Background
In the last couple of issues, I have given some coverage in my PD Column to an application with the curious name of Ergane − I say curious, simply because nobody has yet come up with an answer as to what the word means or where it might have come from.
Ergane was originally for the PC platform and is described as a translating dictionary to and from any of around fifty (yes, 50!) languages. With a new front-end for RISC OS, and retaining the same intriguing name of !Ergane, it has quickly captured the interest of numerous subscribers to Archive-on-Line. Although the front-end application is quite small, the same cannot be said for its supporting dictionaries, some of which are quite massive and time-consuming to download from their website location.
The discussions on A-o-l were picked up by David Holden of APDL who offered to download all the relevant files and adapt them (i.e. make modifications to filenames) to be understood by the RISC OS application. The result is the new Ergane CD-ROM.
The CD
The application !Ergane for RISC OS is by David O’Shea of SymbioSyS, based on the original Windoze version by Gerard van Wilgen, and is quite user-friendly and simple to use. No archiving is used on the CD and, so the application is immediately accessible without the need to install on a hard disc.
All the available major dictionaries are included, the only omissions are really obscure languages containing only a handful of words. It appears that translation is done by using Esperanto as an intermediate language. All this is explained in the various text files included within the application. David O’Shea has provided some extra documentation to add to the in-depth documentation (by Gerard van Wilgen) of the original DOS/Windoze version. These are well worth reading in order to get the best out of this software.
For English, and most other western European languages, the Latin character set is used by default and all the accented characters are available. Other character sets include Arabic, Cyrillic, Greek, Hebrew, Irish, Lao and Thai.
If a regular use is found for translating from say, English to German (or vice versa) !Ergane and just the two required dictionaries could be copied to your hard drive for quicker access. As updated and enlarged dictionaries become available, they can be downloaded from the internet and added to your hard drive copy of Ergane. The illustrations show the Latin character set followed by the Ergane translation window for the word ‘lead’ which has more than one English meaning and pronunciation. The bottom illustration shows the German equivalents for you to evaluate.
If you have the slightest interest in languages and words, you can easily get hooked on playing around with this fascinating resource.
Support files
As if Ergane were not enough in its own right, APDL have thoughtfully provided on the CD an additional directory ‘LEXICON’ comprising numerous substantial word lists in plain text file format in a variety of languages and subjects.
I first saw this lexicon collection on the APDL Education Resources CDROM which I reviewed (very favourably!) for the late lamented Archimedes World.
The languages include: Chinese, Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Oz (Australian slang), Scottish, Spanish, Swedish, and Yiddish. The specialist subject word lists include: Biology, Legal, Medical and a collection of Names.
The inclusion of Lexicon is a fascinating and useful collection to complement the Ergane dictionaries to satisfy any word fanatic.
Conclusion
David Holden and APDL are to be congratulated on the speed with which they responded to the wave of Archive-on-Line interest in Ergane. The fact that it was conceived as a result of Archive-on-Line discussions is a ‘first’ in its own right, and it is now available to the wider RISC OS community. Despite the budget price, the CD is presented in the usual ‘jewel’ case, complete with backing sleeve notes, and the disc itself is neatly labelled. Ergane and the Lexicon collection is definitely ‘a must’ for word and language buffs. Ergane is not perfect and can be improved but it will certainly provide many hours of linguistic enjoyment.
Availability
Ergane CD is available from APDL, and the price is £7.90 inc VAT. See also the APDL website at http://www.apdl.co.uk/.
Colin Sutton, colin@kingsdr.demon.co.uk
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