Explanatory Northern Sotho Dictionary Online

We are pleased to announce that the Explanatory Northern Sotho Dictionary of the Northern Sotho National Lexicography Unit is online again.

AUSTRALEX 2009

We'll be at AUSTRALEX 2009 in Sydney, November 16-17. Contact us if you want to meet us there!

New Website Section in French!

eLexicography 2009

We'll be at the eLexicography 2009 conference next week, both presenting TLex and sponsoring! Visit our stand for a demonstration.

TshwaneDJe / Oxford University Press Dictionary Wins Award!

The Oxford University Press Northern Sotho - English Dictionary, created in partnership with TshwaneDJe and created with TLex, has won the SATI (South African Translators' Institute) Prize for Outstanding Translation Dictionaries:

The editorial team for the Oxford Bilingual School Dictionary: Northern Sotho and English (Editor-in-Chief: Gilles-Maurice de Schryver; Chief compiler: Mamokgabo Mogodi; Chief Linguist: Elsabé Taljard; Publisher: Megan Hall; OUP SA editor: Phillip Louw)

From the Oxford University Press News Release:

Coinciding with International Translation Day on 30 September, Oxford University Press Southern Africa scooped the South African Translators’ Institute award for Outstanding Translation: Dictionaries for the Oxford Bilingual School Dictionary: Northern Sotho – English / English – Northern Sotho, at an awards ceremony held at the University of Johannesburg on 2 October 2009.

This dictionary is the first for Northern Sotho to focus on the needs of school learners in grades 4 to 9, whether they are learning English or Northern Sotho. It's also the first to include key terms from the school curriculum (with bilingual definitions), a guide to pronunciation, sample emails and letters, and help with writing SMSs.

The dictionary is revolutionary in lexicographic terms too: it was the first for an African language to be fully developed from a corpus, using the most modern, internationally accepted dictionary-development processes.

More than two and a half years in the making, it was created by a team of experts including mother-tongue speakers of English and Northern Sotho, as well as experts in dictionary-making. The team was led by Dr Gilles-Maurice de Schryver, Extraordinary Professor in the Xhosa Department at the University of the Western Cape and an Assistant Professor of African Languages and Cultures at the University of Ghent in Belgium. The team was supported by language engineers, and used TshwaneLex, home-grown, state-of-the-art dictionary compilation software developed by David Joffe of TshwaneDJe.

Mamokgabo Mogodi, the main compiler for Northern Sotho, received the prize on behalf of the development team. She explains how she worked: "For each word in the dictionary, I first studied hundreds of lines of text from the corpus. From this I saw how a word was really used and I could work out the different meanings it could have. For each meaning I then selected an authentic example sentence. For the first time I have seen how my own language, Northern Sotho, is actually used."

"We are very excited to have published a dictionary that is so accessible and easy to use," says Managing Director of Oxford University Press Southern Africa, Lieze Kotze, "and to have supported learners of English and Northern Sotho in this way."

The awards strive to promote multilingualism and in particular the use and development of indigenous languages, and promote cross-cultural understanding – a vision shared by Oxford in the development of an ever-expanding range of bilingual dictionaries.

"We're delighted to receive this award recognising both the quality of the work that went into the dictionary and the support it can offer translators, and look forward to publishing more dictionaries in this vital range next year," says Publishing Manager for Dictionaries, Megan Hall.

Frankfurt Book Fair

A representative of TshwaneDJe will be at the upcoming Frankfurt Book Fair, so if you want to meet with us, or want to arrange a personal demonstration of any of our software solutions, please just contact us!

TshwaneLex on the Mac - First (Development) Screenshot

It's still very preliminary, but here's the first screenshot of our internal 'in-development' TLex running on the Mac!

We are aiming for the Mac version to be formally available during August or September. (In the meantime, users with Parallels or Crossover can also already use the Windows version on Mac.)

TshwaneLex Suite 4.0 Released

Well, it's official ... version 4.0 is out. Formal press release here, duplicated below.

July 27, 2009: TshwaneDJe announces the release of TshwaneLex Suite 4.0

Version 4.0 of the standard-setting TshwaneLex dictionary production and termbase software is now available, and has many new features:

• Smart Styles - This powerful new feature allows you to create rules of any imaginable complexity to dynamically alter the appearance of fields under different conditions (e.g. different automatic punctuation in front of a field depending on which field precedes it, or automatic highlighting of the most frequent headwords in a different colour).


• Microsoft Word Integration.


• Entry "Tagging" System - Lets you select and work with subsets of entries in far more flexible and sophisticated ways.



• Aesthetic and Usability Improvements - New toolbar and menu icons.


• New Localisations - French, Spanish, and Ciluba.


• Completely Overhauled Search and Replace - Multi-list item search and replace functionality, 'use tags', 'use filters', replace one-by-one with confirmation, and recent search queries list.


