Re: [edict-jmdict] 生活費 and P

[Stuart McGraw <smcg4191@********>]

Jeroen Hoek wrote:
> Jim Breen wrote:
>> As for "D", I don't have a problem with the concept,
>> but we'd need to define the goal. If "P" sets out to be (roughly) the
>> 20k most commonly used words, what would "D" mean? The most common 5k?
>> Implementation is another matter. Where do we find a reliable and
>> authenticatable list of the most common 5,000 words?
>>   
> It would be a nice feature for automatically generating a set of "must
> know" words for use on flashcards and such. But I wouldn't start
> implementing it until a complete list is available. If such a list
> exists, I think it would be more in the 2000 words range, something that
> can be learned in a reasonable amount of time.

Another source might be from the vocabulary lists in
textbooks for Japanese language students.  I have a
vocab list for the Minna no Nihongo series (vols I
and II, ~2200 words),  and Nakama (~1200 words, might
be only the first  volume I found both lists originally
on the internet (although I made a lot of corrections
to the MNN list) so other lists may exist too.  There
might be some work to match the list words with edict
words (many MNN verbs are in -masu form for example,
or have particles attached) but it does not seem like
an insurmountable problem.

I imagine textbook authors select words for other
reasons in addition to commonness, but such a list,
based on a number of textbook lists, would certainly
be nice for the uses Jeroen suggests.