BMCR 2005.09.07

Response: Foster on Verbrugghe on e-LSJ

Response to 2005.08.45

Response by

In his recent review of the electronic edition of Liddell & Scott “A Greek-English Lexicon” published by Logos Bible Software, Prof. Verbrugghe mistakenly faulted the product for being unable to search on diacritical marks. He wrote,

While the user can type in diacritical marks in the hope of limiting the search to a specific form of a word, the search function does not take diacritical marks into account. Thus, a search for η, ή, ὴ, ἠ, or ἡ (or for that matter any combination of diacritcal marks possible with η) always returns the same number of hits, 36,437.

In fact, marks are indexed and the system does allow the user to search against them quite simply.

For ease of use, Libronix Digital Library System does not by default require the user to type in diacritical marks when searching. This makes it quicker and easier for the user to enter a basic search when marks are not a concern.

To perform a diacritical-sensitive search, simply use the ‘marks()’ operator. A Greek word or words placed inside the parentheses of the marks operator will match on breathing marks and accents.

So, for example, a marks-sensitive search of LSJ for ἤ finds 297 occurrences while a marks-sensitive search for ἢ finds 1,862 occurrences.