GAELDICT - Gaelic Text Database - An Milliún Focal Conallach, móide cnuasachtaí beaga de théacsanna Muimhneacha, Connachtacha agus Albanacha.

Fourth internet release, 1998.

Requirements:

Status on 04/11/1998:

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Function:

Examples of a word may be located within the stored texts. A search word may contain one or more asterisks, which are wildcards matching any number of letters, including none. Collocations of words may also be searched for.

Results of the search may be displayed in one of three ways:

The search is based on any of several pre-compiled indexes, made up of the individual words found in the texts. For the indexes based on Gaelic texts, COMPOUND WORDS ARE SPLIT where appropriate, and INITIAL MUTATIONS ARE REMOVED (except where permanent, e.g. chugam, thart). The indexed form of a word may differ from its form in the text if the text is clearly in error, but the original text form will always be shown in contexts.

One of the indexes is of English word-forms found in English translations of several of the texts. WHEN THIS INDEX IS USED TOGETHER WITH THE WHOLE-SENTENCE DISPLAY MODE, THE ENGLISH SENTENCE AND ITS IRISH TRANSLATION ARE SHOWN TOGETHER.

Searching may be restricted to any subset of the texts.

Help, in Irish and English, is available under the main menu option "Treoir".

All searches are insensitive to case differences. Wildcard-searches are also insensitive to the presence of accents, and to any hyphen, apostrophe or period within a word (but these will be rare, as most Gaelic words containing apostrophes or hyphens are stored as two or more separate words). Non-wildcard searches are sensitive to accents, hyphens, apostrophes and periods.

If a collocation of words is to be sought, the words should be supplied at the "Focal:" prompt, separated by spaces. More than two words are permitted (but remember to remove non-permanent initial mutations). A choice is given between finding the words when they co-occur, in any order, within the same sentence; or only when they are consecutive and in the order supplied. It is even possible to give one or more of the words as simply the asterisk (*), which matches any word; the search is then assumed to be a consecutive one. (But avoid giving * as the final word, as the search will be slow.) Remember that a hyphen is, in most circumstances, counted as a separate word, so search for "sean-bhean" as "sean - bean" - as well as "sean bean" and "seanbhean" to cover unhyphenated examples.

Limitations:

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Installation:

The textbase is downloadable from any of the following sites:

Create a DOS subdirectory to hold the textbase, change to the subdirectory, download the self-extracting file GAELDI98.EXE in binary or image mode, and run it by typing at the DOS prompt: GAELDI98

The following files will be created in the current directory:

You may then delete GAELDI98.EXE.

To run the database, type: FOCAL

This will start the program with the ULAIDH textbase. To start with the ALBA textbase, for example, give at the DOS prompt: FOCAL ALBA

The texts may not be accessed except through the program FOCAL provided.

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Miscellaneous:

A request or three

The compiler intends to continue to add Ulster Irish texts to the textbase. He would welcome volunteers to:

What's new this time

The third Internet release was on 07/08/1997.

The second Internet release was on 17/07/1996.

The first Internet release was in late 1995.

Acknowledgements for Gaelic e-texts:

Original form from Foclóir na Nua-Ghaeilge, Acadamh Ríoga na hÉireann:

Original form from Caoimhín Ó Donnaile at Sabhal Mór Ostaig:

Original form from Lá:

Support in preparation from Irish Studies, University of Ulster, Coleraine:

Assistance in preparation from Ailbhe Ó Corráin:

Assistance in preparation from Nollaig Ó hUrmoltaigh:

Other texts:

Acknowledgements for English e-texts:

Notes on running FOCAL:

The screen contents are dumped (appended) by Alt-D to a file called FOCAL.DMP in the current directory, if possible. If this is not possible, e.g. because the current directory is read-only in a network situation, you will be prompted for the name of the screen dump file.

Multi-word retrievals may require the creation of workfiles. These will be placed in the current directory, if possible. If this is not possible, e.g. because the current directory is read-only in a network situation, you will be prompted for the name of the workfile directory.

For typing accented vowels, I recommend you install Keyswap 1.2, which you may download in the self-extracting archive file KEYSWP12.EXE. Keyswap permits long vowels to be typed using the apostrophe as a dead-key, DOS-wide.

GaelDict does *not* require the use of DOS codepage switching, nor of the SCREENCP utility from KEYSWP12.EXE, as the FOCAL program automatically switches to using codepage 850 while running, and restores the previous character-set on finishing. But you should ensure that the DOS file EGA.CPI is located in a directory on the DOS path.

Known problems

Ciarán Ó Duibhín csg0070@qub.ac.uk 04/11/1998

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