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this might sound like a strange question, but I have found a technical dictionary on the Internet that was described as "English–Chinese/Japanese". Being a complete novice in Chinese and having no practical knowledge in Japanese, I am not sure how's that supposed to work.

I understand many characters are the same in both languages and there are borrowings, but could somebody tell me what's the structure of this dictionary? Google translate is schizophrenic about this, but I also see Japanese syllabaries here. Can it be in both at the same time? Please take a look at these excerpts:

abandonment of cargo        放弃货载
abandonment of claim        放弃索赔
abandonment of water rights     放弃水权
abandonment value       废弃价值
ABAP, Advanced Business Application Programming     アバップ,R/3などSAPシステムの製作やアドオン開発に用いられる高級言語
abat-vent       通风帽,通气帽,障风装置,挡风装置
abatement and exemption from penalty        免除刑罚
abatement cost      消除有害事物的成本
abatement of smoke and dust     消烟除尘
...
hydraulically controlled plow       液压控制犁
hydraulically controlled reel       液压操纵拔禾轮
hydraulically coupled power plants      連接水系,一つの水系に複数の調整池があり,この水を利用して発電する連接水系では上流の発電所で使用した水を下流の発電所で再度利用できる。
hydraulically cushioned protection      液压减震的防护
...
pivotal line        枢轴线
pivotal member      中枢メンバー
pivotal method      要法
pivotal moment      重要な瞬間
pivotal player      中心人物
pivotal point       转折点
pivotal port        枢纽港
pivotal value       枢轴值

Thanks in advance for any comments on that.

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    It's a strange dictionary, seems messed up, with Japanese or Chinese words for one English word. Could you paste the link of it? – songyuanyao♦ Oct 3 '16 at 11:06
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Sorry that the other answer is not correct.

Is this dictionary Chinese, Japanese or both?

Both. Some words are not from Japanese kanji but from Simplified Chinese (Hanzi). Also, in many words the meaning doesn't make sense in Japanese, even if you map the simplified character to a Japanese equivalent.

However, there seem to be a word that doesn't exist and/or make sense neither in Chinese nor Japanese. For example, 要法 is such word. I don't understand any reasons to use this dictionary...

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  • Thanks for your answer, this is more or less what I suspected. – MrVocabulary Aug 18 '17 at 19:43
  • Obviously, this is a product terminology table. – Jacob Aug 19 '17 at 9:42
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Definitely a English to Japanese Dictionary. You can think of it as a English to Japanese Dictionary (with 漢字 for kanji)

pivotal method -> 要法 has no meaning at all in chinese. But the japanese words ようほう gives it a much better meaning.

Other words such as 消除有害事物的成本 has meaning in Chinese, but looks translatable to japanese.

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  • No, some are definitely not Jananese, like 消除有害事物的成本. – songyuanyao♦ Oct 3 '16 at 10:34
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    しょうじょ -> 消除, ゆうがい -> 有害, じぶつ -> 事物, However, Ill admit 的 is a particle used only in Chinese, I don't remember seeing it in Japanese. While 成本 is also chinese. – 辛祐賦 hsinyofu Oct 3 '16 at 10:40
  • So the whole sentence is just not Jananese. And note 索赔, 赔 is a simplified character. – songyuanyao♦ Oct 3 '16 at 10:58
  • So would it be correct to state, then, that this dictionary is just a composition of Chinese and Japanese equivalentes for English terms? Also, GTranslate recognizes 要法 as "the main law" in Japanese, but googling these two characters seems to bring up results mostly on .cn and .hk websites. – MrVocabulary Oct 3 '16 at 14:54
  • Btw, I found this dictionary here, but I don't know under what license: msckobe.com/links/dic – MrVocabulary Oct 3 '16 at 15:01

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