Adsotrans

Adso is an open source to dictionary and engine for Chinese text. The Adso project started in 2001. Its gist translation and dictionary interface are online at the Adsotrans website Adsotrans. Its software and database are freely available for download at the site as well.

Content

With over 185,000 entries, Adso is the largest open source Chinese-English dictionary compilation on the Internet. It differs from other projects in providing part of speech and ontological data on word entries, and in reviewing user contributions. Project data is generated collaboratively by users and drawn from related projects including CEDICT and the Linguistic Data Consortium.

The Adso software engine provides text segmentation, hanzi-to-pinyin, gist translation, annotation, gist extraction and semantic analysis services. It is heavily used as a translation aid for Chinese-English translation. Adso also supports a specially-defined XML language which customizes software output. This has made it useful as preprocessor for statistical machine translation software such as GIZA++ or for reverse-index search engines such as Lucene.

Zihui

The Zihui was a 1615 Chinese dictionary, edited by Mei Yingzuo during the late Ming Dynasty. It was the first dictionary to introduce the modern radical-stroke system. The ''Zihui'' has 14 fascicles with 33,179 character entries. While the ancillary first and last fascicles explain topics like stroke order and , the main ones are named after the twelve Earthly Branches. The Qing Dynasty scholar Wu Renchen published the 1666 ''Zihui bu'' .

The ''Zihui'' is renowned for establishing the system of 214 radicals, which dictionaries today still use as the basis for the collation of Chinese characters. It also introduced the "radical-and-stroke sorting" principle of arranging characters under a radical according to the number of residual strokes. Since the famous 1716 Kangxi dictionary adopted these 214 graphic elements, they are commonly called the List of Kangxi radicals rather than "List of Zihui radicals".

In order to make this lexicographical advance into the logically arranged 214 radicals, Mei Yingzuo simplified and rationalized the original system of 540 radicals in the Shuowen Jiezi. Some ''Shuowen Jiezi'' radicals contain few characters, which is an inefficient arrangement. For instance, its "man radical" 男, which compounds the "field radical" 田 and the "power radical" 力, only lists three: ''nan'' 男 , ''sheng'' 甥 , and ''jiu'' 舅 . The ''Zihui'' more efficiently lists ''nan'' 男 under the "power radical", ''sheng'' 甥 under the "life radical" 生, and ''jiu'' 舅 under the "mortar radical" 臼.

In modern Chinese usage, ''zihui'' means "glossary, wordbook, lexicon; ".

Zhongyuan Yinyun

Zhongyuan Yinyun , literally meaning "The phonology of the Central Plains", is a rime book from the Yuan Dynasty compiled by Zhou Deqing in 1324. An important work for the study of historical Chinese phonology, it testifies many phonolgical changes from Middle Chinese to , such as the reduction and disappearance of final stop consonants and the reorganization of the . Though often termed a "rime dictionary", the work does not provide meanings for its entries.

Background

''Zhongyuan Yinyun'' continued the tradition of ''Qieyun'' and other rime books. However, due to the phonological changes took place from the Sui Dynasty to the Yuan Dynasty, the information needed to be updated in accordance with the then phonological system.

From the middle of the 13th Century to the end of the 14th Century, Beiqu underwent quick development. The author of Sanqu , Zhou Deqing, delved into the research on Beiqu, discovering that it created many problems by not adhering to the rules of classical poetic composition. He thought that in order to better develop Beiqu , one would need to make a definite standard, especially in respect to language. According to his own experience, he was able to propose a set of rules for composing and reciting Běiqǔ, which came to be known as ''Zhongyuan Yinyun''.

Structure

In the earlier rime books, characters are first grouped by tone, then by rime. However, in ''Zhongyuan Yinyun'', the selected 5,866 characters , commonly rhymed in songs of the time, are first grouped into 19 rime groups, then further into four tonal groups: , , , . The traditional is assigned to the aforementioned four groups according to contemporary rules. This novel way of dividing the traditional four tones is known as "dividing the level tones into ''yin'' and ''yang'', assigning the entering tone to the other three tones" .

Within each rime-tonal group, homophonic characters are further grouped together, with each homophonic group separated by an empty circle. As a common character, whose pronunciation every literate person is supposed to know, is used to head each homophonic group, ''fanqie'' spelling is not employed, as in the earlier rime books, for indicating the pronunciations of the characters.

Zhou regarded the principal works of the Four Great Yuan Playwrights as foundational to verse in general; he considered their works to be "rimes joined with nature, words able to connect with the language of the world" , and at the same time also distinguished where the playwrights used rimes in non-standard places.

''Zhongyuan Yinyun'''s second half, Zhengyu Zuoci Qili , employs various examples to explain in detail both the rime charts' methods of use as well as issues concerning Beiqu's creation, standards and other aspects.

List of rimes

*歌戈韻 Ge-Ge
*家麻韻 Jia-Ma
*車遮韻 Che-Zhe
*齊微韻 Qi-Wei
*支思韻 Zhi-Si
*魚模韻 Yu-Mo
*皆來韻 Jie-Lai
*蕭豪韻 Xiao-Hao
*尤侯韻 You-Hou
*寒山韻 Han-Shan
*先天韻 Xian-Tian
*桓歡韻 Huan-Huan
*監鹹韻 Jian-Xian
*廉籤韻 Lian-Qian
*真文韻 Zhen-Wen
*侵尋韻 Qin-Xun
*庚清韻 Geng-Qing
*江陽韻 Jiang-Yang
*東鍾韻 Dong-Zhong

Influence

In respect to contemporaneous and later Beiqu works, ''Zhongyuan Yinyun'' has played a very strong guiding role; moreover, many later rhyme works have regarded it as a model on which they based their interpretations. Up until the flourishing of Nanqu , ''Zhongyuan Yinyun'' still held a tremendous influence.

Zhongwen Da Cidian

The Zhongwen Da Cidian is an unabridged Chinese dictionary, edited by Zhang Qiyun and others. The first edition had 40 volumes, which were published from 1962 through 1968.

This encyclopedic dictionary includes 49,905 Chinese characters arranged under the traditional 214 Kangxi radicals. Each character entry shows the evolution of graphic forms , gives pronunciations, and chronological meanings with sources. Words, phrases, and four-character idioms are given under the head character entry, arranged according to the number of in their components. "There are many phrases under some characters," note Teng and Biggerstaff , for example, 3,417 under ''yi'' and 1,398 under ''huang'' .

Although the ''Zhongwen Da Cidian'' closely resembles the first edition 1960 Dai Kan-Wa jiten , it is not listed under works consulted. The ''Zhongwen Da Cidian'' was the best available reference work of Chinese until 1993, when the ''Hanyu Da Cidian'' was completed.

Zhonghua Da Zidian

The Zhonghua Da Zidian was an unabridged Chinese dictionary of published in 1915. The chief editors were Xu Yuan'gao , Lu Feikui , and Ouyang Pucun . It was based upon the 1716 ''Kangxi Zidian'', and is internally organized using the 214 Kangxi radicals. The ''Zhonghua Da Zidian'' contains more than 48,000 entries for individual characters, including many invented in the two centuries since the ''Kangxi Dictionary''.

Each character entry includes the fanqie spelling from the Jiyun, the modern pronunciation given with a common homophone, different meanings , classical quotations, and two-character compounds using the character. Although Teng and Biggerstaff acknowledge the ''Zhonghua Da Zidian'' "is very comprehensive and is very carefully compiled," they note three defects. The index, which is arranged by number of , can be inconvenient . The margins do not have characters to help locate entries under a radical. The two-character phrases may be listed under either component.

Yupian

The Yupian is a circa 543 CE Chinese dictionary edited by Gu Yewang during the Liang Dynasty. It arranges 12,158 character entries under 542 , which differ somewhat from the original 540 in the ''Shuowen Jiezi''. Each character entry gives a fanqie pronunciation gloss and a definition, with occasional annotation.

Baxter describes the textual history:
The original ''Yùpiān'' was a large and unwieldy work of thirty ''juàn'' , and during Táng and Sòng various abridgements and revisions of it were made, which often altered the original ''f?nqiè'' spellings; of the original version only fragments remain , and the currently-available version of the ''Yùpiān'' is not a reliable guide to Early Middle Chinese phonology.
In 760, during the Tang Dynasty, Sun Jiang compiled a ''Yupian'' edition, which he noted had a total of 51,129 words, less than a third of the original 158,641. In 1013, Song Dynasty scholar Chen Pengnian published a revised ''Daguang yihui Yupian'' . The Japanese monk Kūkai brought an original version ''Yupian'' back from China in 806, and modified it into his circa 830 ''Tenrei Banshō Meigi'', which is the oldest extant Japanese dictionary.

Yunjing

The Yunjing is the oldest existing rime table. Current versions of the ''Yunjing'' date back to the 1161 and 1203 editions published by Zhang Linzhi .

In theory, the ''Yunjing'' is a two-dimensional representation of the Middle Chinese phonological system. The preface lists 36 initial consonants ; see the link below. The Yunjing contains 43 charts , each of which tabulates combinations of a particular final rime with various initials , in up to four tones. A detailed description of this native Chinese phonological system can be found at the rime table article. For further information about the ''Yunjing'', see Coblin and Pulleyblank .

Xinhua Zidian

The Xinhua Zidian is the best-selling Chinese dictionary and the world's most popular reference work. This pocket-sized dictionary of Chinese characters, published by the Commercial Press, uses Simplified Chinese characters and pinyin romanization. The most recent ''Xinhua Zidian'' edition enters 3,500 and includes over 11,200 logograms, including Traditional Chinese characters and Variant Chinese characters.

