File Format
The dictionary files are lists of pairs of English and other-language
words, in the form:
English-word Other-language-word
English-word Other-language-word
...
where the pairs are separated by a tab character, and each pair is
terminated by a carriage return character. The "Other-language-word" is
a translation of the English word (see the Disclaimer).
If an English word has more than one translation into the other language,
the English word is listed multiple times, each with a different
"Other-language-word". For example, in Spanish:
dog perro
dog perra
Any comment lines in the file will begin with a pound sign ("#"). The
files are not sorted into any particular order.
Accent Marks
Because these files are given in plain ASCII format, accented characters
usually are not given directly. Certain conventions have been given to
people adding to the IDP files for accented characters, and most of the
time these conventions were followed.
- Spanish/Italian Accents
- A letter followed by a forward slash ("/") indicates that the letter should have an acute accent over it.
- A letter followed by a backward slash ("\") indicates that the letter
should have a grave accent over it.
- A letter followed by a tilde ("~") indicates that the letter should
have a tilde above it.
- German Accents
- A letter followed by a period (".") indicates that the letter should
have an umlaut over it. (This is sometimes approximated by a vowel
followed by an "e" instead.)
- A letter followed by a caret ("^") indicates that the letter should
have a circonflex over it.
- Two s characters in a row usually indicates the German double-s
character ("B")
Tyler Chambers