[First Project] The Sea-Hawk by Rafael Sabatini

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nick hatch

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Dec 23, 2021, 3:07:03 PM12/23/21
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This one is a bit on the longer side (about 118k words, by my count), but seems to have basic formatting.

One possible complication - some sources drop the hyphenated title. (see: Wikipedia, and the 1924/1940 movies.) Would standard ebooks follow?


-Nick

Alex Cabal

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Dec 23, 2021, 4:55:02 PM12/23/21
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Great, that one would be a good start.

Since there's a preface you'll have to add a half title. The book is
divided into parts, so each chapter will have to include a stub
<section> for its parent part. See the manual for how to do this.

Make sure to read the Standard Ebooks Manual of Style before starting,
as you won't know what to fix if you haven't read the standards. In
particular, please closely review the semantics, high level patterns,
and typography sections:

https://standardebooks.org/manual

https://standardebooks.org/manual/latest/4-semantics

https://standardebooks.org/manual/latest/7-high-level-structural-patterns

https://standardebooks.org/manual/latest/8-typography

The step by step guide will take you from start to finish:

https://standardebooks.org/contribute/producing-an-ebook-step-by-step

Please email often if you have any questions at all. Our standards are
well-established so there is probably already a standard for formatting
whatever problem you've encountered.

When you're ready, email back with a link to your Github repository so
that I can mark you as having started.

Have fun! :)
> <https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015002753518>
>
> -Nick
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nick hatch

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Jan 3, 2022, 1:02:31 PM1/3/22
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Repo: 

I think the overall structure is in-place, am having fun. 

Will have plenty of questions later, but have plenty of proofing to keep me busy. This project has enough foreign phrases and old transliterated Arabic loanwords to keep things interesting. 

I've tried to keep commits very small and transparent to aid review, as well as editorial reversion if necessary. 

-Nick

nick hatch

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Jan 12, 2022, 12:24:49 AM1/12/22
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Regarding gratuitous capitalization: I think I have most of the easy cases figured out, but want to double check a few and add a few questions. Would really appreciate input. 

Easy one: Lowercase the civil title of justice, but retain when used as part of name, correct? 
> Who will accuse me to the Justices?  -> the justices
> ...  the Justices at Truro -> justices at Truro 
> Justice Baine and another ...

Kasbah, a Meddah, a Mueddin - I dropped the caps for all. 

Retain capitalization of alternative names of deities, correct? 
> the Gentle and Pitiful Saviour
> please the All-pitiful
> his Maker

Is this personification of Destiny, which should retain uppercase? It's only used twice:
> he seemed oppressed by some elusive sense of overhanging doom, by some subconsciousness of an evil in the womb of Destiny
> which Destiny sent his way in the shape of

Or is this personification too? Keep as-is?
> Sir John was guided by the hand of destiny itself
> the gifts from the hands of destiny.
> He cursed all women, and he cursed destiny

CMS covers parliament specifically (8.65), but I'm confused by it. Retain capitalization in the context of the UK?
> Sir John in his representations to Parliament

a perverter of the Scriptures - dropped the caps here.

Paradise in a straightforward religious context, lowercase?:
> the Paradise of the Prophet
> she shall thank me for having led her into Paradise
> the Faithful whose pavilions wait them in Paradise

the Faithful: many, if not all, seem gratuitous, lowercase?
> I am [...] one of the Faithful of the Prophet’s House.
> responsibility for the lives of the Faithful
> in the eyes of the Faithful
> she had been paraded with naked face among the Faithful

True-Believer is frequently used (16 times), consistently capitalized and hyphenated. I find it distracting, but assume it should stay. Perhaps it's a placeholder for a specific Arabic term, or concept within Islam? For what its worth, Sabatini seems to use it synonymously to his use of Muslimeen
> shall I take fifty True-Believers and make a raid upon them
> daughters of the infidel are not for True-Believers?

