Summary: Russian, Czech, Polish CD-ROM dictionaries

Fri Feb 27 14:26:33 UTC 1998

Dear colleagues,

I apologize for taking so long in posting this summary.  I'd like to
thank all those who responded with information about Russian, Czech
and Polish dictionaries available on CD-ROM:

Andrew Jameson
David Goldfarb
Elena Levintova
Josef Fronek
Jo Porritt
Nenad Koncar
Ray Thomas
Roy Bivon
Slava Paperno
...and the staff of several bookstores and dealers.

Some general information about CD-ROMs that I've acquired in the last
few weeks:

To network a dictionary, you need to decide how many users you're
likely to have at any one time.  (If you're just installing it on one
computer, you don't need to worry about this.)  Licences for CD-ROMs
generally come in below the cost of the first dictionary, but not by much.
In other words, if the dictionary costs x pounds, then each additional
licence will cost .75x pounds.  Some places will only sell licences
in set increments:  5, 10, 20, etc.  This means it may be worth it to
purchase 2 separate CD-ROMs instead of 1 CD-ROM with 5 licences.

Our Arts Faculty Librarian here at Sheffield, Jacky Hodgson, has
informed me that for other, more heavily trafficked languages, such
as French and Spanish, they have found 3 licences to be adequate.

Another issue is operating system compatibility.  Some dictionaries
essentially treat the dictionary entries as 'pictures'.  This limits
search capability but increases compatibility.  Full text entries
increases searchability but raises the problem of operating systems.
Any information I have on operating system compatibility is given
below.

Not all dictionaries are Macintosh-compatible.  The OUP Russian
dictionary mentioned below apparently is.  So is a Czech translating
dictionary called Krtek mentioned below.

Andrew Jameson pointed me in a few interesting directions:

'You might like to consider joining the russian-teaching mailbase of
which I'm the listholder.

To join, send the command
join russian-teaching your name
to    mailbase at mailbase.ac.uk '

He also pointed me to Jo Porritt at Hull University, who forwarded
information on their CTI Centre for Modern Languages.  It has a
list of language software at:

http://www.hull.ac.uk/cti

RUSSIAN

Elena Levintova wrote:

I've been using Delta Lingotronics English-Russian Dictionary and I
think it is an incredible value for the price ($25, incl. shipping).
The user interface is very-very simple. In its contents it is very
much like "Bolshoi" Galperin's Dictionary, but quite frequently I find
there some entries I couldn't find in my Galperin. It can be purchased
by sending a $25 check to Delta Lingotronics, Inc. P.O. Box 1227,
Monterey, CA 93942, Ph.#(408)626-1877, FAX (408)647-1412.

Ray Thomas suggested:

I use Lingvo 4.5 for Russian.   My version is on floppies,
and is very useful for learning at all  levels,  because
it is memory resident and so can be used onscreen
along with a word processor.     Lingvo requires
Cyrillic support.    We got a copy through Sirin
in London - who seem to be expanding and have
a big online catalogue.

Lingvo has specialist modules.  The general modules
for English/Russian and Russian/English are not as
detailed as the Oxford Russian dictionary which is
now available on CD-ROM.   But I don't remember
seeing a memory-resident facility being advertised.

Roy Bivon seconded some of this information:

1) OUP have produced a CD rom version of their large E-R and R-e =
dictionary

2) A Russian company called Multilex have produced on CD
rom a version = of a three volume E-R dicitonary firsdt published in
book form in 1993. = This is excellent and allows comprehensive
searching of both Russian and = English words. There is an importer in
London for Russian software: = Sirin Software, phone 0171 629 1910.

Neil Bermel adds:  The Oxford dictionary is now available; you can
find it at the OUP web site (http://www.oup.co.uk/).  This is what
we've decided to trial here at Sheffield.

Slava Paperno suggested the following web site:

http://lexiconbridge.com
Especially the Dictionary of the Human Body.

Nenad Koncar passes on some information about translation CD-ROMs:

You can find some very nice CD-ROM translation software called
Word Translator for Russian, Czech and Polish all on one single CD-ROM
by visiting Translation Experts at:

http://www.tranexp.com

There is even an on-line version of the software called InterTran that
will include Russian, Czech and Polish in the near future and it can
be found at:

http://www.tranexp.com/win/dict/InterTran.cgi

CZECH

There are three major dictionaries.  The old English-Czech
dictionary by Hodek & Hais has been converted into a bilingual
CD-ROM.  Josef Fronek's dictionaries (Czech-English and
English-Czech) are available as separate items.  More information on
the Leda web site:  www.leda.cz.

Josef Fronek forwarded the following information from the Thornton's
catalogue (www.thorntons.co.uk).  Prices are in pounds sterling.

