Alternative dictionaries

Renate · Feb 3, 2012

The Nook dictionary is pretty handy in that you can look up words directly from the book that you are using. There are any number of dictionary applications that you could install, but none of them have the integration of the built-in dictionary.

It has been worked out how to replace the built-in dictionary with one generated from public domain bilingual dictionary databases. freedict.org is one source.

So, is there interest in say, French/English, German/English, Spanish/English dictionaries?

The downside is that you can't swap dictionaries in real time. Pick one.

Torimu.Joji · Feb 3, 2012

Where do I download the dictionaries?

Dimdamm · Feb 3, 2012

Would like an english->french dict, do you have a link to something about it ?

Renate · Feb 3, 2012

Oh, great, there is some interest!

I haven't posted the converter or any of the databases yet. As a newbie here I wasn't sure about posting links or 15 Meg attachments.

The dictionaries from freedict.org are pretty basic word translations. There are some multi-word phrases, but of course the lookup on the Nook only works on single words.

The original dictionary also has a database of inflected words, so that a lookup of "cows" will go to the headword "cow". I know of no source for inflected words in other languages.

For an English/French dictionary you could keep the original English inflected word database and replace the headword database with an English/French database.

I also want to make a companion EPUB book dictionary so that you could search (if necessary) arbitrarily for words.

Renate · Feb 4, 2012

Ok, Dimdamm, you can try this:

It's an English->French dictionary. It only has 7461 entries, sorry.

Download it, unzip it to eng-fra.db, ADB it to /system/media/reference/basewords.db

For safety:

Do this after a reboot and before loading the reader app.
Backup the old basewords.db

Good luck.

I'm not sure how it will react to finding words in the inflected database but not finding the corresponding entry in the headword database.

Note: Deleted obsolete file. See below for newer version.

Dimdamm · Feb 4, 2012

Nice ! I downloaded the fr-en dictionary on freedict.org and opened it on my pc with goldenDict to be able to compape.

So :
- with some words, it's working, but there is still a bug, see below.
- with some (mostly the differents verbs form, but not only), the window appears, but is empty

And the word doesn't exist in the dictionary on my pc. There is probably a conflict with the remaining b&n files.
- and there also a lot of "word not found", but it's not a bug.

The bug : it does not show what is on the 2nd/3rd/.. line in the dict file. And if there are differents definitions on the same line, with a ";" between them, it will show them on different lines on the nook. Picture, coz with my terrible english, I'm not sure you will understand : s4.noelshack.com/old/up/bug-b7cc55012.png -> the 2 words from the 2nd line are missing.

Im using another en->fr dictionary with coolreader, with a lot more words, stardict format, can you convert it ? It's attached on my post.

Renate · Feb 4, 2012

Yes, a blank page will show up if you lookup a word that is in the inflected database but not in the headword database. I might write something to prune down the English inflected words so that it will just say "not found".

Ok, thanks for the feedback. I missed the case where there are multiple senses, like in "madness". I'll get on that.

I'm still mystified why on that PNG that you posted the pronunciation is not there. I guess that that is not an actual screen shot?

Thanks for your help.

I'll look at that file, but there is the question of format and copyright.

P.S. Oh! I know why I missed that multiple sense. All the dictionaries are quite different. The first one I worked on just had everything under all the same sense.

Dimdamm · Feb 4, 2012

Renate NST said:
I'm still mystified why on that PNG that you posted the pronunciation is not there. I guess that that is not an actual screen shot?

Yes, the nook part is from paint, the pronunciation is here, even if pretty buggy

Renate · Feb 4, 2012

I've got it so that it is picking up all the senses.
I'm working on making nice markup but still keeping the size minimal.
The HTML display for definitions does not support <ul> or <ol>

The pronunciation is "buggy" because the Ascender Sans font that is used does not have the full IPA pronunciation glyph set. The actual HTML is correct.

Renate · Feb 4, 2012

Ok, here's a new version of the English-French dictionary with all the senses in it. I hope that it has sufficient madness in it for you.

ApokrifX · Feb 4, 2012

Renate NST said:
Ok, here's a new version of the English-French dictionary with all the senses in it. I hope that it has sufficient madness in it for you.

