MTL Toolbox

MTL Toolbox (https://learntaiwanese.org/MTLtoolbox/info.html) is software and data to assist learning Modern Taiwanese Language (MTL).

Features

• Six Taiwanese dictionaries spanning from Japanese era to present day
• full-text search engine accepts written Taiwanese as well as English, and Harnji
• audio from latest government-compiled dictionary
• word unjoiner to aid learning and searching at syllable level
• Seven Tones soundboard: table of all MLT finals with examples

Search engine

• Zhøe: search multiple dictionaries at once
  • Local copies of HTB, DFT, and MK converted from POJ and TL to MTL with annotations.

• Supports external searches with conversion to POJ/TL:
  • Tai-Nichi Daijiten — Taiwanese version (TJ)
  • Taibuun/Hoabuun Svoarterng Sutiern

Try monosyllable examples: lie, ky, køf

Data

Caches/forks of:

• HTB: Hiexntai-buun Dictionary
• DFT: Dictionary of Frequently-Used Taiwan Minnan
• MK: Maryknoll Taiwanese-English Dictionary
• EDUTECH: Liim Keahioong (2001-2003) EDUTECH: Taiwanese-English Dictionary Searched with Concise Atonal Spelling. MLT, unified spellings (øe), no unjoined
• Embree, Bernard L. M. (1973). A Dictionary of Southern Min: based on current usage in Taiwan and checked against the earlier works of Carstairs Douglas, Thomas Barclay, and Ernest Tipson. Hong Kong: Hong Kong Language Institute.

Technical Notes

• FTS4 full-text searches: SQLite FTS3 and FTS4 Extensions
• Token prefix queries: use the asterisk ('*') at the end. Similar to but not same as the wildcard character in operating systems (normal wildcard search not currently supported by FTS)
  • Example: Taioa*
• Specify a column-name followed by a colon (':')
  • Example: thj:頭* (you should see all DFT entries starting with this Harnji)

See Also

• Taiwanese-English dictionaries

Acknowledgements

• The MTL Toolbox uses data from the Maryknoll Taiwanese-English Dictionary, which was generously released to the public under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License.