NetSiouan (Standard Siouan fonts)

[Koontz John E]

On Tue, 10 Nov 1998, Robert L. Rankin wrote:
> Netscape 4.x allows you to use the Siouan SSDoulos and other fonts in
> email directly.  Probably a number of other readers as well.  We should
> work toward making this standard for our work.  In the meantime, John's
> suggestions look great and make communication possible.

Note that the Standard Siouan fonts Bob refers to here are a set of
TrueType fonts for use with Windows.  I have no idea how to convert them
for MacOS, though I assume this is possible.  The fonts are in the SIL
type faces provided with their nice tool EncoreFonts.  The names are
Christian phrases, mostly, but intended to be mnemonic, i.e., Doulos =
Dutch ~ Times, the serif fonts; Sophia = Swiss ~ Helvetica, the sansserif
fonts.  Manuscript = monospaced, seriphed nonproportional.  There are
several character sets, including Standard Siouan (modern
tranascriptions), Dakotanist (for Buechel, Riggs, etc.), and BAE (for
Dorsey and some other older things), plus a small set of auxiliary
phonetic symbols, and a straight Windows set, because the SIL faces don't
match the standard Times, Arial/Helvetica, Courier sets very nicely. 

For use under Windows I provide a set of keyboard definitions based on an
SIL-promoted freeware package.  I have no idea how to set up keyboarding
for Macs.  

One of the tasks I've set myself is to get the full set of fonts up on my
Web site (http://spot.colorado.edu/~koontz) for downloading.  Right now
there's only a small subset. But this takes some cramming, as site pages,
major assets like fonts (about 2 MB of material), and email folders all
have to fit into 5 MB in a University account. At present the Department
doesn't seem to able to provide any space from its own resources.  I've
tried hinting and pointed comments.  Maybe I'll have to hint louder and
more pointedly.  A message in blood pinned to the chairman's door with a
kris?  

I apologize for the acronym SS, as in Standard Siouan.  It was an accident
that I didn't notice until I got lazy enough to abbreviate things.  I've
considered changing it.  Maybe Stsi, which is actually pronounceable in
Osage.  (It's 'too', right, Carolyn? - which suggests the somewhat over
elaborate pun Tutu.) I would be sort of an initiation test. "If you can
pronounce this, you'll be able to use the fonts to good effect." 

It would be nice to work out a way to provide everyone with access to the
fonts not only in (a) Windows and (a') under MacOS, but also in (b) email
and (c) on the Web.  But my first goal - based on a long outstanding
promise - is to convert the Dorsey texts into this format.  

JEK