Speaking dictionaries

Evgenie Rudometov

rudometov@rudometov.com

In addition to traditional programs of dictionaries in the computer market there were the sound units providing audiolistening of foreign words

Now the electronic industry offers wide gamma of computer arrangements of different complexity and a different direction of usage. Constructed on the basis of difficult, high-powered units they help to solve wide gamma of tasks. Among them the considerable share is made by business and leisure. But, perhaps, one of the major directions is solution of the informational-coherent tasks which are reflexion of a specific infrastructure which is presented now by e-mail, the Internet, SMS, ICQ, chats, etc.

Often enough dialogue occurs on the native language, but, considering growth of possibilities of communication facilities and contact electrodes, quite often it is necessary to resort and to foreign languages. The mite in this process adds both an IP-telephony, and personal contact. And though during our dynamical time with knowledge of English already you will surprise nobody, value of dictionaries does not decrease. Presented by different authors and subjects they use indefatigable attention. However thick volume traditional mjullerovskogo the dictionary you will not take with yourself in road as it is heavy for daily socks. And other serious issuings do not differ in small weight and compactness.

Really, the more words in the dictionary, the more than its weight and the sizes. Not denying usefulness of similar resources, it is necessary to mark, that convenience of their usage — is not always comprehensible to the majority. Here again without the aid of electronic assistants not to manage.

It is possible to discuss long a correctness of the translation which is carried out by numerous programs, however contrary to sceptics their popularity grows. But here that, perhaps, it is never called in question so it is usefulness of electronic dictionaries. It is possible to assert with confidence, that a considerable part of owners of computers use them in the activity, ignoring thick and heavy academic publications. Certainly, to use electronic resources it is much more convenient.

But the desktop computer you will not take with yourself in business trip or in holiday. And the notebook is not always comprehensible: you will not open and start the program to learn translation of pair-triple words. Here can be useful to a handheld computer or the smart phone, the blessing they have essentially decreased in the price. Their possibilities quite often can make today a competition to desktop systems. At least, parametres of modern transportable arrangements are quite sufficient for performance of numerous functions of the multilingual dictionaries which choice is great enough.

As an example it is possible to result products a MultiLex (the trade mark of the company of Media Lingva). They are collective development of the companies of Media Lingva (dictionary bases) and Paragon Software (software). The given products well-known also use the deserved popularity.

However recently there was the new product, capable to surprise even the spoilt user. The matter is that on the market have released sound variants of dictionaries. One of examples is the package resulted more low multijazychnyh dictionaries for kommunikatorov and smart phones (a Fig. 1).

Fig. 1. A package multijazychnyh dictionaries with sound units

Under the truth to tell, release of a package of dictionaries with sound units — event quite expected. Really, modern computers which the handheld computer and smart phones concern, are the multimedia arrangements capable not only to display the information in the form of characters and graphics images, but also to sound it. It is enough to recollect about audioapisjah and video films. So why not to force to speak and the dictionary? It also has been realised by the companies of Media Lingva and Paragon Software.

The specified program a MultiLex is intended for usage on pocket computers under control of Pocket PC / Pocket PC 2002 / operating systems Windows Mobile 2003 / Windows Mobile 2003 SE / Windows Mobile 2005.

At installation of dictionaries on a handheld computer or the smart phone the user can select different patterns, using necessary dictionaries from rather long list (a Fig. 2).

Fig. 2. The list of accessible dictionaries

The program interface is accessible in several languages, including English, German, French, etc. is finite, the multilingual interface is calculated basically for foreign users, Russian is much more habitual for compatriots. For this reason at the list of accessible dictionaries of a different trend there is also LEngOptima cyrillic driver.

LEngOptima – system of russification for a handheld computer. Package LEngOptima includes the driver Russian naekrannoj keyboards. Translation of the interface of the operating system on Russian is accessible only in the complete version of LEng cyrillic driver. Using LEngOptima, it is possible to enter the information in Russian in any application on a handheld computer, to edit it, to store, transfer on other computers, and also to print out the documents containing texts in Russian. Besides, it is possible to receive letters in codings KOI-8 and Windows 1251, to view Internet pages in the Russian coding (Windows 1251, KOI-8, DOS) and to use habitual formats of dates, time, numbers, etc.

At an estimation of expediency of usage LEngOptima, it is necessary to consider, that at installation of dictionaries there is no necessity to delete earlier installed paragonovsky the cyrillic driver. Moreover, considering some nuances of the interface, quite probably, that to someone the previous variant will be more habitual. By the way, the author has left paragonovsky the cyrillic driver delivered complete with a handheld computer that had no negative consequences for working capacity of dictionaries.

For the user there is a possibility to instal the program with several dictionary bases. Moreover, from the resulted list it is possible to instal all dictionaries. For this purpose it is required together with 43,38 cyrillic driver of Mb of memory. Quite probably, that for someone this number will seem excessive, especially considering boundedness of the built in informational size. However all not so is terrible, as can seem, as there is a possibility of installation of dictionaries on a replaceable card of the flash-memory which size has already reached 4 Gbytes at the price quite often below $100.

It is necessary to mark, that in case of installation and activation of several dictionaries, for example, the English-Russian dictionary of the common lexicon and the English-Russian dictionary of legal terms, dictionary bases of dictionaries merge. It means, that in the list of words on which translation retrieval will be carried out, there will be words from all these dictionaries.

Dictionaries can be activated and deaktivirovat. If one dictionary translation retrieval will be made only within this dictionary is activated only. If some dictionaries the list of words on the screen will contain words from all from all activated dictionaries are activated.

Despite functionality of the specified dictionaries, perhaps, the greatest attractiveness sound units possess. In addition to traditional dictionaries it is possible to instal sound units which contain sounding of words from the dictionary list (a Fig. 3).

Fig. 3. The list of sound units

The dictionary for a concrete language pair can be delivered in several editions: compact, complete, expanded, etc. It is possible to select and instal any of the offered patterns depending on requirements (Table 1, Table 2).

Table 1. Quantity of words depending on complexity level

Table 2. Sound units of dictionaries

In the maximum variant providing usage of all accessible languages, sound units will demand 159,85 more Mb.

After installation of all dictionary units together with sound units there is a possibility not only to find word meanings in different languages, but also to hear to their sounding (a Fig. 4).

Fig. 4. A retrieval and translation of words example

For word listening it is necessary to concern the appropriate character reminding the speaker. This character is allocated in the bottom of the screen, and also near to a translation of a word. Unfortunately, despite the big number of the sounded words as it can be noticed, not all of them have near to themselves the necessary character. It is necessary to hope, that the sound base will extend.

Coming back to possibilities of the program it is necessary to mark, that, there is a resident mode which allows to access to the dictionary, not quitting from other applications.

From functionality it is expedient to pay attention, that the dictionary base is constructed on different dictionaries. For the purpose of retrieval and translation of words optimisation in the program there is an adjustability of an order of review of dictionaries (a Fig. 5).

Fig. 5. A choice of used dictionaries and customisation of an order of their review

In summary it is necessary to mark, that the resulted package should be considered as an example of an interesting and useful set of the dictionaries selected from the big list of products of the companies of Media Lingva and Paragon Software.

The package of dictionaries has been given for testing by company Paragon Software