Goal: create a version of JMdict and JMnedict in JSON format with more comprehensible structure.

Principles:

1. More regular file structure
2. More clarity (mostly in naming conventions)
3. Less custom things

Grab results here: Latest release

Note: There are two versions of the JMdict dictionary: full and "common"-only. Dictionary entries are considered common if /k_ele/ke_pri or /r_ele/re_pri elements in original file contain one of these markers: "news1", "ichi1", "spec1", "spec2", "gai1". Common-only distributions are much smaller. JMnedict has only one version.

Requirements: Bash and Zorba

Usage examples:
> ./build.sh help -- show this help message
> ./build.sh download -- download source dictionary files
> ./build.sh convert jmdict 1.2.3 -- convert only JMdict, version 1.2.3
> ./build.sh convert jmnedict 1.2.3 -- convert only JMnedict, version 1.2.3
> ./build.sh convert all 1.2.3 -- convert all, version 1.2.3
> ./build.sh archive -- create distribution archives

Workflow:

1. Run ./build.sh download to download source XML files into a build directory.
2. Run ./build.sh convert all 1.2.3 (use proper version, you can add modifiers like -dev) to convert XML files into JSON versions.
3. Run ./build.sh archive to create distribution archives once you're done. Make sure you set a proper version.

• xref (array of numbers/strings) := one of the following structures:

  • [kanji, kana, sense_index] - full format, which lists both kanji (or other non-kana characters) and kana writings which this sense applies to, as well as index of a sense (counting from 1)
  • [kanji/kana, sense_index] - just one writing (kanji or kana) and sense index
  • [kanji/kana] - just one writing (kanji or kana)

  Examples: ["丸", "まる", 1], ["○", "まる", 1], ["二重丸", "にじゅうまる"], ["漢数字"], etc.

• tag (string) := all tags are listed in a separate section of the file, see the description of root JSON object

• version (string) := Semantic version of this project
• dictDate (string) := Creation date of JMdict file, as it appears in a comment with format "JMdict created: YYYY-MM-DD" in the original XML file header
• dictRevisions (array of string) := Revisions of JMdict file, as they appear in comments before DOCTYPE in the original XML file header. These only contain actual version (e.g., "1.08"), not a full comment. Original comments also mention changes made, but this is omitted in the resulting JSON files
• tags (object) := all tags: parts of speech, names of dialects, fields of application, etc. All those things are expressed as XML entities in the original file. Keys of this objects are tags per se, values are descriptions, slightly modified from the original file
• words (array of objects) :=
  • id (number) := unique identifier
  • kanji (array of objects) := kanji (and other non-kana) writings
    • common (boolean) := true if this particular spelling is common. This field combines all the *_pri fields from original files in a same way as [jisho.org][] and other on-line dictionaries do ("common" word markers). It gets rid of bunch of *_pri fields which are not typically used. Words marked with "news1", "ichi1", "spec1", "spec2", "gai1" in the original file are treated as common, which may or may not be true according other sources.
    • text (string) := any non-kana-only writing, may contain kanji, kana, and some other characters
    • tags (array of tags) := tags applied to this writing
  • kana (array of objects) := kana-only (with few exceptions) writings, typically considered as "readings", but these can be a word writings by themselves
    • common (boolean) := same as for kanji elements
    • text (string) := kana-only writing, may only accidentally contain middle-dot and other punctuation-like characters
    • tags (array of tags) := same as for kanji
    • appliesToKanji (array of strings) := list of kanji writings within this word which this kana version applies to. "*" means "all", empty array means "none"
  • sense (array of objects) := senses (translations + some related data) for this words
    • partOfSpeech (array of tags) := all parts of speech for this sense. Unlike the original dictionary file, this field is never empty/missing. In the original file, part-of-speech from earlier sense elements may apply to following elements, in which case latter don't have defined part-of-speech
    • appliesToKanji (array of strings) := list of kanji writings within this word which this sense applies to. "*" means "all", empty array means "none"
    • appliesToKana (array of strings) := list of kana writings within this word which this sense applies to. "*" means "all", empty array means "none"
    • related (array of xrefs) := xrefs to related words
    • antonym (array of xrefs) := xrefs to antonyms of this word
    • field (array of tags) := fields of application
    • dialect (array of tags) := dialects
    • misc (array of tags) := other related tags
    • info (array of strings) := other info
    • languageSource (array of objects) := source language info for borrowed words and wasei-eigo
      • lang (string) := language code from the ISO 639-2 standard
      • full (boolean) := indicates whether the sense element fully or partially describes the source word or phrase of the loanword
      • wasei (boolean) := indicates that the Japanese word has been constructed from words in the source language, and not from an actual phrase in that language. See Wasei-eigo
      • text (string or null) := text in the language defined by a lang element, or null
    • gloss (array of objects) := translations
      • lang (string) := language code from the ISO 639-2 standard
      • text (string) := a word or phrase

Notes:

1. All fields in all objects are always present, none ever omitted
2. Array fields are never null, only empty
3. The only place which allows null values is sense->languageSource->text field in word element

Same as for JMdict

• version (string) := Semantic version of this project
• dictDate (string) := Creation date of JMnedict file, as it appears in a comment with format "JMnedict created: YYYY-MM-DD" in the original XML file header
• dictRevisions (array of string) := Revisions of JMnedict file, as they appear in comments before DOCTYPE in the original XML file header. These only contain actual version (e.g., "1.08"), not a full comment. Original comments also mention changes made, but this is omitted in the resulting JSON files
• tags (object) := all tags: parts of speech, names of dialects, fields of application, etc. All those things are expressed as XML entities in the original file. Keys of this objects are tags per se, values are descriptions, slightly modified from the original file
• words (array of objects) :=
  • id (number) := unique identifier
  • kanji (array of objects) := kanji (and other non-kana) writings
    • text (string) := any non-kana-only writing, may contain kanji, kana, and some other characters
    • tags (array of tags) := tags applied to this writing
  • kana (array of objects) := kana-only (with few exceptions) writings, typically considered as "readings", but these can be a word writings by themselves
    • text (string) := kana-only writing, may only accidentally contain middle-dot and other punctuation-like characters
    • tags (array of tags) := same as for kanji
    • appliesToKanji (array of strings) := list of kanji writings within this word which this kana version applies to. "*" means "all", empty array means "none"
  • translation (array of objects) := translations + some related data for this words
    • type (array of tags) := name types, as specified in tags
    • related (array of xrefs) := xrefs to related words
    • translation (array of objects) := actual translations
      • lang (string) := language code from the ISO 639-2 standard
      • text (string) := a word or phrase

Differences from JMdict format:

1. kanji and kana have no common flag because in this dictionary priority data is missing (ke_pri and re_pri fields)
2. translation instead of gloss
3. translation->translation->lang seems to be always empty because the original XML file has no data in corresponding attributes, even though documentation says otherwise

Original XML files, JMdict_e.xml and JMnedict.xml are property of the Electronic Dictionary Research and Development Group, and are used in conformance with the Group's licence. Project started in 1991 by Jim Breen.

All derived files are distributed under the same license, as the original license requires it.

Source files of this project (excluding distribution archives containing JSON files) are available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License v4.0. See LICENSE.txt