# Mi'gmaq Dictionary Browse Consolidation

**Completed:** 2026-07-12  
**Live dictionary:** [mobtranslate.com/dictionaries/migmaq](https://mobtranslate.com/dictionaries/migmaq)  
**Ruling:** canonicalize the browse view without deleting or overwriting historical rows

## 1. Why this was required

Visual verification of the new translator exposed repeated headwords on the Mi'gmaq dictionary page. The page reported 13,643 word rows, although the archived Mi'gmaq Online source contains 6,974 entries. This was not a harmless layout duplication: two historical imports had created parallel records under two equivalent word-class taxonomies.

The audit found:

| Measure | Before consolidation |
|---|---:|
| Database word rows | 13,643 |
| Distinct normalized headwords | 7,061 |
| Repeated normalized-headword groups | 6,581 |
| Rows in repeated groups | 13,163 |
| Largest normalized group | 3 |

Exactly 6,581 older non-managed rows paired with 6,581 newer YAML-managed rows having the same normalized headword and normalized part-of-speech label. The newer rows generally held richer dictionary relations and the mapped recordings. The one three-row group was not fully duplicate: `Winpegijuig` has a noun record and a source-created verb-inanimate record. The consolidation therefore keys identity by normalized spelling **and** normalized part of speech, not spelling alone.

## 2. Data-preservation rule

No word, definition, translation, example, recording, or provenance row was deleted. Before migration, the complete affected state was exported to checksummed JSONL:

| Export | Rows | SHA-256 |
|---|---:|---|
| Legacy/canonical word map | 6,581 | `30d1b4d7feed427f4cba6268c814c5bcfe818dd2c5714cf64ef7931501d8e0d9` |
| Legacy definitions | 10,754 | `a7896845fbc68dd496e50dcbbd9c537415b4f5c866eb08109c8eb4ab17fac5b3` |
| Legacy translations | 9,053 | `c823cac98892655a8d00208819a887fff58a8da510e902a88c06db6cbf71153d` |
| Legacy examples | 6,713 | `d8a98da868fd33c307178ded21b577012316193621acca867fbc37f0471e1951` |

The exports, audit SQL, query logs, and checksum inventory live under `reports/` in the Mi'gmaq training research root.

## 3. Canonicalization method

The migration `20260712123000_migmaq_dictionary_canonical_browse.sql` runs in one transaction and refuses to commit unless it finds the expected 6,581 exact legacy/canonical pairs.

For each pair it:

1. selects the newer managed row with the same language, normalized headword, and normalized part-of-speech label;
2. copies legacy-only child content onto that canonical row with an explicit consolidation note;
3. preserves definition-to-translation associations where the corresponding canonical definition exists;
4. marks the older word row with `metadata.browseSupersededBy`, timestamp, and reason;
5. configures the language metadata with the non-destructive browse strategy;
6. verifies the final visible count and checks that no legacy-only definition or example remains absent from the canonical row;
7. commits only if every postcondition passes.

The application query layer excludes rows carrying `browseSupersededBy` from public lists, search, statistics, related-word lookup, and map browsing. Direct database and ID-based access remains available for audit and recovery.

## 4. Content moved forward

Reference comparison before migration found 3 legacy-only definitions, no globally legacy-only translation strings, and 111 legacy-only examples. To preserve relation structure as well as text, the migration copied:

- 3 definitions;
- 2,467 definition-linked translations whose association was absent on the matching canonical definition;
- 111 examples.

All copied rows carry a note naming the preserved source row. Idempotent `NOT EXISTS` checks prevent the migration from adding the same normalized child relation twice.

## 5. Postconditions

| Measure | After consolidation |
|---|---:|
| Retained database word rows | 13,643 |
| Browse-superseded historical rows | 6,581 |
| Visible dictionary entries | 7,062 |
| Duplicate visible normalized-headword + part-of-speech keys | 0 |
| Largest visible lexeme/class group | 1 |
| Active Mi'gmaq recordings | 28,323 |
| Recordings without a word link | 0 |
| Deleted rows | 0 |

The live first page now contains one row per lexeme/class and reports `Showing 1-50 of 7,062`. Browser verification opened `agase'wa'latl`, exposed three attributed word-pronunciation controls plus an example recording, and received HTTP 206 for the archived MP3 media request.

## 6. Recovery

To restore the former browse behavior without deleting the copied relations:

1. remove or disable the `isVisibleInDictionaryBrowse()` predicate in the application query layer;
2. rebuild and restart the web service;
3. leave all `browseSupersededBy` metadata and copied relations intact as audit evidence.

A deeper rollback can remove only the metadata keys and child rows bearing the exact consolidation note, using the pre-consolidation JSONL inventories as the reference. That operation should be performed in a transaction and is not needed for normal recovery.

## 7. Linguistic non-claim

This is record consolidation, not a linguistic judgement that homographs or polysemous forms are identical. Identity is limited to duplicate import representations with the same normalized spelling and part-of-speech label. Distinct part-of-speech records remain visible. No dialect, grammaticality, semantic equivalence, or community-approval claim is inferred from database identity.