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At the end of this process, you should have a list of the characters in your alphabet and some information about each one. For example:
Character | Versions | Unfamiliar version |
|---|---|---|
ʔ | ' | |
a | A à À | |
ą | Ą ą̀ Ą̀ | a |
b | B |
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You can also choose to add extra information at this step. For example, you might wish to list an example word for each letter, or write in some additional notes. You will not submit these as part of the batch spreadsheet, but they may be helpful to your team for following steps. |
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Decide what information should be included in the recording.
Some communities include only the sound associated with the character (example).
Other communities choose to include more information such as detail about the character itself, or example words using the sound (example).
You are encouraged to make whatever decision is most suitable for your project and your community's teaching practices.
Make a recording of a speaker producing the character sound and any other information that you decided to include, for each character.
Follow these instructions for managing data for your project and naming/storing your audio files.
Important: When you are finished, you will need a file for each letter.
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When saving file names, follow these rules: ONLY use lowercase letters, numbers, hyphens, or underscores, NO SPACES. The only special character should be the period before the file type. Read more about our file name requirements for batch uploads. |
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Create the batch spreadsheet
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| Info |
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Before starting, it may be helpful to review our general instructions for batch uploads here. |
Download submission template
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Open the alphabet submission template.
Choose the columns you wish to include. CHAR and ORDER are required – the others are optional. If a column is not applicable to your alphabet, you can leave it blank, 'hide' it, or delete it.
Enter the information you gathered about your alphabet into the spreadsheet columns. Definitions of each column are in the table below.
Column | What goes here? | Sample | |
|---|---|---|---|
CHAR | The character in your writing system. If there are multiple versions of this character (e.g. upper and lower case), use the more “basic” one that is used most often. | kw' | Required |
CHAR_VERSIONS | Any alternate variations of the character in your writing system, separated by spaces. If there are no alternate versions of the character (e.g. you only use lower case, no accents, etc), leave this blank. | Kw' | Optional |
APPROXIMATE | The equivalent character in English, approximate characters that are commonly used by learners, or alternate spellings. | qu | Optional |
ORDER | The numerical order in which this character appears (for alphabetical sorting). | 15 | Required |
| Note |
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Take great care to avoid typos when creating this spreadsheet. Any errors you make in the content of this spreadsheet will be reflected when the FirstVoices team uploads your alphabet and may affect how words are listed on in your site dictionary. |
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If you are including media files with pronunciations, collect them into one folder labeled “media”. Ensure the file names do not include any spaces or special characters.
Fill out the following columns in the alphabet submission template with information about your files.
Double check: Make sure the file name exactly matches what is written in your spreadsheet!
Column | What goes here? | Sample | |
|---|---|---|---|
AUDIO_FILENAME | The exact filename of the corresponding audio file, including the file extension. | alphabet_hard-kw.mp3 | Recommended |
AUDIO_SPEAKER | The name of the speaker on the recording. | Linda Line | Recommended |
AUDIO_ACKNOWLEDGEMENT | The name of the person who made the recording, if known, or any other acknowledgements. | Recorded by: Sam Square | Optional |
Save and submit the spreadsheet to FirstVoices staff
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Check out these helpful sample spreadsheets, demonstrating how to enter a writing system that uses uppercase characters, lowercase characters, or both.
Both upper and lower case | Upper case only | Lower case only | ||||||||||||
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