Indiana University

IIK Dictionary Website Help

Instructions:

Website: https://indigenousknowledge.indiana.edu/resources/dictsearch

To Search:

  • Select English or "Indian" for language to search in.
  • Type in a word, words or word-part(s) to search for.
  • Select a dictionary (default is Skiri).
  • Select a language to sort by.
  • Click the Run_Search button.

Notes on character sets:

Searches are case-insensitive (e.g., WAK = wak); the only exceptions is the special character N (nasalisation).

When searching for a word in the "Indian" language you do not need to use accented characters (e.g. "atit" will match "átit", "a̒tit", "atit", ...).

Other substitutions:

  • ' (apostrophe) = ʾ (glottal stop)
  • ch = č, c-wedge (ch in 'church')
  • sh = š, s-wedge (sh in 'ship')
  • zh = ž, z-wedge (zh, z sound in 'azure')
  • gh = ǧ, g-wedge (= Spanish g in 'pagar')
  • x = ȟ, h-wedge (= German ch in 'Bach')
  • N = hook under vowel (nasalisation) (e.g., aN matches nasalised ą, ą́, or ą̀; aaN and aNaN both match nasalized ąą, ąą́, or ąą̀
  • h = ʿ (aspiration) (e.g., kh matches kʿ, chh matches čʿ)

Advanced Searching:

This search form is designed with the ability to make use of perl regular expressions. See the perl regular expression man-page and other online perl documentation for details on the regular expressions.

Basic uses of regular expressions:

  • Search only for entries beginning with "ckiri": \^ckiri (\^ anchors search to beginning of word)
  • Search only for entries ending with "ckiri": ckiri\$ (\$ anchors search to end of word)
  • Search only for the full word "ckiri": \^ckiri\$
  • Search for words starting like ckiri, but with any single/short vowel in the middle: \^ck[aiu]ri ( [ ] encloses a range of possible characters to match)
  • Search for words containing something like ckiri, but with any letter in the middle: ck.ri (. (period) matches any single character)
  • Search for ckri, ckiri or ckiiri: cki*ri (* matches the preceding character 0 or more times)