Berthold Frommann wrote > Sent: Thu, October 18, 2001 9:15 AM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: A product compatibility question > > > Hello, > > > Incorrect. Again, they are *not* separate languages, but two > > orthographic renditions of the same *written* language. > ... yet there are a few differences in the vocabulary which > actually require > entirely different characters - and I don't just mean the > traditional and > the simplified version of a particular character. Take e.g. > the word for "bicycle". > But after all, it's AFAIK just a list - not too long - of > words which has to > be replaced when doing a conversion, quite regularly.
Jack Halpern of the CJK Dictionary Institute explains these issues at http://www.cjk.org/cjk/c2c/c2centry.htm. Traditional to Simplified and Simplified to Traditional conversions are more complicated than simple dictionary lookup. In particular, the conversion is often context-dependent. His company offers "Chinese to Chinese" conversion software, among other products. > As John Jenkins already pointed out on May 5, > > Partial data to interconvert between simplified and traditional > > characters is available through the Unihan database. However, the > > problem is not a simple one, as there are frequently multiple > > traditional forms that correspond to a single simplified form. > > Moreover, the vocabulary used in the PRC with simplified characters > > differs on occasion from the vocabulary used in Taiwan and elsewhere > > for traditional ones (e.g., the names of the chemical elements, until > > recently the word for "computer"). It really isn't possible to > > convert between simplified and traditional characters without doing a > > lexical analysis. And, as it turns out, contextual analysis also. > There are some solutions around, AFAIR it's also possible in current > versions of MS Office. That's just character conversion. It doesn't even handle vocabulary differences, much less context. > Regards, > Berthold > Japanese Studies, Free University Berlin Edward Cherlin Generalist "A knot! Oh, do let me help to undo it." Alice in Wonderland
