[Lexicog] Dictionary software

[Wayne Leman]

Thanks for starting the new thread, Ben. It really is an important topic. We were just combining too many things in one topic thread. I actually happen to believe that Fieldworks is a great program (and it specializes in lexical relationships which must be done for good lexical work). I just question whether FW is the best program for mother tongue speakers of a language to use, especially if they don't have Fieldworks consultants on-scene to help.

Thanks for mentioning the Wiki approach. I'd like to see examples of how it has worked for native speakers of languages. I'd like to know how intuitive and user-friendly it is for them.

I think that one of the greatest areas of development for dictionaries is for native speakers to do the research themselves. We who are linguists (that includes me) have often gotten in the way of native speakers being able to uncover the wealth of information about their own language. Ron Moe has developed an exciting technique for native speakers to explore the lexicon of their own language in a short period of time using semantic associations. We linguists get excited about dictionary software that works for us, but often we don't tune in to how native speakers can best record the lexical patterns of their own language.

Well, I'd better stop or else I'll be combining too many topics in your new thread!

Wayne

From: Benjamin Barrett 
Sent: Sunday, April 27, 2014 1:50 PM
To: lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com 
Subject: [Lexicog] Dictionary software

  
Wayne Leman says to not talk about software in Natalie's thread, so I'm starting a new one :)

When I realized the potential that the Wiki Foundation's software has, I jumped at it. I realize now I should explore other options before I get too far into my project.

The wiki software (free to download and use) makes it easy to add words even for people who don't like computers, allows multiple people to work simultaneously, can be accessed instantly by community members with a smartphone/tablet/computer and has a lot of features that can be customized. You can upload PDFs, graphics, sound files, videos and anything else you want (though that requires customization).

Although the customizations can take a lot of work, the basic installation on a PC/Mac or on many hosts is very easy. Among the customizations I have is a Lushootseed keyboard that enables anyone to type in Lushootseed regardless of their system, and security settings requiring people to e-mail me to create an account. I think you can even limit who can view the actual pages online.

Another compelling feature is that the Wiki Foundation has a vested interest in keeping its software relevant in a fast-paced world of software change, so I expect support will continue on into the future as long as Wikipedia is still around.

I haven't yet tried to export the data, so I can't address that issue, but I think it can be done relatively easily. 

Other than the time it takes if you want to customize your wiki, the only downside I can think of is the unstructured nature of wikis, but you can also create templates that guide the user. A particularly fancy example for creating the fictitious word "affff" can be seen at https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=afffff&action=edit&editintro=User:Yair_rand/usenec (for viewing only, please don't click "save page"!)

WeSay also looks interesting.

Has anyone explored the pros and cons of these various software options in detail?

Ben Barrett
La Conner, WA

Learn Ainu! https://sites.google.com/site/aynuitak1/videos

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