How many dictionaries have been produced using FLEx?

[Aaron Broadwell]

Colleagues,

I'm giving a small presentation next week about FLEx (encouraging students at CoLang to learn the software).  As part of my presentation, I thought it might be good to say how many actual dictionaries have been produced (or are currently in production) with this software, but I think I have no idea of how to estimate that number.

Is it perhaps 300 or 400 dictionaries? Twice that? Is there a statistic internal to SIL that someone could share?

Thanks,

Aaron Broadwell

[Mike Rueck]

Webonary.org hosts 226 dictionaries, including one I worked on.  I assume all of them were probably created using FLEx.  You can write to webo...@sil.org for more information.

Mike

--
"FLEx list" messages are public. Only members can post.
flex_d...@sil.org
http://groups.google.com/group/flex-list.
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "FLEx list" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to flex-list+...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/flex-list/ea3e402d-5c91-41e6-aafd-9a1a140132ddo%40googlegroups.com.

[Bart-Jacqueline Eenkhoorn]

My hunch is that at least 50% of those were produced with toolbox or lexique pro. Would be good to find out who is the front runner indeed.

Bart

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/flex-list/ad029d78-0992-93a4-f4a0-739146146db1%40sil.org.

[Kevin Warfel]

While I do not know the source of the Webonary dictionaries, I do know that uploading to Webonary takes only a couple of mouse clicks from a FLEx project, while doing it from any other source is a semi-technical process, so the easiest path is from FLEx. (Of course, if the dictionary data is in Toolbox (SFM) or some other format, getting it into FLEx is not necessarily a trivial task either. But once it’s in FLEx, the upload is simple.)

 

Another piece of data: 226 is the number of published dictionaries on Webonary.org. By “published”, Webonary means that the front and back matter has been completed to the satisfaction of Dictionary & Lexicography Services (DLS), Webonary’s curator. So there is content for each of the Overview menu items: Introduction, Foreword, Copyright, Credits & acknowledgements, Alphabet, Abbreviations, and Entries explained, as well as for each of the Language menu items: Link to Ethnologue, Link to WALS, Phonology, Grammar, Map, Bibliography, OLAC Resources. Providing all of this information takes time and careful attention to detail (involving some HTML formatting), so DLS has someone (my wife) whose job it is to work with the compilers of these dictionaries to get this all done correctly and completely.

 

What all of that means is that the number of dictionaries still being prepared for publication on Webonary is greater than the number of those that have already been published. These dictionaries have a site on Webonary where their data is visible (if you know the URL), but they do not yet appear on the list of languages available via the drop-down menus on the Webonary home page. I will see if I can get a number from Verna, DLS Coordinator, of the number of Webonary sites (published and unpublished).

 

In addition, there are many people working on dictionaries in FLEx who have not yet opted to publish on Webonary. I don’t know if there is a way to get a census of all of these. My gut feeling is that the number of FLEx dictionaries in existence is closer to 1000 than to 500, but I don’t have hard data to defend that.

 

Kevin

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/flex-list/CABx9fFaGszdyAfrCZUrb7Ng1PE2hA1LauUfkQbSh%2BrP6gpeXMQ%40mail.gmail.com.

[Daniel Brubaker]

Dictionaries "produced" using FLEx:

Is there a big difference between published dictionaries versus dictionaries under construction? Paratext and FLEx go hand in hand. Language Technology consultants encourage every translation team to have a good dictionary, so that they can have a good translation. But in reality, sorry to say, not everyone has a good dictionary. But of the thousand plus translations currently underway, I would hope that over a third of them have a FLEx dictionary in progress. I can’t speak for the world, but in our small country of Mali, I know of 8 FLEx dictionaries in progress (Dogon, Malinke, Bozo 1, Bozo 2, Fulfude, Mamara, Konobere, Banka), and I will be holding a workshop course in March 2021 where at least 3 more FLEx dictionaries (in different Dogon languages) will be begun.