• Greatly Enhanced Statistics - Element 'details', frequency-sorted attribute values, characters-used statistics, element 'child patterns', total list item counts, font usage statistics, total child counts, and more.


• New Query Filters - Inverse search filter, various cross-reference filters, new list item filters, element child count filters, filter on modified entries, and more.



• Real-time Error/Validation Checks.


• Compare/Merge Improvements - 'Merge restrictions' allow you to merge in only certain types of information selectively; 'Tag listed entries'.


• Significantly overhauled Document Object Model (DOM) - Greater flexibility and better support for more complex and more advanced XML structures.


• Many other changes, including: New samples; 'Show all fields' view option; Tree View 'Replace with'; Documentation improvements; Improved filter highlighting; Network / multi-user improvements; New small-caps formatting mark-up and other improved mark-up behaviour; New style options; 'Suggestion' list attributes (freely editable attribute but with drop-down value selection list); Search (F3) field occurrence breakdown and per-field search statistics and filters; 'Sampling' feature for integrated corpus query tool; Right-to-Left improvements; New "DTD Optimize" tool; 'Sort key override'; Scripting-based Filters - create any conceivable kind of filter search query; Scripting-based customisable Lemma Reversal.

Our Electronic Dictionary Publishing System has also seen improvements, while the tlTerm terminology management software included with the TshwaneLex Suite is also now available separately as a standalone application [Note, just a few days left of our special on tlTerm Standalone!]. We've also recently added a new, cheaper 'Personal License' purchasing option, as well as other new licensing options.

ABOUT TSHWANELEX

TshwaneLex is a professional, user-friendly, internationalized, fully customisable off-the-shelf software application for compiling dictionaries of all kinds and for all languages. It allows you to reduce dictionary production time and increase the quality and consistency of your dictionaries, and allows for the publishing of dictionaries in hardcopy, online and electronic formats.

Its many features include an integrated corpus query system, real-time preview, advanced styles, "smart cross-references", automated entry reversal, automated numbering and sorting, export to MS Word, InDesign and Quark, and multi-user support for managing teams. TshwaneLex supports virtually all of the world's languages, and is based on the industry standard XML.

ABOUT TSHWANEDJE

TshwaneDJe produces various quality language content management tools. Customers include Oxford University Press, Pearson, Longman, Macmillan, the Spanish Royal National Academy of Medicine, Grupo Clarín (Argentina), the Welsh Language Board, the Department of Justice (Canada), the Malaysian Institute of Language and Literature, and more.

The company's growth is achieved by a strict focus on professionalism, world-class quality, and delivering a solid return on investment to customers.

Other products and services include electronic and online dictionary publishing, tools for translators, data conversion (e.g. MS Word to TshwaneLex/XML), support and training, and tlDatabase, a user-friendly database editor (to be released soon).

German Website Section

New German website section (Professionelle Lösungen zum Erstellen von Wörterbüchern)!

New 'unbundled support' purchasing option

You can now buy commercial licenses cheaper without bundled support: see our order page for details/pricing.

Added Afrikaans and Swahili

Two more new languages on our website: Afrikaans (Professionele Woordeboekmaak-oplossings and corresponding PDF) and Swahili (Zana za Kitaaluma za kuhariria Kamusi and corresponding PDF)

New Spanish Product Information

New Spanish website section (Soluciones profesionales de lexicografía) and corresponding PDF brochure!












If you're interested in helping translate for any other languages, let us know - we can provide free copies of our software in exchange for translation work.

Our Northern Sotho - English Dictionary Nominated for Award

Our Oxford Northern Sotho - English Bilingual School Dictionary, as well as some other made-with-TshwaneLex dictionaries, have been nominated for a translation award that is presented SATI (the South African Translators Institute).

News on news

You can now also follow TshwaneDJe news on twitter: http://twitter.com/tshwanedje

Kangxi 2009 Dictionary & Lexicology Seminar

TshwaneLex will be presented at the Kangxi Dictionary & Lexicology International Seminar in China from 15-20 July.

New Chinese Product Information

New Chinese (Simplified) product information brochure (专业的词典制作解决方案)!



We're keen to get more languages out - if you can help translate, let us know - we may provide free copies of our software in exchange for translations (either of marketing material, documentation, the website, or localizations of the interface of our software).

TshwaneLex on Linux

We've produced an internal build of TshwaneLex on Linux - see more screenshots here!

TshwaneLex at AFRILEX 2009

New products and new features in the upcoming version 4 of the TshwaneLex Dictionary Writing System were successfully presented at AFRILEX 2009 at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa from 6 - 8 July 2009.

Purchase Support Directly from our Online Store

It is now possible to purchase support packs directly from our online order page.

tlTerm 4.0 Standalone Edition Now Available

This new product option consists of just the termbase editing system tlTerm (previously called TshwaneTerm) from the TshwaneLex Suite:

http://tshwanedje.com/terminology/

Download a free trial, or take advantage of special launch pricing.