Re: Shareable/centralizable dictionary server software? (WAS: Size of your dictionary)

On Fri, 3 Apr 2009 19:59:10 -0700, Sai Emrys <saizai@...> wrote:

>Kaleissin's dict server plus seeing Sylvia's program (and David's)
>plus this thread makes me think...
>
>... are conlangers' needs (and languages) sufficiently similar that we
>could make some sort of dictionary server that could be used by all?
Yeah, this is a suggestion that I've seen forms of before.  IIRC Geoff Eddy
uses a home-grown program something like it, for instance, and
  http://community.livejournal.com/conlangs/441361.html
was a recent post on the LJ conlangs community with overlapping aims.

Anyway, this would be neat to have, yes.

>Sketching the requirements:
>* every entry belongs to
>- root(s) (e.g. _kitaab_ -> *ktb; same can be used for etymologies)
But there should be a more flexible etymology feature (one that lets me
specify an exact preform, or irregular developments, or ...) too.  Even if
just a flat text field, though that's unintelligent.

>- language(s) (e.g. old fooish)
"Dialect", sure; "diachnoric stage", I suppose (for etyms to refer to);
"language" broadly...?

>... and has:
>- an xsampa, UTF8 romanization, and UTF8 custom font form
UTF8?  Who's gonna have their conscript in Unicode?

>- multiple definitions / glosses
>- multiple grammatical categories (some of which are included as
>standards, eg 'transitive verb')
Don't forget
- morphological data ("n-stem", "third conjugation", "ablauts to form the
past stem", "irregular plural /tsu:xnu/", what have you).
In fact it would be nice if the tool were integrable with some morphological
tools, flexible enough to give you the forms of the stored words.

>- multiple examples, each with:
>-- intelinears / glosses of different kinds
>-- multiple associate entries (i.e. entry:example is many:many)
>* imports and exports specially formed flat files (e.g. XML, dict,
>CSV)
Plus SIL Shoebox (or Toolbox these days?), which already has many useful
features in its format, and is used by lots of field linguists and stuff.
In fact one should probably be familiar with Shoebox's features before
embarking on this (I'm not, not beyond the barest), but e.g. it was made to
be able to track instances of your words in your corpus much like the thing
you suggest for the example sentences.

>and minimalistic basic files in some form (eg simple word list or
>CSV)
>* nicely browsable (eg Sylvia's Kelen dictionary site)
>* somehow integrates w/ CALS
Alex

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