Meeting setup

• Date: 27.4.2009
• Time: 09.30 Norw. time
• Place: Internet
• Tools: SubEthaEdit, iChat

Agenda

Cf. one of the following, depending on context:

• the upper bar of the SEE window (provided you use the JSPWiki syntax mode)
• the TOC in Forrest-rendered output, like HTML and PDF

Opening, agenda review, participants

Opened at 09:44.

Present: Børre, David, Maja, Sjur, Thomas, Tomi

Absent: Ciprian, Jovsset, Trond

Agenda accepted as is.

Updated task status since last meeting

Børre

• make XSL script to transform leaflet Forrest XDocs to an OOo Draw document
  • not done
• Implement new version of giellatekno front page without ToC
  • not done
• gt/Makefile remake
  • not done
• Set up the apache server for the risten.no beta on the linux box + Xserve.
  • not done
• check that the Divvun site and leaflet links work after the svn reorg
  • done
• make Mac screencasts of using our tools. Suggestion: use Copernicus - it is free
  • not done
• fix bugs!
• other:
  • Sent contracts to Åsta Vangberg, Anne Lise Dunfjeld and Bierna Bientie
  • Added quite a lot of texts to the corpus given to me by Maja Lisa

Ciprian

• check the processing of new corpus documents (error logging during conversion, conversion quality, documentation, etc.)
• make the pipeline of StarDict dictionary generation running on the Mac
• continue the search and testing of an appropriate tool for lexicon working (no xml-file editing via text editors!)
• incorporate the passives into the last version of the sme:nob
• continue the work at the Kildin-Russian dictionary
• check the possible bug in the sma:nob-swe dictionary
• fix the bug with the string length in the popup window (sma:nob)
• fix bugs!

David

• continue gathering sma corpus texts
  • ongoing
• contact the sami radio about older manuscrips after the election to the sami parlament (May 17)
  • not done
• send contract to Anne-Grethe Bientie
  • not done
• stay in contact with Š-blađđi about south saami texts
  • still waiting for reply sma adjectives ** onging
• work with derivations
  • ongoing
• meeting to coordinate discussions with Pia Persson with Jovsset, Maja
  • coordinated with Maja but not Jovsset

Jovsset

• Find a suitable infrastructure for the distribution of the CD version. Possible through the library bus, the language centres and common sami centres in all of Sápmi.
• write formal letter to translator of Gåessie dah jeatjebh åerieminie
• Write installation instructions for word 2003
• sma placenames in SGM document
• meeting to coordinate discussions with Pia Persson with David, Maja

Per-Eric

• follow-up contract from Lena Davidsson
• Try to find more smj texts
• work with missing lists
• fix bugs!

Maja

• contact NRK Nord-Trøndelag about recordings in sma and broadcast manuscripts
  • later
• more work on sma adjectives
• Send Lena Kappfjell and Harald Gaski a contract
  • has to wait, wait until we have receaved the contracts for Åsta Vangberg
• Send Sig-Britt Pärsson a contract -
  • done
• Need to start programming- fresh up/learn to program adjektives and verbs
• meeting to coordinate discussions with Pia Persson with David, Jovsset
  • done

Saara

• Include Vasta and Sahka in the log
• add new XSL/XML headers for proofing test docs
• Set up ways of adding meta-information for proofing correct corpus docs (source info, used in testing or not, added to lexicon or not)

Sjur

• make XSL script to transform leaflet Forrest XDocs to an OOo Drawer document
• continue to write a proofing API & implementation specification
• name db/risten.no
• follow-up on some Polderland-related bugs: 621, 630, 652
• InDesign documentation
• Contact Davvi Girji about cooperation on electronic dictionaries
• subcontractor work for sma proofing tools
• support and maintenance contract for sme and smj, MS+Adobe tools
• Sámi languages as part of Norsk språkbank
• leaflet: add InDesign text
• set up risten.no on eXist/XServe (as a beta version site)
• set up required infra for smenob on risten.no/XServe
• sma umlaut / derivation work
• send list of hotel guests in Trondheim to the travel agency
• fix bugs!
• other things:
  • CG syntax mode
  • CG out syntax mode
  • application to NFR with Trond
  • organising travel to Kbh for Ciprian, Jovsset