>Czech Dictionaries and Language Textbooks on CD-ROM
>
>1.  K. Hais B. Hodek: Velky anglicko-cesky slovnik.     GBP 350.00
>
>2. K. Hais B. Hodek: Velky anglicko-cesky / cesko-anglicky slovnik:
>The biggest English-Czech and Czech-English dictionary. GBP 475.00
>
>3.  Encyklopedicky slovnik / Czech General Encyclopedia.        GBP
>125.00 4. 5.  J. Fronek: Czech-English Dictionary / medium /
>GBP 70.00 6. 7.  English-Czech Economical Dictionary / ca. 80 000
>entries /  GBP 145.00 8. 9.  O. Minihofer: Anglicko-cesky /
>cesko-anglicky slovnik: Zpracovani dattelekomunikace /
>telecommunications /         GBP 85.00 10. 11.  English-Czech Medical
>Dictionary / ca. 29 000 English words /  GBP 99.00 12. 13.  Lexicon
>medicum / Dictionary of medical terms - in Czech  32 000 wds. GBP
>70.00 14. 15.  Czech-German Dictionary / ca. 75 000 entries /
>   GBP 145.00 16. 10. German-Czech Dictionary / ca. 75 000 entries /
>
>GBP 145.00
>
>Czech Encyclopaedias and Miscellany on CD-ROM:
>
>1.  Biographical Dictionary - Europeans / in Czech 13 000 entries  1
>300 pictures250 sound entries  40  video sequences /        GBP 45.00
>
>2.  Czech Multimedia Encyclopaedia / in Czech  45 000 entries  3 000
>illustrations sound entries  video sequences  charts  etc /     GBP
>45.00
>
>3. Who was Who in Czech History of the 20th Century /
>In Czech: more than 3 000 people covered: sound entries
>videosequences photos  illustrations  etc      GBP 55.00
>
>4. Otto S. Encyclopaedia / The biggest Czech Encyclopaedia ever
>published
>first published in 1888 - 1908 in 28 issues /   GBP 245.00
>
>5.  Bohemia I. / Czech History  in Czech /      GBP 40.00
>6.
>7.  Infomapa of Czech Republic  GBP 265.00
>8.
>9.  Ruler of Bohemia / History /        GBP 70.00
>10.
>11.  CD MAPA / Map of the Czech Republic:  1: 250 000 / GBP 50.00 12.
>13.  Czech Towns Guide / In Czech English  French and German /  GBP
>95.00 14. 15.  Accomodation / Hotels in the Czech Republic /      GBP
>25.00 16. 17.  Biblia Sacra / Texts of the bible in Czech  Greek
>Latin and English /     GBP 70.00 18. 12. Cultural Institutions in
>the Czech Republic / ca. 3 300 addresses /GBP 135.00
>
>
>
>Forthcoming CD-ROM editions
>Slovnik spisovne cestiny pro skolu a verejnost / Czech Grammar
>
>J.  Fronek: English-Czech dictionary / medium size
>

Neil Bermel says:

I investigated independently and found that many of these items can
be ordered directly through the publisher or via other dealers, such
as Regula Pragensis (regula.pragensis at ecn.cz) .  List prices are
substantially lower (30-50%), but I don't know how they compare with
Thornton's in terms of service.

Leda, the publisher of Fronek's dictionaries, says that the CD-ROM
versions have certain limitations if your machine does not run a Czech
operating system. I am currently awaiting clarification as to what
those limitations are.

There is a Macintosh-compatible E-C, C-E dictionary called Krtek,
available from Studio Cmyk, Tovarni 15, Ostrava-Mar. Hory 709 00 CR.
Tel. in Czech Republic: 069 662 00 93, 069 662 00 95, fax 069 662
0096.  Krtek is small and cheap (1500Kc, or about 30 GBP), but is a
bit hard to use if you don't run the Czech operating system.  (It is
totally useless without the standard CE fonts, which are not
included but can probably be obtained elsewhere gratis, perhaps from
Apple's web site.)  I would judge Krtek not suitable for students;
it's mainly of interest to advanced learners who need a 'prompt' more
than a full definition or explanation.

POLISH

David Goldfarb wrote:

I highly recommend the Doroszewski Polish dictionary on CD-ROM
published by PWN.  The Doroszewski is the Polish equivalent of the
OED, and it used to be very difficult to purchase all 11 volumes at
once.  The CD contains the full text of the dictionary in graphic
format and only costs about $60 US.  Since it is in graphic format,
searching is limited to headwords, but nonetheless, it is great to
have the whole thing at a low price on CD.

PWN also publishes a CD-ROM version of their standard three-volume
dictionary combined with another Polish dictionary, which looks good,
but I haven't used it myself yet.  It is a bit more expensive than the
Doroszewski, but it has more sophisticated search tools, since the
dictionary is in text database format.

-------------------

Once again, thanks to everyone for their suggestions and comments.
I'm sorry I didn't respond individually to each of you, but there
was a fair amount of mail and a lot of leads to follow up!

Neil Bermel

*******************************************
Neil Bermel
Sheffield University
Department of Russian and Slavonic Studies
Arts Tower, Western Bank
Sheffield S10 2TN United Kingdom
telephone 0114 222 7405 (direct) or 7400 (dept.)
fax 0114 222 7416
(from the US: 011 44 114 plus last 7 digits)
n.bermel at sheffield.ac.uk