Universal Free Dictionary 384
Zdenek Broz writes "The all free dictionaries project focuses on maintaining free dictionaries (now more than 90 with more than 3,300,000 translations). We are designing a new system which will unite them all into one universal dictionary for all languages. The universal dictionary will be soon available for free under GPL."
Engrish Module? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Engrish Module? (Score:4, Insightful)
I always apperciate the English speakers (generally Americans) who think Engrish is some way of life. I wonder what their Japanese skills are (let alone English).
Re:Engrish Module? (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm sure the Japanese are just as amused by all the westerners who get tatoos of Japanese characters without getting them checked by a native speaker.
Phrase translation (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Phrase translation (Score:3, Insightful)
And then there are words that shouldn't be translated - eg. in Danish, the common word for "Download" is "Download" even though it's English. You can translate "Download" of course ("Hent ned"), but nobody in Denmark use those Danish terms, so a translation
Re:Engrish Module? (Score:5, Insightful)
Take an abstract or ambiguous word in one language (that describes a lot of them); it will have multiple related translations in english. Each of them (describing something abstract or ambiguous) will have multiple related translations in the target language. Instead of getting three or four reasonable translation candidates, you end up with several dozen - or more - most of which aren't actually a good fit for the original word.
Having dictionaries for pairs of languages are far, far preferable to going through a third language.
Online translators exist... (Score:2)
http://magic-dic.homeunix.net/ [homeunix.net]
Does it have support for... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Does it have support for... (Score:2, Funny)
aththay ouldshay ebay.. (Score:2)
Suchetha
Re:aththay ouldshay ebay.. (Score:2)
Re:Does it have support for... (Score:2)
From TFA: Any language can be added anytime.
I can't wait for the Smurf to English dictionary...
: )
!n k0r34 (Score:2, Funny)
I already have a pretty good dictionary (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:I already have a pretty good dictionary (Score:4, Interesting)
Why can't these projects work together? Seems like a lot of wheel-reinvention to me...
Re:I already have a pretty good dictionary (Score:2)
Re:I already have a pretty good dictionary (Score:5, Funny)
For crying out loud, the man gave you 3 direct links to dictionaries! : )
Why start a separate project? (Score:3, Interesting)
Or if they don't like the possibility of vandos, why not fork Wiktionary?
Why read the article? (Score:2)
Go ahead and contribute to the wiktionary.
Re:Why start a separate project? (Score:3, Interesting)
GPL Dictionary (Score:4, Funny)
Re:GPL Dictionary (Score:5, Funny)
Re:GPL Dictionary (Score:3, Funny)
KFG
Urban Dictionary (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Urban Dictionary (Score:4, Interesting)
Somewhat like translating haikus into English. The whole 5-7-5 thing is fun and challenging, I suppose (I personally hated having to write them in middle school, mainly because it was in lieu of worthwhile reading and writing), but (supposedly; I don't know Japanese) the poems in the parent language probably have a lot of import that the translated-to language may lack.
Then again, a woman at a party once told James Thurber that she'd read a French translation of his My Life and Hard Times, adding, "You know, the book is even better in French!" To which Thurber replied, "Yes---my work tends to lose something in the original."
Re-invention of the wheel? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Re-invention of the wheel? (Score:3, Insightful)
Before reading your post, I wasn't aware of the project. Taking one word at random, "dog", I was surprised by the number of missing entries in the links: canine, pup, dogs, domesticated are amongst the dozens of undefined entries. I don't know exactly how long you mean by a long time but it sure looks incomplete to me...
Translation (Score:2, Informative)
* Arabic: (bayt)
* Basque: etxe
* Breton: ti m
* Catalan: casa
* Chineses:
* Czech: dm m
* Dutch: huis n
* Esperanto: domo
* Estonian: maja
* Fijian: vale
* Finnish: talo (1, 2), house (3)
* French: maison f
* Frisian: hûs n
* Galician: casa f
* German: Haus, n
* Greek: oiko, spiti (modern Greek)
* Hebrew:
* Hungarian: ház
* Indonesian: rumah
* Italian:
why GPL? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:why GPL? (Score:3)
Re:why GPL? (Score:3)
A good choice would be the GNU Free Documentation License [gnu.org] if you ask me.
Current limitations (Score:3, Insightful)
So, I wouldn't be able to translate "blue jeans" from another langauge? This really sucks, because on of my High School spanglish teachers taught us that it translated to "bluyins" in Spanish, and I've really never trusted that...
