Beta release—Allo Dictionary

Posted by CRS Staff on February 26, 2023 for the Allo project

The CRS is proud to announce that the beta version of 𒀀 Allo^βeta is officially live. We are thankful for the various language experts, reviewers, and lexicographers that helped us improve the prior alpha version we launched several years before.

Try Allo Latin Browse dictionary

Content additions in beta

As outlined in the project's release notes, Allo^βeta was focused on completing the first complete 1,000-word dictionary: Allo Latin. This mainly included adding entries, sound pronunciations, and example sentences. An unexpected challenge was the lack of a structured-data format for some important dictionaries. As a result, much energy was devoted to manual data-entry.

What's next

The next steps for 𒀀 Allo are twofold: more advanced features for the Latin dictionary and commencement of work on the second ancient language. For the Latin dictionary, we intend to add tables of forms, textual examples from ancient literature, a completed in-house grammar guide, and many more features related to search. As we begin work on our second language, we must address several difficult challenges. To illustrate, Latin uses the same writing system–or script–as English; and many users around the world can quickly read it. However, languages like Sumerian, Akkadian, and ancient Egyptian utilize different scripts. Languages that use these scripts require a secondary resource that is called a "sign-list." Thus it comes to pass that the Latin dictionary is not a one-size-fits-all blueprint. This challenge–and many others–are exciting opportunities for us to tackle, and we look forward to delighting users in unexpected ways.