The temporary home of The Latin Lexicon is now on a slowish public web server until a grant comes through or a new server arrives. I hope to have one up in the next two weeks.
So, as a result, the site will be 5-10 times slower. That's not to say it's deadly slow, but it will be a noticeable change. The good news is that everything seems to still work, and within a week or two everything will be back to the same speed it was yesterday, perhaps even faster.
Thanks for your patience and understanding.
Friday, November 7, 2008
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Current Grant Status
I recently got a rejection letter concerning a grant for a new computer.
But it's not all bad news. I have a backup plan. I can get a slightly older, slightly slower computer from an online source (all told about $150) or from UNM Surplus (if I can figure out all the paperwork and if there are any machines available).
Other updates: I haven't done much back-end work recently, but I have been correcting entries as I find them. So! Work continues at a slower pace. Normally I do get most updates done during holidays, so expect to see large-scale changes in late December and early January!
Vale.
But it's not all bad news. I have a backup plan. I can get a slightly older, slightly slower computer from an online source (all told about $150) or from UNM Surplus (if I can figure out all the paperwork and if there are any machines available).
Other updates: I haven't done much back-end work recently, but I have been correcting entries as I find them. So! Work continues at a slower pace. Normally I do get most updates done during holidays, so expect to see large-scale changes in late December and early January!
Vale.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
UNUS NAUTA
As most Latin students know, UNUS NAUTA is not just "one sailor" but the acronym U.N.U.S. N.A.U.T.A. It is taught as a mnemonic device to memorize the 9 special adjectives whose genitives end in -ius: unus, nullus, ullus, solus, neuter, alter, uter, totus, and alius.
In a recent post, I noted a problem with the adjective neuter. In the neuter form, my parser was not discovering the forms for nominatives and vocatives. I dug into this problem and discovered some interesting facts that I never really took to heart.
UNUS NAUTA is not one declension, as many Latin grammars would have us believe. It is actually composed of four different declensions: the normal UNUS NAUTA declension (unus, nullus, ullus, solus, totus), then the alius declension (which is unique because its genitive is alius instead of aliius as we would expect; and it has neuter-singulars in -ud), next the R-type declension (neuter, uter), and finally the ER-type declension (alter). I can see why Wheelock compressed his declensions, but it turns out that he didn't spend enough time pointing out the differences! To be sure, they are minor, but somewhat important if you're writing software to parse out the different forms!
So I created 4 unique declensions for the 9 different types of adjectives. Now, the UNUS NAUTA adjectives parse properly!
Update: I fixed indeclinable nouns, too. I had forgotten to add their (non-) paradigm.
Enjoy!
In a recent post, I noted a problem with the adjective neuter. In the neuter form, my parser was not discovering the forms for nominatives and vocatives. I dug into this problem and discovered some interesting facts that I never really took to heart.
UNUS NAUTA is not one declension, as many Latin grammars would have us believe. It is actually composed of four different declensions: the normal UNUS NAUTA declension (unus, nullus, ullus, solus, totus), then the alius declension (which is unique because its genitive is alius instead of aliius as we would expect; and it has neuter-singulars in -ud), next the R-type declension (neuter, uter), and finally the ER-type declension (alter). I can see why Wheelock compressed his declensions, but it turns out that he didn't spend enough time pointing out the differences! To be sure, they are minor, but somewhat important if you're writing software to parse out the different forms!
So I created 4 unique declensions for the 9 different types of adjectives. Now, the UNUS NAUTA adjectives parse properly!
Update: I fixed indeclinable nouns, too. I had forgotten to add their (non-) paradigm.
Enjoy!
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
A couple of small changes...
It's been a few weeks since it's been a busy semester. But I'm still making changes and continually updating words!
But here is some news to keep it fresh. First, I added a couple of rare "metria gratia" forms. The form "largibar" in Propertius 1.3.25 is from the verb "largior." The correct imperfect passive form should be "largiebar" but it seems to have been contracted to "largibar" ... Apparently this happens in Propertius and Plautus and not many other places. I will have to do some research to see what other rare forms show up.
