Template:alter/documentation

This template is for listing alternative spellings linking to other articles. For usage in definitions, see the separate Template:alternative form of.

This template generates a correctly formatted list of alternative forms with descriptions indicating the associated language variety or other property.

Parameters

|1= (required)

The language code (see Wiktionary:List of languages) of the language whose sense this template appears under.

|2=, |3=, |4=, ...

One or more alternative forms to be listed, along with any labels describing usage characteristics, e.g. Louisiana (indicating a Louisiana-specific term) or informal (indicating a term used only informally). The labels are separated from the alternative forms by a blank/empty parameter; the alternative forms appear before the blank parameter, and the labels appear after. The labels are exactly the same as the labels used for {{lb}} and {{tlb}}, and will be displayed and linked in the same fashion, but won't add the page to any categories. See the documentation for {{lb}} for the recognized labels. Any unrecognized labels will be displayed as-is. Multiple alternative forms are normally displayed comma-separated, unless one of the forms has an embedded comma in it, in which case all entries will be semicolon-separated. To separate individual entries with a semicolon, place a semicolon as a parameter by itself. (It is suggested to use semicolons to separate logical groups of alternative forms.) Individual terms can specify transliterations, glosses, genders, dialect tags and other modifications inline using a syntax like детекти́вный рома́н<tr:dɛtɛktívnyj román><t:detective novel>; see below.

|t1=, |t2=, |t3=, ...

A gloss for each alternative form, if the term has a different meaning from the term it is placed under. |t1= corresponds to the first specified alternative form, |t2= to the second specified alternative form, etc. Semicolons are ignored for parameter numbering purposes.

|alt1=, |alt2=, |alt3=, ...

Display text for each of the alternative forms, if different from the entry name.

|tr1=, |tr2=, |tr3=, ...

Transliteration for each of the alternative forms. Only necessary for terms written in a non-Latin script and only if the automatic transliteration is incorrect (or for languages without automatic transliteration).

|ts1=, |ts2=, |ts3=, ...

Transcription for each of the alternative forms. Only used for certain non-Latin-script languages whose transliteration is markedly different from the actual pronunciation. Should not be used for IPA pronunciations.

|q1=, |q2=, |q3=, ...

If necessary, qualifiers for each of the alternative forms, shown before the alternative form in question.

|qq1=, |qq2=, |qq3=, ...

If necessary, qualifiers for each of the alternative forms, shown after the alternative form in question.

|lit1=, |lit2=, |lit3=, ...

Literal translation of each alternative form, if needed to clarify the meaning.

|pos1=, |pos2=, |pos3=, ...

Part of speech of each alternative form (especially if the part of speech is different from that of the main entry).

|g1=, |g2=, |g3=, ...

Gender and number specification of each alternative form, if necessary for clarification. See Module:gender and number for details. Multiple comma-separated gender/number specifications can be given for each alternative form.

|id1=, |id2=, |id3=, ...

A sense ID for each alternative form, which links to anchors on the page set by the {{senseid}} template.

|sc1=, |sc2=, |sc3=, ...

Script code (see Wiktionary:List of scripts) for each alternative form. This is rarely needed.

Examples

• {{alt|en|crawfish|crayfish}}
• crawfish, crayfish

  Simple example without labels.

• {{alt|en|'mater||Southern US|Appalachia|informal}}
• 'mater (Southern US, Appalachia, informal)

  'mater is the term. Southern US, Appalachia and informal are labels indicating the usage characteristics of the term. Note how each is linked appropriately (the first two to Wikipedia articles describing the language varieties in question, and the last one to the Wiktionary glossary of linguistic terms).

• {{alt|grc|παραγίνομαι||ion|post-Classical}}
• παραγίνομαι (paragínomai) — Ionic, post-Classical

  ion is a recognized Ancient-Greek-specific label that displays as Ionic and links to the appropriate Wikipedia article on Ionic Greek. post-Classical is not a recognized label, and is thus displayed as-is.

• {{alt|en|learnt||UK|Ireland|Australia|and|New Zealand|;|alternative in|_|Canada|;|rarely used in|_|American English}}
• learnt (UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand; alternative in Canada; rarely used in US)

  All labels usable by {{lb}} are also usable here, including formatting labels such as and, ; and _. Note also how the label American English is canonicalized to US.

Inline modifiers

All of the per-term parameters described above can alternatively be specified as inline modifiers, using a syntax like детекти́вный рома́н<tr:dɛtɛktívnyj román><t:detective novel> to specify modifiers such as transliterations, glosses and qualifiers. In this example, for the Russian term детекти́вный рома́н (dɛtɛktívnyj román, “detective novel”), the manual transliteration dɛtɛktívnyj román and gloss "detective novel" are given. Specifically, the following modifiers are recognized; see the above documentation for more information on the exact meaning of each modifier.

• t: gloss
• alt: alternative display text
• tr: transliteration
• ts: transcription, for languages where the transliteration and pronunciation are markedly different
• q: qualifier, e.g. rare; this appears before the term, parenthesized and italicized
• qq: qualifier, e.g. rare; this appears after the term, parenthesized and italicized
• lit: literal meaning
• pos: part of speech
• g: comma-separated list of gender/number specifications
• id: sense ID; see {{senseid}}
• sc: script code

Examples

The following:

* {{alt|ota|خرجین|tr1=hurcin|خرجینه|tr2=hurcine|خورج|tr3=hurç}}

can be equivalently written as follows using inline modifiers:

* {{alt|ota|خرجین<tr:hurcin>|خرجینه<tr:hurcine>|خورج<tr:hurç>}}

Both produce the following:

• خرجین (hurcin), خرجینه (hurcine), خورج (hurç)

Note how the use of inline modifiers frees you from having to make sure the numbers of indexed parameters like |t2=, |tr3= correctly line up with the terms they are referring to. This is especially useful when a large number of alternative forms are given. For example, the following:

* {{alt|bg|пра́сква|пра́скъва|пра́скува|пра́ска|пра́сквя|пра́ська|пра́скя|пра́скье|пра́сковье|пра́скъ<g:f>||dialectal}}

produces:

• пра́сква (práskva), пра́скъва (práskǎva), пра́скува (práskuva), пра́ска (práska), пра́сквя (práskvja), пра́ська (prásʹka), пра́скя (práskja), пра́скье (práskje), пра́сковье (práskovje), пра́скъ f (prásk) — dialectal

See also

• {{alti}}