Soft Copy: Chuon Nath Dictionary
Sep 16th, 2008 by Jinja
Several weeks ago I was excited to hear this had arrived: Cambodia's most respected dictionary, as a searchable Khmer Unicode program. Produced by Open Institute and organized by the Buddhist Institute, this brings new readers to an old classic. I was pipped at the post (literally) by dead tree blog Phnom Penh Post, which managed to get an article out first. http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2008081521224/National-news/Computerising-Chuon-Nath.html
The software is now widely available on Khmer Unicode CDs that come with a keyboard purchase, which was a pleasant surprise for me to see yesterday. Hooray! Hardcore scholars may want to wait until version 1.0 has been reviewed and upgraded - as with any initial software release, there are always some things to tweak.
Buddhist scholar Chuon Nath wrote the dictionary as one of his many scholarly efforts. That it's stood the test of time both reflects on the level of scholarship in Cambodia and the change that this country has encountered since its publication.
Discussion:
http://www.khmeros.info/drupal/?q=en/node/2781
Download:
http://www.budinst.gov.kh/files/software/The_Khmer_Dictionary_of_the_Buddhist_Institute_Pack.rar
Thanks to Leang Chumsoben for the tipoff.
Tags: cambodia,IT,khmer,dictionary,reference,academia 
