SHANGHAI, June 22 -- THE first Shanghai dialect dictionary will be published in August while it will also lay the foundation for input software next year.

The dictionary, a project led by former Shanghai University professor Qian Nairong, compiled 15,000 words and phrases in the local dialect, Youth Daily reported today.

To offer easy access to learn the dialect, the dictionary uses a combination of pinyin and the English alphabet to indicate Shanghainese pronunciations as some sounds don't have pinyin counterparts, the report said.

All phrases are categorized according to their meanings, which is clear and easy to browse, the report cited Qian as saying.

"As Mandarin is now widely accepted, preserving genuine Shanghai dialect is a concern," the 63-year-old Qian said, adding that he applied to the city's social sciences research fund to make the project possible.

Kindergarten students are already speaking Mandarin, but many parents are concerned that their kids are falling behind in the local idiom.

Shanghai dialect is a language derived from Wúdialects spoken by about 80 million people throughout China's mainland.

However, Shanghai dialect was heavily influenced by foreign languages, particularly English, after becoming a port city in the mid-1800s.

For example, the word beer is pronounced "pijiu" in Mandarin, but "beeju" in Shanghainese. The local pronunciation of Canada, motor, sofa, chocolate and microphone are among almost a hundred words influenced by English.

In the early 1940s, some writers tried to produce novels and essays in the Shanghai dialect. But the effort stalled after the country began to promote Mandarin as a formal language in the 1950s.

Meanwhile, the dictionary will also be a major source for new language input software that will allow users to use a phonetic scheme to produce Chinese characters from words spoken in Shanghai dialect.

Software designers will input all the dictionary's phrases into the computer program this September. It will open to the public within a year, according to Qian.

"The input software will be an essential part of preserving the Shanghai tongue," said Qian.