Introduction
All members of the language team can add words and phrases to the language site. Only Editors and Language Administrators can freely publish, edit, and delete words and phrases.
You must be logged in as a member of a language team to create and manage entries. To learn about how language teams work, check out our information on language team roles on FirstVoices.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mk5tdKkJvysvcrFxVrMKEIJbHWsSDYw9/view?usp=sharingAdd words and phrases
Log in and navigate to the Dashboard.
Click on "Create" in the left-side navigation panel.
Choose “Create a Word” for a word, or “Create a Phrase” for a phrase.
Fill in the form with your content. The form has several pages but most information is optional. You can click “Next Step” to move to the next page.
On the final page, indicate if the word should appear in the Kids Area and Games or not.
Click “Finish” at any point to save the entry.
Assistants: Once saved, the entry will be visible to members of your language team and can be reviewed by an Editor or Language Administrator.
Editors and Language Administrators: On the final page, you can indicate who should be able to access the word: only your language team, members of your language site, or anybody.
About the word/phrase form
Use the table below for tips if you are not sure how to fill out the word or phrase creation form.
Field | Guideline |
|---|---|
Word/Phrase | The word/phrase in the Indigenous language. |
Translation | Describe the meaning in English. If needed, you can add multiple meanings. |
Audio | An audio recording of the word/phrase being spoken. Add from your media library or upload a new file. |
Categories | Select vocabulary categories that the word/phrase relates to. For example: Animals, Food, Activities. |
Related Entries | Connect the entry to other words or phrases that it relates to. For example: a plural form, an example phrase where a word appears. |
Notes | Include publicly visible notes. For example: information relating to cultural practices of the community, implications or connotations of the word/phrase, literal translations which may be different from the word's meaning. If needed, you can add multiple notes. |
Acknowledgements | Note the original person who shared the word/phrase, or a book or document that the word/phrase was spoken by or found in. You can also acknowledge the team member(s) who made the entry. If needed, you can add multiple acknowledgements. |
Images | Illustrative images to help indicate the meaning. Add from your media library or upload a new file. |
Videos | Videos to help indicate the meaning or demonstrate the word/phrase being spoken. Add from your media library, link to Youtube/Vimeo, or upload a new file. |
Pronunciation (words) | Indicate pronunciation of the word in a sound-it-out or linguistic format that may not be a real spelling. |
Part of speech (words) | Indicate the grammar of the word. For example: Noun, Verb, Name, Question Word |
How to choose Word or Phrase? On FirstVoices, the only difference between words and phrases are that “Words” can have a grammatical part of speech (e.g. “Noun”). Many Indigenous languages have long words that can be translated as entire phrases in English – your team can choose how you would like to treat them.
Edit words and phrases
Only Language Administrators and Editors can perform this action.
Log in and navigate to the Dashboard.
Click on "Edit" in the left-side navigation panel.
Choose “Edit words” or “Edit phrases”.
Scroll through the entries, or use the search bar to find a specific one to edit.
Click on the pencil next to the word/phrase you want to edit. Or, click the word/phrase and a drawer will pop out so you can see its details. Then click “Edit”.
Make any necessary changes and click “Save Changes” at the bottom of the page.
If you are outside the Dashboard and find an entry you wish to edit, you can use the quick-copy button to search for it easily, when you are back in the Dashboard.
Delete words and phrases
Only Language Administrators and Editors can perform this action.
Follow the instructions to “Edit a word/phrase” until you reach the edit form.
Click “Delete word/phrase” at the top of the edit form to remove it permanently from the site.
A confirmation warning will pop out. If you are sure you want to remove the entry, click “Delete”.
Use Advanced Search to find and filter
Only Language Administrators and Editors can perform this action.
Once there are a lot of words and phrases in your dictionary, you may want to filter through the available words in specific ways. FirstVoices provides several sorting and filtering options in the Dashboard so that you can browse your dictionary in custom ways.
Log in and navigate to the Dashboard.
On the front page, choose the quick option “Edit words and phrases”.
Next to the search bar at the top of the dictionary list, click “Advanced search”.
The top navigation will now have options for sorting on the left, and filtering on the right. Choose different sorting and filtering options to customize the list that appears.
You can use the “Words / Phrases / Both” toggle in the top right corner to switch between different kinds of entries.
Quick reference. Team members can also go to “Reports” in the left side navigation to find some pre-set options. Any search or report can be customized with your choice of filters.
Use this search often? Bookmark the page in your browser for easy access.
Use custom reports to support your work
Teams may have specific goals about the “completeness” of their entries. You may be able to use the advanced search options to create dynamic lists of which entries to edit, or what to work on next.
Example: Track how much content you have published
Many language teams have reporting requirements – others just want to know how much work they have done on a regular basis! You can use the quick report options to track your content.
Go to Reports → Public content and write down the total number of entries.
Go to Reports → Members-only content and write down the total number of entries.
Do this as often as you need to. FirstVoices staff recommends doing it at least three times – at the beginning of your project, halfway through, and at the end.
Some teams check their totals monthly or even weekly!
Example: What to publish next?
If your team has a workflow where entries start as Team-only and get gradually filled out, you might have several steps of review before the word is published. You can customize a report to help you find which words are ready for review.
Choose Visibility → Team-only
If you require words to have a translation, choose Translations → Has translation
If you require words to have audio, choose Audio → Has audio
Review the words in the list and determine which ones are ready to be published for your community. Once you publish the word, it will not show up in the results anymore.
Example: Audio completeness goals
If your team has a goal to add an audio recording to every word in the dictionary, you could customize a report to support your workflow.
Choose Audio → Has no audio
Select Words in the top right
Once you edit a word by adding audio, it will not show up in the list anymore. This report will dynamically show you how close your team is to its goal.
Don’t forget to switch the filter to Has audio to check out how far you have come!
The FirstVoices team continues to make improvements in this area and we welcome your feedback. Let us know what you think by emailing hello@firstvoices.com!