ELOT-743 translator

May 18, 2013

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 https://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("%s\n" % 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!