WiktionaryZ

WiktionaryZ is a translating multilingual dictionary based on a relational database. It is commonly abbreviated as WZ (originally UW.)

The first steps towards "WiktionaryZ" date back to August 30 2004 when on the Italian Wiktionary the first templates were inserted. These templates then served to permit a fast exchange of complete lists of words from one Wiktionary to the other.

In that moment two Wiktionarians, from the Italian and the Dutch Wiktionary started to talk AbOUT methods of utilizing Wiktionarians' time more efficiently. It was clear that copying and pasting these lists from one language Wiktionary to another was inefficient and error-prone, while increasing the amount of time needed to make corrections. With separate Wiktionaries, the probability that a particular translation list would be out of sync with another version of the same list increased exponentially with each language Wiktionary added.

The logical consequence was to think about inserting this data into a common place. A project with the work name "Ultimate Wiktionary" took its first steps. By December 2004 the basic functionalities were clear: an extension for the Mediawiki software, building on the Wikidata project.

During the following year, when the programming of the software had already started, still many changes to the database design were made and more peculiarities of languages like Chinese, Korean, Arabic, Russian and also sign language were considered, some of these thanks to various contacts during Wikimania 2005 in Frankfurt.

Unlike the original Wiktionaries, WiktionaryZ will allow for the download of data, particularly for reuse with other software. For example, software CAT (Computer Assisted Translation), dictionary software on a local computer and spellcheckers.

Currently, a prototype including only the data of the GEMET multilingual thesaurus is online. This resource is considered to be an optimal collection of terminology to test functions with.

Important dates during the life of the project

• August 30 2004 first discussions
• March 2005 first database design
• December 26 2005 first read-only prototype
• January 2006 the name of Ultimate Wiktionary is changed to WiktionaryZ
• January 2006 the WiktionaryZ Committee starts working
• end of February 2006 a second read-only prototype is online
• April 30 2006 a first editable prototype (for a restricted number of people) came online
• Approx. August 2006 version 1.0

External links

• Information on meta
• The WiktionaryZ blog
• WiktionaryZ - Currently allowing editing for registered users only.
• GEMET

de:Wikipedia:WiktionaryZ it:WiktionaryZ ksh:WiktionaryZ nap:WiktionaryZ sr:WiktionaryZ