-Nick 

Robin Whittleton

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Jan 12, 2022, 1:06:30 AM1/12/22
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Justice should retain capitalisation as it’s an official title: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Court_judge_%28England_and_Wales%29

On 12 Jan 2022, at 06:24, nick hatch <nichola...@gmail.com> wrote:


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Alex Cabal

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Jan 12, 2022, 11:46:44 AM1/12/22
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On 1/12/22 12:24 AM, nick hatch wrote:
> Regarding gratuitous capitalization: I think I have most of the easy
> cases figured out, but want to double check a few and add a few
> questions. Would really appreciate input.
>
> Easy one: Lowercase the civil title of /justice, /but retain when used
> as part of name, correct?
> > Who will accuse me to the Justices?  -> the justices
> > ...  the Justices at Truro -> justices at Truro
> > Justice Baine and another ...

As Robin noted this should remain capitalized, also because this is an
edge case where we want to make sure we don't confuse it with word
`justice` with a different meaning.

> /Kasbah/, a /Meddah/, a /Mueddin/ - I dropped the caps for all.

OK

> Retain capitalization of alternative names of deities, correct?
>
> > the Gentle and Pitiful Saviour
> > please the All-pitiful
> > his Maker

Yes

> Is this personification of Destiny, which should retain uppercase? It's
> only used twice:
>
> > he seemed oppressed by some elusive sense of overhanging doom, by
> some subconsciousness of an evil in the womb of Destiny
> > which Destiny sent his way in the shape of

Yes

> CMS covers parliament specifically (8.65), but I'm confused by it.
> Retain capitalization in the context of the UK?
>
> > Sir John in his representations to Parliament

You can keep it

> a perverter of the /Scriptures - /dropped the caps here.

You can keep the caps because it is probably referring to specific
scriptures

> Paradise in a straightforward religious context, lowercase?:
>
> > the Paradise of the Prophet
> > she shall thank me for having led her into Paradise
> > the Faithful whose pavilions wait them in Paradise

Again this is referring to a specific place so you can keep caps

> the Faithful: many, if not all, seem gratuitous, lowercase?
>
> > I am [...] one of the Faithful of the Prophet’s House.
> > responsibility for the lives of the Faithful
> > in the eyes of the Faithful
> > she had been paraded with naked face among the Faithful

OK

> /True-Believer/ is frequently used (16 times), consistently capitalized
> and hyphenated. I find it distracting, but assume it should stay.
> Perhaps it's a placeholder for a specific Arabic term, or concept within
> Islam? For what its worth, Sabatini seems to use it synonymously to his
> use of /Muslimeen/
> > shall I take fifty True-Believers and make a raid upon them
> > daughters of the infidel are not for True-Believers?

I would remove caps and the dash

Remember to do these all in commits prefaced with [Editorial]

Thanks!

nick hatch

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Jan 13, 2022, 4:45:01 PM1/13/22
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Thanks Robin and Alex, I've made those changes. 

Next I have language questions. In a few places, I'm struggling to identify the language. Sabatini has included phrases in Arabic, including Moroccan Arabic and Algerian Arabic. He has also used Ottoman Turkish. Some of these transliterations have been challenging to research. 

No clue on Oâk and Warda here:
> six colossal Nubians advanced with shouts of— “Oâk! Oâk! Warda! Way! Make way!”

Interestingly, when the story was serialized in Adventure, it was rewritten with a parenthetical: "Oak! Oak! Warda!" (Way! Make way!)

No clue for "Ya anta":
> He raised his voice to call. "Ya anta! Ayoub!"

Balâk I've found in an Moroccian Arabic -English dictionary with the definition, "Watch out! Look Out!". 
Holâ seems to have its roots in old french [1], and makes sense in context given the frequent references to lingua franca in the story. I suspect there's might be a more direct word; and, how to tag regardless? 
> “Afoot! To arms! To arms! Holâ! Balâk! Balâk!

This is probably the arabic Dīn here, but I'm uncomfortable because I haven't been able to find examples of it being used as an exclamation elsewhere: 
>  He fought like ten men, and to support him poured a never-ending stream of Muslimeen to the cry of “Din! Din! Allah, Y’Allah!”

