Character of which at least traces survive, but not adequately to identify the letter unambiguously outside of its context.

• TEI definition: unclear ; EpiDoc-specific customization: unclear

An incomplete or ill-executed character whose interpretation would be ambiguous outside of its context (traditionally rendered with an underdot in Leiden) should be tagged using the unclear element (Cf. Damaged but not ambiguous characters). The EpiDoc use of unclear is concerned specifically with the physical preservation or execution of the characters.

The unclear element may be given the attribute reason, but this is not required by EpiDoc, as the use of the unclear element is sufficient to meet the distinctions that the Leiden conventions make.

It is important to note that the EpiDoc use of the unclear element is very significantly more restricted than the default TEI definition, which allows for a large variety of elements to appear within unclear. In EpiDoc, the category "unclear" refers to the physical state of specific characters on the support, and not to editorial ambiguity or uncertainty about the interpretation of words or names (which is indicated using <cert>). Because unclear is only concerned with the state of the characters on the support, and not with any interpretation of those characters (such as whether several characters represent a number, name, vel sim.), only character data or a g tag may appear inside the unclear element. Accordingly, no elements related to the interpretation of the text should nest within unclear; stretches of ambiguous text that span words, lines, names, dates, or other tagged features should therefore be marked with multiple unclear elements.

Krummrey/Panciera 1980 III.3; Panciera 1991 12.I; Sosin 2011: ạḅc̣