Two of the 8 languages that I mentioned above have both a FLEx dictionary and a Lexique Pro dictionary. Bart, your two languages are the only ones that I know of that use Toolbox. There are people designated to help people like you, convert their Toolbox dictionaries into FLEx. But after the conversion, quite a bit of work still needs to be done to clear up the "residu", as no conversion is perfect. Plus learning how to use FLEx, and knowing what it can do, takes a bit of time as well.

Mike was correct that most people using FLEx are encouraged to send their completed dictionaries to Webonary, so I agree with his assessment that the majority of the 226 dictionaries on Webonary were probably produced via FLEx.

You may ask, what is the FLEx advantage? In brief 1) it is the only dictionary program linked directly to Paratext, 2) it is the only program that helps classify words linguistically with most all the subtypes already included, 3) it helps with language analysis, to classify things correctly, 4) it can help produce a short grammar of the language, 5) it can analyse and parse new words into their underlying morphemes. 6) it provides for Bulk editing (in case your old guesses or old spellings need to be revised). In summary, FLEx is recommended for all (especially new) SIL teams.

Dan Brubaker
Language Technology consultant WAF

__________

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/flex-list/CABx9fFaGszdyAfrCZUrb7Ng1PE2hA1LauUfkQbSh%2BrP6gpeXMQ%40mail.gmail.com.

[Michael Maxwell]

On 6/19/2020 7:07 AM, Mike Rueck wrote:
> Webonary.org hosts 226 dictionaries, including one I worked on. I assume
> all of them were probably created using FLEx.  You can write to
> webo...@sil.org for more information.

FWIW, I supplied a dictionary for Muinane (Colombia) to Webonary a few
years back. The dictionary had been created and edited in some old
version of Shoebox (before Toolbox and LinguaLinks, IIRC, and certainly
before FLEx). Verna Stutzman had Katrina Wolinski import it into FLEx
for consistency checking/ fixing, since I believe that's the format
Webonary uses. There may be other dictionaries like that, which were
created in Shoebox/ Toolbox and only imported into FLEx in order to put
them on Webonary.
--
Mike Maxwell
"I may not remember, but I never forget."
--Social Crimes, Jane Stanton Hitchcock

[Aaron Broadwell]

Hi all,

This is clearly a difficult question to answer, but Christopher Hirt at Language Depot has sent information that indicates about 600 Language Depot projects have been 'active' (changes to repository) in the last two years.  Some of those were probably field methods classes, people just trying the software, people doing text analysis etc. and not serious attempts to produce a dictionary.  However, most of them are probably documentation projects that include a dictionary and which are currently in progress.

The number of dictionaries that are already published/in production is hard to estimate. I know from personal experience that some dictionaries are essentially finished, and so are not active.  (Finished not in the sense that they have all the words and are complete, but finished in the sense that I input all the data I had, don't have any new data, and have stopped working on the project.) That would mean that they are not 'active' on LD, because they are not being changed.

Just for the sake of a public presentation, I think I will say that perhaps 800 or more dictionaries either have been produced or are in production.  If that seems clearly wrong, please let me know!

Aaron

[Leaders, Marlin]

I've taught FLEx in the past, and also used it to produce and edit 2 dictionaries- one large, one small. Currently I'm using it to check a Word document dictionary that I've imported into FLEx. In another language it is useful to edit texts and Scripture in another language, each language building a bigger dictionary from all that. These languages are from West Africa, SE Asia, Philippines, and Papua New Guinea.

A number of different alphabet scripts from all over the world have been used within FLEx- Romanized, SE and East Asian scripts, tones or not, Cyrillic, right to left Semitic languages. Early on in the process I'd recommend IPA to understand the phonology, morphemics, and grammar within texts. That can influence the orthography. Then the group can better decide on the type of Script. The Bulk Editing tools of FLEx make the changes a whole lot easier. Thanks, Ron Moe for those ideas and the Semantic Domain tools. And also BIG thank yous to all the FLEx team!

Marlin Leaders

--

"FLEx list" messages are public. Only members can post.
flex_d...@sil.org
http://groups.google.com/group/flex-list.
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "FLEx list" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to flex-list+...@googlegroups.com.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/flex-list/10c4e11d-f4a6-4e4c-a45b-480b24eafdbbo%40googlegroups.com.