Under the aegis of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the People's Education Press published the original ''Xinhua Zidian'' in 1953. The linguist and lexicographer Wei Jiangong was chief editor. In 1957, the respected Commercial Press published the ''Xinhua Zidian'' , which was alphabetically collated in pinyin order. They have subsequently revised this dictionary ten times, with over 200 printing runs, and it is a longtime bestseller among students in China. In early 2004, the total number of published copies exceeded 400 million, unquestionably making the ''Xinhua Zidian'' the most popular dictionary in the world.

Besides their popular concise version ''Xinhua Zidian'', Commercial Press also publishes a large-print edition and a ''Xinhua Dictionary with English Translation'' . In addition, the Shanxi Education Press publishes a pinyin-edition ''Xinhua Zidian'' with both characters and orthographically precise transcriptions .

Thesaurus Linguae Sericae

The Thesaurus Linguae Sericae 新編漢文典 is an international collaborative project designed to explore the conceptual schemes of the Chinese language. The project was conceived by Christoph Harbsmeier, its chief editor, and receives input by a large number of academic contributors worldwide. The content of TLS is preserved and presented in the form of a relational database hosted by the Institute of Chinese Studies, University of Heidelberg.

According to the editors, TLS is designed throughout to make the classical Chinese evidence strictly comparable to that of other cultures, and to make possible meaningful analytic primary-evidence-based disagreement among non-sinologists on classical Chinese concepts and words. The editors hope that careful philosophical reflection on Chinese texts might serve to broaden the empirical basis for philosophical theories and generalisations on conceptual schemes. They intend to improve the clarity and bite of declarations of difference between conceptual schemes by enlarging the basis of literally translated and analysed texts from widely different intellectual cultures, and to make precise criteria of translation for classical Chinese, mainly through a detailed description in English of systematic recurrent semantic relations between Chinese words, especially distinctive semantic features.

Key features of TLS are:
* Focusing on distinctive semantic nuances, it serves as a synonym dictionary of classical Chinese.
* It systematically organises the Chinese vocabulary in taxonomic and mereonomic hierarchies, thus showing up whole conceptual schemes or cognitive systems; these are taken to circumscribe the changing topology of Chinese mental space.
* It systematically registers a range of lexical relations like antonym, converse, epithet etc.; TLS thus aims to define conceptual space as a relational space.
* It incorporates detailed syntactic analysis of syntactic usage; TLS thus enables users to make a systematic study of such basic phenomena as the natural history of abstract nouns in China.
* It is a corpus-based dictionary which will record the history of rhetorical devices in texts and thus enables the study of such things as the natural history of irony in China.
* All analytic categories and procedures of analysis in TLS are flexible in the sense that they are continuously being revised and improved in the light of new observation and analysis.

Rime table

A rime table or rhyme table is a syllable chart of the Chinese language, a significant advance on the ''fanqie'' analysis used in earlier rime dictionaries. As China's native model, it tabulates the syllables of Middle Chinese by their s, s, grades of rime, s and other properties.

Tradition holds that rime tables were invented by Buddhist monks, who were inspired by the Sanskrit syllable charts in the Siddham script they used to study the language. The Song Dynasty ''Yunjing'' and ''Qiyin lüe'' are the oldest extant rime tables. Based on numerous internal similarities, linguists conclude they shared a common prototype of phonological tables with accompanying texts, a tradition that may date back to the late Tang Dynasty.

Structure

A rime table book consists of a number of tabular charts, each devoted to either the "inner" or "outer" part of a particular rime group .
The inner/outer subdivision is thought to be related to the vocalic heights contrasting close vowels and open vowels respectively.
Each ''shè'' is characterized as either "open" and "closed" , which are interpreted to indicate the absence or presence of lip rounding .

Within a table, syllables are classified using other features:
* The initial consonant . A syllable beginning with a vowel is considered to have a "zero initial." Initials are classified according to
** place of articulation: , , , and , and gutturals . The values of the last category remain controversial.
** phonation: voiceless , voiceless aspirated , voiced or or .
* The , using the same four tone names as used in the ''Qieyun''. These tones differ from the four tones of Standard Mandarin, though related tone systems are retained by many southern languages. In particular, syllables ending in stops were classified as the entering tone of the corresponding syllables with nasal endings .
* The least understood classification is the four ''děng'' , which Bernhard Karlgren translated as "divisions" while other linguists prefer "grades". The exact nature of the grades is still open to debate, but is believed to describe palatalization , features, vowel quality or some combination of these.
To illustrate the significance of ''děng'', the science of classifying vowels is called ''děngyùn'' and traditional phonology is ''děngyùnxué'' .

For example, ''Yùnjìng'' comprises 43 charts covering 16 rime groups.
The following is the first chart :





The five big characters on the right-hand side read ''Nèi zhuǎn dìyī kāi'' . In ''Yùnjìng'', each chart is called a ''zhuǎn'' . The characters indicate that the chart is the first one in the book, and that the syllables of this chart are "inner" and "open" .

Although the preface of ''Yunjing'' lists 36 onsets, the table contains only 23 columns, which means some columns represent more than one onset. This is possible because some onsets only combine with some particular grades of rime: say onset A only combines with grade 1 and 4, and onset B only with grade 2 and 3, then the same column can represent both onset A and B. This kind of space-saving representation can cause confusion, and results in so-called ''jiǎděng'' : for example, a syllable shown to be grade-4 on the table is in fact grade-3, and finds itself at the grade-4 position only because the slot has been occupied by another syllable.

The 16 rows are grouped by tone into four ''yùn'', or rimes . Each ''yùn'' has a row for each of the four grades. The symbol ○ indicates that there is no character with that particular syllable.

The pronunciation of a character as indicated by ''fanqie'' spelling can be known by looking at such a chart. However, due to sound change, the traditional ''fanqie'' spellings and the rime tables may become incongruous. In such cases some special rules, called ''menfa'' 門法, have been made to resolve the incongruities.

Rime dictionary

A rime dictionary, rhyme dictionary, or rime book is an ancient type of Chinese dictionary used for writing poetry or other genre requiring rhymes. It collates s by and , instead of . However, a Chinese dictionary collated by rime and tone is not necessarily a rime dictionary . Moreover, a rime dictionary should not be confused with a rime table, which charts syllables according to and rime grade as well as rime and tone. In this context, the spelling "rime" is often used instead of the more common "rhyme" in order to distinguish between "rime" in the sense of the rhyming portion of a syllable as opposed to the concept of poetic rhyme.



Historical records suggest that the earliest rime dictionary is one called ''Shenglei'' by Li Deng of the Three Kingdoms period. However, the book did not survive. The first extant rime dictionary is ''Qieyun'' from the Sui Dynasty. The later ''Guangyun'' and ''Jiyun'' are based on ''Qieyun''. These rime dictionaries reflect the phonology of Middle Chinese.

In a rime dictionary, characters are first divided into four groups according to their tone names. Traditionally the group of the "level tone" occupies two ''juan'' as it contains more characters. Within each of the four tonal groups, characters are further divided into differet sub-groups according to their rimes. These sub-groups are called ''yun'' or ''yunmu'' or less frequently ''yunbu'' . Characters within each ''yun'' have the same tone and similar rime. In the case of ''Guangyun'', the slight difference is due to the presence or absence of the . For example, characters within the 東 ''yun'' all have the "level tone", and either the rime or the rime .

A rime dictionary primarily serves the composition of s . Versifiers rhyme a poem according to the standard rime book , not the sounds of their own dialect or those of the "mandarin" spoken at their time. For many generations of Chinese versifiers, the standard work to consult is the so-called ''Pingshuiyun'' first compiled during the , a simplified version of ''Guangyun'' which reduced the 206 ''yun'' into 106, reflecting the contemporary pronunciations.



Unlike a rhyming dictionary in the West, a Chinese rime dictionary also provides meanings and other lexical information - anything that helps to make a poem. The pronunciation in a rime dictionary is marked by ''fanqie''.

Qiyin lue

The Qiyin lüe is a rime table that dates prior to 1161. This reference work survived to the present largely because the Song Dynasty historian Zheng Qiao included it in his 1161 encyclopedia ''Tongzhi'' .

The ''Qiyinlüe'' has a close affinity with the ''Yunjing''. Both have tables combining rows for a particular final rime, columns for various initials, and up to four tones . A detailed description of this native Chinese phonological system can be found at rime tables.

The Chinese linguist Luo Changpei wrote a definitive study of the ''Qiyinlüe''.

Qieyun

The Qieyun is a rime dictionary, published in 601 CE during the Sui Dynasty. The title ''Qieyun'' literally means "cutting rimes" referring to the traditional Chinese ''fanqie'' system of spelling, and is thus translatable as "Spelling Rimes."

Lu Fayan was the chief editor. The ''Qieyun'' preface describes how the book originated from discussions with eight of his friends at his home in Chang'an, which was the capital.
In the evening, after they had enjoyed their wine, their discussions always turned to phonology. Differences obtained between the pronunciations of the past and the present and different principles of selection were followed by the various authors. … And so we discussed the right and wrong of South and North, and the prevailing and the obsolete of past and present; wishing to present a more refined and precise standard, we discarded all that was ill-defined and lacked preciseness. … And so I grasped my brush, and aided by the light of a candle, I wrote down a draft summary, which eventually was perfected through wide consultation and penetrating research. None of the editors was originally from Chang'an and they were native speakers of differing dialects; five northern and three southern .

