I had a task to translate a big Greek address book in English.
Due to the fact that Greek Language is full of special characters, a problem occurred when passports where to be created. There should be a fixed way to translate names from Greek to English.
So the ELOT-743 standard was created to solve the confusion
Here you see most of it:
| Greek | English | Greek | English | Greek | English | Greek | English |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| α | a | Ή | I | Ξ | X | Ύ | Y |
| ά | a | θ | th | ο | o | Ϋ | Y |
| Α | A | Θ | TH | ό | o | φ | f |
| Ά | A | ι | i | Ο | O | Φ | F |
| β | v | ί | i | Ό | O | χ | ch |
| Β | V | ϊ | i | π | p | Χ | CH |
| γ | γ | ΐ | i | Π | P | ψ | ps |
| Γ | G | Ι | I | ρ | r | Ψ | PS |
| δ | d | Ί | I | Ρ | R | ω | o |
| Δ | D | Ϊ | I | σ | s | ώ | o |
| ε | e | κ | k | ς | s | Ω | O |
| έ | e | Κ | K | Σ | S | Ώ | O |
| Ε | E | λ | l | τ | t | ΟΥ | OU |
| Έ | E | Λ | L | Τ | T | ου | ou |
| ζ | z | μ | m | υ | y | ού | ou |
| Ζ | Z | Μ | M | ύ | y | Ού | Ou |
| η | i | ν | n | ϋ | y | γγ | ng |
| ή | i | Ν | N | ΰ | y | ΓΓ | NG |
| Η | I | ξ | x | Υ | Y | Γγ | Ng |
So to save my self from the abyss and to avoid the government’s site that had the capability to translate only small text, I wrote a python script myself.
Here is the dictionary to translate the strings:
# -*- coding= utf8 -*-
"""Main source http://www.sete.gr/files/Media/Egkyklioi/040707Latin-Greek.pdf
"""
dict={
"α":"a","ά":"a","Α":"A","Ά":"A","β":"v","Β":"V","γ":"γ","Γ":"G","δ":"d","Δ":"D","ε":"e","έ":"e","Ε":"E","Έ":"E","ζ":"z","Ζ":"Z","η":"i","ή":"i","Η":"I","Ή":"I","θ":"th","Θ":"TH","ι":"i","ί":"i","ϊ":"i","ΐ":"i","Ι":"I","Ί":"I","Ϊ":"I","κ":"k","Κ":"K","λ":"l","Λ":"L","μ":"m","Μ":"M","ν":"n","Ν":"N","ξ":"x","Ξ":"X","ο":"o","ό":"o","Ο":"O","Ό":"O","π":"p","Π":"P","ρ":"r","Ρ":"R","σ":"s","ς":"s","Σ":"S","τ":"t","Τ":"T","υ":"y","ύ":"y","ϋ":"y","ΰ":"y","Υ":"Y","Ύ":"Y","Ϋ":"Y","φ":"f","Φ":"F","χ":"ch","Χ":"CH","ψ":"ps","Ψ":"PS","ω":"o","ώ":"o","Ω":"O","Ώ":"O","ΟΥ":"OU","ου":"ou","ού":"ou","Ού":"Ou","γγ":"ng","ΓΓ":"NG","Γγ":"Ng",
}
And here is the actual script:
#!/usr/bin/python
# -*- coding= utf8 -*-
import sys, getopt
from string import maketrans
from elot743 import *
def replace_all(text, dic):
for i, j in dic.iteritems():
if i != j:
text = text.replace(i, j)
text.replace(',' , 'n')
return text
def readFile(infile):
print "reading file",infile,"...n"
i = open(infile, 'r')
array=[]
for line in i:
array.append(replace_all(line.rstrip('n'),dict))
i.close()
return array
print "nfinished reading file!n"
def writeFile(outfile, array):
print "writing to file",outfile,"...n"
print array
o = open(outfile, 'w')
for item in array:
o.write("%sn" % item)
o.close()
print "nfinished writing to file!n"
def main(argv):
inputfile = ''
outputfile = ''
try:
opts, args = getopt.getopt(argv,"hi:o:",["ifile=","ofile="])
except getopt.GetoptError:
print 'names.py -i -o '
sys.exit(2)
for opt, arg in opts:
if opt == '-h':
print 'names.py -i -o '
sys.exit()
elif opt in ("-i", "--ifile"):
inputfile = arg
elif opt in ("-o", "--ofile"):
outputfile = arg
if inputfile == '':
inputfile = raw_input('File where the names to be translated exist (ex. names.txt) : ')
if outputfile =='':
outputfile = raw_input('File where the translated names will be written (ex. trnames.txt) : ')
print 'Input file is "', inputfile
print 'Output file is "', outputfile
transArray=[]
transArray=readFile(inputfile)
writeFile(outputfile,transArray)
print 'File is translated!'
if __name__ == "__main__":
main(sys.argv[1:])
To run the script, you can call it from command line by typing:
python names.py -i -o
Where the text file where the names to be translated exist and the text file where the translated names will be written.
-or-
You can run it without the arguments and it will prompt you for the file names.
I believe that it will not be helpful to many but it could be a relatively good example of using dictionaries in Python;)
The project code can be found here on GitHub. Feel free to use it.
Feel free to leave your comment below!
Tasos Sangiotis 