Cantonese CEDICT

Download: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/32882273/yedict_20100108.u8
I only double checked 93% of the entries I added from “Dictionary of Cantonese Slang”, which is from 本地菜 to 曳曳. The remaining 7% is from 鴉烏婆 to 撥個輪. I have yet added new entries.

Cantonese-English Dictionary for Android

Steps

1. Get GoldenDict on Android market. https://market.android.com/details?id=mobi.goldendict.android.free

2. Download this Cantonese-English Stardict file http://www.mediafire.com/?2zti8a1tbx6ekea, extract it and copy all three files to /GoldenDict on your SD card

Fig 1. Cantonese-English Dictionary for iPad, iPhone and iPod

Fig 2. Cantonese-English Dictionary for iDevices

Steps

1. Download this Cantonese-English Stardict file.
http://www.mediafire.com/?2zti8a1tbx6ekea

2. Upload the file to Dropbox. Upload it to “Public” folder and then right-click on the file name to view “copy public link”. Click “Shorten link”.

3. Get “GuruDic” for your iDevices. (Search “GuruDic” in App Store)
http://itunes.apple.com/hk/app/gurudic/id366192217?mt=8

4. Go to GuruDic’s settings and choose “Dictionary Install”. Input the link from step 2 and click “Start Install”

5. Go to Dictionaries and see if Cantonese-English Dictionary appears. If you get the screen as I did, you are all set!

I am still updating the Cantonese-English Stardict file and it has been two months. Hopefully I would be done with it by the end of 2011.

I am making romanised karaokes for Cantonese reading of Tang Tong poems from http://rthk.hk/chiculture/chipoem/. More videos are going to be released.

From the example in my video, the pronunciation of 業 is

• ȵiap5 in Hakka(Meixian)
• ŋiep5 in Min(Teochew)
• jip22 in Cantonese(Hong Kong)
• iəʔ5 in Wu(Wuhu, Anhui)

This is “full text search” function in Stardict. Unfortunately, Goldendict doesn’t have it yet. Therefore, I used Goldendict (for audio) and Stardict together in the demo. If you don’t know what is Stardict, please refer to this post. For example, if you want to search Cantonese vocabularies meaning “dirty”, just put “|” before “dirty” and click enter. I don’t know how to input “|” from keyboard so I copy it from “Show info” page, the blue button on the lower left hand corner. I also open Goldendict so that I can use its scan-popup function to listen to the audio.

Introduce New Cantonese Text-to-Speech

While discussing the new Cantonese Text-to-Speech in Mac Lion OSX, someone told me that it is from this site, http://www.nuance.com/vocalizer5/flash/index.html. People say it sounds weird but I think it is not that bad actually.

The real voices don’t sound like what you heard in the video. It was just a recording problem. “CantoneseAudio” is where these 4000+ audios located.

Audio Download Link
Part 1: http://www.mediafire.com/?mahier8496t7nb4
Part 2: http://www.mediafire.com/?2urdc81suc51589
Part 3: http://www.mediafire.com/?9e6l8xvtqa4985u
Part 4: http://www.mediafire.com/?bulfyhac4bn21l7
After extraction, you will see one main folder called “CantoneseAudio” with 31 folders inside and its size is about 1.5 GB. Ubuntu user would better extract the file in Windows because the file names all become unreadable codes after extraction.

Manual

1. Use winrar and double click “CantoneseAudio.part01″ to extract all the files
2. Open GoldenDict, Edit → Dictionaries → Sound Dirs, add the downloaded folder

Scan Popup Function

Click on the magic wand to activate scan popup. Highlight the vocabulary you want to hear its pronunciation, right click and choose copy/ CTRL+C.

Extra

I found that the creator of “JyutYam” extracted Cantonese syllable audio from here. You can put its audio file into GoldenDict and scan the Jyutping to hear its pronunciation. These are not vocabulary audios so you have to highlight syllable by syllable.

JyutYam Audio Download: http://www.mediafire.com/?lvt27ws9wegjgrj

Potential Problems

Upper GoldenDict is in Ubuntu 11.04 and lower one is in Windows 7

A WinXP user told me that he saw warning “The referenced resource doesn’t exist” and I think this is due to system font. GoldenDict does not have any easy way to change the font it uses. I don’t know how to solve it but I notice Ubuntu and Mac give better performance on displaying Chinese characters. In the end, you can copy and paste the vocabulary and look for its audio in CantoneseAudio folder. (if it has)

I afraid people can’t find my site so I write these Google keywords in here.
Cantonese Pronunciation Dictionary
Cantonese Dictionary with Audio
Cantonese Dictionary with Pronunciation
粵語發音詞典
廣東話發音詞典

This part is extracted from the interview of linguist John McWhorter on Aug 4, 2011. The caller, whom I assume that she is a native speaker of Cantonese, made some really fantastic comments that exhibit many myths of Cantonese :

1. Cantonese is a dialect…. I love how the caller replied that Cantonese is a dialect after the linguist emphasised that she speaks three languages, which are Cantonese, Mandarin and English.
2. Cantonese is composed of a lot of slang words. Many people even regard the whole part of Cantonese is just slang.
3. Cantonese is humorous but with the implication that it is not serious enough.

It is so saddening and ironic that non-Cantonese have always been defenders for Cantonese while Cantonese themselves treat their mother tongue like dirt. The following is a book review of “Dictionary of Cantonese Slang” by a Hong Kong blogger:

此書由兩位絕對無想過寫粗口書教壞人的洋人學者編成，想找本地書商出版卻碰壁，因為書商覺得內容太粗鄙，最後竟然是 出名保守的新加坡的國立大學把書出版。怎麼攪的？最詳細的李小龍特輯和故宮紀錄片由日本人製作。最地道的廣東俗語要由洋人新加坡人為我們做文獻記錄。

Translation: “Local (Hong Kong) publishers regarded this dictionary as vulgar and refused to have it published. In the end, Singapore National University, which is notorious for being conservative, published it. What the hell are we doing? The most detailed documentaries of Bruce Lee and Forbidden City are produced by the Japanese. The most authentic Cantonese slang is recorded by foreigners.”

I don’t think the prejudice against Cantonese can be change. Certainly, the hearts of the native speakers are the most important factor. However, the strong pressure of Mandarin just brings more prejudices against Cantonese. Couples of years ago, I saw a book called “Get Talking Chinese“, which is a Mandarin learning book for children, says the following about Cantonese:

IMAGINE THAT!!!!!!!!

IMAGINE THAT! IMAGINE THAT! IMAGINE YOU WERE BEING SPIT!
Anyway, back to the topic. Hong Kong Cantonese arguably has only six tones. However, no matter how many tones you think Cantonese has, the fact is that the extra three tones of Cantonese, which are syllables that end with consonants p, t, and k , is a feature of Middle Chinese. Mandarin has fewer tones because it doesn’t have consonant p, t, and k at the end of the syllable. That means the “extra difficulty” of Cantonese can bring people towards a fuller appreciation of Sinitic languages. For instance, the character “合” , to combine,  is “hap6″  in Cantonese and “he2″ in Mandarin. The final “p” in Cantonese closes the lips and therefore matches with the meaning of “to combine”. How is Cantonese a dialect of Mandarin when Mandarin learning book writers are so keen on blackening that Cantonese is difficult when the fact that the difficulty of Cantonese equates to the fuller understanding of their so-called “Chinese”?! They just beat their own culture to praise Mandarin!