The ''Qieyun'' did not directly record Middle Chinese as a spoken language, but rather how Chinese characters should be pronounced. Since this rime dictionary's spellings are the primary source for reconstructing Middle Chinese, linguists have disagreed over what variety of Chinese it recorded. "Much ink has been spilled concerning the nature of the language underlying the ''Qieyun''," says Norman , who lists three points of view. Some scholars, like Bernhard Karlgren, "held to the view that the ''Qieyun'' represented the language of Chang'an"; some "others have supposed that it represented an amalgam of regional pronunciations," technically known as a koine. "At the present time most people in the field accept the views of the Chinese scholar Zhou Zumo" that ''Qieyun'' spellings were a north-south regional compromise between literary pronunciations from the Southern and Northern Dynasties.

When classical Chinese poetry flowered during the Tang Dynasty, the ''Qieyun'' became the authoritative source for literary pronunciations and it repeatedly underwent revisions and enlargements . It was annotated in 677 by Zhangsun Neyan , revised and published in 706 by Wang Renxu as the ''Kanmiu Buque Qieyun'' , collated and republished in 751 by Sun Mian as the ''Tangyun'' , and eventually incorporated into the still-extant ''Guangyun'' and ''Jiyun'' rime dictionaries from the Song Dynasty. Although most of these Tang dictionary redactions were believed lost, some fragments were discovered among the Dunhuang manuscripts and manuscripts discovered at Turfan; and in 1947 a nearly complete manuscript of the 706 edition was found in the Palace Museum.

Like subsequent rime dictionaries, the ''Qieyun'' was organized into the four tone name groups, divided into 193 final rimes , and subdivided into homophone groups . It contains 16,917 character entries.

Qi Lin Bayin

Qī Lín Bāyīn , sometimes translated as Book of Eight Sounds or Book of Eight Tones in , is a rime book of approximately ten thousand based on the earlier form of the Fuzhou dialect. First compiled in the 17th century, it is the pioneering work of all written sources for , and is widely quoted in modern academic research in Chinese phonology.

''Qī Lín Bāyīn'' is in fact a combination of two dictionaries Qī and Lín . The compilation date of the former antecedes that of the latter.

Authorship

The two ''Qī'' and ''Lín'' appearing on the title stand for Qi Jiguang and Lin Bishan , which might mislead people into thinking that they were the authors of this book. Since the famous military general Qi Jiguang was a native of Shandong Province and no records show he had mastered Fuzhou dialect within the short period of his stay in Fuzhou, the likelihood of his being one of the authors have been ruled out without doubt. In recent years, the authenticity of Lin Bishan being the other author has also been put into dispute. So far, the true authorship of ''Qī Lín Bāyīn'' still remains unknown.

Tones, initials, and rimes

Tones

The categories of Fuzhou dialect has remained stable since the time of ''Qī Lín Bāyīn''. In the book title, ''Bāyīn'' denotes eight tones, whose names are: 上平, 上上, 上去, 上入, 下平, 下上, 下去, and 下入. But the sixth tone 下上 is actually identical with the second one 上上 and therefore exists in theory only. In other words, Fuzhou dialect has seven rather than eight tones.

However, due to the lack of phonetic descriptions of the seven tones, the deduction of the tonal values of that time is considered beyond possibility.

Initials

In ''Qī Lín Bāyīn'', the fifteen are organized into a five-character , as follows:
:柳邊求氣低,
:波他曾日時,
:鶯蒙語出非,
:打掌與君知.

In spite of the perceptible confluence of and in modern Fuzhou dialect, the initial structure nowadays is by and large the same as it was in the time of ''Qī Lín Bāyīn''.

Rimes

Likewise, a is built up in ''Qī Lín Bāyīn'' by all thirty-three in the then Fuzhou dialect , as follows:

:春花香,
:秋山開,
:嘉賓歡歌須金杯.
:孤燈光輝燒銀缸.
:之東郊,
:過西橋.
:雞聲催初天,
:奇梅歪遮溝.

The past couple of centuries witnessed three major changes in Fuzhou dialect. The first is the phenomenon of , by which the 上去, 上入 and 下去 characters shift its rime to its open form under certain circumstances; the second is the merger of and , as well as and ; and the last is the confusion of the coda and .

Role in early studies of Fuzhou dialect

For centuries, ''Qī Lín Bāyīn'' had been utilized by local people as an authoritative reference book of the Foochow pronunciation. Furthermore, it also greatly assisted the earliest Western missionaries in Fuzhou in learning and studying the native language.

M. C. White, a Methodist from the United States, is the first missionary that attempted to ''Qī Lín Bāyīn'', as he specifically pointed out in his work: "... the system of initials and finals used in the 'Book of Eight Tones,' ... would form a complete alphabet for the Fuh Chau dialect. They have been so used by missionaries for writing colloquial phrases, in their private study of the language. Three of the gospels have been written out in this manner by Chinese teachers in the employment of missionaries." M.C. White made a careful analysis of all phonemes and romanized them by using the System of Sir William Jones. The scheme consists of fourteen consonants and nine vowels:

#Consonants
#:ch, ch', h, k, k', l, m, n, ng, p, p', s, t, t'
#Vowels
#:a, e, è, ?, i, o, ò, u, ü

William Jones Phonetic Alphabet had varied over time, and became standardized as Foochow Romanized several decades later.

Piya

The Piya was a Chinese dictionary compiled by Song Dynasty scholar Lu Dian . He wrote this ''Erya'' supplement along with his ''Erya Xinyi'' commentary. Although the ''Piya'' preface written by his son Lu Zai is dated 1125, the dictionary was written earlier; Liu estimates around the Yuanfeng era .

Lu Dian arranged the ''Piya'' into 8 semantically-based chapters that closely correspond with the last 13-19. The only exceptions are Chapter 5 that is contained in ''Erya'' 19 and Chapter 8 that anomalously corresponds with the first part of the ''Erya''.

Chapter		Pinyin	Translation	Erya Chapter
1	釋魚	Shiyu	Explaining Fishes	16
2	釋獸	Shishou	Explaining Beasts	18
3	釋鳥	Shiniao	Explaining Birds	17
4	釋蟲	Shichong	Explaining Insects	15
5	釋馬	Shima	Explaining Horses
6	釋木	Shimu	Explaining Trees	14
7	釋草	Shicao	Explaining Plants	13
8	釋天	Shitian	Explaining Heaven	8

The preface explains Lu's motives for defining flora and fauna terminology. Since Song officials changed the basis for the Imperial examination from mastering poetry to ''jingyi'' , literati no longer studied the lyrical names for plants and animals.

Longkan Shoujian

Longkan Shoujian is a Chinese dictionary compiled during the Liao Dynasty by the monk Xingjun . Completed in 997, the work had originally been entitled ''Longkan Shoujing'' , but had its title changed owing to naming taboo when it was later printed by the publishers. The earliest surviving edition of the work is an incomplete one, reprinted in China in 1985.

''Longkan Shoujian'' was one the many ''yinyishu'' produced in ancient China, which were meant to aid the study of Buddhist scriptures. However, the work stands out in two aspects. Firstly, its method of collation is innovative. While Chinese dictionaries before ''Shoujian'' collate s either graphically or phonetically , the work employs both methods: the radicals, which number 242 , are grouped by tone into four groups ; the characters under each radical are in turn grouped by tone. Secondly, it collects more than 26,000 characters with a huge proportion of variant characters. Many of these variants are not recorded in any other works.

The characters in it are divided, in terms of orthography, into "standard" , "vulgar" , "contemporary" , "archaic" and "alternative" , a classification more elaborated than that used in ''Ganlu Zishu''. The pronunciations of characters in it are indicated by either homophone or ''fanqie'' spelling. For some characters, only the pronunciations are given, not the meanings.

While being criticized for its unorthodox collation and collection by the philologists, it is hailed by Pan as an essential guide for deciphering the Dunhuang manuscripts, which contains a large amount of "vulgar" characters.

List of Kangxi radicals

The following is a list of all 214 Kangxi , used originally in the 1615 ''Zihui'' and adopted by the 1716 ''Kangxi dictionary'', in order of the number of s along with some examples of characters containing them. Please read Chinese characters and for more information on how these radicals are used in .

Variant forms of a radical are provided together or listed in two lines if they look very different . Simplified forms are given after a slash. . The character examples are all traditional characters.

This list is such a common standard that sometimes radicals are referred to by number alone. A reference to radical 189, for example, without additional context, means 高.

For modern radicals, see List of 189 modern radicals, and List of 227 modern radicals .

The Kangxi radicals are encoded in the Unicode U+2F00–2FDF range. Additional radicals are found in the CJK Radicals Supplement range .

