TibThob v1.1 User Manual

Contents

• Starting up
• Simple Search
• Approximate Syllables Search
• Searching in Phonetics
• Refining the Search
• Options
• Other Tips

Starting up

On Windows, simply double-clicking on the Tibthob icon should start the program.

On Linux, or other Unix system, the file tibthob.tcl is directly executable, like a shell.

The first thing you have to do is to select the dictionary: now automatically triggered, or else use the "Options" menu and the "Dictionary" item. You have to select the Rangjung Yeshe Dictionary in text form, something like ry-dic99.txt or later version. This setting will be kept for next sessions.

It is strongly recommended to copy the dictionary on your hard-disk, for better performance.

A screen shot of a TibThob window showing the different commands

Simple Search

This means actually that exactly what you have typed is searched for in the dictionary.
In version 1.1 and later, the search is no more case-sensitive: you can type for example 'SAMSARA' or 'Samsara' and you'll get any occurrence of 'samsara', 'Samsara' etc. (according to your karma).

Text can be found in the syllables forming a Tibetan entry header (in which case it is typed in Wylie notation) or it can be found in the definitions (in this latter case, it can be English or Wylie).

Type some syllables or words in the input area up rights of the window. Then click the 'SEARCH' button or simply hit the return key.

It is possible to restrict the search area , by using the option menu immediately at right of the SEARCH button:

• "in entry header": the (Wylie) string is searched only in entry headers, not in the definitions. This is the default behavior.
• "at start of entry": the (Wylie) string must begin the entry header.
• "in definition": the string (which can be Wylie or English) is searched in each entry's definition. This is useful for searching by meaning.
• "anywhere": the string (which is probably Wylie) is searched anywhere in each entry.

When many hits are found, it can be useful to refine the search, by requiring or excluding words in different areas of entries. See below the section Refining the Search .

Approximate Syllables Search

This mode is selected with the pull-down button just lefts of the input area, by choosing "Approximate Syllables:".

In this mode, "Approximate" means that some parts of syllables are not taken in account for the search: prefix letters (sngon 'jug), superscribed (ra mgo, la mgo, sa mgo), post-suffix letters (sa in practice), and little a (noted by a single quote) as single suffix.

A screen shot of a TibThob window showing the Approximate Syllables mode

This can be useful if you have some doubts about the exact spelling of a word. Also, sometimes a word appears in different spellings: this mode will find the variants.

For example, if you type "kha gro" as input, this mode will find words like kha grogs, kha sgrog, mkha 'gro, mkha' bgrod, mkha' 'gro .

Note that search areas "in definition" or "anywhere" are not relevant in this mode. They are equivalent to "in entry". But "at start of entry" is applicable.

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Searching in phonetics

This is probably the most remarkable feature of this software: it can search a word even if you know only its pronunciation, not its exact spelling.

This mode is selected with the pull-down button just lefts of the input area, by choosing "Phonetics:".

In this mode, the text you type in the input area is treated as phonetic notation.

For example type "kandro" in the input area, then SEARCH: TibThob will bring back words like bka' 'gro, mkha' 'gro, but not the kha grogs and kha sgrog that the Approximate Syllables mode would find. Or you can try "selwa" and find: sel ba, srel ba, gsal ba, bsal ba.

Phonetic Input Tips

• Umlauted vowels "o" and "u" are input by typing ':' or double-quote after them.
  If followed by "l" or "n", this is done automatically. For example typing "bonpo" will find Bönpo, "tho:drol" will find "thos grol".
• Umlauted "a" is typed as "e". Thus "al" and "an" are equivalent to 'el' and 'en' respectively.
• The space is ignored, but can have the effect of separating sounds: "po l" is not the same as "pol", because "ol" is recognised as "öl".
• In general, do not hesitate to add spaces between syllables if you don't find what you search.
• The consonants "k" and "p" at end of syllables are a recognised respectively as "g" and "b", but they must be followed by a space or be the last letter typed.

Imperfections

The phonetic conversion has some deficiencies:

• Syllables "ba", "ba'i", "bo" are systematically converted to phonetics WA, WEY, WO. This can be misleading if they appear as first syllable of a word. So if you have a word with the sound "ba" "bo", try to type "wa" "wo" etc... instead.
• Tibthob performs the nasalisation in words like Khandro or Gendun [when a syllable ends with a vowel or achung and the next syllable starts with a achung]. But sometimes the rule used is not applicable, and prevents finding a word.
  Note: this feature should probably be removed and Khandro, Gendun etc. treated as exceptions.
• Some exceptions are not correctly converted to phonetics from Wylie, and therefore cannot be found, like benza (ba dzra), dorje (rdo rje) etc...
• Some words like sangye are not found, because you should actually type "sang gye": the common phonetic transcription is not accurate enough.

Phonetic Options

Several phonetic input styles are selectable: use the the "Phonetic Settings" item in the "Options" menu.

In particular, you can choose between a "more strict" version and a "less strict" version. In the less strict version, sounds that are close are considered equivalent, yielding more hits and thus increasing the chance to find a word if its pronunciation is not precisely known.

More specifically,

• ka kha ga are considered equivalent, and in the same way ca cha ja, ta tha da, pa pha ba, and tsa tsha dza.
• The vowel sounds "e" and "ey" are equivalent.
• The retroflex "r" is ignored.

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Refining the Search

When a query yields many hits, it can be desirable to restrict the search by additional criteria.

By clicking the Refine... button, you make appear a line with an input field and some options.

Criteria are selected by the option box on the left. One criterion is exclude..., meaning that you can specify a piece of text that must not appear in selected entries. The other is Require..., meaning that you can specify a piece of text that must be present.

For example, searching "byang chub" yields more than 250 hits: suppose you don't want "byang chub sems" which appears more than 100 times, but want the word "practice" in the definition:

Then you can click the "Refine..." button: a new line with one input area and four buttons appears. You can click the leftmost button and choose "exclude:" instead of "require:" , then type "sems" in the input area, and click SEARCH.

This time, all entries with "byang chub sems" are discarded and you have only 155 hits. The you can refine more, by clicking the " Refine... " button (that has opportunately changed to "Refine more... ") and getting a new require/exclude line.

There you type the required word "practice", and you obtain only two items, having saved several minutes of your precious time, as well as some eye fatigue.

You can also choose the area in which the required/excluded words must appear.

The "clear" button removes the contents of the input area, making the criterion inoperant.

The "dismiss" button removes the criterion and its buttons.

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Options

TibThob's display is customisable through the "View Settings " item of the "Options" menu.

These options are persistent: they are stored at the end of the session and retrieved in the next session.

It is possible to change:

• The maximum number of displayed entries: it is limited to 2000, mainly to avoid performance and memory consumption issues. Anyway, it is unlikely that you will read such a big amount of text.
• The font, size and style for displaying Tibetan words
• The font, size and style for displaying definitions
• The indentation of definitions
• The highlight color for hits, and to enable/disable the highlighting

Other Tips

• Entries found can be exported to a text file, through the "Export" item of the "Files" menu.
• You can select text inside the display window and paste it into the input areas or any other application, using the Middle button or Right buttons.
• If you press the Control key while pasting, this has the effect of removing the former content of the input area.

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