Field Linguist's Toolbox

Language Technology

Language Data Management and Analysis

Downloads

Toolbox is the predecessor of FieldWorks, but still has a large following of users as a language data management and analysis tool for field linguists. Whereas Toolbox is highly flexible, the same flexibility makes it more difficult to share or publish data in a structured way. SIL recommends the use of FieldWorks, but continues to provide access to Toolbox for those who don’t want to switch.

Toolbox: Language Data Management Software

Whether you’re maintaining lexical data, parsing text, or interlinearizing scripts, Toolbox can handle your data with precision and ease. It’s entirely free to download and use, making it accessible to anyone.

Toolbox stands out for its ability to efficiently manage large corpora and extensive dictionaries. Capable of handling over a million words in a corpus and hundreds of thousands of words in a dictionary, it offers great power while remaining user-friendly. Users can start with a straightforward setup and gradually explore more advanced features with the help of included training materials—ideal for both self-paced learning and classroom teaching.

Full Design Flexibility

Toolbox is essentially a text-oriented database management system tailored for field linguists. It comes with pre-configured database definitions for typical dictionary and text corpus setups, while also offering full flexibility for custom designs.

Browse View

Toolbox’s DBMS includes powerful functionalities like customized sorting, multiple database views, and a browse view to display data in a tabular format. It supports multiple scripts within the same database, each with its unique font and sorting characteristics, and is compatible with both Unicode and legacy encoding systems.

Web dictionary

Toolbox includes a robust morphological parser and a word formula component to describe various affix patterns. It allows for the generation of interlinear text, exportable for use in linguistic papers, and supports the export of dictionary databases into publishable formats, exemplified by the Online Tlingit Verb Dictionary.