JMdict/EDICT

JAPANESE/ENGLISH DICTIONARY PROJECT

Copyright (C) 2009 The Electronic Dictionary Research and Development Group, Monash University.

Contents

INTRODUCTION  CURRENT VERSION & DOWNLOAD  PROJECT FORUM   FORMAT  PROJECT HISTORY  COPYRIGHT  LEXICOGRAPHICAL DETAILS  OTHER LANGUAGES  CONTRIBUTIONS  RELATED PROJECTS  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS  PUBLICATIONS 

INTRODUCTION

The JMdict/EDICT project has as its goal the production of a freely available Japanese/English Dictionary in machine-readable form.

The project began in 1991 with the expansion of the "EDICT" simple Japanese-English dictionary file. (See below under History)

At present the project has the following dictionary files available:

An internal database is used to hold all the data associated with the project, and the files are generated from using conversion utility software.

The files are copyright, and distributed in accordance with the Licence Statement, which can found at the WWW site of the Electronic Dictionary Research and Development Group who are the owners of the copyright.

CURRENT VERSION & DOWNLOAD

The project's master database is continuously being updated and new versions of the file are generated daily. The date of generation is included in the header of the file.

The files are currently distributed via the Monash University ftp server, which also provides an rsync service. The main files available are:

PROJECT FORUM

The are several forums where this project is actively discussed.

The original forum was the sci.lang.japan Usenet newsgroup. More recently a mailing list specifically for project discussion has begun. (Mail to edict-jmdict-subscribe@yahoogroups.com to initiate subscription.)

FORMAT

The basic format of the entries in the dictionary files can be seen in detail by examining the DTD (Document Type Declaration) of the XML-format JMdict file. The DTD is heavily annotated with content and structural information.

In summary, each dictionary entry is independent, although there may be cross-reference fields pointing to other entries. Each entry consists of

  1. kanji elements, i.e. headwords containing at least one kanji character, plus associated tags indicating some status or characteristic of the headword. Where there are multiple headwords, they have been ordered according to frequency of usage, as far as this can be determined;

  2. reading elements, containing either the reading in kana of the headword, or the headword itself in the case of headwords only in kana. The elements also include tags indicating some status or characteristics. As with the kanji headwords, where there are multiple readings they have been ordered according to frequency of usage, as far as this can be determined;

  3. general coded information relating to the entry as a whole, such as original language, date-of-creation, etc.

  4. sense elements, containing the translational equivalents or glosses of the headword(s). As Japanese is not highly polysemous, there is often only one sense. Associated with the sense elements is other coded data indicating the part-of-speech, field of application, miscellaneous information, etc. As with headwords and readings, the glosses are ordered with the most common appearing first.

The format and coding of the distributed files is as follows:

  1. the JMdict file contains the complete dictionary information in XML format as per the DTD. This file is in Unicode/ISO-10646 coding using UTF-8 encapsulation.

  2. the EDICT file is in a relatively simple format based on the text data file of the SKK input-method. Each entry is in the form:

    KANJI [KANA] /(general information) gloss/gloss/.../

    or

    KANA /(general information) gloss/gloss/.../

    Where there are multiple senses, these are indicated by (1), (2), etc. before the first gloss in each sense. As this format only allows a single kanji headword and reading, entries are generated for each possible headword/reading combination. As the format restricts Japanese characters to the kanji and kana fields, any cross-reference data and other informational fields are omitted.

    The EDICT file is distributed in JIS X 0208 coding in EUC-JP encapsulation;

  3. the EDICT2 file is in an expanded form of the original EDICT format. The main differences are the inclusion of multiple kanji headwords and readings, and the inclusion of cross-reference and other information fields, e.g.:

    KANJI-1;KANJI-2 [KANA-1;KANA-2] /(general information) (see xxxx) gloss/gloss/.../

    The EDICT2 file is also distributed in JIS X 0208 coding in EUC-JP encapsulation;

  4. the EDICT_SUB file is in the same format as the EDICT file.

None of the files have the entries in any particular order.

PROJECT HISTORY

The project was begun in 1991 by the current editor (Jim Breen) when an early DOS-based Japanese word-processor (MOKE - Mark's Own Kanji Editor) was released, containing an initial small version of the EDICT file. This was progressively expanded and edited over the following years. In 1999 the EDICT, which by this time contained about 60,000 entries, was converted into an expanded format and the first XML-format JMdict file released. The EDICT2 format was created in 2003, primarily for use with the WWWJDIC dictionary server.

The growth in entries in the file is largely due to the efforts of Jim and the many people who contributed entries to it over the years. The increase in entry numbers has slowed as the file has achieved coverage of a large proportion of the Japanese lexicon. Much of the editorial work in recent years has concentrated on amendments and expansion to existing entries.

A more expanded explanation of the early developments in the EDICT file can be found in the original documentation.

