Aura V. @auravulpes@computerfairi.es

So, sometimes, phonologies happen to line up in really fun ways. Example: The language I'm currently working on, Kirai. It's phonology happens to allow fun words that I didn't expect, like "bro" and "seks". I must use this power for good, rather than evil.

So, followup on that weak solution comment: It's only a weak solution if there's free hydrogen. Otherwise, it's just water with chlorine and fluorine in it.

You could also get pedantic and point out that only distilled water is DHMO and tap water is actually of solution of water, salts and minerals, and (in many cities) chlorine and fluorine. Yes, your water is technically a weak solution of hydrochloric and hydrofluoric acids*.

*Maybe. I'm kinda just talking out my ass at this point, much like anyone who calls water "dihydrogen monoxide"

You could also hit them with the ol' μ-oxido dihydrogen or κ¹-hydroxyl hydrogen(0). It deals +5 confusion if the target doesn't actually understand chemistry

Stuck dealing with someone insisting on calling water "dihydrogen monoxide"? Here's some tips:
- Systematic names aren't always used. DHMO may be the systematic name, but hydrogen oxide is more correct (probably*).
- The IUPAC name is oxidane. If you want a technical name, this is the one (well, along with water).
- Yes, according to IUPAC, the technical name of water is water.
- Hydroxic acid. 'nough said. Who doesn't love acids?!

*It is according to my chemistry textbook

Oh! One final note: Everything I've talked about here is free. IIRC, Abbyy Lingvo is paid software, but the dictionary format itself is out there for anyone to use. XDXF's standard is up on Github. And, SIL releases both Lexique and FLEx for free. So, if you want to give any of these a try, you can!

This also, mind you, isn't a comprehensive list of dictionary tools. These are just the ones I've used. So, feel free to look around for others, including other dictionary formats like .dsl and XDXF, and see if any of them suit your fancy if nothing I've talked about here does

And, finally, none of this is to say you *shouldn't* use spreadsheets or whatever plain text setup you find best. After all, when it comes to tools like these, what matters is whether you'll use it, not how fancy or official it is. If you like your txt files, good! It's all about what you're comfortable using.

So, my personal recommendations? If you're on Windows, Lexique is *really good*, but SIL doesn't support it, so, take that as you will. If you want a portable dictionary, XDXF if you can handle XML and/or need the power, .dsl files otherwise. dsl files are nice and simple, and a lot of software support them. As for FLEx, unless you're *really* into your conlang, don't bother. It's way too complex for cataloguing alone.

Finally, SIL FLEx:
Uh...It's big.
Very big.
It's very complicated.
It has a lot of features.
It can log grammars.
It has built in analysis stuff.
I don't really know how to use it.
I'll probably stick to Lexique + PAWS, thanks. Maybe I'll learn how to use FLEx, but, gods, that's gonna take some time.

And now, a short tangent on Goldendict:
It's a nice piece of software, but I wish I could expand the languages it knows of. It doesn't like when I try to use VSK as an XDXF "from" language, and barely tries to do anything. I wish I could tell it "Oh, VSK is Valirisikakol" without having to compile from source. I also wish it had runic support, given my failure at making a runic dictionary that'd work with it

XDXF:
Oh, gods, this nightmare. Upside: It's powerful *as fuck* and Goldendict supports it fully. Downside: it's all fucking XML. If you're comfortable writing XML or HTML files, it's, as I said, really fucking powerful. If you're not, stay as far away as possible. Don't even think of touching it.

ABBYY Lingvo .dsl files:
So, I played with the next while on Linux. I wanted something Linux-native, and I started playing with what Goldendict supported. .dsl files aren't too difficult, which is nice, but Goldendict's support for formatting codes can be iffy at best. Not everything works. You'll still have the formatting, but it won't render it. But, not *terrible*. Basically, it's a fancy txt file.

SIL Lexique Pro:
I actually started with Lexique. Yes, no faffing about with spreadsheets and txt files for me. Straight to linguistic tools. And, I kinda like Lexique. It's simple enough to use and gives you a really good catalogue. The only problem is that the format isn't exactly easy to move to other software. But, the .db file is written as plain text, so it wouldn't be too difficult for someone to write a converter. It's just no one has yet

So, I like building conlangs. I like it quite a bit, actually. But, having just written lists of words can be...inconvenient, shall we say? Hard to find if a new word is similar to an old one, or to find a given word or anything like that. So, I like to use digital catalogues. What follows in this thread are some of my thoughts on systems I've used.

"🎵 Here comes the sun, doo doo doodoo, here comes the sun, and I say [incomprehensible, but sounds kinda like the opening to The Lion King] 🎵"

"I close my eyes and all there is is Bejeweled. There is no god."

But, yeah. In conclusion, people should have easy-to-use means to express themselves; death to cringe culture, people shouldn't be shamed for expressing themselves (unless, ofc, they're Nazis or whatever, but hopefully that's implied pretty well by, like, my general history of hating bigots and reactionaries and the like); and teens should have more tools to explore their own sexuality