First CantoDict app - Hanping Cantonese Dictionary for Android

[markcarter]

I am the developer of Hanping Chinese Dictionary for Android and am delighted to announce version 2 or our Cantonese dictionary app: Hanping Cantonese Dictionary (Google Play Store)

 

This paid app works entirely offline and uses the same data behind the highly-regarded CantoDict dictionary.  

 

Over the years, I've received quite a few emails for Hanping to support Cantonese and so after recently negotiating with Adam at CantoDict, was finally able to get this done.  I want to say a big thank you to Adam for giving the go-ahead and also to the many CantoDict editors that have voluntarily contributed their time and knowledge to making the dictionary what it is today.  A proportion of the sale price goes to CantoDict towards running costs.

 

Both traditional and simplified characters are supported as well as Jyutping and Yale pronunciation (and search).  You also get handwriting recognition, syllable-by-syllable audio (real native speaker) as well homescreen widgets (so you can flip through your word lists) and clipboard monitoring.

 

Here are some screenshots...

 

   

[studychinese]

Alright, I just bought it to support it. Not studying Cantonese and do not intend to, but having a cantonese reference just in case could be useful, especially for reading Cantonese sentences.

[markcarter]

@studychinese thanks very much for your support. I hope you find it useful!

[ParkeNYU]

This is fantastic, I have been awaiting an app like this for quite some time. Thank you!

 

My only problem is that I only own an iPhone... 

 

By the way, are the tone colours customisable?

[querido]

I bought an Android tablet for this. I'd rather have fewer devices but THIS app is a must for me.

 

(ParkeNYU: In the U.S.? My choice was this, currently on sale. 7", 1920x1200, unwisely placed on/off switch, but battery life is really great. I also have Hanping Camera, Anki, and Jyutping Keyboard installed, but removed or turned off almost everything else.)

[ParkeNYU]

Not bad, but I'm not sure what else I'd use it for. I'm already in love with Pleco for Mandarin, after all.

[mikelove]

@ParkeNYU - Lots more Cantonese content coming to Pleco, FWIW - working on licenses for three different commercial Cantonese dictionaries (including a spectacular new one that should hopefully be coming out this year) and we're also adding Cantonese-specific meanings and about 10k new Cantonese-specific words to our free PLC dictionary.

[ParkeNYU]

Mikelove, Pleco never ceases to impress me!

 

Although it's a reach, I wish that Hanping, Pleco, or some other dictionary app would allow its users to create their own Romanisation schemes. I would happily pay top-dollar for such an add-on (I think it would mostly come down to letter-phoneme mapping). Although it's of course no fault of the software, Yale and Jyutping just aren't my cup of tea, and I'm grateful that at least Zhuyin is offered on Pleco for Mandarin.

[mikelove]

Thanks!

 

Interesting idea - not sure if it would have much widespread appeal, though. But assuming it parsed relatively cleanly (no awkward letter-to-tone mappings like Yale's blasted 'h's) it would pretty much just be a matter of swapping in a different mapping table, yes.

[ParkeNYU]

I agree that it likely wouldn't have a widespread appeal, but language enthusiasts (like me and several of my pals) would love it. As there is no 'official' Romanisation for Cantonese (both sides of the strait have agreed to Hanyu Pinyin for Mandarin), there are likely some folks who would at least prefer Broad IPA, HKIEd, Sydney Lau, Penkyamp, or Guangdong Romanization. Speaking for myself, I use a Romanisation of my own creation, alongside a Cantonese version of Zhuyin.

 

Well, a guy can dream anyway. I'm not sure how much money it would take for such an add-on to be justifiable.

[markcarter]

@ParkeNYU - Hanping Chinese Dictionary (Mandarin) also offers Zhuyin support. It even supports vertical Zhuyin as you can see here:

 

 

[ParkeNYU]

@markcarter

 

That looks amazing! I certainly wish that Pleco had vertically orientated Zhuyin, although I understand why that would be cumbersome to implement. Until I get an android device, I'll just have to gaze at your pretty pictures.

[mikelove]

@ParkeNYU - Not difficult to add, we just haven't had any requests for it; I'll consider this one of them and see if we can get it into 3.3. (actually on iOS 8 there's even a dedicated API call for adding ruby text like this)

[ParkeNYU]

@mikelove - That would be fantastic! I only worry about the size of the tone marks (the ones shown in Hanping are a bit small relative to the phonetic symbols, but that's a drawback of the font). Selecting the best font for such ruby text would be crucial.

[skylee]

Am I the only one to find it impolite to discuss pleco on a thread about Hanping started by the developer of Hanping?

[querido]

Not the only one. And, don't we already have more than enough Cantonese Romanization threads?

[mikelove]

Sorry, @ParkeNYU brought up Pleco and I felt I ought to respond. Mark and I have had (I believe) kind of an understanding that we don't get into each other's threads unless someone brings up the other one's app - e.g. in this Pleco discussion.

 

EDIT: that being said, at this point we are indeed off on something of a tangent and it'd probably be best to pull off everything from #6 or so onwards into a separate thread. (and apologies to all for any offense, I tend to jump in Beetlejuice-style whenever anyone mentions Pleco without stopping to consider whether that might come off as rude)

[markcarter]

We've recently updated Hanping Cantonese Dictionary with the latest CantoDict data (as well as a new Material Design icon )

 

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.embermitre.hanping.cantodict.app.pro

 

[querido]

When this app came out I bought my first Android tablet just for this. I set the wallpaper to none (or black), uninstalled or moved away everything except Hanping Cantonese, Hanping Camera and two other things, and shut off background processes or whatever that I didn't want. As I leave the dictionary open my friends/teachers thought it was a dedicated Cantonese learning device and they like it very much. One button wakes it up, I begin typing (characters, Jyutping or English) and it starts auto-searching. I scroll through the list if necessary. Just like that.

 

I do have Cantonese media consumption apps and Hanping Chinese (for Mandarin) one touch away too.

 

Edit: Oops, I already told you this. Four months later, now I'll tell you I'm still happy with it.

[markcarter]

@querido thank you very much for sharing and your support! Reading that made my day