Those who like to browse in bookstores are likely to find the new ABC Chinese-English dictionary series published by Shanghai Dictionary Publisher.

The series consists of the ABC Hanying Cidian (the 1997 edition of the Chinese-English Dictionary), and its pocket-size edition (2002), as well as the ABC Hanying Da Cidian (ABC Chinese-English Comprehensive Dictionary, 2003).

One may ask why these ABC Chinese-English dictionaries are there, when there are already so many reference books already on the market.

Indeed, these were some of the questions put to the 90-year-old editor-in-chief, Professor Emeritus John DeFrancis, when he asked me to join the dictionary project at the University of Hawaii in 2001.

"ABC" stands for "alphabetically based computerized," an innovative feature of the ABC dictionary series.

The ABC dictionaries apply the strict alphabetical order of words, which may consist of a single syllable/character or multiple syllables/characters. Words with the same pronunciation but different tones are ordered by their tones, from one to four followed by the neutral tone. Words with the same pronunciation and tone are arranged according to their frequency of use.

This feature contrasts sharply with the conventional mainstream Chinese and Chinese-English dictionaries, where the sequence of words is arranged by its first character. Such words as dajia (everyone) and daxue (university) are listed under da (big) because they both have the character da (big) as the initial character.

In contrast, ABC dictionaries list da (big), dajia (everyone) and daxue (university) alphabetically as words. Each has its own entry, and they are not necessarily next to each other. Between da (big) and dajia (everyone), there are nine pages of words in the ABC Hanying Da Cidian including daba (large bus), daban (dress/make up), daji (strike), to name just a few.

The advantage of maintaining a strict alphabetical sequence of words is that it simplifies the reference procedure once the pronunciation is known.

"ABC's unique 'single sort' ordering of entries means that one doesn't have to know the head character of a word in order to find it, as is the case with other C-E dictionaries," explained Stephen Fleming, a lecturer at the University of Hawaii.

"Linguistically speaking, ABC is contrary to the misleading impression given by the traditional way of ordering words in a dictionary under the head character of the word. The ordering of entries in ABC visually underscores the fact that Chinese is no different from any other spoken language.

"The smallest meaningful element of the modern spoken language is the word, not the (written) character."

Instead of the two-step look-up method required for conventional Chinese dictionaries, one can look up words in one quick single step.

With words arranged on the basis of pronunciation instead of characters, the dictionary enables users to find words heard but not seen in writing, thus serving as a powerful tool for non-native speakers of Chinese who have difficulties with Chinese characters.

For years, University of Pennsylvania Professor Victor Mair wished to simplify the reference procedures for users of Chinese-English dictionaries by compiling a dictionary in which words are alphabetically arranged. He had tried to persuade Chinese scholars to turn the "Chinese Pinyin Vocabulary (1989)" into a full-fledged Chinese-English dictionary.

Initiation

The opportunity came in 1989, at the conference "Characters and Computers" held in Philadelphia. A group of American and Chinese scholars discussed the possibility of such a dictionary.

In October 1990, an agreement was reached and work was dealt out among the scholars, whose participation and work was completely gratis and on a volunteer basis. Zhou Youguang, Yi Bingyong, Liu Youquan were some of the Chinese scholars involved.

Mair then contacted DeFrancis and invited him to join the project.

In 1992, it became obvious that the progress of the dictionary project was too slow due to the part-time contribution of widely scattered scholars with full-time jobs. DeFrancis, then retired, volunteered to shoulder the heavy burden.

The result was the ABC Chinese-English Dictionary, published in 1996 by University of Hawaii Press and in 1997 by Shanghai Dictionary Publisher respectively.

The former contains 72,000 word entries, while the latter has over 120,000 entries.

During the 15 years in which the two dictionaries were being developed, China experienced a quantum leap in its economic and social development, changing not only the general fabric of the country, but also the daily vocabulary of the language.

New phenomena needed to be named. Dictionaries reflect, to a certain extent, the dynamic nature of the changing world.

For example, words such as kelong (clone), yintewang (Internet), hulianwang (Internet), lukao (road test), tuoyang hetang hesuan (DNA) and shouji (cell phone) are all included in the new ABC Chinese-English Dictionary (2003), but not in its predecessor.

It is not because these words were not "born" before 1996, when the ABC Chinese-English Dictionary was first published. It is more likely that the phenomena that these words represent were not as widespread then as they are now.

The following words appear in both dictionaries, reflecting the start of their popularity during the first half of the 1990s': dageda (cell phone), miandi (taxi van), BP ji (pager), anlesi (euthanasia), A gu (stocks bought/sold in RMB), B gu (stocks bought/sold in foreign currency).

However, today, dageda - the heavy cell phone like a piece of brick and miandi - the mini version of the taxi van - have almost disappeared from urban cities. The former is replaced by shouji (cell phone), and the latter is used only to talk about a means of transportation which used to exist in China's big cities.

The examples above illustrate a small aspect of the close link between social dynamics and vocabulary, the most active and ever-changing part of language.

Catching up

Although ABC dictionaries try to capture this relationship as much as possible, it is hard to keep up with the changes for obvious reasons.

Some new words, or words which came to the attention of editors only after the dictionary went into press were left out, such as anjie (mortgage), yiyeqing (one-night stand), linglei (alternative) and wuyefei (property maintenance fee).

Despite these unavoidable limitations, the ABC dictionary series, with its large size of word entries, is well equipped to meet the various needs of both Chinese and non-Chinese users.

"The ABC dictionary is the most comprehensive, easy-to-use Chinese dictionary that I have come across in my 10 years of studying Chinese," said David Blythe, a PhD candidate in sociology at the University of Hawaii. "The font is readable, the layout accessible and just like the first edition, the alphabetical format means that finding new words is both fast and easy."

"A great advance over previous dictionaries...sets a new standard of convenience and usefulness," said Andrew G. Walder, a Hong Kong University of Science and Technology student.

Ever since the first edition rolled off the presses, University of Hawaii Press reprinted the 1996 dictionary as well as the pocket size one. So did its Shanghai publisher.

A version of Chinese-English computer software called Wenlin (issued by the Wenlin Institute) uses the 2003 dictionary for its wordbank. Wenlin is selling extremely well now.

Palm Computers will use the 2003 dictionary for its wordbank to replace the Oxford dictionary.

A few research institutions are also leasing the electronic version of the dictionary for research purposes. As the renowned Chinese linguist Zhou Youguang says in his review, the dictionary is of both practical and academic value.

He considers the ABC dictionaries the "fourth landmark" of large-scale Chinese-English dictionaries after the R.H. Matthews (1931), Lin Yutang (1972), and Beijing Foreign Languages Institute (1980) guides.

The author is a faculty member at the University of Canberra, Australia. At the moment, she is working as co-editor with John DeFrancis on the ABC Chinese-English English-Chinese Dictionary, to be published by University of Hawaii Press and Shanghai Dictionary Publisher.

(China Daily November 4, 2003)