International Union of Speleology
Informatics Commission - Dictionary Sub-commission

Sending a new language or updates to the
UIS Caver's Multi-lingual Dictionary

Updated: 2023-04-30 (includes template Rev.5)

The Caver's Dictionary is always looking for more languages to add. If you would like to add a whole new language, then before starting work please contact the Sub-commission Leader to check whether anyone else is already working on it. The dictionary terms are stored in a database, and we upload the file of new words into it as described below. You can also just advise us of new words for an existing language, or suggest corrections - just put your updates into our template and email it to the Chairman.

Definitions:

Some definitions we use in the Dictionary:

Concept

A group of terms with the same meaning, regardless of the language used. In the Dictionary, each concept is identified by a number, i.e. it is language-independent. This is the number which appears on the first line of each group of terms on the web page.

Term

A word or phrase, in any language, which is used for a given concept.

Term Sequence Number

The number specifying the sequence position of the term when there is more than one term for a concept. Naturally each sequence number must be unique (no duplicates) within the one concept.

For example, Concept 1 on the web page contains, among others, two terms in English, namely "littoral cave" and "sea cave", and one term in Spanish, namely "cueva marina (f)". The Term Sequence Number for "littoral cave" and "cueva marina (f)" is 1, because each is the first term for the concept in its respective language, and the Term Sequence Number for "sea cave" is 2, because it is a second term for its concept.

How we add a new language:

1. You prepare your words in a suitable file, but preferably using our template spreadsheet, which shows the existing concepts they belong to, and email it to us. New concepts can also be included.
2. We check the file for format to suit our database, and that we have correctly interpreted any accented or non-Latin characters in your terms.
3. If you have not already done so, we may send the new terms for peer review until everyone is happy.
4. We load the final file into the database.
5. We generate the new web page with your new language included, send it to you for final approval, then load it on to the website.

The format of the file we need is described below. However we recommend that the easiest and most successful way to send your terms to us is to download our template spreadsheet, fill it in with your words and send it back to us. We then create the required file from that spreadsheet. Or if you already have the terms in your own data system, you could instead produce the file below directly from your own system. Our template includes all existing concept numbers, together with their English and French words as a guide, and space for you to fill in your own terms. The first three columns in the spreadsheet are the three fields described in the file specification below. If you prefer a different guide language to be included, please let us know.

To send your new language or updates:

1. If a new language, contact the Chairman before starting.
2. Download the latest template spreadsheet.
3. Fill in your language terms or updates. Detailed instructions can be found in the 'Usage Notes' tab of the spreadsheet.
4. Email the spreadsheet to us.
5. We will send you back a draft of how it will look for your final approval before we load it on the website.

File specification if not using our template:

However if you prepare your own plain text file instead of using our template, please follow these specifications:

• a plain text file, in comma-separated-value (.csv) format. The words could be prepared in a spreadsheet, database, or a table in a word-processing document, and then exported to a csv plain text file. If your file is not already in Unicode UTF-8 format, we will finally convert it to that before processing.
• only one term per line.
• each line is to contain three comma-separated fields with no leading or trailing spaces in the fields. These fields are:

  [concept number],[term sequence number],["term"]   (omit the square brackets but include the double-quotes.)

  For example, if you were supplying the English language terms for the first three concepts in the Dictionary, the file would look like this:

  1,1,"littoral cave"
1,2,"sea cave"
2,1,"clay"
3,1,"pit(US)"
3,2,"pitch(GB)"
3,3,"pot"
3,4,"shaft"