Datasets:
Wilhelm Vocabulary
Data Format
The data that serves wilhelmlang.com. They are written in YAML format, because
- it is machine-readable so that it can be consumed quickly in data pipelines
- it is human-readable and, thus, easy to modify
- it supports multi-lines value which is very handy for data of natural languages
How Data (Vocabulary) is Stored in a Graph Database
Why Graph Database
Graph data representation assumes universal connectivity among world entities. This applies pretty well to the realm of languages. Multilanguage learners have already seen that Indo-European languages are similar in many different ways. The similarities not only signify the historical facts about Philology but also surface a great opportunity for multilanguage learners to study much more efficiently. What's missing is connecting the dots using Graph Databases that visually presents these vastly enlightening links between the related languages.
Definition
The meaning of a word is called the definition
. A term has a natural relationship to its definition(s). For example,
the German noun "Ecke" has at least 4 definitions:
German
YAML Schema
vocabulary:
- term: string
definition: list
declension/conjugation: application-specific table
The
conjugation
is the inflection paradigm for a German verb anddeclension
the inflection for nouns and adjectives. Only one of the two is present for a term.The type of the word can be inferred using the following rule
term
with a definite article of der/die/das signifies a noun. For instance- term: die Wissenschaft definition: the Science
Those with
conjugation
field denotes a verb; its definition also begins with an indefinite form, i.e. "to ..."The rests are explicitly stated in the
definition
field. For example,- term: ob definition: - (conj.) if - (conj.) whether
means "ob" is a conjunction in this case and
- term: denn definition: - (adv.) then, thus - (conj.) because
tells that "denn" can be adverb or conjunction
The parenthesized value at the beginning of each
definition
item played an un-ignorable role: it is the label of the relationship betweenterm
anddefinition
in graph database loaded by Wilhelm SDK. For example, both German words
- term: denn definition: - (adv.) then, thus - (conj.) because
and
- term: nämlich definition: - (adj.) same - (adv.) namely - (adv.) because
can mean "because" acting as different types. This is visualized as follows:
Visualzing synonyms this way presents a big advantage to human brain who is exceedingly good at memorizing patterns
German Noun Declension
The declension table employees an application-specific YAML that looks like the following:
- term: ein
definition: (article) a, an
declension:
- ["", masculine, feminine, neuter, plural]
- [nominative, ein, eine, ein, N/A ]
- [genitive, eines, einer, eines, N/A ]
- [dative, einem, einer, einem, N/A ]
- [accusative, einen, eine, ein, N/A ]
The declension table above is equivalent to
masculine | feminine | neuter | plural | |
---|---|---|---|---|
nominative | ein | eine | ein | N/A |
genitive | eines | einer | eines | N/A |
dative | einem | einer | einem | N/A |
accusative | einen | eine | ein | N/A |
- A list under
declension
is a table row- All rows have the same number of columns
- Each element of the list corresponds to a table cell
The declension tables for all nouns are sourced from Wiktionary
German (Attributive) Adjective Declension
- Predicate adjectives (e.g. kalt in mir ist kalt "I am cold") are undeclined
- An adjective can both be predicative (a brave boy) or attributive (The boy is brave). Only attributive adjectives are declined.
There are 3 types of declensions for German adjectives
Each type bears a separate declension table. To master German adjectives, we will need to memorize all of the three.
There is also adjective comparison which throws in potentially 6 more tables. But the rules for comparative and superlative forms are quite universal so we ignore the two and focus only on the positive form, which is the basic form of the adjective.
