Lexicography and Open Access WeDictionaries for Languages with Freb Based Dictionaries for Languages with Few Speakers Erasmus Project

Project Title

Lexicography and Open Access WeDictionaries for Languages with Freb Based Dictionaries for Languages with Few Speakers

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2015

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Intercultural/intergenerational education and (lifelong)learning; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Teaching and learning of foreign languages

Project Summary

Open access web-based dictionaries are paramount tools in the battle to preserve linguistic diversity in the digital age. In an effort to sustain the local language, Icelandic, the University of Iceland (UoI) developed a high quality web-based dictionary database. Within its 50.000 articles, there is a large number of examples of use (31.500) and fixed expressions and collocations (10.000), all of which are translated into the target language, French.
This database has already been used to develop open access online dictionaries, ISLEX, between Icelandic as a source language and Danish, Swedish and Norwegian as target languages in cooperation with Nordic universities (www.islex.is). The dictionary was opened to the public in November 2011. An Icelandic-Faroese dictionary was added at a later date and opened in March 2015 and an Icelandic-Finnish dictionary was launched in March 2018.

The LEXIA project builds on the Nordic experience to expand it to more languages, starting by French were the need is sorely felt since the only existing Icelandic-French dictionary dates from 1950 and is outdated. The aim is to add more target languages to the LEXIA dictionary at later stages, the priorities being Spanish and German. The second main objective of the LEXIA project was to combine the elaboration of the dictionary with the organization and implementation of courses in theoretical lexicography at University of Sorbonne and University of Iceland.

Three universities were involved in the project: University of Iceland (UoI), University Paris-Sorbonne (UPS) and the University of Gothenburg (UGOT).
The main responsibility and project management was in the hand of the University of Iceland and the two research centres involved in the project:

The Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies is the main platform of the dictionary project. The Icelandic lexicographical database was developed within the institute and its lexicographical team is central in the work, dispensing technical support and linguistics consulting. The project has benefitted largely from the fact that the lexicographical database is constantly being updated as needed, e.g. by making corrections and adding new headwords and sometimes new examples of use.
The Vigdís Finnbogadóttir Institute of Foreign Languages is the managing partner of the project. The institute, in cooperation with the partner universities, established the target language team and organized courses in theoretical lexicography at the UoI and at the University Paris-Sorbonne (UPS).

The University of Gothenburg (UGOT) played a crucial role as the consulting member of the overall project. The Swedish partners worked with the Icelandic team on the ISLEX Icelandic-Swedish dictionary and their know-how was useful for expanding the project to other languages.
The UPS has a section of Germanic and Nordic Studies where Icelandic is among the languages taught. As a pilot project involving the elaboration of 3000 articles was conducted with success in 2014 and as the French State has given a grant to the continued work, the Icelandic-French dictionary is an obvious starting point.

The lexicographers and others members of the team are: Halldóra Jónsdóttir, Project Manager, UoI, Þórdís Úlfarsdóttir, Editor, UoI, Rósa E. Davíðsdóttir, PhD in Lexicography at the UPS and the UoI, Anna H. Hannesdóttir, Professor, Head of the Centre for Lexicology and Lexicography, UGOT, Karl Gadelii, Professor of Scandinavian Linguistics, UPS, Jean-Christophe Salaün, Translator, UPS, François Heenen, Associate Professor of French, UoI, Áslaug Marinósdóttir, Linguist, Ólöf Pétursdóttir, Translator, Sigurbjörg Eðvarðsdóttir, French teacher.

At a later stage, the aim is to add Spanish and German as target languages. Hence, the specialists of Spanish and German linguistics and lexicography at the UoI (Erla Erlendsdóttir, Professor of Spanish and Magnús Sigurðsson, Associate Professor of German) were involved from the start with the aim to build expertise for subsequent use in cooperation with their target language partner universities.

The main activities involved the lexicographical work, on the one hand, and the organization and carrying out of courses in lexicography on the other.
The courses in lexicography were organized as follows: fall 2016 and fall 2017 course at the UoI and spring 2017 and spring 2018 course at the UPS.
The team members met once a year for working meetings or working seminars (three transnational project meetings) which permitted to organize the teaching and training part as well the lexicographical work and to discuss problems encounterd in the work on the target language, French and to find solutions and coordinate the methodology.

The LEXIA dictionary is an innovative project, designed to serve as many users as possible. It is aimed at the general public and will be in open access for users at local, regional and international level.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 154616 Eur

Project Coordinator

HASKOLI ISLANDS & Country: IS

Project Partners

• UNIVERSITE DE PARIS-SORBONNE (PARIS IV)
• GOETEBORGS UNIVERSITET