Edition interface for TEI dictionaries

Introduction

This platform allows you to create monoversions or multiversions lexicons (lexicons which will have, for instance, an English version and a French version) and lexicons which can deal with many languages or dialects (i.e., a lexicon which will give both the French translation and the Spanish translation of an English word). To manage this, there are many elements in which you will have to indicate a language (and a dialect). To simplify this platform, dialects are technically managed like main languages. You will have, in the languages lists, main languages as well as dialects. In this help page, we will use the word "language" for both main languages and dialects.

If these languages fields may seem the same, there are many categories of them you need to distinguish well in order to produce the lexicon presentation you want. This page is here to help you understand the functioning of the language management on this platform.

Languages lists

There are two languages list in the list section of this platform:

• Metalanguages: they are the languages the lexicons are written in or the languages the lexicons are about (headwords and translations languages, mostly). This list will be used in the "metalanguages" fields and "relevant languages" fields (see below), and also in the lexicon options (see lexicon details).
• Languages: this list is meant to contain all the world languages (or at least the most known ones). It will be used every time you need to mention a language as an information (i.e., an etymon language, a language known by a person, etc.).

Metalanguages fields and relevant fields in a lexicon only display languages selected in the "languages used in the lexicon" field of the lexicon options (see lexicon details).

Metalanguages and relevant languages

Languages are used as qn information invisible to the final human displaying in two cases:

• Metalanguages
• Relevant languages, when you have unchecked the "Display language/dialect information" option in the lexicon details

Metalanguages are the languages of your content. These fields allow you to create many versions of a same lexicon (i.e., a French version and an English version of a lexicon about Occitan language). You can, for instance, create a definition in French and a definition in English for a word. When you will create the French version of your lexicon, only the French definition will appear. When you will create the English version, only the English definition will appear.

Metalanguages are fields in the following elements, to indicate in which language(s) their displayed content is written:

• displayed information
• person name
• organization name

The content which will be displayed or not is managed automatically when you export an HTML version of your lexicon, according to the chosen metalanguage in your lexicon options (see lexicon details).

Relevant languages are languages in which the information given by the element applies. They allow you to create many lexicons from the same source (i.e., a lexicon about Gascon Occitan and a lexicon about Provençal Occitan from a general Occitan lexicon). You can, for instance, create a first word which exists in both Gascon and Provençal Occitan, then a second word which exists only in Gascon Occitan. When you will create the lexicon about Gascon Occitan, both words will be displayed. When you will create the lexicon about Provençal Occitan, only the first word will be displayed.

Relevant languages are fields in the following elements, to indicate the languages/dialects in which the element information is true:

• bibliography
• form
• subform
• agreement type
• verbal alternating type
• inchoativity
• conjugation/declension paradigm
• pronunciation
• entry acceptation
• subentry acceptation
• characterization
• usual collocation

Other languages fields

The linked files language field is specific. It's similar to the metalanguage fields, as its language field describes the language of its content. But the language list of this field is the one with all languages instead of the one with only lexicon languages.

For the following elements, language is the content itself:

• original language (in etymologies)
• name language (for person and organization names)
• known language (of a person)
• normalized content of the characterization element with the "language of use" type.

The person name and organization name elements have a metalanguage field, which indicates in which linguistic version of your lexicon they will be displayed, and one or many name language children which indicate in which language(s) the name is used. For instance, the author named "Joan Bodon" in Occitan and "Jean Boudou" in French has 2 names used in 2 of the languages he spokes. Each "person name" element has a "name language" child who indicates it. In an Occitan lexicon, a Catalan one or a Spanish one, we would want to display his Occitan name. But in a French lexicon, we would want to display his French name. We will then select Occitan, Catalan and Spanish in the "language of the content" field of the "person name" element with the Occitan "name language" child, and select French in the "language of the content" field of the "person name" element with the French "name language child".