Guessing this is some declaration of God, am stuck otherwise:
> “Kellamullah!” he bellowed.

Bab-el-Oued is a historical neighborhood in Algiers, and makes sense in the context of the story. Bab-el-Oueb doesn't seem to be anything real. I'm fairly certain this one is an error.
> he found one day among some English seamen brought captive to Algiers [...] He took this lad home with him to the fine palace which he inhabited near the Bab-el-Oueb

This is the same Abrahamic interjection as Amen, yes? Ameen seems to be a historical transliteration used mainly in Islamic contexts, I'm leaning towards modernizing here. 
> “Ameen,” said Sakr-el-Bahr

Any theories or guidance would be very much appreciated. Thanks!

-Nick

Alex Cabal

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Jan 13, 2022, 4:50:09 PM1/13/22
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Good research. If you're not sure what language something is, use your
best guess, or use `x-unknown` as the language tag.

OK to correct Bab-el-Oued.

I would leave `Ameen` as it is because it is not sound-alike

On 1/13/22 4:44 PM, nick hatch wrote:
> Thanks Robin and Alex, I've made those changes.
>
> Next I have language questions. In a few places, I'm struggling to
> identify the language. Sabatini has included phrases in Arabic,
> including Moroccan Arabic and Algerian Arabic. He has also used Ottoman
> Turkish. Some of these transliterations have been challenging to research.
>
> No clue on /Oâk and Warda/ here:
>
> > six colossal Nubians advanced with shouts of— “/Oâk! Oâk! Warda!
> /Way! Make way!”
>
>
> Interestingly, when the story was serialized in /Adventure, /it was
> rewritten with a parenthetical: "Oak! Oak! Warda!" (Way! Make way!)
>
> No clue for "/Ya anta":/
>
> > He raised his voice to call. "/Ya anta!/ Ayoub!"
>
>
> /Balâk/ I've found in an Moroccian Arabic -English dictionary with the
> definition, "Watch out! Look Out!".
> /Holâ/ seems to have its roots in old french [1], and makes sense in
> context given the frequent references to lingua franca in the story. I
> suspect there's might be a more direct word; and, how to tag regardless?
>
> > “Afoot! To arms! To arms! /Holâ/! /Balâk/! /Balâk/!
>
> [1] https://www.cnrtl.fr/definition/hol%C3%A0
> <https://www.cnrtl.fr/definition/hol%C3%A0>
>
> This is probably the arabic Dīn
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Din_(Arabic)> here, but I'm uncomfortable
> because I haven't been able to find examples of it being used as an
> exclamation elsewhere:
>
> >  He fought like ten men, and to support him poured a never-ending
> stream of Muslimeen to the cry of “/Din! Din!/ Allah, Y’Allah!”
>
> Guessing this is some declaration of God, am stuck otherwise:
>
> > “/Kellamullah/!” he bellowed.
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Vince

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Jan 13, 2022, 4:57:57 PM1/13/22
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Would he (we) not use the ISO “und” (undetermined) language code  That’s what I’ve understood (from someone here, likely Robin, but I’m not sure so I probably shouldn’t throw him under the bus) we should use if we don’t know what the language is.

Alex Cabal

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Jan 13, 2022, 5:19:08 PM1/13/22
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Ah yes, that's right. I'll update the manual.

On 1/13/22 4:57 PM, Vince wrote:
> Would he (we) not use the ISO “und” (undetermined) language code
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ISO_639-2_codes>  That’s what
> I’ve understood (from someone here, likely Robin, but I’m not sure so I
> probably shouldn’t throw him under the bus) we should use if we don’t
> know what the language is.
>
>> On Jan 13, 2022, at 3:50 PM, Alex Cabal <al...@standardebooks.org
>> <mailto:al...@standardebooks.org>> wrote:
>>
>> Good research. If you're not sure what language something is, use your
>> best guess, or use `x-unknown` as the language tag.
>>
>> OK to correct Bab-el-Oued.
>>
>> I would leave `Ameen` as it is because it is not sound-alike
>
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