Thomas

• sma umlaut / derivation work
  • worked
• sma adjectives
  • worked
• finish reformulating the proper noun grammar like the verbs
  • not yet
• fix bugs!
  • nothing this week

Tomi

• make sure lexicon compilation works after the svn reorg
  • worked on it, found some problems
• start to make sma proofing tools
  • not yet
• document how compounding is controlled in the PLX conversion
  • not done
• fix double hyphen bugs
  • not done
• fix PL hyphenator bugs
  • not done
• fix PL and Hunspell conversion bugs
  • received comments from PL
• infrastructure remake
  • not done
• sma umlaut / derivation work
  • not done
• fix bugs!

Trond

• Register oahpa.no
  • Not done.
• Check for IP numbers in the log
  • Discussed with Saara. Still not implemented.
• fix bugs!.

Pedagogical software online

Meeting memos can be found at [http://giellatekno.uit.no/ped/index.html]

TODO

• Register oahpa.no (Trond)
• Check for IP numbers in the log (Trond)

Corpus gathering

Maja sent a few contracts last week.

TODO:

• continue gathering sma corpus texts (David, Jovsset)
  • older sámi radio texts would be very welcome as well (David)
  • Maja: NRK Nord-Trøndelag has a lot of recordings in sma, possibly also manuscripts - we should call them. We should wait, because I think they haven´t any manuscripts. We should talk to the south-sámi journalisth in NRK Sámeradio about manuskripts. We have allready Anna Jacobsen manuscripts, perhaps Anna Granefjell do have some? Sig-Britt Persson? Ristin Pärsson? Kjell Roger Appfjell? (Maja)
  • call Fylkesmannen i Nordland about sma material (Maja)
  • Š-bláđđi has some articles in sma, we should ask for permission to use it (David)
    • David has talked to them, will make a contract with them and Iđut
  • follow up on the sma Bible translations (David)
  • the Gun Utsi book is almost there - one contract missing (Jovsset)
• other contacts: Lena Davidsson, daughter to Lars-Matto Tuolja
• discuss infra improvements for corpus rep administration (Børre, Ciprian)
  • delayed till we are done with the gt/Makefile improvements
• meeting to coordinate discussions with Pia Persson (David, Jovsset, Maja)
  • Jovsset not yet informed

Promoting Divvun

TODO:

• make leaflet to inform about the project (Jovsset, David)
  • better Windows usage descriptions, with emphasis on the pitfalls (Jovsset)
  • add Linux info (Børre)
    • will do this this week
  • add InDesign text (Sjur) - requires installer
    • we now have an installer, but the text needs to be updated
  • make XSL script to transform Forrest XDocs to an OOo Drawer document (Børre, Sjur)
  • check that the Divvun site and leaflet links work after the svn reorg (Børre)
• distribute CD version through the library bus, the language centres and common sami centres in all of Sápmi. Gaaltije in Östersund for example. (Leif Åge, Jovsset)
• make a Mac screencast of using our tools (Børre)

Future plans, directions and ideas

See a separate document in plan/strat/5year.jspwiki.

Northern areas project

TODO:

• Attend a beginners’ course in Russian (priority: the alphabet!) near you..
• Keep potential key personel alert
• To a certain extent plan for The Thing

Infrastructure

To accomodate future enhancements in different directions (in rough order of importance):