Perhaps they should wait until they have a more robust system before making these types of announcments?
Re:Current limitations (Score:3, Informative)
"Blue jeans" = "vaqueros" ("pantalones vaqueros").
Re:Current limitations (Score:2)
Re:Current limitations (Score:4, Informative)
If you go to the Diccionario de la Real Academia Española de la Lengua [buscon.rae.es] and lookup "bluyin", you'll get a "No such word in the dictionary".
However, people from certain countries do use "bluyin" often (actually, most of us colombians call "blue jeans" "blue jeans", as in "me compre unos nuevos blue jeans", which should probably be written as "bluyins"). I remember reading that the Real Academia Española, the main authority was considering adding the word to the dictionary.
Similar things have happened with some words. For example, the word "cruasán" was recently added to the dictionary for the french word "croissant", very commonly used in spanish-speaking countries.
Alejo
Re:Current limitations (Score:2)
While you have this set in <blockquote>, it is far from a direct quote ("There will be always the backbone description which binds English word to only one meaning in Wordnet." - poor English, ought to be either "an English word" or "English words"), and doesn't match reality (words).
If you search for "cat" (their example) in the English <> French dictionary, one of
Re:Current limitations (Score:2)
Here ya go [impress.co.jp]. You're welcome.
phonetic transcriptions (Score:2, Interesting)
The flaw (Score:4, Informative)
But definitely, English is the opposite of a good choice.
Re:The flaw (Score:2)
No, no it isn't.
Re:The flaw (Score:3, Funny)
Esperanto - the language nobody speaks and nobody reads. What a great alternative to English!
Re:The flaw (Score:5, Funny)
Re:The flaw (Score:2)
Well, you have to agree that the number of speakers of esperanto is miniscule compared to the number of speakers of English.
Re:The flaw (Score:3, Funny)
That does not make English better, only more popular. In comparison, was Bush a better candidate than McCain? No(far from it!), only better funded. I try to promote Esperanto because I believe in it's purpose- to be a politically neutral language that's easy to learn which can be used for a common language for the world. Esperanto is so easy, it takes very little time to learn. It doesn't stomp out the very valuable native cultures of the world, it co-exists with them. English is a stom
Re:The flaw (Score:5, Insightful)
The reason so few Americans speak foreign languages is not English, either. It's because our country is huge. If every state spoke a different language, we'd learn several languages in order to communicate. All the states use English, though, so we use English. As an example, there are more bilingual people in the American Southwest and Louisiana than in the Southeast. Why? Because there are significant minority populations which speak other languages in those areas--Spanish and French, specifically.
Regarding culture... well. Popular culture is an atrocity, but don't blame that on English, either. Shakespeare wrote in English. So did Dickens, Nabokov, Faulkner, Joyce, Bradbury, Orwell, O'Connor, and so on. You could list authors forever. They've certainly done English proud, and, in fact, they usually lose something in translation.
Please--before you knock English as a language, know what you're talking about.
Re:The flaw (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:The flaw or maybe not (Score:2)
1) If English is so hard to learn, it's amazing that so many people speak it.
2) A human language is not a programming language. While programming languages have to be precise, human language does not always have to be precise. How boring would that be? Our libraries would be much smaller if our languages were so strict.
3) The primary value of human languages is communication, so as long as you can speak it and communicate, this primary function is satisfied.
As a funny note, I retu
Re:The flaw or maybe not (Score:3, Insightful)
We haven't even gone into Eubonics, or the difference between the Queen's English and A
Re:The flaw or maybe not (Score:2)
Eubonics is special language. It is a 'pidgin' language that is entirely based on English.
When the African people were brought to America, they were captives. They came from a wide variety of tribes and languages. They were enslaved and seperated from others who spoke their language. They were forced to learn English not only to understand their captors but to communicate among themselves.
As the Africans b
Re:The flaw or maybe not (Score:2)
Another example of English idioms is that yellow warning sign many janitors use after mopping up a spill. It has an icon of a fellow with arms in the air and his leg cocked to the side like a dog. The imperative label "WET FLOOR" could easily be confused as a command to a non-English speaker.