1 stroke

* . 一 - 丁 七 万 丈 三
* . 丨 - 中 丰 串
* . 丶 - 丸 丹 主 丼
* . 丿 - 乂 乃 久 乍 乎
* . 乙??? - 乞 乾
* . 亅 - 了 予

2 strokes

* 7. 二 - 于 五 井 些
* 8. 亠 - 交 亥 京 亮
* 9. 人 - 今 介 从 令 会
* 9'. 亻 - 仁 仕 他 仙 休
* 10. 儿 - 兄 兆 先 光 兒
* 11. 入 - 兩 內
* 12. 八 - 公 共 兵 具 典
* 13. 冂? - 冉 冊 再 冎 冏
* 14. 冖 - 冗 冠 冢 冤 冥
* 15. 冫 - 冬 冰 冶 冷 凍
* 16. 几? - 凡 凭 凰 凱 凳
* 17. 凵 - 凶 凸 凹 出 函
* 18. 刀? - 刃 分 切 初 券
* 18'. 刂 - 刈 刊 刑 列 判
* 19. 力 - 功 劣 助 努 励
* 20. 勹 - 勺 勻 勾 包 匈
* 21. 匕 - 北 匙
* 22. 匚 - 匠 匡 匣 匪 匱
* 23. �甞
* 100. 生 - 甡 產 甥 甦 甧
* 101. 用 - 甩 甫 甬 甭 甯
* 102. 田 - 男 界 留 畦 番
* 103. 疋? - 疌 疎 疏 疐 疑
* 104. 疒 - 疼 疾 病 痛 痴
* 105. 癶 - 癷 癸 癹 登 發
* 106. 白 - 的 皆 皇 皎 皓
* 107. 皮 - 皰 皴 皸 皺 皻
* 108. 皿 - 盂 盆 盒 盛 盟
* 109. 目? - 盲 看 眺 眼 睛
* 110. 矛 - 矜 矝 矞 矠 矡
* 111. 矢 - 矣 知 矩 短 矮
* 112. 石 - 砂 砥 砲 硬 磁
* 113. 示? - 祟 票 祭 禁 禦
* 113'. 礻 - 礼 社 祈 祝 神
* 114. 禸 - 禹 禺 离 禼 禽
* 115. 禾 - 秋 税 稔 稻 稼
* 116. 穴 - 究 空 穿 突 窃
* 117. 立 - 站 竝 章 竣 童

6 strokes

* 118. 竹? - 竿 笏 箒 算 箱
* 119. 米 - 粒 粗 粟 精 糊
* 120. 糸 - 系 紊 素 索 紫
* 120'. 糹/纟 - 紅 �br /> * 198. 鹿 - 麋 麒 麓 麗 麟
* 199. 麥/麦 - 麩 麪 麭 麰 麴
* 200. 麻 - 麼 麾 黀 黁 黂

12 strokes

* 201. 黃/? - 黆 黇 黉 黋 黌
* 202. 黍 - 黎 黏 黐
* 203. 黑 - 墨 黔 默 黛 黠
* 204. 黹 - 黺 黻 黼

13 strokes

* 205. 黽/黾 - 鼀 鼆 鼇 鼈 鼉
* 206. 鼎 - 鼏 鼐 鼑 鼒
* 207. 鼓 - 鼕 鼖 鼗 鼘 鼙
* 208. 鼠 - 鼦 鼨 鼬 鼯 鼹

14 strokes

* 209. 鼻 - 鼾 鼿 齁 齅 齉
* 210. 齊/齐/斉 - 齋 齌 齍 齎 齏

15 strokes

* . 齒/齿/歯 - 齟 齡 齧 齬 齲

16 strokes

* . 龍/龙/竜 - 龏 龐 龑 龔 龕
* . 龜?/龟/亀 - 龞 ? ? ? ?

17 strokes

* . 龠 - 龡 龢 龣 龤 龥

Kangxi Dictionary

The Kangxi Dictionary was the standard Chinese dictionary during the 18th and 19th centuries. The Kangxi Emperor of the Manchu Qing Dynasty ordered its compilation in 1710 and it was published in 1716. The dictionary is named after the Emperor's era name.

Compilation

The ''Kangxi Dictionary'' editors, including Zhang Yushu and Chen Tingjing , partly based it on two Ming Dynasty dictionaries: the 1615 ''Zihui'' by Mei Yingzuo , and the 1627 ''Zhengzitong'' by Zhang Zilie . Since the imperial edict required that the ''Kangxi Dictionary'' be compiled within five years, a number of errors were inevitable. The Daoguang Emperor established a review board and their 1831 ''Zidian kaozheng'' corrected 2,588 mistakes, mostly in quotations and citations.

The supplemented dictionary contains 47,035 character entries, plus 1,995 , giving a total of 49,030 different characters. They are grouped under the 214 and arranged by the number of additional strokes in the character. Although these 214 radicals were first used in the ''Zihui'', due to the popularity of the ''Kangxi Dictionary'' they are known as and remain in modern usage as a method to categorize traditional Chinese characters.

The character entries give variants , pronunciations in traditional fanqie spelling and in modern reading of a homophone, different meanings, and quotations from Chinese books and lexicons. The dictionary also contains rime tables with characters ordered under syllable rime classes, s, and initial syllable onsets.

The ''Kangxi Dictionary'' is available in many forms, from old Qing Dynasty editions in block printing, to reprints in traditional Chinese bookbinding, to modern revised editions with essays in Western-style hardcover, to the digitized Internet version.

The ''Kangxi Dictionary'' is one of the Chinese dictionaries used by the Ideographic Rapporteur Group for the Unicode standard.

Structure of the Kangxi dictionary

* Preface by Kangxi Emperor : pp. 1-6
* Notes on the use of the dictionary : pp. 7-12
* Indication of pronuciation of characters : pp. 13-40
* Comprehensive table of contents by radicals : pp. 41-49
* Facilitated consulting contents : pp. 50-71

* The dictionary proper : pp. 75-1631
** Main text : pp. 75-1538
** Addendum contents : pp. 1539-1544
** Addendum text : pp. 1545-1576
** Appendix contents : pp. 1577-1583
** Appendix text : pp. 1585-1631
* Postscript : pp. 1633-1635　
* Textual research : pp. 1637-1683

Jiyun

The Jiyun is a rime dictionary published in 1037 during the Song Dynasty. The chief editor Ding Du and others expanded and revised the ''Guangyun''. It is possible, according to Teng and Biggerstaff , that Sima Guang completed the text in 1067. The ''Jiyun'' has 53,525 character entries , approximately twice as many as the ''Guangyun'', and likewise has 206 rime groups.

Jingdian Shiwen

Jingdian Shiwen , often abbreviated as ''Shiwen'' in Chinese philological literature, was a circa 582-589 CE exegetical dictionary or glossary, edited by the Tang Dynasty classical scholar Lu Deming . This Chinese dictionary contains invaluable ''fanqie'' annotations for pronunciations of s in the Chinese classic texts, the Taoist ones as well as the Confucian ones. It also cites some ancient books that are no longer extant, and are only known through ''Jingdian Shiwen''.

Bernhard Karlgren considered ''Jingdian Shiwen'' and the 601 ''Qieyun'' rime dictionary as the two primary sources for reconstructing Middle Chinese. Many studies in Chinese historical linguistics utilize the important ''Jingdian Shiwen'' data.

Hanyu Da Zidian

The Hanyu Da Zidian is one of the best available reference works on Chinese characters. A group of more than 400 editors and lexicographers began compilation in 1979, and it was published in eight volumes from 1986 to 1989. A separate volume of essays documents the lexicographical complexities for this full-scale Chinese dictionary. Besides the weighty 5,790-page first edition, there are 3-volume and pocket editions.

The ''Hanyu Da Zidian'' includes 54,678 head entries for characters. They give historical logographic forms such as oracle bone script, bronzeware script, and seal script. Pronunciation is glossed for Old Chinese , Middle Chinese , and Standard Mandarin . The chronologically numbered definitions cite early Chinese dictionaries and texts. Internal collating is by a novel 200 system, arranged by count. Volume 8 has appendices, including rime tables for Old and Middle Chinese, variant characters, indexes, and addenda.

The ''Hanyu Da Zidian'' has become the international standard reference for Chinese characters; for example, the Unihan Database and the Wiktionary cite references.

Hanyu Da Cidian

The Hanyu Da Cidian is the most inclusive available Chinese dictionary. Lexicographically comparable to the OED, it has diachronic coverage of the Chinese language, and traces usage over three millennia from Chinese classic texts to modern slang. The chief editor Luo Zhufeng 羅竹風 , along with a team of over 300 scholars and lexicographers, started the enormous task of compilation in 1979. Publication of the thirteen volumes began in 1986 and finished in 1993.

The ''Hanyu da cidian'' includes over 23,000 head Chinese character entries, defines some 370,000 words, and gives 1,500,000 citations. The head entries, which are by a novel 200 system, are given in traditional Chinese characters while simplified Chinese characters are noted. Definitions and explanations are in simplified, excepting classical quotations.

Volume 13 has both pinyin and count indexes, plus appendices. A separate index volume lists 728,000 entries for characters by their position within words and phrases, something like a reverse dictionary. For instance, the ''Hanyu da cidian'' enters ''Daode jing'' 道德經 under the head character ''dao''; this reverse-index lists it under both ''de'' and ''jing''. "Despite the fact that it weighs over 20 kilos and contains a total of 50 million characters spread over 20,000 large double-column pages," says Wilkinson , "the ''Hanyu da cidian'' is an easy dictionary to use to the full because it is unusually well indexed." It became even easier to use when Victor H. Mair edited a single-sort alphabetically arranged pinyin index .

The abridged CD-ROM version contains 18,013 head characters, 336,385 words and phrases, and 861,956 citations. It includes male and female sound files for pronunciation, and enables more than 20 search methods. The 3.0 CD-ROM version was released in 2007.

Gwoyeu Romatzyh

Gwoyeu Romatzyh , abbreviated GR, is a system for writing in the Latin alphabet. The system was conceived by and developed by a group of including Chao and Lin Yutang from 1925 to 1926. Chao himself later published influential using GR. In addition a small number of other textbooks and dictionaries in GR were published in Hong Kong and overseas from 1942 to 2000.

