[Menai-LUG] Klebran - a free grammar-checker for Welsh

[Kevin Donnelly]

This may be of interest to Welsh-speaking members.

I've just released an update to Eurfa, the free Welsh dictionary, taking it to 
nearly 13,000 base words - an increase of 23%.  I'm continuing work on the 
next version, which will contain words like "folksonomy" (gwerinomeg), "wifi 
hotspot" (cysylltfan ddiwifr), "mash-up" (stwnsiad), "USB stick" (cof bach), 
etc!  If anyone has lists of non-copyright words, or knows someone who has, 
I'd be grateful to receive them.

More importantly, I've used Eurfa as part of a web-interface to the Welsh port 
of Gramadoir (http://borel.slu.edu/gramadoir) that I've been working on with 
Kevin Scannell.  The result, Klebran (http://www.klebran.org.uk), is the 
first ever free (GPL) grammar-checker for Welsh.  Its output compares pretty 
well with the existing proprietary checker, but I hope to improve on that - 
it's early days yet, and now that the interface is there, I can focus on 
tweaking the rules.  Klebran also checks spelling, and gives the meanings for 
any words in the text that it knows, so you could probably use it to puzzle 
out the meaning of a piece!

Down the line, I will be adding the capability to import PO-files, so that the 
translations done for KDE can be checked - building these tools from scratch 
has meant a two-year hiatus on that!

Some might also be interested in the first online Cornish-Welsh dictionary 
(http://www.kevindonnelly.org.uk/kernewek) - a good example of the benefits 
of GPLed language resources.

If anyone has any ideas on getting a bit more publicity for these pieces of 
software, please contact me direct.

-- 
Pob hwyl / Best wishes

Kevin Donnelly

www.kyfieithu.co.uk - KDE yn Gymraeg
www.klebran.org.uk - Gwirydd gramadeg rhydd i'r Gymraeg
www.eurfa.org.uk - Geiriadur rhydd i'r Gymraeg
www.rhedadur.org.uk - Rhedeg berfau Cymraeg