that slow the spelling and make it more uncomfortable.
For the same reason sometimes we use an euphonic "d" to "break" the 
repetition of two vowels (especially when it is the same vowel):

1) "Max va a Milano" ("Max goes to Milan"), no vowel after the "a" 
("to") preposition;

2) "Max va ad Aosta", not "Max va a Aosta": (in these case we put a "d", 
otherwise we should say 3 consecutive "a" vowels)

Back to elision and hyphenation, I would resort to "nella opera" only in 
very particular cases:

- to prevent the hyphenation of the last line of a page (especially an 
odd page);

- when all the hyphenations of "nell'opera" (nel-l'o-pe-ra) result in 
ugly typesettings (e.g. many successive hyphenations, stretched word 
skips); this happens especially with narrow columns of text; it could be 
that "nella" at the end of a line, and "opera" at the start of the next 
one, make the typesetting result more pleasing.

Generalizing a rule (you can't)

It's hard to generalize a rule, because the elided articulated 
prepositions ("dell'", "all'", "dall'", "nell'") are the same for 
masculine and feminine words, but their un-elided versions depend on the 
gender: "dello", "allo", "dallo", "nello" for masculine, "della", 
"alla", "dalla", "nella" for feminine.
So an algorithm should know the gender of a word, and that makes it 
impractical.

Instead, the elided, indefinite article "un'" is always feminine, and 
could be automatically un-elided to "una".
But, even in this case, I would do it only when the alternative 
typesettings are really ugly. Here's an example ("un'istanza"):

  ...      una
istanza

could be preferable to:

  ...     un'i-
stanza

(a single "i" between an apostrophe and a hyphen is rather ugly), and 
also to:

  ... un'istan-
za

which could also be impractical because "un'istan-" may not fit in the 
first line.

Massi
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