The Open English Translation has some special characters and tagged markings in some versions.
Most of these are not intended to be directly viewed by the reader
but rather used to assist intelligent computer Bible links and searches.
Here is a list of the use of these special characters:
- Underline (or underscore) _ This is the one special character intended to be visible to the reader
(although a display option would hide it).
The underline character is used to indicate that the connected English words derive from a single word
in the original language.
For example, both Hebrew and Greek can have the pronoun agent of a verb, encoded into the verb,
thus something like he said can be just one word in the Hebrew or Greek
and this would be indicated as he_said in the Literal Version (OET-LV).
- Equals sign = The equals sign is used to indicate added semantic (meaning) information.
For example, if David is speaking and the text reads Bring me ... then the me pronoun might be tagged as me=PDavid.
This indicates that the referrent of the pronoun me is the person, David.
The tagging information is ended by the next word-end character (such as a space, comma or period) or by an underline character.
- Braces or curly brackets {} Braces are used to mark the bounds of multiple words which are tagged.
For example, he saw {the other king}=PYahud or and_{he}=PYahud_said. (Without the braces, it would appear as if king and and_he were being tagged.)
- Parentheses or brackets () Parentheses are used (at the end of words) to mark various grammatical
tags (where relevant) that are not obvious in the English translation.
Common examples are you(sg) and you(pl).
The complete list used is: (sg)/(dual)/(pl), (masc)/(fem)/(neut).
Here is a list of the use of the semantic (and other) tagging characters:
- A (angelic being) Indicates that the referrent is an angelic type of being. This must be followed by the name or unique description of the being if that's not already specified.
- D (deity or god) Indicates that the referrent is a deity or god.
However, since Yeshua/Jesus is both God and man, we made the decision to exempt references to the earthly Jesus from this.
This must be followed by the name or unique description of the god or deity if that's not already specified.
For example, we might have God=D or {the father}=DGodTheFather.
- L (location) Indicates that the referrent is a place or location. This must be followed by the name or unique description of the location if that's not already specified.
For example, we might have Nineveh=L or city=LNineveh or there=LNineveh.
- O (object) Indicates that the referrent is a thing. This must be followed by the name or unique description of the thing if that's not already specified.
For example, we might have staff=OAaronsStaff or ship=OJonahsShip. (Note that this doesn't imply that Jonah owned the ship -- it is simply a convenient unique name used as a reference.)
- P (person) Indicates that the referrent is a single human person.
(We include references to the person Yeshua/Yesous/Jesus in this category.)
This must be followed by the name or unique description of the person if that's not already specified.
For example, we might have David=P or he=PDavid or him=PDavid.
- Q (person group) Indicates that the referrent is a group of two or more human people
(but not a tribe/nation see T below).
This must be followed by the name or unique description of the person group.
For example, we might have we=QPeterAndJohn or they=QJonah1Sailors.
(Note that underline characters may not be used within tags.)
- T (tribal/national group) Indicates that the referrent is a tribe or all citizens of a nation.
This must be followed by the name of the people group.
For example, we might have they=TMiddianites or them=TSamaritans.
- S (Strong's number) followed by a H (Hebrew) or G (Greek) and a number (without leading zeroes).
For example, we might have David=P=SH1732. (The S tag must be the final tag.)
Note that the above must be UPPER-CASE letters.
An introduction to the Open English Translation of the Bible (OET) and a description of the different versions can be found here.
Frequently asked questions (FAQs) about the OET can be found here.
