[tex-live] conflict between babel/greek and ethiop packages. (fwd)

[Tigran Aivazian]

Hello,

I sent this to the maintainers but got no reply so far. Maybe a wider 
audience of TeX users and hackers can help me.

Sorry if tex-live is not necessarily the most appropriate mailing list to 
ask a question like this. But I know that most knowledgeable TeXackers are 
here, so... :)

Kind regards
Tigran

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sat, 12 Apr 2008 23:17:34 +0100 (BST)
From: Tigran Aivazian <tigran at bibles.org.uk>
To: 1beyene at informatik.uni-hamburg.de
Cc: kummer at informatik.uni-hamburg.de, kudlek at informatik.uni-hamburg.de
Subject: conflict between babel/greek and ethiop packages. (fwd)

the email address in the docs is faulty (please fix it) so I am sending to the 
addresses mentioned on the web page.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sat, 12 Apr 2008 23:05:03 +0100 (BST)
From: Tigran Aivazian <tigran at bibles.org.uk>
To: ethiop at informatik.uni-hamburg.de
Subject: conflict between babel/greek and ethiop packages.

Hello,

Here is a minimal test file which shows the problem:

-------------------------------------------
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[greek,english]{babel}
\languageattribute{greek}{polutoniko}
\usepackage{ethiop}

\begin{document}
\selectlanguage{polutonikogreek}
>En >arq~h| >epo'ihsen <o vje`oc t`on o>uran`on ka`i t`hn g~hn.
\selectlanguage{ethiop}
g`ez
\end{document}
---------------------------------------------

When I compile it on TeX Live 2007 (via pdflatex) I get the wrong output on the 
Greek side, namely the circumflex "~" is not typeset correctly --- instead 
there is a horizontal space added.

Please let me know how to typeset Greek and Ethiopic simultaneously. The reason 
I am interested in this is because it is needed for the critical edition of the 
book of "I Enoch" which exists in both Greek and Ethiopic ancient sources (so I 
am typesetting an edition with those texts in parallel plus a critical 
apparatus underneath each).

I suspect the problem is caused by ethiopic making ~ an active character. But 
how to overcome this I have no idea.

Kind regards
Tigran