Appearance and function match the final product, but is made with different manufacturing methods.

Looks like the final product, but is not functional.

Demonstrates the functionality of the final product, but looks different.

A prototype is a preliminary model of something. Projects that offer physical products need to show backers documentation of a working prototype. This gallery features photos, videos, and other visual documentation that will give backers a sense of what’s been accomplished so far and what’s left to do. Though the development process can vary for each project, these are the stages we typically see:

We did it with every single one of you that pledged to the ABC Cantonese Dictionary Project. Thank you.

BUT don't stop now because the ABC Cantonese Dictionary for the web is so much greater than our initial launch and every single bit that gets pledged over the $50,000 will continue to be dedicated to growing, preserving, and promoting the Cantonese language. We want to bring the ABC Cantonese dictionary to every single language with your support so keep spreading the news.

“The ABC Cantonese Dictionary website will be a huge step forward for Cantonese learning; an authoritative, peer-reviewed, up-to-date bilingual reference for the perplexing and rapidly-evolving Cantonese language.” --Mike Love, Pleco

Elisabeth Nuboer (Wenlin) and Mike Love (Pleco) in Boston November 2016 cooking up the deal!

Watch our wonderful intern Chen Yang demonstrate the alpha version of the Wenlin Mandarin ABC CE-EC Dictionary as edited by John DeFrancis. The Robert S. Bauer ABC Cantonese Dictionary, the focus of this Kickstarter campaign, will be based on this alpha.

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We really appreciate the plug from Hong Kong actor Gregory Rivers 河國榮 from http://hokwokwing.hk/! Thank you.

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Cantonese is spoken by 90% of Hong Kong Chinese natives and studied by scholars worldwide. Wenlin Institute, Inc. SPC wants to be part of preserving and promoting the Cantonese language and culture. The current state of electronic (software or web-based) Cantonese dictionaries is insufficient to do this. Currently, no full-scale Cantonese-English dictionary is available on the market and it has been four decades since Sidney Lau’s A Practical Cantonese-English Dictionary (Hong Kong Government Printer).

Wenlin intends to change this with the publication of the much anticipated Robert S. Bauer’s Hong Kong Cantonese-English Comprehensive Dictionary 香港粵語-英語廣泛詞典. Bauer's dictionary documents the Hong Kong Cantonese lexicon with the inclusion of about 15,000 lexical entries which are uniquely Cantonese (standard Chinese words with identical meanings and collocations are excluded).

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Based on Robert S. Bauer’s print edition, the Wenlin web-based ABC Cantonese Dictionary will feature a new online Cantonese-English dictionary with now over 30,000 entries plus explanatory materials. The print edition will be published by The University of Hawai'i Press as part of the ABC Dictionary Series under the diredction of series editor Victor Mair. A retired professor at Polytechnic University and the University of Hong Kong, Robert S. Bauer was recently featured in Time Out Hong Kong (“The death of Cantonese?,” 8 Jul 2015).

Bauer comments: “It’s really sad that, given how important Cantonese is in Hong Kong, you’d think someone would have published a dictionary more recently. But the last comprehensive Cantonese-English dictionary was published in 1977! If you went out to the store today and tried to find a good one, you’d struggle. You’d find nothing about contemporary colloquial Cantonese, the vocabulary that’s actually used here.”

THE PROJECT TIMELINE

The Wenlin ABC Cantonese Dictionary website

The Wenlin ABC Cantonese Dictionary website will be published in two phases of development in order to make it available as early as possible.

The first phase has already started and will be completed in 4 months and will include:

Cantonese headword in both Chinese characters and Jyutping transcription including part(s) of speech and English gloss(es).

Most entries will also include example sentences in characters and Jyutping with English translation.

Characters that are unique to Cantonese will be included.

Each character's entry will show how it is written, using Wenlin's CDL stroke-by-stroke animation.

Dictionary look-up: directly entering a word in either characters or Jyutping; scrolling through entries in alphabetical order; searching for any word, character, or phrase that occurs in an entry; cross-references between entries; links from other pages on our website.

The dictionary website will invite and enable qualified linguists to modify entries and add new entries in collaboration with Bob Bauer. This capability will function similarly to Wikipedia and other wiki sites, allowing for editorial participation by qualified volunteers. Are you a Linguist? We’d love to have you join our team.

To preserve and protect the linguistic integrity of the site, strict policies for quality control will be enforced, and anonymous editing will not be allowed.

The second development phase will begin immediately after the first publication, and will last for twelve months. The goal for that time period include:

The addition of at least 15,000 thousand more entries to the Cantonese-English dictionary for a total of almost 30,000 entries including both 1) common words that were excluded from the original dictionary due to being essentially the same as Mandarin words except for pronunciation, and 2) uniquely Cantonese vocabulary missing from the original dictionary; a new English-Cantonese dictionary with at least 15,000 thousand entries

Cantonese sound recordings (monosyllables for all characters, polysyllables for headwords, and example sentences)

A collection of Cantonese texts (stories, news articles, etc.) suitable for learners

Tools for linking Cantonese texts with the dictionary, so that students can instantly look up any word by pointing to it;

Cantonese vocabulary flashcards

The ability to input characters by Cantonese pronunciation or by handwriting recognition We will be publishing new features continuously after the first publication with new of modified dictionary entries, sound recordings, and text appearing on the website as soon as they're completed. This is what will make the wiki site so great. WENLIN’S CREDENTIALS Wenlin has been the site of on-going development of the esteemed ABC Dictionary for 20 years. We are honored that Bob Bauer selected us to help publish the electronic version of his acclaimed Cantonese dictionary. We intend to bring the same level of scholarly rigor and technological innovation that has distinguished Wenlin Software for Learning Chinese (Wenlin ABC Mandarin) to the Cantonese dictionary website project.







Read the full Wenlin story here WENLIN’S SOCIAL PURPOSE Wenlin is a small team of dedicated linguists, engineers, and marketing people. Most companies are profit-driven but we are equally mission-driven. That is why we are a Social Purpose Corporation (SPC). Our mission is to help people learn Chinese and promote intercultural education, understanding, and cooperation; and develop linguistic and educational sciences, technologies, and techniques.







See full mission statement here Bob Bauer Interviews In “Is Cantonese in danger? Hongkongers take steps to protect their heritage,” (South China Morning Post, 18 March 2014), Robert Bauer and Victor Mair comment on the problems facing Cantonese, discussing the importance of how an up to date Cantonese dictionary will help preserve Cantonese as a distinct language.

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