1. test bench for all parts of our language technology efforts
   1. test bench enhanced, but not yet complet
2. set up the Leopard Server features for collaborative support:
   1. permanent chat rooms
   2. stored (and indexed) chat transcripts of the chat rooms
   3. iCal server / group calendars
   4. wiki
3. wiki? on G5 (is part of Leopard Server) or other web-based documentation
4. improve Forrest stability and i18n support ( the divvun crashes)
   1. Sjur has been working on better i18n and pdf rendering
   2. Børre has some ideas for getting back to serving static html files
5. reorganise the documentation:
   1. differ between target groups
   2. get better grouping
   3. decide what to write in forrest and what in wiki (cf. Apertium and [http://xixona.dlsi.ua.es/apertium/]) for a similar split)
   4. update/add missing parts
6. migrate lexc lexicons to XML, splitting the task
   1. Name lexica (the Name project)
   2. Dictionaries (already in XML, task is to integrate them)
   3. At least migrate the lexc open POSes (Komi as a pilot case)
7. change the look of the documentation web
8. use HFST as alternative to XFST
9. corpus content moved to Max Planck repositories? Norsk språkbank?
10. update infrastructure to allow content-restricted spellers for special target groups

All SVN issues are now resolved:

• http access not yet available (https only at the moment, but it works as anonymous checkout if the user is not specified)
  • not an issue
• UTF-8 problem in svn commit mails: the commit log text is garbled
  • solved

TODO:

• infrastructure remake: (Børre, Ciprian, Saara, Sjur, Tomi, Trond)
  • more modularised make / build infra (prepare for smn, sms, sjd, others)
  • merge gt, kt and st into one
  • modularised preprocess and spellrelax
  • alternatives to make:
    • SCons
    • makepp
    • Maven (for java-projects)
    • CMake
• make a test-all target that runs all tests we have (Ciprian, Sjur, Trond)
  • delayed until we have restructured the make/build process
• define and document testing routines (Ciprian, Sjur, Trond)
  • delayed until we have restructured the make/build process
• test iCal Server (on G5) (Børre)
• remove TOC from the giellatekno home page by using dispatcher (Trond)

Linguistics

We need a more fine-grained system for denoting morphological boundaries. Here’s what Sjur suggests:

1. word boundary: HH (H makes .H. unusable in twolc) (H is hash)
2. inflection: <, >
3. compound-like inflection: <H, H> (cf -gujmie) (lexc %<#, #%>) (H is hash)
4. derivation: «, »
5. compound-like derivation: «#, #» (cf -aktig, -skap in nob, swe, etc)
6. clitica: ‹, › - muorak and muorage but only muorasge and not muorask
7. opaque compounds (bringebær): H, H - * on the side of the opaque part (H is hash)

The multichar sequences should be defined as Multichar_Symbols.

It might be possible to distinguish, but do we need them?

the suffix -goahti- behaves:

• morphologically like a compound
• semantically like a closed-class word (begin, often, still, …)
• what is bringe#bær? A compound?

Motivation for the new border symbols:

• compound-like inflection and derivation should be hyphenated as compounds, although regular inflection and hyphenation usually is completely opaque wrt hyphenation.
• we don’t want to use the regular word boundary symbol for this purpose, since that can conflict with other use cases (like IR & indexing, where you want to index both the actual word form, the stem, and possibly substems as long as the stemming is transparent)
• on the contrary, a richer set of border symbols can be used to enhance e.g. IR
  • by coding bringeber as bringe*#ber we know that the compound is opaque and should not be split, but at the same time we know that the last part is the recognisable word ber, which can be useful for text classification and building semantic relationships - we can automatically deduce that bringebær is a bær.
• the regular affix boundaries have turned out to be useful in the making of Hunspell speller files (although the distiction between inflection and derivation was in the end not useful). The borders also make it easier to bind certain two-level rules to the correct contexts.

The guiding principle behind the symbols is that they provide more information in the transducer, and it is easy to discard the information later. The opposite is not true. Also, there is relatively little work involved in adding the symbols.

North Sámi

(nothing new, see proofing bugs below)

Lule Sámi

(nothing new, see proofing bugs below)

South Sámi

Adj->verb derivations is the next topic Verb -> adj -derivations (some) already written in, tentatively. This topic probably needs more consideration than A -> V.

