File:   Read Me!
Author: Paolo N.I.D. Matteucci
E-mail:  matteucci@dm.unito.it
Date:    October 17, 1996


                 Italian Dictionary for Excalibur 2.3

This file shortly describes the new features of the Italian
Dictionary. Please read the WHOLE document before using the
dictionary.


MAIN FEATURES

- The dictionary has been thoroughly corrected and revised.
- It now contains corrected accented words (see the note below).
- Some words have been added, especially from mathematics, physics and
linguistics.


NOTE ON ITALIAN ACCENTS

As TeX 3.0+ allows the use of the extended character set, we have
chosen to catalogue Italian accented words using Italian keyboard
accented letters. In connection with this, only remark that accented i
and u have been catalogued with ACUTE ACCENT, even though you can find
only the corresponding `grave-accented' keys on your keyboard. This
has been done in accordance with the finest Italian printings and with
Italian language itself, since i and u are the CLOSEST anterior and
posterior vowels, respectively. Therefore it would be a severe
inconsistency to type, e.g., perch\'e (the e is ``only'' the
SEMI-CLOSE anterior vowel), and cos\`{\i} with grave accent just like
realt\`a, where the a is the MOST OPEN vowel (neither anterior nor
posterior)... Anyhow, if you didn't know that, don't panic! You've got
a Mac, don't you?  It's quite easy to ``ResEdit'' your keyboard
resource: if you don't know how, be sure a friend of yours does
(indeed, if you do have an Italian keyboard, you've probably already
reconfigured it for using special TeX symbols...).  In case you're
afraid or simply reluctant to do that, you can always create YOUR OWN
modifiable dictionary and add THERE your (obscene) grave-accented
variants (...accented i,u-words are so few!).


NOTE ON ADDED WORDS

It's impossible to mention all the words that have been added to the
dictionary. Let's only make few remarks:

1. Words have been added by checking several papers on mathematics,
physics, linguistics, philosophy and grapho-analysis written by
friends, colleagues and relatives. New words have been attentively
checked before being introduced in the dictionary. Too specialistic
words have not been added. The dictionary was eventually checked by MS
Word (TM).

2. Some words with optional accents have been added such as
princ\'{\i}pi and pr\'{\i}ncipi (but also principi), s\'eguito and
segu\'{\i}to (but also seguito), etc. As you can see, both variants
have been catalogued, even though, according to certain rules, they
aren't both necessary.  But, as we are speaking of ``optional''
accents, we preferred to include both forms because in some context
one meaning is less ``obvious'' than the other and so must be stressed
by an accent, in some other context the converse is true.


USE OF THE DICTIONARY

The dictionary is ``read only''. Please add your new words to your
personal dictionary. If you find some word which is missing and you do
think is ``essential'' to the Italian language (but please read the
note on the ``perfect dictionary'' below), send a message to the
e-mail address above: it will be added in future releases. Also report
any (real) error you find in the dictionary: it will be corrected with
joy.

-> For a correct spell-checking please also remember to check the
Single quote marks end of word box in the Options/Word Boundaries
menu!!!


NOTE ON THE ``PERFECT DICTIONARY''

A (word cataloguing) ``perfect'' dictionary is not a comprehensive
(Italian) Dictionary: it would be so only if it were clever at
understanding the different contexts in which a word is used, if it
could check all grammatical concords, etc. A ``good'' dictionary is
simply a (not too large) set of ``common words'' which can be found in
almost every context. It useless to catalogue some learned words such
as sema (semanteme) if one doesn't deal with linguistics. It's more
than useless: it's risky, because Excalibur will never correct them
and, voil\`a: you'll get your wonderful ``sema'' when you just wanted
to speak of a poor seme (seed)!  So it's maybe better to create
private monographic small dictionaries, than enlarging the main
dictionary itself.


TOTAL DISCLAIMER!

Although the present dictionary should work considerably better than
the previous one, the author disclaims all responsibility about errors
deriving from a fault of detection due to any possible misprint in the
Italian Dictionary. However, bug reports are welcome! Just send a
message to the e-mail address above.


                        Paolo N.I.D. Matteucci