3.3 Other Languages and Scripts

Students may encounter Arabic, Sanskrit, Egyptian, Coptic, Latin, and other languages when writing about Thelema, religion, magic, philosophy, and historical sources. In most student papers, it is enough to use a clear romanized form of the word and to explain the term when it first appears. Original scripts should be used only when they help the argument or when the instructor or publication requires them.

Do not invent spellings for unfamiliar terms. Follow a reliable dictionary, lexicon, edition, or scholarly source, and use the chosen form consistently. Some terms appear in different forms because they have passed through several languages or because different fields use different transliteration systems. When a paper must discuss more than one form, make the distinction clear.

• Right: The name Hadit is used in Liber AL vel Legis, while Horus of Behdet appears in Egyptological discussions of the Egyptian deity.
• Wrong: The paper refers to Hadit, Hadith, and Haditu as though they were interchangeable forms of the same name.

For Latin terms and phrases, use the spelling found in the source being discussed unless there is a clear reason to standardize it. Common Latin abbreviations such as e.g., i.e., and etc. do not need explanation, but less familiar Latin terms should be translated or briefly defined.

When non-Latin scripts are necessary, use Unicode fonts from the approved font family. This guide recommends the SIL font family for Greek, Hebrew, Coptic, Arabic, and other scripts when available. Use a font that displays the characters correctly and remains stable when the document is shared, exported, or converted to PDF.