Re:The flaw (Score:2)
I suspect that the reason people complain about english is because t
Re:The flaw (Score:2)
This argument is pretty pointless unless we decide whether we are talking about spoken English
Re:The flaw (Score:2)
And the plural is specified in the noun with a simple 's'. Except when you are using words from other languages, like latin. But you don't have
Re:The flaw (Score:2)
That's the number one most common verb. It's not a very good example. I appreciate the simplicity of Esperanto grammer, but the inventor screwed it up with gender.
Re:The flaw (Score:2)
Are you sure about that? (Score:2)
Re:The flaw (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Maybe they could improve their English design? (Score:3, Interesting)
foundation/base(engineering,housebuilding,metap h or ical)
= al Qaeda(engineering,housebuilding,metaphorical)
the loo/the sit(colloq.,sanitary)=
al Qaeda(colloq.,sanitary)
a foundation(organisation,group)=
Al Qaeda(organisation,group)
Al Qaeda(terror,name)=
Al Qaeda(terror,name)
So how about combination analysis? (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh, and IMNAL - I am not a linguist.
Re:So how about combination analysis? (Score:2)
Are you sure it is not 165,000 years of human history?
Re:So how about combination analysis? (Score:2)
As far as language before writing is concerned any number seems as good as any other.
Re:So how about combination analysis? (Score:2, Insightful)
IAAL (I am a linguist). Lots of people have started using the abbreviation IMNAx as an acronym for "I'm not a x". No "A" in the contraction, so no "A" in the acronym.
Now (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Now (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Now (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Now (Score:2)
how to handle slang? (Score:4, Insightful)
For example, in quebec we use the word "char" for your car... "j'vais prenez le char ce soir", i'm going to take the car tonight.
this isn't *good* french, but it's good quebec slang. it's how people actually speak. however you wouldn't use it if you were trying to write a cover letter, but you might use it if you were writing an email to a french friend. A dictionary where you could specify "speaking" vs "writing", or even "polite" vs "friendly", some way of really characterizing the KIND of translation you want.
expressions too... sometimes expressions can be directly translated, other times you'll sound like an idiot if you just use the same phrase you would have said in english. Something that recognizes common phrases and gives corresponding expressions in another language would be incredibly useful.
I guess what I'm getting at is it's annoying when you look up a word in a translation dictionary and get like 4 or 5 choices but you have no idea what the difference between them is, or it gives you a word that actually is correct, but is so rarely used that when you say it people look at you funny.
Re:how to handle slang? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:how to handle slang? (Score:2)
Of course, then, it's hard to see how he's going to takemore than one car... maybe this is why this is overused.
Re:how to handle slang? (Score:2, Funny)
Funny story: My Iranian uncle (by marriage - not blood) had just immigrated to Canada, and was caught in a motor vehicle violation (running a stop sign) and repeatedly shouted at the police officer "I ate shit! I ate shit!", which is actually Persian slang for "Boy is my face red. I admit I made a mistake and I ask your forgiveness".
True story. I wish I could remember the Persian phrase right now...
(He
Other links (Score:2)
GPL auto-corrections (Score:5, Funny)
And for a convenience, it will automatically correct your spelling as follows:
A New Kind of Flaming (Score:3, Funny)
1 usually offensive : a person affected with idiocy
2 : a foolish or stupid person
3 : Luigi Dipthong, who insulted me deeply by saying that I had completely misdrawn the control unit of my favorite processor.
Re:A New Kind of Flaming (Score:2)
5. Profit!
ahhh crap wrong joke...
I looked election... (Score:2, Funny)
There's more than this to a good dictionary (Score:5, Informative)
Glossaries like these have their uses, and I sometimes use them myself when I'm reading something and don't know a word, but good dictionaries go way beyond these. To begin with, you often can't adequately translate a word from one language with a single word from another language. It often takes at least a phrase, and sometimes there isn't any straightforwad translation and a fairly elaborate explanation is necessary. Furthermore, especially if you're going into the language you don't know well, it is often necessary to have information about the grammar of the word in order to be able to use it properly. What case does the object of a verb have to be? Which conjugation does a verb belong to?