GR is the better known of the two romanization systems which indicate the four by varying the spelling of syllables . These tones are a fundamental part of the Chinese language: to a Chinese speaker they are no less a component of a word than vowels are to an English speaker. Tones in Chinese allow speakers to discriminate between otherwise identical syllables—in other words they are phonemic. Other systems indicate the tones with either diacritics or numbers . GR spells the same four tones ''ai'', ''air, ''ae and ''ay. These spellings, which follow specific , indicate the tones while retaining the pronunciation of the syllable ''ai''. Because it embeds the tone of each syllable in its spelling, GR may —though some academics dispute this claim.

In 1928 China adopted GR as the nation's official romanization system. GR was used to indicate pronunciations in dictionaries of the National Language. Its proponents hoped one day to establish it as a writing system for a reformed Chinese script. But despite support from a small number of trained linguists in China and overseas, GR met with public indifference and even hostility due to its complexity. Another obstacle preventing its widespread adoption was the fact that it was too narrowly based on the Beijing dialect, in a period lacking a strong centralized government to enforce its use. Eventually GR lost ground to Pinyin and other later romanization systems. However, its influence is still evident, as several of the principles introduced by its creators have been used in romanization systems that followed it.

History

, Gwoyeu Romatzyh's most distinctive feature, was first suggested to Y.R Chao by Lin Yutang. By 1922 Chao had already established the main principles of GR.
The details of the system were developed in 1925–1926 by a group of five linguists, led by Chao and including Lin, under the auspices of the . In 1928 GR was officially adopted by the government. GR was intended to be used alongside the existing phonetic symbols: hence the alternative name for GR, "Second Pattern of the National Alphabet." Both systems were used to indicate the revised standard of pronunciation in the new official ''Vocabulary of National Pronunciation for Everyday Use'' of 1932. The designers of GR had greater ambitions: their aim was complete reform of the script, using GR as a practical system of writing.

In the 1930s two shortlived attempts were made to teach GR to railway workers and peasants in and provinces. Support for GR, being confined to a small number of trained linguists and sinologists, "was distinguished more for its quality than its quantity." During this period GR faced increasing hostility because of the complexity of its tonal spelling. Conversely, sinologist Bernhard Karlgren criticised GR for its lack of phonetic rigour. Ultimately, like the rival system Latinxua Sinwenz, GR failed to gain widespread support, principally because the "National" language was too narrowly based on : "a sufficiently precise and strong language norm had not yet become a reality in China".

A vestigial use of GR in can be seen in the official spelling of the first syllable of ''Shaanxi'' for province, to distinguish it from province, particularly in foreign-language text where the tone marks are often omitted. Some prominent Chinese have used GR to transliterate their names: for example the mathematician Shiing-Shen Chern.

In Taiwan GR survived until the 1970s as a pronunciation aid in monolingual dictionaries such as ''Gwoyeu Tsyrdean '' and ''Tsyrhuey '', but was officially replaced in 1986 by a modified form known as MPS II, which was in turn replaced by Tongyong Pinyin in 2002.

Description

:''Note:'' In this section the word "tone" is abbreviated as "T": thus T1 stands for Tone 1 , etc. To assist readers unfamiliar with GR, Pinyin equivalents have been added in brackets.

Basic forms

An important GR innovation, later adopted by Pinyin, was to use contrasting pairs of consonants from Latin to represent sounds in Chinese. For example ''b'' and ''p'' represent and . A potentially confusing feature of GR is the use of ''j, ch,'' and ''sh'' to represent two different series of sounds. When followed by ''i'' these letters correspond to the sounds ; otherwise they correspond to the sounds . Readers used to Pinyin need to pay particular attention to these spellings: for example, GR ''ju, jiu,'' and ''jiou'' correspond to Pinyin ''zhu, ju,'' and ''jiu'' respectively.

GR orthography has these additional notable features:

*''iu'' represents the close front rounded vowel spelt ''ü'' or in many cases simply ''u'' in Pinyin.
*Final ''-y'' represents allophones of ''i'' : GR ''shy'' and ''sy'' correspond to Pinyin ''shi'' and ''si'' respectively.
*''el'' corresponds to Pinyin ''er'' . The most important use of ''-l'' is as a suffix, as in ''ideal'' = ''i dean'' + ''-l'', "a little" .
*A number of frequently-occurring morphemes have abbreviated spellings in GR. The commonest of these are: ''-g'' , ''-j'' , ''-m'' , ''sh'' and ''-tz'' .

Tonal modifications

By default, the basic GR spelling described above is used for Tone1 syllables. The basic form is then modified to indicate tones 2, 3 and 4. This is accomplished in one of three ways:

*either a vowel is changed to another vowel resembling it in sound

*or a letter is doubled

*or a silent letter is added after the vowel.

Wherever possible the concise first method is used. The following rules of thumb cover most cases.

Tone 1

:''shiue, chuan, chang, hai, bau''

Tone 2: i/u → y/w; or add -r
:''shyue, chwan, charng, hair, baur''

Tone 3: i/u → e/o; or double vowel

:''sheue, choan, chaang, hae, bao''

Tone 4: change/double final letter; or add -h

:''shiueh, chuann, chanq, hay, baw''

Neutral tone: precede with a dot

:''perng.yeou, dih.fang'' .

Exception Syllables with an initial sonorant use the basic form for T2 rather than T1. In these syllables the T1 is marked with ''-h-'' as the second letter. For example ''mha'' is T1 , whereas ''ma'' is T2 . T3 and T4 are regular: ''maa'' and ''mah'' .

Compounds as words

An important principle of GR is that syllables which form words should be written together. This strikes speakers of European languages as obvious; but in Chinese the concept of "word" is not easy to pin down. The basic unit of speech is popularly thought to be the monosyllable represented by a , which in most cases represents a meaningful syllable or morpheme, a smaller unit than the "linguistic word". Characters are written and printed with no spaces between words; yet in practice most consist of two-syllable compounds, and it was Chao's bold innovation in 1922 to reflect this in GR orthography by grouping the appropriate syllables together into words. This represented a radical departure from hyphenated Wade-Giles forms such as ''Kuo²-yü³ Lo²-ma³-tz?⁴'' . This principle, illustrated in the below, was later adopted in Pinyin.

Texts

used GR in four influential works:
*''A Concise Dictionary of Spoken Chinese''
*''Mandarin Primer''
:This course was originally used in the Army Specialized Training Program at the School for Overseas Administration in 1943–1944 and subsequently in civilian courses.
*''A Grammar of Spoken Chinese''
*''Readings in Sayable Chinese'' [] "Sayable" in this context means colloquial, as opposed to the vernacular Chinese style often read by students.

''Readings in Sayable Chinese'' was written "to supply the advanced student of spoken Chinese with reading matter which he can actually use in his speech." It consists of three volumes of Chinese text with facing GR romanization. They contain some lively recorded dialogues, "Fragments of an autobiography," two plays and a translation of ''Through the Looking-Glass ''. Two extracts from ''Tzoou daw Jinqtz lii'' with facing translations can be read online.

In 1942 Walter Simon introduced GR to English-speaking sinologists in a special pamphlet, ''The New Official Chinese Latin Script''. Over the remainder of the 1940s he published a series of textbooks and readers, as well as a Chinese-English Dictionary, all using GR. His son Harry Simon later went on to use GR in scholarly papers on Chinese linguistics.

In 1960 Y.C. Liu, a colleague of Walter Simon's at SOAS, published ''Fifty Chinese Stories''. These selections from were presented in both and modern Chinese, together with GR romanizations and versions prepared by Simon .

Lin Yutang's Chinese-English dictionary incorporated a number of innovative features, one of which was a simplified version of GR. Lin eliminated most of the spelling rules requiring substitution of vowels, as can be seen from his spelling ''Guoryuu Romatzyh'', But GR has its advantages. According to Y.R. Chao:



For example, it may be easier to memorize the difference between GR ''Beeijing'' and ''beyjiing'' than the Pinyin versions ''Běijīng'' and ''bèijǐng'', where the tones seem to be almost an afterthought.

Not all teachers are convinced of the superiority of GR as a means of teaching correct tones to learners. One study conducted at the University of Oregon in 1991–1993 compared the results of using Pinyin and GR in teaching elementary level Chinese to two matched groups of students. It concluded that "GR did not lead to significantly greater accuracy in tonal production."

GR continues to be used by some teachers of Chinese. In 2000, the Princeton ''Chinese Primer'' series was published in both GR and Pinyin versions. GR is used as the main romanization method in some university departments, for example the East Asian Studies Program at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania.

Example

Here is an extract from Y.R. Chao's . The topic is scholarly , but the style colloquial. The tonal spelling markers or "clues" are again highlighted using the same as above. Versions in , and are given below the GR text.

:"Hannshyue" de mingcheng duey Jonggwo yeou idean butzuenjinq de yihwey. Woomen tingshuo yeou "Yinnduhshyue", "Aijyishyue", "Hannshyue", erl meiyeou tingshuo yeou "Shilahshyue", "Luomaashyue", genq meiyeou tingshuo yeou "Inggwoshyue", "Meeigwoshyue". "Hannshyue" jeyg mingcheng wanchyuan beaushyh Ou-Meei shyuejee duey nahshie yiijing chernluen de guulao-gwojia de wenhuah de i-joong chingkann de tayduh.

:GR tone key
:Tone 1 Tone 2 Tone 3 Tone 4

Simplified Chinese characters:


Traditional Chinese characters:


Pinyin version:
"Hànxué" de míngchēng duì Zhōngguó yǒu yìdiǎn bùzūnjìng de yìwèi. Wǒmen tīngshuō yǒu "Yìndùxué," "?ijíxué," "Hànxué," ér méiyǒu tīngshuō yǒu "Xīlàxué," "Luómǎxué," gèng méiyǒu tīngshuō yǒu "Yīngguóxué," "Měiguóxué." "Hànxué" zhèige míngchēng wánquán biǎoshì ?u-Měi xuézhě duì nàxiē yǐjing chénlún de gǔlǎo-guójiā de wénhuà de yìzhǒng qīngkàn de tàidù.