Here is an example of the adjective declension used in this repository:
- term: unterschiedlich
definition: (adj.) different
declension:
- strong declension (without article):
- ["", singular, singular, singular, plural ]
- ["", masculine, feminine, neuter, "" ]
- [nominative, unterschiedlicher, unterschiedliche, unterschiedliches, unterschiedliche ]
- [genitive, unterschiedlichen, unterschiedlicher, unterschiedlichen, unterschiedlicher]
- [dative, unterschiedlichem, unterschiedlicher, unterschiedlichem, unterschiedlichen]
- [accusative, unterschiedlichen, unterschiedliche, unterschiedliches, unterschiedliche ]
- weak declension (with definite article):
- ["", singular, singular, singular, plural ]
- ["", masculine, feminine, neuter, "" ]
- [nominative, der unterschiedliche, die unterschiedliche, das unterschiedliche, die unterschiedlichen]
- [genitive, des unterschiedlichen, der unterschiedlichen, des unterschiedlichen, der unterschiedlichen]
- [dative, dem unterschiedlichen, der unterschiedlichen, dem unterschiedlichen, den unterschiedlichen]
- [accusative, den unterschiedlichen, die unterschiedliche, das unterschiedliche, die unterschiedlichen]
- mixed declension (with indefinite article):
- ["", singular, singular, singular, plural ]
- ["", masculine, feminine, neuter, "" ]
- [nominative, ein unterschiedlicher, eine unterschiedliche, ein unterschiedliches, (keine) unterschiedlichen ]
- [genitive, eines unterschiedlichen, einer unterschiedlichen, eines unterschiedlichen, (keiner) unterschiedlichen]
- [dative, einem unterschiedlichen, einer unterschiedlichen, einem unterschiedlichen, (keinen) unterschiedlichen]
- [accusative, einen unterschiedlichen, eine unterschiedliche, ein unterschiedliches, (keine) unterschiedlichen ]
The declension tables for all adjectives are sourced from Wiktionary
German Verb Conjugation
There are 3 persons, 2 numbers, and 4 moods (indicative, conditional, imperative and subjunctive) to consider in conjugation. There are 6 tenses in German: the present and past are conjugated, and there are four compound tenses. There are two categories of verbs in German: weak and strong^1. In addition, strong verbs are grouped into 7 "classes"
The conjugation table of German verb on Wiktionary is hard to interpret for German beginner. It does, however, presents a very good Philology reference. For example, it tells us which of the 7 "classes" a strong verb belongs to. We, therefore, leave the Wiktionary links to the conjugation table of that verb for data processing in the future, for example,
- term: aufwachsen
definition: to grow up
conjugation: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/aufwachsen#Conjugation
and advise user to employ a much more practical method to learn daily conjugation as follows. We take "aufwachsen" as an example.
I'm not advertising for any organizations. I'm simply sharing good resources.
Netzverb Dictionary is the best German dictionary targeting the vocabulary inflections. Search for "aufwachsen" and we will see much more intuitive conjugation tables listed.
This pretty much serves our needs, but what makes Netzverb unpenetrable by other alternatives is that every verb comes with
A printable version that looks much better than the browser's Control+P export
- There is also a "Sentences with German verb aufwachsen" section with a link that offer a fruitful number of conjugated examples getting us familiar with the inflections of the verb
An on-the-fly generated flashcard sheet which allows us to make a better usage of our random free time
A YouTube video that offers audios of almost every conjugated form, which helps with pronunciations a lot
- It is, thus, strongly recommended to study the conjugation through Netzverb Dictionary separately
- Netzverb Dictionary, however, lacks a programmable API. Wiktionary has a good one instead. This is why we left the conjugation link to Wiktionary for now and it will definitely serve us well as I'm trying to make it happen
Ancient Greek
vocabulary:
- term: string
definition: list
Wiktionary is the best source for Attic pronunciation, although some words are missing the audio. Due to the scarcity of the audio resources among AG lerners, a separate project has been initiated to expand the audio practice materials by AI
Latin
vocabulary:
- term: string
definition: list
Classical Hebrew (Coming Soon)
The vocabulary is presented to help read and understand Biblical Hebrew. A complementary audio helps well with the pronunciation.
Korean
中国人学习韩语有先天优势,加之韩语本身也是一门相当简单的语言,所以这里将语法和词汇合并在一起;
每一项也只由 term
(韩)和 definition
(中)组成,
vocabulary:
- term: string
definition: list
不用费太多功夫记牢简单的语法和词汇,剩下的就是拿韩语字幕剧不停练习听说读写既成。
韩语不属于汉藏语系,因其所属语系非常狭小,无法和其它语言产生足够关联,因此其数据暂时不被存入图数据库进行数据分析
License
The use and distribution terms for wilhelm-vocabulary are covered by the Apache License, Version 2.0.