TODO:

• reformulate the proper noun grammar according to the Trondheim discussions (David, Maja, Sjur, Thomas, Trond)
• Missing list (focus on closed class words and addition on missing nouns, adjectives and verbs) (David)
  • David made a new missing list from an OCR-ed book
• make a document for the SGL/SGM, sma section (David with Maja, Sjur)
  • placenames (Jovsset)
  • abbreviations (David)
• finish the umlaut / derivation work (Thomas, Sjur, Tomi)
• adjectives (Maja with David, Thomas, Trond, Sjur)

Name lexicon/risten.no infrastructure

Instead of building our own webforms and back-end update scripts, use XForms with a premade connection to our xml db. Orbeon XForms is such a tool (open source).

From the meeting with the terminology and IT teams last week:

• no major rework on the present search interface now
• no work on the editing section; instead:
• add existing lists of sanctioned terminology as separate term entities
• add a dictionary if we can make one with sufficient quality

This means the following tasks:

• find already approved lists, in paper or electronic form (term team)
• convert paper lists to electronic lists (term team)
• convert lists to standard XML (Sjur, Tomi)
• add prepared lists to risten.no (Sjur, Tomi)

TODO:

1. fix i18n bug in risten.no/G5 (so they will work without the proper locale request) (Sjur)
2. fix bugs in lexc2xml; add comments to the log element (Saara)
3. finish first version of the editing (Sjur)
4. test editing of the xml files. If ok, then: (Sjur, Thomas, Trond)
5. make terms-smX.xml <=== automatically from propernoun-sme-lex.xml (add nob as well) (the morphological section should be kept intact, in e.g. propernoun-sme-morph.txt) (Sjur, Saara)
6. convert propernoun-($lang)-lex.txt to a derived file from common xml files (Sjur, Tomi, Saara)
7. implement data synchronisation between risten.no and the cvs repo, and possibly other servers (ie the G5 as an alternative server to the public risten.no - it might be faster and better suited than the official one; also local installations could be treated the same way)
8. start to use the xml file as source file
9. clean terms-sme.xml such that all names have the correct tag for their use (e.g. @type=secondary) (Thomas, linguists)
10. merge placenames which are errouneously in different entries: e.g. Helsinki, Helsingfors, Helsset (linguists)
11. publish the name lexicon on risten.no (Sjur)
12. add missing parallel names for placenames (linguists)
13. add informative links between first names like Niillas and Nils (linguists)

Dictionaries

TODO:

• Set up the apache server for the risten.no beta on the linux box + Xserve. (Børre)
• set up risten.no on eXist/XServe (as a beta version site) (Sjur)
• set up required infra for smenob on risten.no/XServe (Sjur)
• Continue the dictionary infrastructure discussion (Ciprian, Sjur, Trond)
• end user documentation (how to download and install) (Ciprian, Trond)
• Contact Davvi Girji about cooperation on electronic dictionaries (Sjur)

Proofing tools

HFST-based proofing tools

TODO:

• start to write an API specification, and an implementation specification (Sjur)

Hunspell

Børre has released beta7, with working clitics, negation verb and copula.

OpenXSpell

As a middle-man between Enchant and MacOS X speller API, this is still interesting. As a direct Hunspell front-end it is not, cf above.

Testing

Spelling Error Markup

TODO:

• Set up ways of adding meta-information (source info, used in testing or not, added to lexicon or not) (Saara)
• test new and nested error markup (Sjur)
  • nesting still needs to be tested, depends on new ccat feature

Speller testing

TODO:

• test the error type selection feature in ccat (Sjur)
• make sure lexicon compilation works after the svn reorg (Tomi)
  • some small issues in the make file, but working now, it seems
• start to make sma proofing tools (Tomi)
  • not yet

Testing open-source Norwegian spellers

Sjur has invited the open-source group to test their spell-checker using our test bench. The response has been positive, we’ll see what happens.

We should go to their developer meetings, and present our work and how to work with language technology.