[Michael Neterer]

With my Somali friends, we have published, using Dictionary App Builder, a preliminary Jiiddu - English Dictionary.  So far, we have published it as an Android App on the Google Play Store.  

[Maria Stolen]

I personally know of 4 dictionaries on Webonary that were done in toolbox (and partially wesay) and uploaded via flex after the print dictionaries were already published. (I don't actually know if the print dictionaries were printed from toolbox or edited some in flex first but that's a slightly different question.)

On Friday, June 19, 2020 at 2:01:48 PM UTC+2, Bart Eenkhoorn wrote:

My hunch is that at least 50% of those were produced with toolbox or lexique pro. Would be good to find out who is the front runner indeed.

Bart

On Fri, 19 Jun 2020 at 13:07, Mike Rueck <mike_...@sil.org> wrote:

Webonary.org hosts 226 dictionaries, including one I worked on.  I assume all of them were probably created using FLEx.  You can write to webo...@sil.org for more information.

Mike

On 18-Jun-20 7:32 PM, Aaron Broadwell wrote:

Colleagues,

I'm giving a small presentation next week about FLEx (encouraging students at CoLang to learn the software).  As part of my presentation, I thought it might be good to say how many actual dictionaries have been produced (or are currently in production) with this software, but I think I have no idea of how to estimate that number.

Is it perhaps 300 or 400 dictionaries? Twice that? Is there a statistic internal to SIL that someone could share?

Thanks,

Aaron Broadwell

--
"FLEx list" messages are public. Only members can post.
flex_d...@sil.org
http://groups.google.com/group/flex-list.
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "FLEx list" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to flex...@googlegroups.com.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/flex-list/ea3e402d-5c91-41e6-aafd-9a1a140132ddo%40googlegroups.com.

--
"FLEx list" messages are public. Only members can post.
flex_d...@sil.org
http://groups.google.com/group/flex-list.
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "FLEx list" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to flex...@googlegroups.com.

[Michael Maxwell]

On 6/23/2020 5:50 AM, Maria Stolen wrote:
> I personally know of 4 dictionaries on Webonary that were done in
> toolbox (and partially wesay) and uploaded via flex

The Muinane (Colombia) dictionary was done this way. It was produce in
Shoebox (I think, and maybe Toolbox later on) in the 90s, long before
FLEx, and maybe before LinguaLinks). Then Verna Stutzman and Katrina
Wolinski converted it to FLEx four years ago and uploaded it to Webonary.

[Robert Hedinger]

In Cameroon there must be well over 30 dictionary projects, either published using FLEx or at different stages of development.

Robert

--
"FLEx list" messages are public. Only members can post.
flex_d...@sil.org
http://groups.google.com/group/flex-list.
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "FLEx list" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to flex-list+...@googlegroups.com.

[ann_...@sil.org]

With the latest version of Language Depot, a project is assumed to be private so won’t be on a public list unless it is designated to be public.  It used to assume public unless designated private.  Admins can still see lists.  If you need a list or to see something, let me know and I’ll be happy to send you a screenshot or look up something.  Contact ad...@languagedepot.org.

 

From: flex...@googlegroups.com [mailto:flex...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Robert Hedinger

Sent: Thursday, June 25, 2020 8:31 AM
To: flex...@googlegroups.com

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/flex-list/CAKEXRf33yBOLo0ebd85MNcNT5b8sYXQZS5OVe2CqK%2BsRxMSubQ%40mail.gmail.com.

[Jennifer Mitchell]

We use FLEx for making our Talking Dictionary here:  https://shoshoniproject.utah.edu/language-materials/shoshoni-talking-dictionary/dictionary.php 

Count us! 

++++++++++++++++++++
Jennifer Mitchell, M.A.
Shoshoni Language Project
Western American Language Research, Department of Anthropology
University of Utah
1901 S. Campus Dr, Rm. 1012
Salt Lake City, UT 84112
801.585.7611
jennifer...@utah.edu

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/flex-list/0b2701d64afe%240e08e1a0%242a1aa4e0%24%40sil.org.