🔤 Authoring in a Non-Latin Language

Writing in a language that does not use a Latin alphabet? A user has requested this feature for you! As of v1.4.2, the custom Fountain parser will handle non-Latin character sets.

The plugin aims to cover these main languages/alphabets.

• Latin
• Russian
• Ukrainian
• Bulgarian
• Serbian/Macedonian
• Greek
• Hebrew
• Arabic
• Turkish
• “Romance”

This is most obvious in Scene Heading tokens, which typically requires an EXT. or INT. prefix. Usually, this (literally) doesn’t translate well in other languages. But the plugin should parse the following correctly!

ИНТ. ПЕЩЕРА — ДЕНЬ

Полевка метнулась, но в кадр с глухим стуком врезается огромная львиная лапа

The plugin will accommodate for non-Latin languages using the following map:

const sceneHeadingPrefixesMap = {
 // - Latin: INT, EXT, EST, I/E, INT/EXT
 latin: ["int", "ext", "est", "i/e", "int/ext"],

 // - Russian: ИНТ, ЭКСТ, ЭСТ, И/Э, ИНТ/ЭКСТ
 russian: ["инт", "экст", "эст", "и/э", "инт/экст"],

 // - Ukrainian: ІНТ, ЕКСТ, ЕСТ, І/Е, ІНТ/ЕКСТ
 ukrainian: ["інт", "екст", "ест", "і/е", "інт/екст"],

 // - Bulgarian: ВН, ИЗН, ВН/ИЗН
 bulgarian: ["вн", "изн", "вн/изн"],

 // - Serbian/Macedonian: ВН, НАДВ, ВН/НАДВ
 serbianMacedonian: ["вн", "надв", "вн/надв"],

 // - Greek: ΕΣΩ. (INT), ΕΞΩ. (EXT), ΕΣΩ/ΕΞΩ. (INT/EXT)
 //   Sometimes ΕΣΤ. for "establishing"
 greek: ["εσω", "εξω", "εσω/εξω", "εστ"],

 // - Hebrew: פנ. (INT = פנימי), חוץ. (EXT), פנ/חוץ. (INT/EXT)
 //   NB: Hebrew is RTL but regex still matches left-to-right in source
 hebrew: ["פנ", "חוץ", "פנ/חוץ"],

 // - Arabic: د. (داخل = INT), خ. (خارج = EXT), د/خ. (INT/EXT)
 //   Sometimes spelled in full: داخل, خارج
 arabic: ["د", "خ", "د/خ", "داخل", "خارج", "داخل/خارج"],

 // - Turkish: İÇ (INT), DIŞ (EXT), İÇ/DIŞ
 turkish: ["iç", "dış", "iç/dış"],

 // - French/Spanish/Italian (they often keep English, but some use native)
 //   French: INTÉR. / EXT. ; Spanish: INT. / EXT. ; Italian: INT. / EST.
 //   Adding common alternatives
 romance: ["intér", "inter", "est", "ext"],
};

Note that while the Transition token now extends the character set, the suffix TO: is still expected, as most non-English industries still use that U.S.-based standard. We often see CUT TO: even in fully Russian, Hebrew, or Greek scripts.

// This is still commonly used in non-English scripts
"CUT TO:"

// This is now valid; "ΜΕΤΑΒΑΣΗ" was previously not detected in the uppercase Latin character set
"ΜΕΤΑΒΑΣΗ TO:"

// The plugin has decided to not handle this:
"COUPE À:"

Contact me if you need the plugin to handle a new language/character set, or if you would like any part of this to be enhanced!