Speller bugs

List of bugs returned from Polderland:

• 621
• 630
• 652
• 656
• 676

Open issues based on test results:

sme

Version: Davvisámi, version 1.1, 2008-12-17

• 399 - REGERSSION: missing numerals (plural forms)
• 425 - X not recognized; single letters were left out - OPEN
• 435 - roman numbers - inflection of single letter numbers rejected, as well as some complex numbers (but is ok in smj) - still OPEN
  • we should pregenerate all numbers once and for all, and store them in a separate lexicon file
• 595 - prefix+name without hyphen (ovdaLot instead of ovda-Lot) - still OPEN
• 603 - suomabealdi accepted - still OPEN
• 606 - compound-tags LEXICON VUOHTA - OPEN
• 613 - short gen. as second compound part - still OPEN
• 619 - numerals and pronouns to NAMÁK and SASJ fails - vihttasoarttat remaining - still OPEN
• 629 - a taking part in compounding without hyphen - still OPEN
  • only open case has word A-finálaid compounded
• 642 - noun/adj/proper + hyphen + ain - still OPEN
• 647 - numerals+NOUN - still OPEN, open case has uppercase letters
• 648 - unmotivated suggestions with numeral+noun - still OPEN
• 728 - vowel shortening GenCmp+Left-tagged - still OPEN
• 779 - caseforms of pronoun okatahat

smj

Version: Julevsáme, version 1.1, 2008-12-17

• 435 - roman number - single letter numbers now recognised
  • we should pregenerate all numbers once and for all, and store them in a separate lexicon file
  • please note that inflection of single letter numerals is fine in smj, as opposed to sme
• 594 - REGRESSION: lågenanguoktáj not recognized
• 595 - prefix+name as split comp without hyphen - still OPEN
• 596 - C-giellan is not accepted - OPEN
• 647 - numerals+NOUN - still OPEN, open case has uppercase letters
• 648 - unmotivated suggestions with numeral+noun - still OPEN
• 650 - noun prefix+name compound without hyphen - still OPEN
• 652 - UPPERCASE-typos only get acronym-suggestions - still OPEN
• 692 - numeral-variants - all but one fixed (gáktsalågenantjuotakta), but still OPEN

TODO:

• document how compounding is controlled in the PLX conversion (Tomi)

Hyphenator bugs

Open issues based on test results :

sme

Lexicon version: Davvisámi, version 1.1, 2008-12-17

• 468 - Márkomeanu - still OPEN
• 547 - hyphen in front of vowel: Lotnolasealáhusas - still OPEN
• 548 - mid syllable hyphenation: Háliidivččen - still OPEN
• 549 - division without hyph: Váccedettiin - still OPEN

smj

Lexicon version: Julevsáme, version 1.1, 2008-12-17

• 547 - hyphen in front of vowel: Jienastimnjuolgadusá and Orgánajs - still OPEN
• 670 - Hard hyphen replaced with soft hyphen: 10-biejvvásattja (the word is not rec.; Bug #711) - still OPEN

TODO:

• fix PL hyphenator errors (Tomi)

Installer changes

TODO:

• test InDesign installer (Sjur)

User documentation

TODO:

• InDesign documentation (Sjur)
  • Norwegian translation received from Davvi Girji

1.2 release

Content:

• several smj bug fixes
• lexicalisations
• InDesign Mac & Win
• new OOo beta
• improved installers, at least for Mac, preferably also for Windows

Other

Summer holidays

Person	Dates
Børre	xx-yy
Ciprian	xx-yy
Jovsset	xx-yy
Maja	xx-yy????
Sjur	xx-yy
Thomas	130709-140809 ??
Tomi	xx-yy
Trond	290609-yy ?? (first three july weeks) + before or after

South Sámi seminar follow-up

David sent the list to Sjur, who will have a look, and forward it to the travel agency.

Travelling plans in the coming months

• Nesna conference on sma education and research, especially language
  • link? date? (sometime in May)
  • Maja could go there
• NODALIDA, Odense, 14-16.5. - Sjur, Trond, Lene, Ciprian
• EAMT, Barcelona 14.-15.5. - Linda
• Seminar (Forskarforbundet) 21.5-28.5 - Trond

Text to speech

To be started relatively soon. May?