The other major limitation of simple glossaries like these is that they don't work very well for languages with complex word-formation where the citation form is not easily obtained from the inflected forms. For instance, in English it isn't a big deal to look up a plural noun because in almost all cases you just remove s or es, so someone who reads, e.g. trapezoids doesn't need to know very much in order to guess that it is a form of trapezoid and look it up under trapezoid. However, there are languages in which words have hundreds or thousands of forms and in which it is quite difficult to figure out what to look a word up under. Creating dictionaries for such languages that can be used by inexpert users is a long-standing problem for which electronic dictionaries offer a solution, but such dictionaries won't be simple glossaries; they will be databases with morphological analyzers as front ends. I've got a paper about this problem in Athabaskan languages here [upenn.edu].
This is great! (Score:2, Funny)
Question about dictionaries under GPL license (Score:3, Interesting)
This is a matter of practical concern. I'm overseeing a project [tinyurl.com] which is digitizing copyright-expired dictionaries of the early Germanic languages. Some of the texts on my site are in German, and I'd like to use the GPL'ed Free Dictionaries German-English word list to add a feature to my project which allows you to click a German word to get a translation for that word.
Question 1: Are there provisions of the GPL which would prevent the a GPL'ed dictionary from being intermingled in this matter with existing public domain texts?
Another problem. The texts in my project contain many rare German words relating to Iron Age technology which are unlikely to be in the Free Dictionaries list, so I'd like to add my own supplemental list of words.
Question 2: Can I assign my supplemental word list to the public domain, or do I have to license it under the GPL as a modification to the original word list?
Re:Question about dictionaries under GPL license (Score:2)
ideal for classrooms (Score:2, Interesting)
Unheimlich (Score:3, Insightful)
I hope the English on the dictionary is better than the English on the homepage eg "There will be always the backbone description" and "will lead contributors to translate English words into other language." (mis)
Re:Unheimlich (Score:2)
I think you mixed up your translations as uncanny isn't really a French word... From the German word, I get "énormément" in French and "terribly" in English based on Google's translating tools which in some contexts could mean the same thing. Sorry I don't really know German so I cannot understand the true meaning of unheimlich, I know I should have been paying attention to my third language classes back in
Re:Unheimlich (Score:2)
Re:Unheimlich (Score:2)
I know German very well, and "unheimlich" has a certain nuance in it that is not at all reflected in "terrible". "Unheimlich" is much weaker, somewhat like a mixture of "uncomfortable" (that would be the 1:1 translation) and "terrible". For example, going through an empty quiet, abandoned place can be "unheimlich".
Regarding the universal dictionary, I think using E
Where's Armenian? (Score:2)
Step toward Babblefish (Score:2, Funny)
American Sign Language (AMSLAN?) (Score:4, Interesting)
My idea was to create a tutorial for learning AMSLAN (American Sign Language) and to use texts from Project Gutenburg or other public domain works. One (of several) problems though is that English is rife with homographs... words that are spelled alike but have different meanings. In the case of sign language, a sign for a bow in a little girl's hair might appear extremely odd if the sign for bow of a ship popped up in automatic substitution.
Dealing with the homographs is a problem, but I see that this site's plan already takes a stab at dealing with such things (in their cat example). I'd love it if they went to the trouble of also including a bit of AMSLAN (either in animations or static pictures) as that might inspire me with some help in the solution.
Ideally, my desire is to get an automated library that could read a text (possibly read by the human sorting the homographs). And allow a user to listen to the reading and watch the text (while learning English), listen to the reading only (if hearing impaired), watch a silent sign language presentation with subtitles (to learn sign language), or watch a silent presentation through signing (if reading in silence is preferable).
Just kind of bizarre that the idea struck the same day as this article appeared, I thought.
Re:American Sign Language (AMSLAN?) (Score:2)
wow..lord of the dictionaries (Score:2, Funny)
now write a web-servcice & client for it.. (Score:2, Insightful)
Dictionary != language textbook (Score:3, Interesting)
I would love a free-content languages database, full of audio samples of native speakers and grammar rules, but this isn't quite there yet. I do hope something like it gets off the ground, though, because monolinguism is a terrible disease in a global community
Ethan
FAQ (Score:2, Funny)
Are maintainers FAQ also architechts Backbone of English?
Am I Possible Detecting liability project here?
Re: (Score:2)
In a related story... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:at last (Score:2)
Also, a dictionary under GPL would be a more horrible abuse of IP than even DMCA and Amazon's one-click. Imagine having to allow people to copy your printed book for free because you looked up french words you wanted to use in your novell on some web site? Surely any knowledge of human languages should be in public domain.
Re:at last (Score:2, Funny)
Re:What? (Score:2)