English translation:
The term "Sinology" carries a slight overtone of disrespect towards China. One hears of "Indology," "Egyptology" and "Sinology," but never "Graecology" or "Romology"—let alone "Anglology" or "Americology." The term "Sinology" epitomizes European and American scholars' patronizing attitude towards the culture of those ruined ancient empires.

Guangyun

The Guangyun is a rime dictionary that was compiled from 1007 to 1011 under the auspices of Emperor Zhenzong of Song. Chen Pengnian and Qiu Yong were the chief editors. In the history of Chinese lexicography, the ''Guangyun'' stands between the Qieyun and the Jiyun.

It was originally split into four in five volumes, two belonging to the Middle Chinese level tone , one each for the other three Middle Chinese tones, rising tone , departing tone , and entering tone . Each tone was split into rimes, and under each rimes were grouped characters of the same onset, and under each entry, was given a brief explanation of its meaning. The ''Guangyun'' has a total of 26,194 character entries, which are arranged under 206 final rimes, increased from 193 in the ''Qieyun'' .

Unicode digitally reincarnated the ''Guangyun''. The Unihan database incorporates the "SBGY" dataset with 25,330 head-entries for 19,511 characters.

Ganlu Zishu

Ganlu Zishu is a orthography dictionary of the Tang Dynasty. The first surviving orthographical dictionary for the regular script, it was authored by Yan Yuansun , a descendant of the famous scholar Yan Shigu. It is roughly based on Yan Shigu's work ''Ziyang'' , now surviving only in fragments. It was meant to be an official guide for the use of those who took the Imperial examination, thus the title "Ganlu", an allusion to the ''Analects'' .

The work comprises about 800 s . The characters are collated by and . The variants of a character are divided into three types: the "standard" , the "acceptable" and the "vulgar" . Not every character has all the three types of variant. The examinees were supposed to use the "standard" form of a character.

The text was carved on stone with the calligraphy of Yan Zhenqing, nephew of Yan Yuansun. The stone has worn out, though.

Electronic dictionary

An is a small handheld computer with integrated reference materials. In some languages, such as Japanese or Korean, the usage of the term is slightly broader, including CD-ROM dictionaries and dictionaries used by desktop word-processing programs. The term may be used in a broader sense in English as well, to refer to a machine-readable dictionary or spell checker.



Some electronic dictionaries contain only dictionaries for a single language, but most are geared towards translation into foreign languages, containing Chinese, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Korean, or several English dictionaries. Models may also have memory card slots that can be used for database expansion.

Internal dictionaries are often from several publishers. For example, a single electronic dictionary may contain a Japanese Kōjien dictionary, an Oxford English dictionary, and a Kenkyusha Reader's English-Japanese dictionary. The "jump" function, also known as "skip-search", allows users to move between the dictionaries when looking up words.

History

The first electronic dictionary produced for the Japanese market appeared in 1979 under the name . Physically, it was very similar to the electronic dictionaries produced today. Due to the high price of , the model was quite expensive. However, it was praised for its speed and efficiency. Several major Japanese electronics manufacturers now produce their own versions of the machine.

As the market for electronic dictionaries expanded through the 1980s and 1990s, there have been claims that the rise of the electronic dictionary has caused damage to the Japanese market for paper dictionaries. In 2002, Casio alone sold approximately 2.8 million electronic dictionaries, whereas the domestic market for paper dictionaries stood at 10 million copies. Although this indicates a decrease of 5 million copies when compared with the paper dictionary market in 1992, paper and electronic dictionaries continue to share general use in Japan. Companies producing paper dictionaries have searched for more specialized market niches as a result of these developments.

Standard features

Electronic dictionaries resemble miniature clamshell laptop computers, complete with full keyboards and LCD screens. Because they are intended to be fully portable, the dictionaries are battery-powered and made with durable casing material.

Some features are likely to be found on every model of an electronic dictionary. These include a monolingual dictionary, and a translation dictionary to/from English. Japanese models also usually contain a kanji dictionary in which characters can be found by stroke count, radical, or phonetic value. Some knowledge of Japanese is necessary for use of these features, as Japanese words appear in kanji, katakana, and hiragana rather than .

Top models in Japan may also include a Classical Japanese dictionary, medical or legal dictionaries, Japanese and English thesauri, an English-English dictionary, travel dictionaries, dictionaries of idioms and colloquialisms, a dictionary of foreign words used in Japanese, stroke order animations, voice output, pen entry for kanji and kana, language-learning programs, a calculator, -like organizer functions, encyclopedias, or rechargeable lithium batteries.

In Korea, many electronic dictionaries aimed towards younger users support audio and video-playback as well as DMB in addition to the standard features.

Makers and models

The , Casio, , and Seiko companies dominate the electronic dictionary market in Japan. Japanese-Chinese dictionaries are also available from Chinese and Taiwanese producers such as Besta. While older models were exclusively aimed at Japanese customers, current products such as the Canon Wordtank series are also used by non-native Japanese speakers and beginning students of Japanese. However, because only a fraction of the Japanese entries can be found by looking up the kanji in the word, the utility of these devices for non-native speakers translating written Japanese is quite limited . It's also possible to set up a PDA as an electronic dictionary by adding appropriate software and dictionaries; this can be tailored more specifically to the needs of non-Japanese users.

Ectaco

Ectaco is a manufacturer of translation dictionaries and language software. Founded in 1990 the company currently has almost 300 employees working in 16 different countries. Ectaco has products for 47 different languages, including a translator used by police forces in the United States.

Alfalink

is an Indonesian maker of electronic dictionaries and translators. They offer talking and non-talking products mostly focused on English and many south-east Asian languages such as Indonesian, Malay, Thai, Vietnamese, Korean and more.

Canon

currently has 12 models of electronic dictionary on the market in Japan. Of these, two are for Japanese-Chinese translation, two are designed for study, three are for Japanese-English translation, three are "compact" style, and two are primarily for Japanese-only use. At present, Canon is the only company offering English-language manuals for its products.

The Canon Wordtank models are the most popular among English speaking Japanese language learners. The reason is two-fold. Usefully for beginners, the Canon is the only maker with models that offer English menus and English reference guides. And secondly,and usefully for intermediate and above learners, it is the only brand that has a "jump" function for an entire word; with all other brands the "jump" function can only be used on one single kanji character. The basic functions are designed for native-level Japanese speakers, so, especially when reading Japanese, utility for non-Japanese users is as limited as in other maker's models . Canon models also include stroke-order animations, useful for learning how to write the kanji. This feature appears to be unique to Canon and some PDA systems.

Casio

Casio currently has 27 models on the market in Japan. They contain a range of specialized functions, including Chinese, Korean, Italian, German, Russian and English translation, Buddhist terminology dictionary, and features for both study and daily use. Several models of Casio dictionaries come with slots for inserting data cards containing additional, specialized dictionaries, such as ''The Kodansha Kanji Learner's Dictionary''. Casio writing pads allow the user to pause as long as necessary before writing the next kanji stroke.

Casio electronic dictionaries are popular in South Korea as well. Models contain multiple dictionaries and many are suitable for Koreans who learn and English.

Sharp

currently has 15 models on the market in Japan. They contain features for English and Chinese translation, features designed for business, study, daily life, and travel. Several models contain the contents of Japanese encyclopedias, as well. Some older models still available, such as the PW-M800 and PW-M310, have about twice as many Japanese words than can be looked up by kanji as the current models from any other manufacturer .

Seiko

Seiko currently has 23 models on the market in Japan. Nine are designed for daily use, five for Japanese-English translation, seven for other foreign languages, and two for high school students. Several models of Seiko dictionaries come with slots for inserting data cards containing additional, specialized dictionaries. The Seiko RM-2000 was the only dictionary available that was marketed specifically to English speakers just starting to study Japanese. It was based on the Kenkyusha Romanized English-Japanese/Japanese-English Dictionary but is no longer being manufactured.

Instant-Dict

Instant-Dict, an English/Chinese electronic dictionary, first launched in Hong Kong in 1989 which has since become the leading consumer brand in the Greater China market. Instant-Dict manufactured by Group Sense Limited currently has 14 models on the market in Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore.. Several models of Instant-Dict dictionaries come with slots for inserting data cards containing additional, specialized dictionaries. One model has built-in camera.

Besta

BESTA, an English/Chinese electronic dictionary, an independent subsidiary company of Inventec Group, first launched in Taipei in 1989 which has since become the leading consumer brand in the Asian market. BESTA manufactured by Inventec Besta Co.,Ltd. currently has 30+ models on the market in Taiwan, Thailand, Hong Kong, China, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore. Several models of BESTA dictionaries come with slots for inserting SD/MMC data cards containing additional, specialized dictionaries. It has been ranked 1st place for "Taiwan's Ideal Electronic Dictionary Brand" for twelve consecutive years.

Franklin Electronic Publishers

Franklin Electronic Publishers is the most common brand found in the US. It has several models, both English-only and translators, like English-Spanish and 5- or 12- languages. It has also various speaking models.

