The Astronomy Thesaurus
Version 2.0: January 1995
Compiled by:
Robert R. Shobbrook
(Chatterton Astronomy Department, Sydney University, NSW, Australia)
&
Robyn M. Shobbrook
(The Anglo-Australian Observatory, Epping, NSW, Australia)
A Multi-Lingual Supplement to
The Astronomy Thesaurus
Version 2.0:January 1995
Principal translators:
Eugenia Gomez (European Southern Observatory, Chile)
Lucenya Kedziora (Australia Telescope National Facility, Sydney, Australia)
Nora Loiseau (Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, Spain)
Edith Sachtschal (European Southern Observatory, Germany)
Marie-Jose Vin (Observatoire de Haute Province, France)
Marina Zuccoli (Dept. Astronomia, Università di Bologna,
Italy)
This work would not have been possible without help from many other
people from the international astronomical community who provided a great
deal of scientific input, advice and proof-reading in all the languages.
These people are listed below in alphabetical order.
Josette Alexandre (Observatoire de Paris, France)
Heinz Andernach (Observatorio Villafranca, Spain)
Henri Andrillat (Université de Montpellier II, France)
Roger Cayrel (Observertoire de Paris, France)
Michael Drinkwater (Anglo-Australian Observatory, Australia)
Andreas Keltz (University of Sydney, Australia).
Reinhold Kroll (Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, Spain)
Suzanne Laloe (Institut d'Astrophysique, Paris, France)
Raffaella Morganti (Australia Telescope National Facility, Australia and Università di Bologna, Italy)
Jean Rene-Roy (Université de Laval, Québec, Canada).
Hans-Peter Reuter (Institut de Radio Astronomie Millimetrique, France)
Gero Rupprecht (European Southern Observatory, Germany)
Francois Spite (Observatoire de Paris-Meudon, France)
William Tango (University of Sydney, Australia).
Elena Zucca (Università di Bologna, Italy)
Introduction
The Astronomy Thesaurus (Shobbrook & Shobbrook, 1) provides information on how the main thesaurus itself was contructed and how it is designed to be used. For a background to the thesaurus project the reader should consult the papers listed in the bibliography. This multi-lingual supplement is designed to be used in conjunction with the full English thesaurus in order to obtain meaning and context for the terminology.
The original idea for a multi-lingual supplement to the The Astronomy
Thesauraus came from Marina Zuccoli who, during her work on the
Thesaurus,
mentioned that she might translate it into Italian for her own use at Bologna.
From there, the idea of the Supplement was developed.
The versatility of the main thesaurus is enhanced with the multi-lingual
supplement and will assist in the input and access to information, particularly
where online database techniques are used. It is envisaged that with the
new technology now available, foreign language keyterms can be incorporated
into the `knowledge base' of the computer system. Users will be able to
search either in their native language or in an unfamiliar language; the
expert systems will `translate' and gather together information in all
languages relevant to the information request. The translators and compilers
believe that such a tool will play a significant part in improving the
standardisation of the terminology used in this field, not only by the
librarians but also the scientists.
While it is true that most results of astronomical research are now reported in the main journals in English, many European astronomy libraries have their library databases largely in their own language. In addition there is a great deal of literature, both current and historical, which must be documented for inclusion in the databases of astronomy libraries in all countries. We believe this multi-lingual supplement will assist the astronomical community (scientists and librarians) with the use of terminology in the major languages of science - English, French, German, Italian and Spanish.
Scope and practical aspects of the compilation
All of the terms from The Astronomy Thesaurus have been translated
where possible; occasionally the English term has been adopted, or a question
mark (?) indicates that no satisfactory equivalent was suggested. In a
few instances it has been necessary to translate from a single to a multiple
term when more than one concept is required to express the idea. The languages
of French, German, Italian and Spanish were selected for pragmatic reasons
only. If others are interested in translating the terms into their own
language, the compilers would be very interested in hearing from them.
It is possible, using the Software `Lexicon' (5) employed for the original
English version, to develop a full thesaurus in each of the other languages.
Users would then have an in-house thesaurus in their own language for use
in their library. If enough interest is shown, this possibility may be
further investigated.
The preferred (upper case) and the non-preferred (lower case) terms
in the original thesaurus are translated, using the ISO standard 5964 (4)
as a guide in the translation process. The distinction between the preferred
and non-preferred terms is described in The Astronomy Thesaurus. In
many cases, the preferred and non-preferred terms in English translate
to the same term in another language. Conversely, one term in English may
have two or more alternatives in another language. We have given alternative
terms for many of the translations, using the best judgement of our many
translators and advisors. Note particularly that the ISO standard (4) states
that all languages in a multi-lingual thesaurus are to be accorded equal
status
i.e. all terms have been matched by an equivalent preferred
term (where possible) in all the other languages. However, at this stage
we have not, as in The Astronomy Thesaurus, specified a preferred
or non-preferred term for any of the other languages, except often to place
the one considered most appropriate as the first in a list of two or three
options.
Since there is no international conformity with regard to diacritics (accents, etc.) it has been decided to leave users to implement them according to their own keyboard systems. The accented letters for the non-English languages have been avoided by simply omitting the accents in French, Italian and Spanish. It German, it is acceptable practice to replace the lower and upper case A, I and O which have umlauts with the un-accented letters followed by an E, so that A (with umlaut) becomes AE, for instance. We have been advised that there is a system called UNICODE (2) which is likely to become the international standard. It appears that major software companies are investigating the adoption of this system for encoding the character sets of the world's languages. Until this has been implemented we cannot complete this multi-lingual supplement to suit everybody. We have however noticed in a recent U.K. computer journal (3) that the word processing software package `Universe' is apparently the first to adopt the UNICODE standard. It has been developed by Gamma Productions of Santa Monica and is marketed in the UK by Fontware Limited of Fareham.
