Differences

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--- syntax_v2 [2026/05/03 12:42] – Update section about non-Chinese characters kbaiko
+++ syntax_v2 [2026/06/20 13:30] (current) – [Traditional and simplified characters] kbaiko
@@ Line 50: / Line 50: @@
 The Chinese word should consist of one or more Chinese characters, without any spaces in it. Both traditional and simplified forms should be provided, and the two must have the same length.
+For an official mapping between simplified and traditional characters, one can refer to the 通用规范汉字表. However, the 通用规范汉字表 is only a guideline - it does not cover every Chinese character, and we prioritize real-life usage over what the 通用规范汉字表 says.
+In particular, the traditional characters usually represent Taiwanese Mandarin usage, while the simplified characters represent mainland usage. The 通用规范汉字表 does not cover Taiwanese Mandarin usage, which can lead to discrepancies between the 通用规范汉字表 and CC-CEDICT. For instance, the 通用规范汉字表 indicates the simplified character 艳 was derived from the traditional character 艷, with 豓 and 豔 as traditional variants. However, in actual Taiwanese Mandarin usage, 豔 is most commonly used - which is why our entries are
+<code>
+豔 艳 [[yan4]] /.../
+艷 艳 [[yan4]] /variant of 豔|艳[yan4]/
+豓 艳 [[yan4]] /variant of 豔|艳[yan4]/
+</code>
+For some more examples of how to parse the 通用规范汉字表 into CC-CEDICT entries, see https://cc-cedict.org/wiki/references#variant_of
+In rare cases, characters are simplified based on "word-level simplification", meaning, the entire word is taken into account when converting between simplified and traditional characters.
+    * 彷彿|仿佛[fang3fu2] - 彷 does not officially simplify to 仿
+    * 份子|分子[fen4zi3] - 份 does not officially simplify to 分
+    * 座標|坐标[zuo4biao1] - 座 does not officially simplify to 坐
+These entries introduce "invalid" traditional/simplified character pairs, but the traditional/simplified forms of the word represent how the word is usually written in Taiwan and the mainland.
 ==== Pinyin ====
@@ Line 279: / Line 298: @@
 which indicates "bai3ke4" is a single pinyin section, matching the single Hanzi section of 兡.
-Another problem arises when an entry has a number with multiple digits, such as
+Another problem arises for entries with a number with multiple digits. Consider a hypothetical entry such as
+<code>
+11 [[shi2yi1]] /eleven/
+</code>
+which implies that the first 1 is pronounced "shi2" and the second 1 is pronounced "yi1". Or the entry
 <code>
-三體綜合症 21三体综合症 [[er4shi2yi1 san1ti3 zong1he2zheng4]] /trisomy; Down's syndrome/
+21 [[er4shi2yi1]] /twenty one/
 </code>
-as there are seven Hanzi sections but eight pinyin sections. In this case, {}'s are necessary in both the pinyin and Hanzi to delineate sections
+which poses a different problem - we have two Hanzi sections but three pinyin sections due to the extra "shi2" that is not present in the hanzi. To solve these issues, we have decided to group the number in {}'s and write the number out in the pinyin field:
 <code>
-{21}三體綜合症 {21}三体综合症 [[{er4shi2yi1} san1ti3 zong1he2zheng4]] /trisomy; Down's syndrome/
+{21}三體綜合症 {21}三体综合症 [[{21} san1ti3 zong1he2zheng4]] /trisomy; Down's syndrome/
 </code>