EDD Online: Expanding and Exploiting the Electronic Version

Our TRP project SPEED (Spoken English in Early Dialects) recently produced a functional but provisional online version of Joseph Wright`s English Dialect Dictionary (EDD, 1898-1905). This beta version is the result of almost four years of industrious work, its compilation having been one of the declared main aims of SPEED. The availability of the EDD in electronic form for the first time enables the community of linguists to analyse the comprehensive dictionary (5,000 pages) by means of a sophisticated electronic search engine. Another major concern of our project has been the philological investigation of the EDD, mainly with regard to the somewhat neglected fields of Historical English, Spoken English and English Dialectology. In our submitted follow-up project, we aim to increase the functionality of our current electronic dictionary significantly, intending to implement features that go far beyond current standards of online dictionaries and will thus have the potential of functioning as useful models for other electronic dictionary projects. Amongst other features, we envisage the implementation of phonetic and morphemic search filters, visual dialect maps as well as a sophisticated kwik concordance mode. In addition, there is a considerable amount of software engineering and correction work to be carried out by our project team. Some parts of the entry structure have not yet been proofread for orthographic mistakes, and the results of the automated structure recognition also need to be verified systematically. On the philological level, a multitude of questions is waiting to be answered by our team and scholars worldwide. We are convinced that our technical and philological output so far justifies another major financial investment by the FWF: A functional beta-version is now available online, already being used by linguists all over the world. The members of the project team have some fifteen publications and eighteen project-related presentations on various international conferences on their record. In August 2008, a conference workshop, organised by us (at ICEHL 15, Munich), was concerned with issues related to the EDD. In July 2009, we organised an international project-related conference in Innsbruck (MMECL) with more than 60 scholars presenting their findings. The international acceptance of our project is also shown by our cooperation with a large number of colleagues from abroad, e.g. with the Kompetenzzentrum für elektronische Erschließungs- und Publikationsverfahren of the University of Trier. Notwithstanding these achievements, it is absolutely crucial for the quality of EDD Online to meet with further financial support in this vital phase of our work. The electronic dictionary is on the verge of becoming an indispensable resource for linguists and philologists and to serve as an example for other electronic dictionaries worldwide. But it needs to be corrected and refined in several respects in order to unfold its full potential. Supervised by Prof. Manfred Markus, SPEED started in July 2006 and will end in September 2010; TRP project number L283.

The main aim of the project has been to create a computer-based platform (interface) of the English Dialect Dictionary (EDD), compiled by Joseph Wright and published from 1898 to 1905. By its comprehensive size (c. 4500 pages) as well as its scientific quality and complexity this six-volume dictionary is unique. It provides an access to the dialects of the UK (including Ireland) as well as the USA and the English colonies of the late 19th century (Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the West Indies), encompassing the time from 1700 to 1904, i.e. Late Modern English. Moreover, it provides details on the roots of English dialect lexis since Old English, i.e. since 700. The project's merit primarily consists in providing real access to the multifaceted data of the EDD. Without machine-readability only a tiny fragment of this data would be accessible. Due to this restriction of the paper version Wright's dictionary had been quite forgotten on the shelf by English linguistics. But we can now present the wealth of information contained in the partly most detailed articles of the dictionary. As a result it can be said that dialectology as a linguistic branch, at least in English Studies, has remarkably been stimulated by our project. The complexity of the now possible search routines is reflected by the ambitious search parameters and filters of EDD Online. As search criteria we have implemented: headwords, full text, definitions, quotations, variants and diverse types of word formation, as well as phrases. To make things easier for the user, these parameters can partly be combined with each other. The search strings can also be optionally truncated. The so-called filters primarily refer to spatial dialect attribution, i.e. the question of the areas in which a dialectal word or pattern was common. In addition, the temporal attribution has been of interest: what year or span of years do the sources added by Wright come from? Moreover, six further filters have been implemented: part of speech, phonetics, etymology, usage label, authors/titles of sources, and morphology. All these filters, according to precise preconceived rules, can be combined with the parametes mentioned above. These combinations and a large number of additonal sub-fitlers allow for raising expremely sophisticated questions. On raising them, users are supported by a monitoring search protocol. Two of the pre-conditions for the functioning of the search routines were our careful digitisation of the dictionary's original and the ensuing scrupulous tagging of the text. First critics of our finished project, among these renowned international linguists, have called it "brilliant" ... "a wonderful tool" and a "clearly tremendous contribution ... to dialectology." The repercussions for dialectolgy: a revolutionary expansion of its topics and methods.