Nihotip

Nihotip is a web application designed to help users explore the intricacies of the Japanese language through a dynamic and interactive interface. With a React frontend and a Python backend, Nihotip provides a convenient way to tokenize Japanese text and delve into detailed information about words, symbols, and their respective properties via tooltips. Nihotip offers a robust solution for analyzing Japanese text at multiple levels of granularity.

URL of the published version: https://nihotip.netlify.app

✨ Features

• Japanese Text Tokenization: Input Japanese text and have it automatically tokenized into words and symbols.

• Detailed Word and Symbol Insights: Hover over words or symbols to access detailed tooltips that explain the structure, readings, and associated properties of each token.

• Level-based Token Breakdown: Nihotip organizes tokenized text into multiple hierarchical levels for easy navigation (features of different levels of tokens are listed inside brackets):

  • text
    • not a japanese word
      • punctuation
      • space
      • line break
      • string of not japanese characters
    • japanese word (part of speech)
      • part by reading
        • one or multiple kanji (kana reading -> part by reading)
        • digraph
          • big kana without tenten
          • big kana with tenten
          • small kana (respective big kana)
        • kana without tenten (romaji, association)
        • kana with tenten (respective kana without tenten)

• part by reading:

  Parts are gotten by cutting the reading of the word. They allow to determine the kana reading for each kanji. A part consists of multiple characters if the reading of a kanji along with the characters surrounding it can't be cut. For example, the part "大人" of the word "大人買い" uses a special reading "おとな" that can't be cut. That's why the "おとな" reading applies to the whole part.

• syllable:

  • single kana
  • digraph
  • kana with "っ", "ッ" or "ー"
  • single kanji

• Tooltip insights: Show how readings map to individual characters and provide additional details like romaji and kana associations.

🛠️ Getting Started

To run the application locally, follow these steps:

To run the application locally, follow these steps:

1. Clone the repository and navigate into the project directory.

2. Set up Environmental Variables:

   Create .env files in the respective directories with the following content:

   • client/.env

     Create a file named client/.env and add:

     REACT_APP_BACKEND_URL=http://localhost:3001
     

   • server/.env

     Create a file named server/.env and add:

     PORT=3001
     HOST=localhost
     FRONTEND_URL=http://localhost:3000
     

3. Open two terminal windows and run the following commands in separate terminals:

   # Start the frontend (React)
   cd client
   npm install
   npm start

   # Start the backend (Python)
   cd server
   pip install -r requirements.txt
   python main.py

4. Open your browser and visit http://localhost:3000 to start interacting with Nihotip.

🚀 Upcoming Features

• Multilingual Tooltips: Add the option to choose the language for tooltips to enhance accessibility for non-Japanese speakers.

• Word Normalization: Implement word normalization for more accurate tokenization results.

• Notes for Ambiguous Words: Provide detailed notes for words that belong to multiple parts of speech or have different interpretations based on context.

🤝 Contributing

We welcome contributions! If you'd like to contribute to Nihotip, feel free to submit issues or pull requests on the GitHub repository.