5th grade math workbooks in Spanish

[togilby]

I am transcribing 9 workbooks (overheads, blackline masters, student book, practice book, etc) for a Spanish speaking student.

I found an 8/7/2010 post (text pasted in below) which addresses the use of Nemeth enclosure signs and Spanish special symbols together in an English/Spanish Glossary.

There are parentheses throughout the workbooks, enclosing both text and numerals, including enclosed lists.
Shall I follow the advice below and use the Nemeth enclosure symbols?
I've seen one instance of the Spanish question mark following an open parenthesis. Should I insert the punctuation indicator before the question mark?

I suspect these are only the first of many questions I'll be posting about this series!
Thanks for any advice.

(8/7/2010
I am currently transcribing a 5th Grade Mathematics Workbook. At the end of the book is a glossary which first gives the glossary word/phrase in English. This is immediately followed by the Spanish word/phrase enclosed in parentheses and then is followed by the definition/explanation is English. My concern is that two of the Spanish Special Characters, a acute (12356) and u acute (23456) are the same as the Nemeth opening and closing parentheses. Wouldn't this be confusing? Am I correct in transcribing these words just as they appear, using Nemeth parentheses and spanish special characters?

response:
I checked with the Foreign Language expert who says that you should use the appropriate symbols for the Nemeth enclosure signs and for the special Spanish characters. The reader will understand the meaning from context. No explanation is required.)

[joannavenneri]

That general procedure from 2010 hasn't changed. But I do suggest that you send an actual page of this glossary so I can the print that goes with your specific question.

And I have a question for you, since I don't know Nemeth. Suppose there was no Spanish here at all. In an English Nemeth transcription, how is parentheses handled in non-math text? Are OF and WITH contracted in non-math text or always uncontracted even in non-math text?

And please do send me a glossary page.

--Joanna

[togilby]

I apologize that my reference to a Glossary was misleading. The workbooks, not just words in the Glossary, are written in Spanish.
In English math, words in contact with enclosure symbols would not contain the contractions and, for, of, the or with. Four of these dot formations are used for accented letters in Spanish.

Additionally, words would be fully uncontracted when in contact with the slash mark (accented i in Spanish) or the plus sign (accented u in Spanish).

It's possible that in these particular workbooks, I may never encounter anything more than the accented a or accented u in a word in contact with opening or closing parentheses, but anything is possible!

Is this a question more appropriate for posting in the Mathematics section? I admit I reacted to my angst about transcribing foreign language before thinking through the code hierarchy and that Nemeth would be my first line of attack!

Thanks, Joanna

[joannavenneri]

That was just a question--not necessarily the answer. I really need to see the print page. I'm pretty sure this is not a math issue but I still need to see the print. I asked that question because I thought there was English in this, but apparently there is not. And if it's all Spanish there will be no and, for, the, with because those are English words. The reader will use context and know that an accented foreign letter is not going to turn up in the middle of math text. I still need to see the print in order to provide a complete answer.

--Joanna

[Author]

Posts