Fabricius Tamil and English

About Fabricius Tamil and English Android App

The Fabricius Tamil and English dictionary app is a fulltext searchable version of "J. P. Fabricius's Tamil and English dictionary" (4th ed., rev. and enl. Tranquebar: Evangelical Lutheran Mission Pub. House, 1972). It is a product of the Digital South Asia Library program (http://dsal.uchicago.edu) at the University of Chicago (http://www.uchicago.edu).

The Fabricius Tamil and English dictionary can be used both online and offline. The online version interacts with a database that runs remotely on a server at the University of Chicago. The offline version uses a database that is created on the Android device upon first download.

By default, the app operates in the online mode.

Fabricius Tamil and English allows users to conduct both headword and fulltext queries.

*Using the Fabricius Tamil and English dictionary*

*Headword Searching*

The default mode for this app is to search headwords. To search for a headword, touch the search box at the top (magnifying glass icon) to expose the on-screen keyboard and begin searching. Headwords can be entered in Tamil, accented latin characters, and unaccented latin characters. For example, headword searches for உபாகமம், upākamam, or upakamam will all yield a definition about "a class of books secondary to the Agamas."

After entering three characters in the search box, a scrollable list of search suggestions will pop up. Touch the word to search for and it will automatically fill in the search field. Or ignore suggestions and enter the search term completely. To execute the search, touch the return button on the keyboard.

*Fulltext Searching*

For fulltext searching, select the "Search all text" check box in the overflow menu (usually the three vertical dots icon at the top right corner of the screen), then enter the search term in the search box at the top.

Fulltext searching supports multiword searching. For example, the search "corn rice" returns 11 results where "corn" and "rice" can be found in the same definition. Multiword searches can be executed with the boolean operators "NOT" and "OR" as well. The search "corn OR rice" returns 321 fulltext results; "corn NOT rice" returns 88 fulltext results.

*Results Display*

Search results come first in a numbered list that displays the Tamil headword, the accented latin transliteration of the headword, and a chunk of the definition. To see a full definition, touch the headword link.

The full result page presents definitions in a format that allows the user to select terms to copy and paste for further dictionary searching or for conducting a web search on the term (given an internet connection). In online mode, the full result page also has a page number link that the user can click to get the full page context of the definition. Link arrows at the top of the full page allow the user to click to previous and next pages in the dictionary.

The user can also choose to see results definitions fully transliterated. In the overflow menu (three vertical dots icon at the top right corner of the screen), simply touch "Transliterated display."

*Selecting Online/Offline Mode*

To select either online or offline mode, simply check or uncheck the "Search offline" box in the overflow menu. When in online mode, the world icon at the top of the screen will appear dark; in offline mode, it will appear light.

Note that on start up, the app will test to see whether the device has an internet connection and the remote server is available. Again, the app operates in online mode by default. The user should select the appropriate mode before conducting a search.