PDA-based dictionaries

PDAs are small, often pocket-sized computers that can accept various software programs and databases. In the past, dictionaries available for these have been small and the software for using them rudimentary compared to the regular electronic dictionaries. However, lately, full-featured dictionary programs and fairly complete suites of dictionary databases have become available. Advantages for non-Japanese users center around the fact that programs and most of the dictionaries are designed for their needs, rather than for those of Japanese learning English, as in most of the standard Japanese models. Palm-based systems, although less capable as dictionaries due to the limited Japanese-entry systems, can still be more powerful and easier to use than devices built for the Japanese market . Windows Mobile and Sharp Zaurus models offer superb handwriting recognition and other Japanese input methods and can use the same large dictionaries, including Eijiro, as the Palm systems. Moreover, PDA systems can be expanded by adding additional dictionaries, such as the Koujien or Daijirin Japanese-Japanese dictionaries that are standard in specialized electronic dictionaries like the models described above, as well as dictionaries for special interests and other languages.

Chinese dictionary

Chinese dictionaries date back over two millennia to the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, which is a significantly longer lexicographical history than any other language. There are hundreds of dictionaries for Chinese, and this article will introduce some of the most important. For additional information, see Jerry Norman for an overview or Paul Fu-mien Yang for a scholarly bibliography.

Terminology

dichotomizes dictionaries for written and spoken forms; ''zidian'' "character/logograph dictionary" and ''cidian'' "word/phrase dictionary". For character dictionaries, ''zidian'' combines ''zi'' and ''dian'' . For word dictionaries, ''cidian'' is interchangeably written or ; using ''cí'' , and its graphic variant ''cí'' . ''Zidian'' is a much older and more common word than ''cidian'', and Yang notes ''zidian'' is often "used for both 'character dictionary' and 'word dictionary'."

Traditional Chinese lexicography

The precursors of Chinese dictionaries are primers designed for students of Chinese characters. The earliest of them only survive in fragments or quotations within Chinese classic texts. For example, the ''Shi Zhou Pian'' was compiled by one or more historians in the court of King Xuan of Zhou , and was the source of the 籀文 zhòuwén variant forms listed in the Han dynasty Shuowen Jiezi dictionary. The ''Cang Jie Pian'' , named after the legendary inventor of writing, was edited by Li Si, and helped to standardize the Small seal script during the Qin Dynasty.

The collation or lexicographical ordering of a dictionary generally depends upon its writing system. For a language written in an alphabet or syllabary, dictionaries are usually ordered alphabetically. Samuel Johnson defined ''dictionary'' as "a book containing the words of any language in alphabetical order, with explanations of their meaning" in . But Johnson's definition cannot be applied to the Chinese dictionaries, as Chinese is written in s or logograph, not alphabets. To Johnson, not having an alphabet is not to the Chinese's credit, as in 1778, when James Boswell asked about the Chinese characters, he replied "Sir, they have not an alphabet. They have not been able to form what all other nations have formed." Nevertheless, the Chinese made their dictionaries, and developed three original systems for lexicographical ordering: semantic categories, graphic components, and pronunciations.

Semantically organized dictionaries

The first system of dictionary organization is by semantic categories. The circa 3rd century BCE ''Erya'' is the oldest extant Chinese dictionary, and scholarship reveals that it is a pre-Qin compilation of glosses to classical texts. It contains lists of synonyms arranged into 19 semantic categories . The Han Dynasty dictionary ''Xiao Erya'' reduces these 19 to 13 chapters. The early 3rd century CE ''Guangya'' , from the Northern Wei Dynasty, followed the ''Erya'''s original 19 chapters. The circa 1080 CE ''Piya'' , from the Song Dynasty, has 8 semantically-based chapters of names for plants and animals. For a dictionary user wanting to look up a character, this arbitrary semantic system is inefficient unless one already knows, or can guess, the meaning.

Two other Han Dynasty lexicons are loosely organized by semantics. The 1st century CE ''Fangyan'' is the world's oldest known dialectal dictionary. The circa 200 CE ''Shiming'' employs paranomastic glosses to define words.

Graphically organized dictionaries

The second system of dictionary organization is by recurring graphic components or . The famous 100-121 CE ''Shuowen Jiezi'' arranged characters through a system of 540 ''bushou'' radicals. The 543 CE ''Yupian'' , from the Liang Dynasty, rearranged them into 542. The 1615 CE ''Zihui'' , edited by Mei Yingzuo during the Ming Dynasty, simplified the 540 ''Shuowen Jiezi'' radicals to 214. It also originated the "radical-stroke" scheme of ordering characters on the number of residual graphic besides the radical. The 1627 ''Zhengzitong'' also used 214. The 1716 CE ''Kangxi Zidian'' , compiled under the Kangxi Emperor of the Qing Dynasty, became the standard dictionary for Chinese characters, and popularized the system of . As most Chinese characters are semantic-phonetic ones , the radical method is usually effective, thus it continues to be widely used in the present day. However, sometimes the radical of a character is not obvious. To compensate this, a "Chart of Characters that Are Difficult to Look up" , arranged by the number of strokes of the characters, is usually provided.

Phonetically organized dictionaries

The third system of lexicographical ordering is by character pronunciation. This type of dictionary collates its entries by syllable rime and , and comprises the so-called "rime dictionary". The first surviving rime dictionary is the 601 CE ''Qieyun'' from the Sui Dynasty; it became the standard of pronunciation for Middle Chinese. During the Song Dynasty, it was expanded into the 1011 CE ''Guangyun'' and the 1037 CE ''Jiyun'' .

The clear problem with these old phonetically arranged dictionary is that the would-be user needs to have the knowledge of rime. Thus, dictionaries collated this way can only serve the literati.

A great number of modern dictionaries published today arrange their entries by pinyin or other methods of romanisation, together with a radicals index. Some of these pinyin dictionaries also contain indices of the characters arranged by number and order of strokes, by the or by the .

Some dictionaries employ more than one of these three methods of collation. For example, the ''Longkan Shoujian'' of the Liao Dynasty uses radicals, which are grouped by tone. The characters under each radical are also grouped by tone.

Functional classifications

Besides categorizing ancient Chinese dictionaries by their methods of collation, they can also be classified by their functions. In the traditional bibliographic divisions of the imperial collection ''Siku Quanshu'', the ''Xiaoxuelei'' subdivides dictionaries into three types: ''Xungu'' , ''Zishu'' and ''Yunshu'' .

The ''Xungu'' type comprises ''Erya'' and its descendants. These exegetical dictionaries focus on explaining meanings of words as found in the Chinese classics.

The ''Zishu'' dictionaries comprise ''Shuowen Jiezi'', ''Yupian'', ''Zihui'', ''Zhengzitong'', and ''Kangxi Zidian''. This type of dictionary, which focuses on the shape and structure of the characters, subsumes both "orthography dictionaries", such as the ''Ganlu Zishu'' of the Tang Dynasty, and " dictionaries", such as the ''Liyun'' of the Song Dynasty. Although these dictionaries center upon the graphic properties of Chinese characters, they do not necessarily collate characters by radical. For instance, ''Liyun'' is a clerical script dictionary collated by tone and rime.

The ''Yunshu'' type focuses on the pronunciations of characters. These dictionaries are always collated by rimes.

While the above traditional pre-20th century Chinese dictionaries focused upon the meanings and pronunciations of words in classical texts, they practically ignored the spoken language and vernacular literature.

Modern Chinese lexicography

The ''Kangxi Zidian'' served as the standard Chinese dictionary for generations, is still published and is now online. Contemporary lexicography is divisible between bilingual and monolingual Chinese dictionaries.

Chinese-English dictionaries

The foreigners who entered China in late Ming and Qing Dynasties needed dictionaries for different purposes than native speakers. Wanting to , they compiled the first grammar books and bilingual dictionaries. Westerners adapted the Latin alphabet to represent Chinese pronunciation, and arranged their dictionaries accordingly.

Two Bible translators edited early Chinese dictionaries. The Scottish missionary wrote Chinese-English and English-Chinese lexicons . The British missionary Walter Henry Medhurst wrote Hokkien dialect and Chinese-English dictionaries. Both were flawed in their representation of pronunciations, such as stops. The American philologist and diplomat Samuel Wells Williams applied the method of dialect comparison in his dictionary , and refined distinctions in articulation.

The British diplomat and linguist Herbert Giles compiled a lexicon that Norman calls "the first truly adequate Chinese-English dictionary". It contained 13,848 characters and numerous compound expressions, with pronunciation based upon Beijing Mandarin, which it compared with nine southern dialects such as , , and . Giles modified the Chinese romanization system of Thomas Francis Wade to create the Wade-Giles system, which was standard in the West until 1979 when pinyin was adopted. The American missionary Robert H. Mathews updated and condensed Giles for his Chinese-English dictionary, which was popular for decades.

Trained in American Structural linguistics, Yuen Ren Chao and Lien-sheng Yang wrote a dictionary of colloquial Chinese that emphasized the spoken rather than the written language. Main entries were listed in Gwoyeu Romatzyh, and they detailed grammatical topics like free morphemes and bound morphemes.

The Swedish sinologist Bernhard Karlgren wrote the seminal ''Grammata Serica Recensa'' with his reconstructed pronunciations for Middle Chinese and Old Chinese.

Chinese lexicography advanced during the 1970s. The translator Lin Yutang wrote a semantically sophisticated dictionary that is now available online. The author edited two full-scale dictionaries: Chinese-English with over 8,000 characters and 100,000 entries, and English-Chinese with over 160,000 entries.

The linguist and professor of Chinese, John DeFrancis edited a groundbreaking Chinese-English dictionary giving more than 196,000 entries alphabetically arranged in a single-sort pinyin order - the project that had long been advocated by another pinyin proponent, Victor H. Mair .

