The Wordtank G50 was the flagship model of the
Wordtank line of
Electronic Japanese dictionary by
Canon
Canon or Canons may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* Canon (fiction), the conceptual material accepted as official in a fictional universe by its fan base
* Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture
** Western ca ...
before it was replaced by the Wordtank G55, which was again superseded in capability by the later G70 (though not replaced – it is still available as a cheaper alternative to the G70). It was introduced in May 2004.
Features
The Wordtank G50 is a bidirectional
electronic dictionary
An electronic dictionary is a dictionary whose data exists in digital form and can be accessed through a number of different media. Electronic dictionaries can be found in several forms, including software installed on tablet or desktop computers ...
, integrating both Japanese-English (97,000 entries) and English-Japanese (270,000 entries) dictionaries. It also contains a standard
Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
dictionary (230,000 entries) and an abridged version of the
Oxford English Dictionary
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a co ...
(80,000 entries). In addition, there is a
kanji dictionary (13,112 entries), with several thousand of the kanji having
stroke order animations available. The G50 was the first electronic dictionary to feature stroke order animations, making it useful to students of the Japanese language who are learning kanji. The G50 also includes a
katakana
is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji and in some cases the Latin script (known as rōmaji). The word ''katakana'' means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana characters are derived f ...
dictionary (52,000 entries), a Japanese
reverse dictionary
A reverse dictionary is a dictionary alphabetized by the reversal of each entry:
:kcots (stock)
:kcotseid (diestock)
:kcotser (restock)
:kcotsevil (livestock)
Before computers, reverse dictionaries were tedious to produce. The first computer-prod ...
(230,000 entries), and an illustration dictionary (2,600 entries).
Although the G50's feature set, particularly its variety of dictionaries, is extensive, it lacks stylus input (which, on some models, allows
kanji
are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese ...
to be looked up by drawing them) and sound output (for pronunciation), which are available on some competing models. It also lacks any furigana help for kanji, this mean that if you want to translate a word from English to Japanese you will only get the translation in Chinese characters. No translation with Hiragana is extremely unhelpful for non-Japanese.
Use
Although
Canon
Canon or Canons may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* Canon (fiction), the conceptual material accepted as official in a fictional universe by its fan base
* Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture
** Western ca ...
only sells and supports its electronic dictionaries in
Japan, the G50 has been exported (primarily by Japanese retailers) and sold to English-speaking students of the Japanese language around the world. The appeal of the G50 is that it can replace large paper volumes, including
bidirectional dictionaries and
kanji dictionaries, with a portable device, while also making the search process faster.
Canon Wordtank Official Page
{{Dictionaries of Japanese
Japanese dictionaries