Version 2.01 is now available for beta-testingSpeaking Chinese English Dictionary
Updated October 2, 2006
Version 2.01 is now available for beta-testing
This language tool is released as Freeware. It may be useful to both English and Chinese speaking students as the program will pronounce terms in both Chinese and English. You may adjust the speed of playback as well as the volume. Many of the Pinyin pronunciations are both machine and real voice audio (JuLi).
On Top keeps the program in the front while the target re-centers the form.
The original interface has given way to a Tabbed-View allowing the addition of many more options in less space. The first time the program runs, you will be prompted to extract the links to the ApplicationPath\Links\ directory. Please do so. (more below)
Two English word lists are searchable. A list of the 1000 most commonly used English words may be exchanged with the 113,809 Moby words (the latter may take a while to load!).
These are the English words in Zhang1 Ju1 Li's Pinyin Dictionary. Please note that part of Juli's dictionary is a proposal for a new pronunciation of Chinese Pinyin as well as Chinese synonyms and heterographs. Selecting a word from this combobox searches Zhang's dictionary (Yellow box JuLi tab), Paul Denisowski's CEDICT (Chinese-English Dictionary) Project (Top box) and ADSO Dictionary (Bottom Box) [added 5-27-05].
This will display JuLi's full Pinyin dictionary with links to his site under the Browser tab.
This combobox contains all Pinyin tones (1-5). Selecting the Pinyin displays all of the Simplified Chinese Characters for each. If you select the Chinese character in the pink box by left clicking, dragging and releasing, the word will be pronounced using Microsoft's SAPI 5.1 library which must be installed to hear the pronunciation. (See help file) Likewise, selecting Simplified Chinese characters or English will result in pronunciation in the CEDICT and Adso windows and in their respective languages.
This window is where Juli's dictionary is searched.
The popup Speech Utility allows choice of volume, rate, language engine and sound card. The translucent box allows you a peek below.
You may search both dictionaries for all occurrences of the term.
This attempts a transliteration of the Pinyin only from the combobox containing all (2217) Pinyin words . The ? shows you the rules. There are some errors here which I will hopefully be able to fix.
This is a browser window under the Browser tab. It displays Zhang's full Pinyin dictionary with links to his site, when selected. The help files also display here. You can go back and forward, while Home displays the dictionary. The translation of a webpage is displayed here as well . You can now translate any webpage in both directions, Chinese/English using Systran at http://babel.altavista.com/. If multiple browser windows are open, you may need to select the proper Url from the drop-down boxes. You may have the page read aloud in either MandarinChinese or English. You may also Save the browser window to an htm, mht, etc. file.
If multiple webpages are open at once, we try to get the active window. But you may have to re-select the url from the drop-down box.
You may also convert Simplified Chinese webpages into pinyin. Some of the graphics may not display depending on the linkage at the website.
I believe this to be the first Simplified to pinyin webpage translator.
I can add an option to install translation as a Toolbar in Internet Explorer, if so desired.
This option requires an Internet connection.
The first time one starts the program, it will prompt you to install the links' shortcuts. This defaults to extract to "c:\Program Files\PinYinDict\Links\" and I have removed the option to install the program to a directory of your choice. If this is a problem, please, let me know.
Select a link by double clicking and it is opened in the default browser. You may drag any link shortcut to the ApplicationPath\Links\ directory. This option requires an Internet connection.
This is the initial version of Eliza and the first version I know of which is in English, Pinyin and Simplified Chinese. It will speak the questions and answers in their respective languages. The Chinese translation is machine generated and likely to be erroneous although I was told it was "acceptable". Please inform me of any corrections to be made. Please note that this program likes to talk about your problems. (5-27-05)
There is now a Conversation Mode which consists of a dialog regarding common topics of day to day conversation
An on-line Chat Room is now available.
This chat room is very active, all pinyin and with examples.
This option requires an Internet connection.
This is but a fledgling attempt at pinyin to simplified conversion. The Browser Data displays the conversion of the pinyin file to simplified. I am sure that this is erroneous, especially regarding the single pinyin words which have multiple simplified characters. Infact, my girlfriend confirmed that "it's all wrong". I'm not sure how to get around this problem.
I have come to the conclusion that I am unable to implement this functionality at this time as I lack the linguistic skills for the task. Sorry. [6-6-05]
A speech recognition utility has been instituted. This will recognize both Chinese and English. The accuracy may be increased by training the engine in the Control Panel. This is based on Sapi 5.1 Dictation Mode. I am unable at present to construct a grammar file to work in C & C mode which might be more accurate. [6-8-05]
The pronunciation game to the right is one that I made up as I don't speak Chinese well. It is a story about a mother who scolds her horse for using hemp. The idea is that the tonal range of Mandarin is defined by 1-5 sounds so by saturating yourself with this, your pronunciation should improve. Ma is pronounced randomly 1-5 by the computer and at a fixed speed of about 1 second. Your job, if you decide to accept it, is to pronounce Ma at the same tone as the computer. You can also put this song to music and I find a rap beat optimal.
Download the Complete Program (6 MB):
If you are reinstalling the complete program, please remove the prior installation using the Control Panel Add/Remove option. I suspect that simply reinstalling on top of the prior one should probably work as long as the program is closed at the time of reinstallation. I haven't tested this as of yet.
Download only the executable (178 KB):
This file needs to be extracted to the installation directory and overwrite the existing files
Download the Visual basic project (you will need all of the datafiles):
In order to enjoy the full audio functionality of this tool, one must configure the operating system accordingly and obtain the additional audio files. You must have SAPI 5.1 installed and instructions are found under Help>Enabling International Support to pronounce the Simplified Chinese. This file is over 80 MB and can be obtained from the Microsoft site. SAPI allows pronunciation of Simplified Chinese. The combined audio files, which were recorded by Zhang Julli, can also be downloaded but this is about 35 MB. Therefore, I am offering the entire product on CD for a nominal price. It appears that the program will run fine without SAPI installed and without the audio files but there will be no speech. You must also set your Regional Settings for Chinese (PRC) to view & pronounce Chinese characters which is explained in detail in the help file. The program has been tested on Windows XP only. It should work on Win 95 up but you may need to download the Visual Basic 6.0 runtime files for Windows versions before Windows 2000.
Microsoft Speech SDK 5.1 ( 68 MB Download File , Windows xp/2003 needn't be install.)
Future plans and modifications:
From: "Warren Goff" <wgoff@tampabay.rr.com>
To: <>
Subject: RE: Speaking Chinese English Dictionary
Date: Sat, 26 Aug 2006 17:58:45 -0400
I am not actively working on the project at this time-----Original Message-----
From:Marguerite
Sent: Saturday, August 26, 2006 4:43 PM
To: wgoff@tampabay.rr.com
Subject: Speaking Chinese English DictionaryHi,I have not yet downloaded your program although I think it is going to be wonderful for me to help communicate with my Chinese friends in Xi'an City, China and here in the small town I live in USA. My question is no updates since 6-13-05 on the webpage I was reading entry 14. Does this mean you are not working on this project anymore?
Contact me (Warren Goff): wgoff@tampabay.rr.com
If you email me, I will attempt to keep you informed of any upgrades to the program.