There were problems associated with singulars and plurals, although
users will note that in languages other than English the conventions of
each of the languages has generally been adhered to (p. 21 of the ISO standard,
4). If users of this multi-lingual listing wish to load the terminology
into the thesaurus module of a database system it is recommended that the
terms be preceded or followed by an appropriate identifying letter for
each language other than the users' native tongue e.g. (G) WOLKEN
(I) NUBI (S) NUBES (F) NUAGES (E) CLOUDS.
Obtaining copies of the main Thesaurus and Multi-Lingual Supplement
The Astronomy Thesaurus (main English hardcopy version) is available
from the Anglo-Australian Observatory. Copies have been distributed to
all major libraries gratis. Anyone else requiring the hardcopy must write
or e-mail the librarian at the AAO. A small charge plus postage is necessary
to offset the costs of distribution.
The online version of the main thesaurus will soon be available via
the World Wide Web; meanwhile to obtain the `ftp' file from the
Anglo-Australian Observatory pleaase follow the directions given. If you
have any difficulties, please contact the librarian Robyn Shobbrook for
instructions.
Both the table features in the wordprocessor software Microsoft `Word'
and the spreadsheet software Microsoft `Excel' have been used, first to
compile and sort the multi-lingual supplement and finally to list the printed
version. In these formats (or in any sophisticated wordprocessor or speadsheet),
the list may of course be sorted in alphabetical order in any language
(i.e.
column). The printed version and all the `ftp' files are sorted
in English alphabetical order. At the end of this introduction will be
found a list of the various formats in which the Supplement may
be obtained.
An online text-file version is recommended as the most practical way
of searching for a foreign term and its equivalents when the English is
not known, such as may occur when a librarian is faced with cataloguing
a foreign language document. However, loading a spreadsheet file directly,
or loading a (tab de-limited) text file into a spreadsheet, will provide
the most readable computer screen; searches for a whole term - or
single words - in any language will then bring up neatly aligned columns
in the five languages.
We considered making available versions containing only the English
together with only one of each of the other languages, but it was decided
that the decision to omit languages could be left to the user.
The `ftp' files available
(A) You can access the ftp file by using the following commands (in
lower case):
1. ftp ftp.aao.gov.au
2.Log in using username : anonymous
3. Password: (your e-mail address)
4. Foreign user name: anonymous.
5. Change directory to: Lib_thesaurus
6. ls or dir (lists the files available)
7. change mode to: binary
8. Get trex.zip (or file preferred)
9.To local file: (give name preferred for your end)
10.Sending trex.zip...completed
11.To logout type: quit
(B) To obtain news about the thesaurus updates or new versions you can
access the Anglo-Australian Observatory home page via the following
address:
URL: http://www.aao.gov.au/
Name of the files available
This (Multi-Lingual Supplement) Introduction is available as follows:
(it will not include the formatting seen in this printed version)
MLSINTRO.dtx (Dos text)
MLSINTRO.utx (Unix text)
The main Multi-Lingual Supplement to the
thesaurus
will be found with the following options:
MLS2THES.mwt Microsoft Windows text, with tab de-limited columns
MLS2THES.txt Macintosh or Dos text, with tab de-limited columns
The Astronomy Thesaurus directory at the Anglo-Australian Observatory,
with filenames as follows:
DOS : TREX.ZIP
MAC TREX.SIT
UNIX TREX.TAR.Z
We suggest downloading the text files and investigating what your favourite spreadsheet or wordprocessor (perhaps its `text to table' feature) can make of them. If you are unable to fit them into a usable format, please contact lib@aaoepp.aao.gov.au at the Anglo -Australian Observatory.
Conclusion
The compilers of this multi-lingual supplement to The Astronomy Thesaurus
accept that there will probably be errors and omissions in the
Supplement,,
although they are not directly responsible for the translation of any terms.
The translators and the consulting scientists have done this work on a
voluntary basis, to the best of their knowledge and ability and using information
supplied to them by the compilers. We welcome suggestions from users of
the multi-lingual supplement regarding any of the translations.
Further details can be obtained from the AAO Librarian:
E'mail: lib@aaoepp.aao.gov.au FAX: 61-2-9372 4880
Bibliography
1. Shobbrook, R.M. & Shobbrook, R.R., 1994. "The Astronomy Thesaurus", published by the Anglo Australian Observatory, Epping, New South Wales, Australia.
2. "The Unicode Standard : Worldwide character encoding", Version 1.0, Volume 1. Published by the Unicode Consortium. Addison-Wesley Pub. Co, Inc. 2 vol ed. 1990/91. ISBN 0 201 56788 1.
3. "Gamma Universe for Windows" by Terry Pinnell. 'Upfront' news item in What PC February, 1994, p25.
4. ISO Standard 5964-1985 Documentation - "Guidelines for the establishment and development of multilingual thesauri". First edition 1985-02-15. International Organisation for Standardisation, Technical Committee ISO/TC 46, Documentation.
5. "Lexicon - the Thesaurus Generator". Software supplied
by Ray Walsh, of Brisbane Business Centres, Toowong, Queensland, Australia.