COPYRIGHT

Dictionary copyright is a difficult point, because clearly the first lexicographer who published "inu means dog" could not claim a copyright violation over all subsequent Japanese dictionaries. While it is usual to consult other dictionaries for "accurate lexicographic information", as Nelson put it, wholesale copying is, of course, not permissible, and contributors have been advised to avoid direct copying from other sources. What makes each dictionary unique (and copyright-able) is the particular selection of words, the phrasing of the meanings, the presentation of the contents (a very important point in the case of this project), and the means of publication.

The files of the project are copyright, and distributed in accordance with the Licence Statement, which can found at the WWW site of the Electronic Dictionary Research and Development Group who are the current owners of the copyright. As explained in the licence, the files are available for use for most purposes provided acknowledgement and distribution of the documentation is made.

LEXICOGRAPHICAL DETAILS

  1. Inflections, etc.

    In general no inflections of verbs or adjectives have been included, except in idiomatic expressions. Adverbs formed from adjectives (e.g., -ku or -ni) are generally not included. Verbs are, of course, in the plain or "dictionary" form.

    Composed forms, such as adverbs taking the "to" particle, keiyoudoushi adjectives, etc. are only included in their root from, however the part-of-speech (POS) marker is used to indicate their status.

    Nouns which can form a verb withe the auxiliary verb "suru" only appear in their noun form, but have a POS marker: "vs", to indicate the existence of a verbal form. In general the gloss only relates to the noun itself, but entries are being progressively expanded to include the verbal glosses as well.

  2. Part of Speech Marking

    The following POS markings are currently used:

    adj-i	adjective (keiyoushi)
    adj-na	adjectival nouns or quasi-adjectives (keiyodoshi)
    adj-no	nouns which may take the genitive case particle `no'
    adj-pn	pre-noun adjectival (rentaishi)
    adj-t	`taru' adjective
    adj-f	noun or verb acting prenominally (other than the above)
    adj	former adjective classification (being removed)
    adv	adverb (fukushi)
    adv-n	adverbial noun
    adv-to	adverb taking the `to' particle
    aux	auxiliary
    aux-v	auxiliary verb
    aux-adj	auxiliary adjective
    conj	conjunction
    ctr	counter
    exp	Expressions (phrases, clauses, etc.)
    id	idiomatic expression
    int	interjection (kandoushi)
    iv	irregular verb
    n	noun (common) (futsuumeishi)
    n-adv	adverbial noun (fukushitekimeishi)
    n-pref	noun, used as a prefix
    n-suf	noun, used as a suffix
    n-t	noun (temporal) (jisoumeishi)
    num	numeric
    pn	pronoun
    pref	prefix
    prt	particle
    suf	suffix
    v1	Ichidan verb
    v5	Godan verb (not completely classified)
    v5aru	Godan verb - -aru special class
    v5b	Godan verb with `bu' ending
    v5g	Godan verb with `gu' ending
    v5k	Godan verb with `ku' ending
    v5k-s	Godan verb - iku/yuku special class
    v5m	Godan verb with `mu' ending
    v5n	Godan verb with `nu' ending
    v5r	Godan verb with `ru' ending
    v5r-i	Godan verb with `ru' ending (irregular verb)
    v5s	Godan verb with `su' ending
    v5t	Godan verb with `tsu' ending
    v5u	Godan verb with `u' ending
    v5u-s	Godan verb with `u' ending (special class)
    v5uru	Godan verb - uru old class verb (old form of Eru)
    v5z	Godan verb with `zu' ending
    vz	Ichidan verb - zuru verb - (alternative form of -jiru verbs)
    vi	intransitive verb
    vk	kuru verb - special class
    vn	irregular nu verb
    vs	noun or participle which takes the aux. verb suru
    vs-i	suru verb - irregular
    vs-s	suru verb - special class
    vt	transitive verb
    

  3. Field of Application

    A number of entries are marked with a specific field of application. Current fields and tags are:

    Buddh	Buddhist term
    MA	martial arts term
    comp	computer terminology
    food	food term
    geom	geometry term
    gram	grammatical term
    ling	linguistics terminology
    math	mathematics
    mil	military
    physics	physics terminology
    

  4. Miscellaneous Markings

    X	rude or X-rated term
    abbr	abbreviation
    arch	archaism
    ateji	ateji (phonetic) reading
    chn	children's language
    col	colloquialism
    derog	derogatory term
    eK	exclusively kanji
    ek	exclusively kana
    fam	familiar language
    fem	female term or language
    gikun	gikun (meaning) reading
    hon	honorific or respectful (sonkeigo) language
    hum	humble (kenjougo) language
    iK	word containing irregular kanji usage
    id	idiomatic expression
    io	irregular okurigana usage
    m-sl	manga slang
    male	male term or language
    male-sl	male slang
    ng	neuter gender
    oK	word containing out-dated kanji
    obs	obsolete term
    obsc	obscure term
    ok	out-dated or obsolete kana usage
    on-mim	onomatopoeic or mimetic word
    poet	poetical term
    pol	polite (teineigo) language
    rare	rare (now replaced by "obsc")
    sens	sensitive word
    sl	slang
    uK	word usually written using kanji alone
    uk	word usually written using kana alone
    vulg	vulgar expression or word
    