TODO:

• discuss with Biret Ánne (Sjur, Trond)

MT and CAT

These are the next things forward. Two things to do before doing MT/CAT:

1. Makefile redo
2. xml transition of lexica

Corpus contracts + open source

The repository is properly closed/open now, and the availability of the source code should be announced.

TODO:

• announce the availability of our repository on relevant linguistic lists (Sjur)

Next meeting, closing

The next meeting is 4.5.2009, 9.30 Norwegian time.

The meeting was closed at 11:04 .

Appendix - task lists for the next five days

Boerre

• make XSL script to transform leaflet Forrest XDocs to an OOo Draw document
• Implement new version of giellatekno front page without ToC
• gt/Makefile remake
• Set up the apache server for the risten.no beta on the linux box + Xserve.
• make Mac screencasts of using our tools. Suggestion: use Copernicus - it is free
• fix bugs!

Ciprian

• check the processing of new corpus documents (error logging during conversion, conversion quality, documentation, etc.)
• make the pipeline of StarDict dictionary generation running on the Mac
• continue the search and testing of an appropriate tool for lexicon working (no xml-file editing via text editors!)
• incorporate the passives into the last version of the sme:nob
• continue the work at the Kildin-Russian dictionary
• check the possible bug in the sma:nob-swe dictionary
• fix the bug with the string length in the popup window (sma:nob)
• fix bugs!

David

• continue gathering sma corpus texts
• contact the sami radio about older manuscrips after the election to the sami parlament (May 17)
• send contract to Anne-Grethe Bientie
• stay in contact with Š-blađđi about south saami texts sma adjectives
• work with derivations
• meeting to coordinate discussions with Pia Persson with Jovsset, Maja
• find adresses to the children of Ella Holm Bull
• talk to Lajla Mattsson Magga about the dictionary

Jovsset

• Find a suitable infrastructure for the distribution of the CD version. Possible through the library bus, the language centres and common sami centres in all of Sápmi.
• write formal letter to translator of Gåessie dah jeatjebh åerieminie
• Write installation instructions for word 2003
• sma placenames in SGM document
• meeting to coordinate discussions with Pia Persson with David, Maja

Per-Eric

• follow-up contract from Lena Davidsson
• Try to find more smj texts
• work with missing lists
• fix bugs!

Maja

• contact NRK Nord-Trøndelag about recordings in sma and broadcast manuscripts
• more work on sma adjectives
• Send Lena Kappfjell and Harald Gaski a contract
• Need to start programming- fresh up/learn to program adjektives and verbs

Saara

• Include Vasta and Sahka in the log
• add new XSL/XML headers for proofing test docs
• Set up ways of adding meta-information for proofing correct corpus docs (source info, used in testing or not, added to lexicon or not)

Sjur

• make XSL script to transform leaflet Forrest XDocs to an OOo Drawer document
• continue to write a proofing API & implementation specification
• name db/risten.no
• follow-up on some Polderland-related bugs: 621, 630, 652
• InDesign documentation
• Contact Davvi Girji about cooperation on electronic dictionaries
• subcontractor work for sma proofing tools
• support and maintenance contract for sme and smj, MS+Adobe tools
• Sámi languages as part of Norsk språkbank
• leaflet: add InDesign text
• set up risten.no on eXist/XServe (as a beta version site)
• set up required infra for smenob on risten.no/XServe
• sma umlaut / derivation work
• send list of hotel guests in Trondheim to the travel agency
• announce the availability of our repository on relevant linguistic lists
• fix bugs!

Thomas

• sma umlaut / derivation work
• sma adjectives
• finish reformulating the proper noun grammar like the verbs
• fix bugs!

Tomi

• make sure lexicon compilation works after the svn reorg
• start to make sma proofing tools
• document how compounding is controlled in the PLX conversion
• fix double hyphen bugs
• fix PL hyphenator bugs
• fix PL and Hunspell conversion bugs
• infrastructure remake
• sma umlaut / derivation work
• fix bugs!

Trond

• Register oahpa.no
• Check for IP numbers in the log
• tts startup (with Sjur)
• sma umlaut / derivation work
• fix bugs!.