Chinese-Chinese dictionaries

When the Republic of China began in 1912, educators and scholars recognized the need to update the 1716 ''Kangxi Zidian''. It was thoroughly revised in the ''Zhonghua Da Zidian'' , which corrected over 4,000 ''Kangxi Zidian'' mistakes and added more than 1,000 new characters. Lu Erkui's ''Ci Yuan'' was a groundbreaking effort in Chinese lexicography and can be considered the first ''cidian'' "word dictionary".

Shu Xincheng's ''Cihai'' was a comprehensive dictionary of characters and expressions, and provided near-encyclopedic coverage in fields like science, philosophy, history. The ''Cihai'' remains a popular dictionary and has been frequently revised.

The ''Guoyu cidian'' was a four-volume dictionary of words, designed to standardize modern pronunciation. The main entries were characters listed phonologically by Zhuyin Fuhao and Gwoyeu Romatzyh. For example, the title in these systems is ㄍㄨㄛㄩ ㄘㄉ一ㄢ and Gwoyeu tsyrdean.

Wei Jiangong's ''Xinhua Zidian'' is a pocket-sized reference, alphabetically arranged by pinyin. It is the world's most popular dictionary, and the 10th edition was published in 2004.

Lu Shuxiang's ''Xiandai Hanyu cidian'' is a middle-sized dictionary of words. It is arranged by characters, alphabetized by pinyin, which list compounds and phrases, with a total 56,000 entries . Both the ''Xinhua zidian'' and the ''Xiandai Hanyu cidian'' followed a simplified scheme of 189 radicals.

Two outstanding achievements in contemporary Chinese lexicography are the ''Hanyu Da Cidian'' with over 370,000 word and phrase entries listed under 23,000 different characters; and the ''Hanyu Da Zidian'' with 54,678 head entries for characters. They both use a system of 200 radicals.

In recent years, the computerization of Chinese has allowed lexicographers to create ''dianzi cidian'' usable on computers, PDAs, etc. There are proprietary systems, such as Wenlin Software for learning Chinese, and there are also free dictionaries available online. After Paul Denisowski started the volunteer CEDICT project in 1997, it has grown into a standard reference database. The CEDICT is the basis for many Internet dictionaries of Chinese, and is included in the Unihan Database.

Specialized dictionaries

Chinese publishing houses print diverse types of ''zhuanke cidian'' . One Chinese dictionary bibliography lists over 130 subject categories, from "Abbreviations, Accounting" to "Veterinary, Zoology." The following examples are limited to specialized dictionaries from a few representative fields.

For dialects

Twenty centuries ago, the ''Fangyan'' was the first Chinese specialized dictionary. The usual English translation for ''fangyan'' is "dialect", but the language situation in China is uniquely complex. In the "dialect" sense of English dialects, Chinese has Mandarin dialects, yet ''fangyan'' also means "non-Mandarin languages, mutually unintelligible regional variants of Spoken Chinese", such as and . Some linguists like John DeFrancis prefer the translation "topolect". Here are some general ''fangyan cidian'' examples.
*Beijing University Chinese Department. Hanyu Fangyin Zihui Beijing: Wenzi Gaige Chubanshe. 1962.
*Beijing University Chinese Department. ''Hanyu fangyan cihui'' . Beijing: Wenzi Gaige Chubanshe. 1964.
*Xu Baohua 许宝华 and Miyata Ichiroo 宫田一郎, eds. ''Hanyu fangyan da cidian'' . Beijing: Zhonghua Shuzhu. 1999.
*Zhan Bohui 詹伯慧, ed. ''Xiandai Hanyu fangyan da cidian'' . Qianjiang: Hubei Renmin Chubanshe. 2002.

For idioms

Chinese has five words translatable as "idiom": ''chengyu'' , ''yanyu'' , ''xiehouyu'' , ''xiyu'' , and ''guanyongyu'' . Some modern dictionaries for idioms are:
*Li Yihua 李一华 and Lu Deshen吕德申, eds. ''Hanyu chengyu cidian'' . Sichuan Cishu Chubanshe. 1985.
*Wang Qin 王勤, ed. ''Fenlei Hanyu chengyu da cidian'' . Shandong jiaoyu. 1988.
*Li Xingjian 李行健, ed. ''Xiandai Hanyu chengyu guifan cidian'' . Changqun Chubanshe. 2000.
*Zhang Yipeng 张一鹏, ed. ''Yanyu da dian'' . Shanghai: Hanyu dacidian Chubanshe. 2004.
*Wen Duanzheng 温端政. ''Zhongguo yanyu da quan'' , 2 vols. Shanghai: Shanghai Cishu. 2004.

For loanwords

The Chinese language adopted a few foreign ''wailaici'' during the Han Dynasty, especially after Zhang Qian's exploration of the Western Regions. The lexicon absorbed many Buddhist terms and concepts when Chinese Buddhism began to flourish in the Southern and Northern Dynasties. During the late 19th century, when Western powers forced open China's doors, numerous loanwords entered Chinese, many through the Japanese language. While some foreign borrowings became obsolete, others became indispensable terms in modern vocabulary.
*Cen Qixiang 岑麒祥 ed. ''Hanyu Wailaiyu Cidian'' . Beijing: Commercial Press. 1990.
*Liu Zhengtan 劉正談, et al. eds. ''Hanyu Wailaici Cidian'' . Hong Kong: Commercial Press; Shanghai: Shanghai cishu chubanshe. 1985.
*Shi Youwei 史有为, ed. ''Hanyu wailaici'' . Beijing: Commercial Press. 2000.

For vernacular literature

The 20th century saw the rapid progress of the studies of the lexicons found in the Chinese vernacular literature, which includes novels, dramas and poetry. Important works in the field include:
*Zhang Xiang 張相, ''Shiciqu Yuci Huishi'' . Pioneering work in the field, completed in 1945 but published posthumously in 1954 in Shanghai by Zhonghua Book Company. Many reprints.
*Jiang Lihong 蔣禮鴻, ''Dunhuang Bianwen Ziyi Tongshi'' , revised and enlarged edition with supplements. Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe. 1997. First published 1962.
*Wang Ying 王锳, ''Shiciqu Yuci Lishi'' , 2nd revised and enlarged edition. Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company. 2005. First published 1980.
*Gu Xuejie 顧學頡 & Wang Xueqi 王學奇, ''Yuanqu Shici'' . Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue chubanshe. 1983-1990. 4 volumes.
*Wang Ying 王锳, ''Tangsong Biji Yuci Huishi'' , revised edition. Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company. 2001. First published 1990.
*Wang Ying 王锳, ''Songyuanming Shiyu Huishi'' . Guiyang: Guizhou renmin chubanshe. 1997.
*Fang Linggui 方龄贵, ''Gudian Xiqu Wailaiyu Kaoshi Cidian'' . Shanghai: Hanyu da cidian chubanshe; Kunming: Yunnan daxue chubanshe. 2001. First published in 1991 as ''Yuanming Xiqu Zhong De Mengguyu'' by Shanghai: Hanyu dacidian chubanshe. Covering mainly the loanwords form Mongolian.

For Chinese learners

Employing corpus linguistics and lists of Chinese characters arranged by frequency of usage , lexicographers have compiled dictionaries for learners of Chinese as a foreign language. These specialized Chinese dictionaries are available either as add-ons to existing publications like Yuan and Wenlin or as specific ones like
*Fenn, Courtenay H. and Hsien-tseng Chin. 1926. ''The Five Thousand Dictionary; A Chinese-English Pocket Dictionary''. Mission Book Company. 1942. rev. American ed. Harvard University Press. 1973. 13th reprinting.
*Huang, Po-fei. 1973. ''IFEL Vocabulary of Spoken Chinese''. Yale University Far Eastern Publications.
*Liu, Eric Shen. 1973. ''Frequency dictionary of Chinese words ''. Mouton.
*Ho, Yong. 2001. ''Chinese-English Frequency Dictionary: A Study Guide to Mandarin Chinese's 500 Most Frequently Used Words''. Hippocrene Books.

Online Chinese dictionaries

* Online Chinese English Dictionary
*, Online Dictionary
*, Mandarintools
*
*, Rick Harbaugh
*, Chinese University of Hong Kong
*, ''Guoyu cidian''
*, ''Kangxi zidian''
* Classical Chinese character usage dictionary
* a Wikipedia-style language portal

CEDICT

The CEDICT project was started by Paul Denisowski in 1997 with the aim to provide a complete to dictionary with pronunciation in pinyin for the Chinese characters.

Content

CEDICT is merely a text file; other programs are needed to search and display it. This project is considered a standard Chinese-English reference on the Internet and is used by several other Chinese-English projects. The Unihan Database uses CEDICT data for most of its information about character compounds, but this is auxiliary and is explicitly not a part of the main Unicode database. CEDICT is not used for Unihan's definitions and pronunciations of individual characters.

The basic format of a CEDICT entry is:
Traditional Simplified /English equivalent 1/equivalent 2/
中國 中国 /China/Middle Kingdom/

CEDICT is now primarily encoded in UTF-8, but compatibility versions are available in GB2312 and Big5. The compatibility versions omit either the Traditional or the Simplified characters respectively.

Features:
* Traditional and Simplified Chinese
* Pinyin
* English

As of June 2008, it has 65.312 Chinese entries.

History

Sub-projects

CEDICT has shown the way to some other projects, such , the Chinese-German free dictionary. A CFDICT Chinese-French dictionary and a Hungrarian-Chinese dictionary project are under discussion. Some older CEDICT data is also found in the Adsotrans dictionary.