Stardict is speechless
(Written on 4:21 PM 9/2/2006 GMT+7)
A feature in Oxford Advanced Genie not found in Stardict (a free/open source dictionary) is the sound. With Oxford Advanced Genie, we can hear how every word is pronounced. For some words, both the English and American pronunciation are available.
For some words, there seems to be a pronunciation info in the GCIDE data for Stardict (I use GCIDE, Oxford, and Longman for Stardict’s data). Some examples (pay attention to the cryptic string inside the parentheses):
Up \Up\ ([u^]p) Bottom \Bot”tom\ (b[o^]t”t[u^]m) Great \Great\ (gr[=a]t) Accumulate \Ac*cu”mu*late\ ([a^]k*k[=u]“m[-u]*l[=a]t) Apple \Ap”ple\ ([a^]p”p’l) Abate \A*bate”\ ([.a]*b[=a]t”)
However deciphering it requires one to study the notation.
PS: For ease of pronunciation (from text to speech), Japanese wins hands down. Bahasa Indonesia has ambiguity with the letter e. For example, in “keras” and “basket”, the “e” is pronounced differently.
PS2: Isn’t it weird that “pronounce” becomes “pronunciation” (not “pronounciation”)? Luckily Stardict has fuzzy search. Searching for “pronounciation” gives no result, so I used “/pronounciation” (note the slash) and Stardict gives me “pronunciation” (and other close matches).