You can do:
mv /system/media/reference /system/media/reference_
ln -s /data/reference /system/media/reference
And put all new stuff into /data/reference - it is quite more space there.

Although, I think NST built-in dictionary browser is pos (1)
Better get something else, but you’ll need an alternative reader as well.

Renate · Feb 4, 2012

Mmm, linking to another directory is not a bad idea, but since the original dictionary is 53 Megs and the biggest dictionary that I've converted yet is only 17 Megs, I'm not sure about space considerations.

Yes, the supplied English dictionary is quite stinky. The problem is that they did a very haphazard conversion from a PDF document. Much of the markup does not have any whitespace between elements. e.g. Cows<b>are</b>animals should be Cows <b>are</b> animals. There are also problems that they render café as caf{eacute}.

ApokrifX · Feb 5, 2012

Renate NST said:
Yes, the supplied English dictionary is quite stinky.

Hyperlinks don't work, tons of other things are wrong - no need to discuss.
Yes, it's relatively simple to convert DSL dictionary to NST.
But after short time, I'm sure, you'll come to the same conclusion - better use something else...

Renate · Feb 5, 2012

Yes, the lookup has a problem with either links in general or else supporting the custom dictionary:// protocol.

The Nook native reader mostly does what I want, that is, display sequential pages with a minimum of flashing. The OverDrive application works on DRM library books (through a different path, not using Adobe Digital Editions), but flashes much more. It seems to me that any other reader would require cracking the DRM of the books that you want to read.

I started this thread mostly to get a line on free and distributable dictionaries that could be converted and posted. I began this project on a small dictionary that I had bought years ago.

Not having heard of it before, I Googled "DSL dictionary". The Dictionary of Scots Language looks very interesting!

ApokrifX · Feb 5, 2012

Renate NST said:
Not having heard of it before, I Googled "DSL dictionary". The Dictionary of Scots Language looks very interesting!

From Wiki: DSL, the format of user friendly dictionaries for ABBYY Lingvo before compilation into LSD format
http://informationworker.ru/lingvo.en/dsl_main_dlg.htm
You can find many dictionaries in DSL format, than convert to something else.

darfito · Feb 12, 2012

Hi all,

I'm Spanish and I'd like to change the English dictionary by Spanish dictionary.

Firstly I have to say that I don't have any idea of dictionary formats and I'm totaly lost...

but I've found that the "dict" format is pretty extended.

I got a dict Spanish dictionary so... Is there any way to convert this "dict" format (.dz .idx .ifo) to the nook database format (.db)?

Thanks in advance!

Edit: Also... could be possible to convert an ebook dictionary (ePub, MOBI, or whatever) to the nook dictionary format?

Renate · Feb 12, 2012

Right now, the converter I have works on the TEI-XML format, which is what freedict.org uses. Freedict.org only does bilingual dictionaries.

There are always dictionaries floating around, but the question is which of them are really free?

Were you looking for a straight (not bilingual) Spanish dictionary?

darfito · Feb 12, 2012

I've found this one:

http://code.google.com/p/tokland/downloads/detail?name=drae-2009-1.tgz&can=2&q=

It was collected by script from the online official dicctionary of Spanish language (www.rae.es).

Renate · Feb 13, 2012

Mmm, since they sell books and CDs of this and they don't offer download, a scraped version from a website is probably not really legit.

I will probably buy a real dictionary on CD and convert it for my own use, but I wouldn't distribute it.

As far as I know, freedict.org is about the best choice right now.

I'm looking into using Wiktionary.

saizenn · Feb 15, 2012

I am spanish too. I created my own ones...
English-Spanish dictionary from google translator. The script I programmed would be valid to create from english to any other language such as french or german.
It works great with the special chars, and gets fully integrated. I used the original nook word list to perform the requests so no problem at all.
Now I am working with spanish definition dictionary, and I used a similar system, with a spanish word list (around 100.000 words) and using RAE for the definition requests.
Problem here comes with the inflected words... I am trying to program the ortografy rules so I can generate all the regular ones from the basic word list but it works with more errors than I would like. How are you managing with this table when you change the original baseword list?

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