Update: All dictionaries except for Welsh and Esperanto (which aren’t supported by kindlegen) have been updated to work with the Kindle 4.
I’ve had a Kindle for a little while and really like it, but one of the areas it seems to be somewhat lacking in is the availability of translation dictionaries, as such I knocked up a quick script to convert TinyLex dictionaries from the Apertium project into indexed Kindle dictionaries. The most useful of these is probably the German – English dictionaries as these are very complete (over 160,000 entries).
One thing that I find quite useful is setting the German -> English dictionary as my primary dictionary (instructions below) then opening the English -> German dictionary and searching for words (or vice versa), this way you can get an instant re-translation of any words suggested to you.
Installation
Kindle 3
- Download whichever dictionary you’re interested in from the list below.
- Transfer the file across to your Kindle as normal.
- Press the menu key on your Kindle.
- Select Settings.
- Press the menu key again.
- Select Change Primary Dictionary.
- Select your new dictionary from the list.
Kindle 4
- Download whichever dictionary you’re interested in from the list below.
- Transfer the file across to your Kindle as normal.
If this is the only dictionary you have for this language you’re now done. If you have multiple dictionaries continue:
- Press the menu key on your Kindle.
- Select Settings.
- Select edit next to Dictionaries on the second page.
- Select the language you wish to set the dictionary for.
- Select your new dictionary from the list.
Afrikaans
English -> Afrikaans 5165 entries
Afrikaans -> English 5195 entries
Esperanto
English -> Esperanto 12344 entries
Esperanto -> English 21316 entries
French
English -> French 6315 entries
French -> English 6304 entries
German (includes phrases)
English -> German 162004 entries
German -> English 166733 entries
Polish
English -> Polish 8107 entries
Polish -> English 9373 entries
Portuguese
English -> Portuguese 4759 entries
Portuguese -> English 4609 entries
Spanish
English -> Spanish 8488 entries
Spanish -> English 8769 entries
Welsh
English -> Welsh 6674 entries
Welsh -> English 8632 entries
Scripts
For those of you interested in the scripts used to generate these dictionaries, they can now be downloaded here: kindle-dict.tar.gz.
Most of the heavy lifting is done by the tab2opf.py script from StarDict-Lingea, the tinylex.sh script will do the necessary conversion to get a tinylex dictionary into a tab delimited format suitable for use by tab2opf.py, it’ll then run tab2opf.py and kindlegen on the output, providing you with a Mobipocket dictionary for use with the Kindle. See the README for more in depth instructions on how to make use of it.