  5. Word Priority Marking

    The ke_pri and equivalent re_pri fields in the JMdict file are provided to record information about the relative commonness or priority of the entry, and consist of codes indicating the word appears in various references which can be taken as an indication of the frequency with which the word is used. This field is intended for use either by applications which want to concentrate on entries of a particular priority, or to generate subset files. The current values in this field are:

    1. news1/2: appears in the "wordfreq" file compiled by Alexandre Girardi from the Mainichi Shimbun. (See the Monash ftp archive for a copy.) Words in the first 12,000 in that file are marked "news1" and words in the second 12,000 are marked "news2".
    2. ichi1/2: appears in the "Ichimango goi bunruishuu", Senmon Kyouiku Publishing, Tokyo, 1998. (The entries marked "ichi2" were demoted from ichi1 because they were observed to have low frequencies in the WWW and newspapers.)
    3. spec1 and spec2: a small number of words use this marker when they are detected as being common, but are not included in other lists.
    4. gai1/2: common loanwords, also based on the wordfreq file.
    5. nfxx: this is an indicator of frequency-of-use ranking in the wordfreq file. "xx" is the number of the set of 500 words in which the entry can be found, with "01" assigned to the first 500, "02" to the second, and so on.

    Entries with news1, ichi1, spec1 and gai1 values are marked with a "(P)" in the EDICT and EDICT2 files.

    While the priority markings accurately reflect the status of entries with regard to the various sources, they must be seen as only providing a crude indication of how common a word or expression actually is in Japanese. The "(P)" markings in the EDICT and EDICT2 files appear to identify a useful subset of "common" words, but there are clearly some marked entries which are not very common, and there are clearly unmarked entries which are in common use, particularly in the spoken language.

  6. Okurigana Variants

    Okurigana variants in headwords are handled by including each variant form as a headword. This is to enable software to match with variant forms.

  7. Spellings

    As far as possible variants of English translation and spelling are included. Where appropriate different translations are included for national variants (e.g. autumn/fall, tap/faucet, etc.). Common spelling variations such as -our/-or and -ize/-ise are handled either by repeating the gloss in both spellings or appending spelling variants in parentheses. No attempt is made to tag English spellings according to country of usage.

  8. Gairaigo and Regional Words

    For gairaigo which have not been derived from English words, the source language and the word in that language are included. Languages have been coded in the two-letter codes from the ISO 639-2:1998 "Codes for the representation of names of languages" standard, e.g. "(fre: avec)" in the EDICT/EDICT2 files and <lsource xml:lang="fre">avec</lsource> in the JMdict file. In the case of gairaigo which have a meaning which is not apparent from the original (usually English) words, the words in the source language are included as: (trans: original words).

    A number of tags are used to indicate that a word or phrase is associated with a particular regional language variant within Japan. The tags are:

    kyb	Kyoto-ben
    osb	Osaka-ben
    ksb	Kansai-ben
    ktb	Kantou-ben
    tsb	Tosa-ben
    thb	Touhoku-ben
    tsug	Tsugaru-ben
    kyu	Kyuushuu-ben
    rkb	Ryuukyuu-ben
    

OTHER LANGUAGES

The JMdict file has the capacity to record glosses for Japanese headwords in many languages. Although not maintained as part of the current project, the full JMdict file includes glosses for a large number of entries in French and German, and a smaller number of entries in Russian and Dutch.

The sources for the main non-English glosses are:

CONTRIBUTIONS

Contribution of new entries and amendments to existing entries is most welcome. A special WWW page is available for this purpose.

RELATED PROJECTS

A number of other Japanese dictionary projects are closely related to this one. Among them are:

  1. the ENAMDICT/JMnedict Japanese Proper Names Dictionary project, which currently has nearly 600,000 named entities. The files are available in EDICT or XML formats.

  2. the KANJIDIC and KANJIDIC2 project, which maintains and distributes databases of information about kanji.

  3. the COMPDIC file in EDICT format of computing and telecomms terminology. In 2008 the COMPDIC material was included in the main EDICT/JMdict database with tagging indication the entries relate to ICT. A separate "COMPDIC" file is extracted for distribution.

  4. the RADKFILE/KRADFILE file of visual elements in kanji, which can be used for finding kanji in dictionaries.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Since 1991 a large number of people have contributed to this project; far too many to list here. All their contributions have been most welcome, indeed without the assistance of speakers and students of Japanese this project would not have achieved as much.

The EDICT/JMdict has been granted approval to use material from the Japanese WordNet. This approval is most welcome. (See the Japanese WordNet licence.)

PUBLICATIONS

Some publications by Jim Breen about the EDICT/JMdict project: