Brief description
Multi Linguis is an independent indie project. All the work on downloading and processing sources, as well as creating books and the website, was carried out by the forces of one person - the author of the project. Although there are other dictionaries of this type, many of the ideas underlying the project are original.
The project is based on the corpus of the English version of Wiktionary as well as linguistic articles of Wikipedia and is licensed under
the open license Creative Commons CC BY-SA 3.0.
The Multi Linguis Project offers dictionaries for more than 200 languages. These books are bilingual, with translations from the English language into foreign ones.
They are intended to help you try out different languages, study and compare them, as well as revise the vocabulary. They can be applied separately or as additional tools for the suited educational courses. You may also use them for spelling simple broken phrases, translating and just for fun.
A database of the project includes 9'000 lemmas (that is, morphemes, words and phrases with a specific meaning). This corresponds to levels A1 - B2 by the CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference), or Beginner - Upper Intermediate levels by other language learning systems. This number of lemmas covers approximately 100 percent of the self-sufficient vocabulary and 85 percent of all word use.
The Multi Linguis Dictionaries are not traditional alphabetical, but frequency-thematic. This means that entries in them can be arranged by levels, themes, parts of speech or keywords, but never alphabetically. Their use speeds up the process of learning languages, promotes memorization and develops lingual thinking.
They include a description of a title language, a key to the IPA phonetic symbols, the main part and a table of contents. The main part consists of entries that are joined into sections and subsections.
The entries contain headers of lemmas, flags of level and part of speech, hints, one or more translations, transcriptions and transliterations.
Several different types, kinds and variants of dictionaries are offered for the same language. They differ in the number of included lemmas, varieties of the arrangement, the completeness of contained information, external and internal design. To achieve particular purposes, using one option is more effective and convenient than the others.
The entries in the Multi Linguis Dictionaries can be arranged by one of the characteristics of lemmas (level, theme, part of speech, keyword) or by two of them.
For all dictionaries of the same type, a universal division into levels, themes, parts of speech and keywords is applied. This means that books of the same type, but different in language have completely equal structure. This approach promotes studying of the second and subsequent foreign languages, as well as comparing them.
There are 2 types of the Multi Linguis Dictionaries:
1. Learner's - include up to 9,000 lemmas, contain shortened texts of translations, contain transcriptions (kinds: For Learning, For Learning Step by Step, For Revising);
2. Survival - sets of vocabularies each includes up to 999 lemmas.
Multi Linguis proposes an original division of lemmas into levels. In the Learner's Dictionaries, there are 6 so-called learning steps (corresponding to levels A1-B2.2). These steps include 1'500 lemmas each.
The project also proposes an original division of lemmas into themes. In the Learner's Dictionaries - 150 themes. They are grouped into 30 super themes and divided into more than 2'100 subthemes.
The Survival ones are not divided into levels and themes.
Wiktionary is maintained in an authentic and modern state by enthusiasts, including native speakers and linguists. 20'000 lemmas were selected from its corpus according to the number of their translations into 80 key languages of the world, their occurrence in open frequency lists and the personal opinion of the author of the project about their importance. Of these, 9'000 lemmas with the highest weight were included in the database of the Learner's Dictionaries, 999 - of the Survival ones.
Levels, themes and keywords were defined for these lemmas, also parts of speech were corrected. Related translations and transcriptions were standardized and corrected, and also were cut as close to the beginning as possible.
The Multi Linguis Dictionaries are available in both pdf and mobile formats (epub and mobi). This means that you may use them on any device. The pdf version can be printed on paper in a convenient size for you - for example, in the form of a book A4 or brochure A5.
Despite strict recommendations for adding entries and regular checks, there are errors in Wiktionary, and therefore in the database of the project (according to made estimates, they are 2.5% or slightly more). Since the project is carried out by one person, there are also errors that occurred when processing the source entries (no more than 0.5%).
Some entries have no translation into the title language or corresponding transcription in the database. In the pdf version, empty spaces were left in their cards. In the mobile versions, such entries were omitted.
Because these books are not flawless, they are allowed for editing. In the printed or pdf versions, you may correct the entries and add omitted ones.
The Multi Linguis Dictionaries are offered for sale in some e-book stores. The main store is
Payhip.
The prices of the Multi Linguis Dictionaries do not exceed $8, which is significantly lower than the prices of professional analogs.
The price of a particular book is determined by the range of levels that make it up. The price also depends on the completeness of translations of its entries - if the rate of entries without translation is below a certain threshold, the price is reduced by $1.
For the Payhip store visitors, Multi Linguis offers a number of discounts, the total depth of which can exceed 25%.
On the website and pages of the project in social networks, the promotion of dictionaries of a specific language is regularly carried out. They are offered a 10% discount off the regular price.
In addition to the books themselves, the Multi Linguis Project includes its own website, as well as pages on Facebook and Twitter. We invite you to register there.
In the future, it is planned to republish the Learner's and Survival Dictionaries. It is planned to correct errors, increase the number of translations, publish some new books.
You can find more detailed information
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