[KS] Update on CJK Dictionary

[Charles Muller]

[I sent this message yesterday, but it came through garbled when it was sent
to me. I am therefore resending it with a different encoding]

Colleagues,

I have recently uploaded a significantly expanded new update of the Unicode
version of the online Dictionary of East Asian Literary Terms (DEALT), which
is available for browsing at
http://www.human.toyogakuen-u.ac.jp/~acmuller/dicts/title.htm.

1. Enhancements and Availability

The biggest enhancement this time is that of the inclusion of the entire CJK
portion of the Unicode character set: 20,902 characters, along with compound
words. There are still only about 7500 characters that have complete
phonetic and semantic information, but I have decided to make all characters
available, even if incomplete, as a way of stimulating feedback and
contribution.

Each character and its related compounds are compiled as a separate HTML
file, and the files posted on the web are exactly the same as those in the
database on my local machine. This means that they can be edited or added to
by anyone with an HTML editor, and re-posted within days. Thus, if you come
across a character that has incomplete information, and you would like to
work on it, please just copy the file to your local system, edit it, and
forward the updated file to me by e-mail attachment. Compound words can also
be added by using other compound word entries as a template.

This lexicon-database is available for download in two formats: (1)  As a
structured package of 21,000+ HTML files in ZIP format, which can be
downloaded to one's hard drive and expanded (taking up as much as 100 MB of
actual space). (2) In Windows Help format (HTML-Help), where the files are
compacted densely into a single "compiled help manual" (.chm) file. This is
optimal for Windows users, taking up about 20 times less disk space, and
being much faster. Both formats are bundled with the Digital Dictionary of
Buddhism, but this can easily be deleted from one's hard drive if not
needed. These two packages are the first two listed on the download page at
(http://www.human.toyogakuen-u.ac.jp/~acmuller/download/index.html). Older
S-JIS versions are still available, but these are no longer being updated.

University libraries and Asian Studies departments are welcome to make both
the dictionary and downloadable files available on their local servers.


2. Nature of the Compilation

The present title of the compilation is "Dictionary of East Asian Literary
Terms", which is intended to distinguish it from character dictionaries that
are mainly designed for modern language learning, and thus give only brief
information regarding modern meanings and compounds, without loci classicus.
As you will see, most of the definitions of the characters in the DEALT are
detailed and extensive. The same is true for the compound words, which,
wherever possible or appropriate, include loci classicus.

The grand view for the DEALT is for it to be a large cooperative effort,
that can eventually include all compounds and characters from the East Asian
literary and historical corpus from the earliest classics up to pre-modern
times--something on the order of a digital Morohashi or Hanyu da cidian--but
in English. The DEALT provides Pinyin, Wade-Giles, Korean Han'gul,
McCune-Reischauer, Katakana, and Hepburn romanization, and will hopefully
include Vietnamese at some point.

Up to the present, the great portion of the compound words are have been
absorbed from studies in Confucian and Daoist texts, but there is no
intention whatsoever to limit the compilation to philosophy, or to even to
Chinese literature. A concerted attempt is being made to include information
from Korean, Japanese, and Vietnamese philosophy, history, literature, etc.
Thus, contributions which contain information from any field are welcomed.

Please do write to me if you have any suggestions for the further
development of this project.

Regards,

------------------------------
Charles Muller [acmuller at human.toyogakuen-u.ac.jp]
Toyo Gakuen University, Faculty of Humanities

Digital Resources for the Study of East Asian Language and Thought
www.human.toyogakuen-u.ac.jp/~acmuller/index.html

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