High-end Electronic Dictionary

[Gaccha]

I want a proper electronic dictionary. This means one that provides definitions and exampels exactly like that of a huge dictionary. The best in the World are the dictionaries the Japanese make for themselves to learn English (& 24% of Japanese own them, apparently)--like the Canon Wordtank.

Is there anything like this for Thai-English. I've looked at Talkingdict and some others and none seem to provide this strong function of example sentences and clear/clearly de-lineated definitions. Bizarrely, one dictionary I found, in the Jap-Thai function only, has example sentences.

As a minimum the dictionary would need a vocabulary of 400,000 words. My Japanese electronic dictionary has 450,000 words (and still I look up words that aren't in it). And every single definition has to have at least 2 example sentences.

I have no interest in these travel/tourist/talking dictionaries. It is not for "making do" or "getting by", it is for serious langauge study. I would anticipate this dictionary will cost 500 US dollars. If no such thing exists what is there closest?

Any high-level Thai language speakers/writers have an answer?

[riga]

this fits your requests?

http://thai-dictionary.ectaco.cz/el_dictio...Thai_ETh800.htm

[Lithobid]

I'm looking for the same thing, let me know what you make of this gaccha, I'm heading to University soon to study Thai in Chiang Mai, and was thinking of investing in something such as this.

[Gaccha]

Looking at the model, annoyingly it doesn't have a detailed visual picture of the dictionary function.

It definitely has enough words. And comes in around the right price.

The dangers are:

What dictionary is used? The best dictionaries like say the "Oxford English" are very expensive to license. it looks like the dictionary company have just made their own.

Are there example sentences?

There seem to be a lot of gimmicks (clocks/calculators). Not in themselves a bad thing, but it might indicate that the precious memory space is being wasted. In Japanese dictionaries, you can easily separate the wheat from the chaff by the gimmicks available.

Precious memory is used up for English language learners.

I will e-mail the company. See what they have to say. Anyone seen these in Thailand?

[riga]

I can not add much more because I found the attached link by searching the web and noticed that the number of words was very large.

The site lacks of many importants infos (has you mentioned).

They mentioned Princeton WordNet English-English dictionary (70'000 terms)

It's possible that this is the dictionay they used?

I would never buy such a dictionary only based on an internet presentation. I would see it in my hands and have a good look at it first.

[Gaccha]

The company came back to me and said the following:

1. Where is the 450,000 word dictonary from? Is it licensed? Is it "Oxford English"? Did you make it yourselves? > All dictionary bases used in the dictionary are the property of our company and are developed by us independently.

> 2. How many example sentences are there?>14.000 sentences

> 3. Can you provide a picture/photograph of a typical search. (eg. If I look up "focus" can you show the result to me)> Pls. look web-page: Dictionary picture

>

> Where can I buy this item in Bangkok?>I think, that in this city it to buy it is impossible. Only it is possible to order through the Internet. Term of performance of the order of 4-6 days (delivery by company FedEx) after reception of money for our account.

[the Company is based in Czech] The answers to no.1 and no.2 questions are bad news. Only 14,000 example sentences for 400,000 words. Really we should be looking for 1,500,000 example sentences for a decent dictionary.

Anyone any other suggestions. I am beginning to suspect that Thai dictionaries are some 3 technology cycles behind Japan. The Canon Word Tank I bought in 1997 was a first generation model but was still better than anything I have seen in Thailand. On the other hand, I did tend to find there were very few people who had really checked out the market and knew the best machines to look at so I remain positive that someone in the forum knows something I don't...

[Lithobid]

The company came back to me and said the following:

1. Where is the 450,000 word dictonary from? Is it licensed? Is it "Oxford English"? Did you make it yourselves? > All dictionary bases used in the dictionary are the property of our company and are developed by us independently.

> 2. How many example sentences are there?>14.000 sentences

> 3. Can you provide a picture/photograph of a typical search. (eg. If I look up "focus" can you show the result to me)> Pls. look web-page: Dictionary picture

>

> Where can I buy this item in Bangkok?>I think, that in this city it to buy it is impossible. Only it is possible to order through the Internet. Term of performance of the order of 4-6 days (delivery by company FedEx) after reception of money for our account.

