JMdictDB - Online Development andMaintenance System for theJapanese-Multilingual Dictionary
James Breen
Monash University
Stuart McGraw

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Quick Overview of Japanese Orthography
Japanese is written in a mixture of scripts:kanji (Chinese characters), used mainly for nouns androots of verbs, adjectives, etc. Approx. 2,000 in commonuse.
most nouns in kanji use 2 or more characters, verbs
typically use one kanji
the hiragana syllabary (46 symbols plus diacritics: あいう
えおかきくけこ, etc.), used mainly for particles,
inflections, conjunctives, etc.

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Quick Overview of Japanese Orthography (2)Japanese is written in a mixture of scripts (cont...):
the katakana syllabary (アイウエオカキクケコ, etc.) used
for loanwords, foreign names, scientific names, etc.
Latin alphabetics - in text mainly used for initials,
acronyms, etc (USB, bps, etc.) or product names(iPhone, Windows, etc.)
e.g. デパートで旅行鞄と iPhone を買いました。

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Project Background
Open-Source Japanese-English Dictionary (other languages
can be included)
used in many servers, apps, etc.
widely used in NLP research
Began in 1991 as EDICT (Electronic DICtionary)
simple format, text file, initial DOS program, etc.
In 1999 migrated to XML format
richer structure (now about 80k entries)
legacy EDICT format maintained

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Project Background (2)In 2003 began using online forms for submitting new entries
and amendments
still in text files, single editor
In 2008/2009 an online database and interface were developed2010 cutover to the new systemruns on a cloud server (Linux)
entry-level linking from client systems (e.g. WWWJDIC)
daily generation of distributions. (now 170k entries)

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Issues and Challenges

The complexity of Japanese dictionary entries
multiple surface forms, e.g. 思い出す, 思いだす, 思出す, おもい出す
multiple pronunciations/readings含嗽 (gargling) pronounced both うがい (ugai) and がんそう (gansou)

6/1Issues and Challenges (2)not all readings apply to all surface forms
うがい can also be written 嗽 and 漱, and がんそう canalso be written 含漱
in polysemous terms, sometimes senses are limited to certain
surface forms and/or readings
眼鏡 is read めがね (megane) or がんきょう (gankyou)
and means “glasses/spectacles”
the めがね/megane reading also means“judgement/discernment”

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Interface Design Requirements
We wanted a User Interface which would:
enable anyone to propose a basic new entry or correction;
enable a skilled user to handle all the entry structurecomplexity
Needed to handle workflow and record-keeping:partial edits (awaiting approval)
approval of new entries/amendmentschange logging
references, comments, discussion

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Design Decisions
Opted for a simple text-based interface
Five text panels:
kanji part
reading(s) part
meaning(s) partreferences
comments
Microstructure described by a simple language (JEL: JMdict
Entry Language)9/1

Design Decisions (2)Two levels of user:
editor (account, login, can accept/reject changes, deleteentries)
general (no login, can propose new entries andamendments)
Permanent record and complete visibility of all changes,comments, etc.

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Where To From Here?

Generally well-accepted in the user community
has spread the editorial/approval load
still a bit daunting to unpractised users
Upgrading from Python 2 to Python 3 (in testing)

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Where To From Here? (2)Planned enhancements:
Incorporating non-English glosses
currently maintained separately and imported
selectable language views, e.g. Japanese/English/French
Extending to other dictionaries
JMnedict (named entities, approx. 740,000 entries)
Kanjidic (database of about 15,000 kanji)
Multi-language User Interface (Japanese, French, etc.)

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