MTL Toolbox

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MTL Toolbox (https://learntaiwanese.org/MTLtoolbox/about.html) is software and data to help work with written Taiwanese using the Modern Taiwanese Language (MTL) writing system and other romanizations for Taiwanese.

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 government-compiled dictionary: DFT
  • word unjoiner to aid learning and searching at syllable level
  • Seven Tones soundboard: table of all MLT finals with examples

How to search

We describe how to use "Taiwanese–English dictionaries full-text search". This interface is mainly for MLT or MTL input, but also can auto-detect Harnji. The "en" button is used to direct the search to the English field.

Typical usage

  • input: Taiwanese word (often consists of two syllables joined together), for example:
  • the Toolbox "unjoins" words by database lookup
  • then it performs search using unordered collection of syllables (bag-of-syllables)
  • the results from historical works should be about the same as for:

Monosyllable

  • "Monosyllable mode" normally allows only monosyllable results. To see more entries with this syllable, click "Khahzøe"
  • if the syllable is a DFT monosyllable, a navigation bar displays adjacent DFT monosyllables in alphabetical order

Data

Local copies of:

We also support searching other websites with conversion to POJ/TL:

Technical notes

  • SQLite: FTS4 for full-text search
  • Token prefix queries: use the asterisk ('*') at the end. Similar to wildcard character in operating systems (normal wildcard search not currently supported by FTS)
  • Specify a column-name followed by a colon (':')
    • Example: thj:頭* (returns entries where Taiwanese written with Harnji begins with character for thaau)
  • Add carat ^ before token to require token to be very first token in its column

See also

Acknowledgements