[the Company is based in Czech] The answers to no.1 and no.2 questions are bad news. Only 14,000 example sentences for 400,000 words. Really we should be looking for 1,500,000 example sentences for a decent dictionary.

Anyone any other suggestions. I am beginning to suspect that Thai dictionaries are some 3 technology cycles behind Japan. The Canon Word Tank I bought in 1997 was a first generation model but was still better than anything I have seen in Thailand. On the other hand, I did tend to find there were very few people who had really checked out the market and knew the best machines to look at so I remain positive that someone in the forum knows something I don't...

Gaccha , I did some research over the weekend looking through various stores, and most gadgets seem to just be promoting like you said extras, or video performance, but nothing of real substance. As I posted previously, I am going to attend Payap University in Chiang mai, and am quite serious about studying the thai language. I was thinking along your route something for the classroom, that's easy interface and works well for examples. Although after research, the best damned thing I've found so far is www.thai2english.com although it doesn't have ease capability perhaps in the classroom, I would suggest buying a cheap dictionary (electronic) and using it's limited vocab to learn to spell, and leave the rest to the web, or to the hand held version of trees. I use my paperback dicionary a lot, and it has greatly increased my understanding of classification of words, meaning the order they come in the thai alphabet. Though I'm not sure where you are in your studies. Let's keep looking togather, perhaps someone else can provide info as well, as you said, I wouldn't mind droping 600$ on a machine that delivers!

[Rikker]

Gaccha, sadly there is nothing approaching the specs you've described in the original post, in either print or electronic form. I don't think your specs are at all unreasonable. There's just nothing of any real quality currently on the market. There are a number of posts on this forum and elsewhere that discuss dictionary options, and people's favorites. If you're dissatisfied with everything out there, join the club. There's a lot of okay stuff out there, along with a lot of garbage, but nothing approaching comprehensive.

Edited April 15, 2008 by Rikker

[Gaccha]

I reckon in a year or two there is a possibility that something might just turn up that could save us all. The Japanese manufactured dictionaries have slowly extended their range of languages (Mandarin, French, Italian), and we just need them to "turn" to Thai. These dictionaries oddly are unavailable outside of Japan (in a very strict sense: they will not allow you to buy them out of Japan-- presumably for licensing reasons on the dictionaries such as "Oxford English" that are implanted into the dictionary). When they get around to doing Thai, it will be superb and miles ahead of anything that can be bought in Thailand.

My guess is that in 2 years, instead of visa runs, "dictionary runs" will be the new thing. Heading to Tokyo and back over the weekend...

In the meantime, take a look at what is out there. Canon, Sony... Look at wikipedia and electronic dictionaries for some insight. It just excites me reading it. My Canon Wordtank has:

• A Total Of 20 Dictionaries
  
• Kenkyusha English-Japanese Dictionary - 380,000
  
• Genius English-Japanese Dictionary - 255,000
  
• Readers English-Japanese Dictionary 2nd Edition - 270,000
  
• Readers Plus English-Japanese Dictionary - 190,000
  
• Concise Katakana Dictionary - 55,200
  
• Kanji Character Dictionary - 13,112
  
• Japanese Synonym Dictionary - 79,000
  
• The Oxford English-English Dictionary 2nd Edition - 250,000
  
• The New Oxford English-English Dictionary - 355,000
  
• The Oxford American Writer's Thesaurus - 310,000
  
• The Oxford English and Cultural Guide 2nd Edition - 9,000
  
• The Oxford Business Encyclopedia - 6,500
  
• The Oxford Encyclopedia - 12,000
  
• The Oxford Today English-English Dictionary 6th Edition - 80,000
  
• The Oxford English Guide to British and American Culture- 9,000
  
• The English Oxford Thesaurus - 600,000
  
• Shinwa English Dictionary 5th Edition - 480,000
  
• Spoken Language English Dictionary - 23,000
  
• USA Today Encyclopedia of America - 12,000
  
• Opposite Words Pulling Dictionary - 250,000
  

It's shocking isn't it... If it was a book it would be 9ft wide.