Second, I fixed a couple of small bugs with neuter nouns and adjectives. There was a problem with them not showing up in the accusative (since neuters are always the same in the nominative, accusative and vocative). I also found a bug (but didn't have time to fix it) in some pronouns ... a pronoun like "neutrum" should be parsed as nominative, accusative and vocative, but it's only being parsed as accusative.
Finally, I applied for a grant for a new, faster, dedicated server. With any luck, they'll give me the grant and I'll have the new server up in a month or two!
But here is some news to keep it fresh. First, I added a couple of rare "metria gratia" forms. The form "largibar" in Propertius 1.3.25 is from the verb "largior." The correct imperfect passive form should be "largiebar" but it seems to have been contracted to "largibar" ... Apparently this happens in Propertius and Plautus and not many other places. I will have to do some research to see what other rare forms show up.
Second, I fixed a couple of small bugs with neuter nouns and adjectives. There was a problem with them not showing up in the accusative (since neuters are always the same in the nominative, accusative and vocative). I also found a bug (but didn't have time to fix it) in some pronouns ... a pronoun like "neutrum" should be parsed as nominative, accusative and vocative, but it's only being parsed as accusative.
Finally, I applied for a grant for a new, faster, dedicated server. With any luck, they'll give me the grant and I'll have the new server up in a month or two!
Thursday, August 28, 2008
iPhone Client Bug
There was a small bug in the iPhone/iPod touch AJAX code that prevented it from working. I've fixed that for the time being. Sorry!
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
As promised, more updates...
I have no major updates, just small ones.
I cleaned up a bit more backend code so smallish bugs are slowly disappearing.
One of the most important things I've been doing lately is making the site "search engine" and "standards" friendly. I set the language to English officially, except on certain tags which are known to contain only Latin. On those, I set the language to Latin with the lang attribute. Also, I've been cleaning up the code to conform to XHTML 1.1 strict standards. Although my pages are not perfectly strict yet, they're definitely coming along.
Next, I cleaned up the styles on the flashcards page, since I hope students might start using that feature.
Finally, I added a couple of more paradigms. I added the relative indefinite pronoun (quicumque, quaecumque, quodcumque) and the reflexive pronoun (sui, sibi, se, se). You should know that the sui, sibi, se, se are listed alphabetically under a non-existant pronoun su. It makes sense, doesn't it, to conform with the tu, tui, tibi, te, te paradigm? I expect some experts will think this is weird, but since my database lexical entries for pronouns are entirely nominative, I didn't have much choice. Besides, I don't think it's a big problem. It happens in Greek dictionaries all the time where the "unknown" lexical form is listed with the asterisk/star, denoting a "probable but unattested form".
Enjoy!
I cleaned up a bit more backend code so smallish bugs are slowly disappearing.
One of the most important things I've been doing lately is making the site "search engine" and "standards" friendly. I set the language to English officially, except on certain tags which are known to contain only Latin. On those, I set the language to Latin with the lang attribute. Also, I've been cleaning up the code to conform to XHTML 1.1 strict standards. Although my pages are not perfectly strict yet, they're definitely coming along.
Next, I cleaned up the styles on the flashcards page, since I hope students might start using that feature.
Finally, I added a couple of more paradigms. I added the relative indefinite pronoun (quicumque, quaecumque, quodcumque) and the reflexive pronoun (sui, sibi, se, se). You should know that the sui, sibi, se, se are listed alphabetically under a non-existant pronoun su. It makes sense, doesn't it, to conform with the tu, tui, tibi, te, te paradigm? I expect some experts will think this is weird, but since my database lexical entries for pronouns are entirely nominative, I didn't have much choice. Besides, I don't think it's a big problem. It happens in Greek dictionaries all the time where the "unknown" lexical form is listed with the asterisk/star, denoting a "probable but unattested form".
Enjoy!
Monday, August 11, 2008
Paradigm Updates
I spent a few minutes today and added the demonstrative pronouns is, iste and idem and the paradigms for R type possessive pronouns noster and vester/voster. I also added the three defective verbs, coepi, odi and memini. Finally, I added the eo and ferre verb conjugations.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
