User:Monika.kirner-ludwig/sandbox

English Dialect Dictionary Online (EDD Online) is an electronic interface of Joseph Wright's comprehensive English Dialect Dictionary (1898-1905). It was created by Manfred Markus and his team at the University of Innsbruck (Austria), from 2006 to 2022. Its fourth version was launched in April 2023.

1. Main purpose and availability

Unlike the book version of the EDD, the Innsbruck online version is a toolbox allowing for selective queries regarding eight parameters (such as compounds and spelling variants) and for the application of a number of filters (such as usage labels, dialect areas, and etymological precursors). The access to the EDD Online is free of charge.

2. Wright's EDD as the basis of EDD Online

The book version of the EDD was compiled by the Yorkshire linguist and dialectologist Joseph Wright. His six-volume dictionary, which covers English dialects as used worldwide in the 18th and 19th centuries, is the most comprehensive dialect dictionary ever published. The EDD's 4,670 pages document the use of English dialects in the United Kingdom and most of the countries world-wide where English was spoken.

3. EDD Online: genesis

Manfred Markus initiated EDD Online as a project in 2006, which went through four stages, with the last version launched in 2023 (EDD Online 4.0). Financial support came mainly from the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) as well as the Tiroler Wissenschaftsförderung and the University of Innsbruck. In its early stages, the project was strongly supported by the Kompetenzzentrum für Elektronische Datenverarbeitung at the University of Innsbruck (DEA). as well as the Center for Digital Humanities at the University of Trier. The text of the EDD, after its scanning, typing and correction, was transferred into a 'vertical' XML-version, parsed (semi-automatically) and adapted to the coordinates of TEI (the Text-Encoding Initiative). The interface, providing access to the information contained in the EDD's entries, was created subsequently by using programming languages, editors and environments such as JavaScript, Oxygen, Netbeans, and the database management system. The project's third phase (in 2018) saw the implementation of the Supplement and Wright's Corrigenda.

4. EDD Online: query functions

EDD Online can filter out bits of information or summed-up data that are hidden, in some cases, within extended entries. Queries may refer to spelling variants, definitions quotations, compounds, and phrases, or individual strings within these categories. users can combine these parameters with filters ranging from dialect areas and usage labels to parts of speech and sources, and from phonetics and morphology to etymology and time spans. Truncation and the use of wildcards allows for retrieving words and strings triggered on certain filters. Users can, therefore, easily produce county-specific or other regional glossaries of their own. The interface provides a number of extra tools, such as the creation of quotation concordances and the quantification of results plus their automatic transfer of formalized data and into choropleth maps.

5. Relevance of EDD Online for dialectology

EDD Online applies new methods of analysis, in particular dialectometrical quantification. Dialectometry is based on the counting of a large number of dialectal features at a time and the automatic transfer of the yielded frequency figures to multi-colour maps. The approach implies abandoning a selective focus on singulkar observations, which may or may not be typical of a dialect area, in favour of the quantification of empirically based data. The value of EDD Online has been positively acknowledged by a number of publications.

6. References and further reading

Chamson, Emil (2012). "Etymology in the "English Dialect Dictionary"". In Markus, Manfred, Yoko Iyeiri, Reinhard Heuberger & Emil Chamson (ed.). Middle and Modern English Corpus Linguistics: A Multi-dimensional Approach. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. pp. 225–240. Crystal, David (2015). The Disappearing Dictionary: A Treasure of Lost English Dialect Words. London: MacMillan. Ellis, Alexander J. (1889). On Early English Pronunciation, with Especial Reference to Shakespere (sic!) and Chaucer. Vol. V. EETS ES 56. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Gneuss, Helmut (1996). English Language Scholarship: A Survey and Bibliography from the Beginnings to the End of the Nineteenth Century. Binghamton, New York. Goebl, Hans (2007). "A Bunch of Dialectometric Flowers: A Brief Introduction to Dialectometry". In Smit, Ute, Stefan Dollinger, Julia Hüttner, Gunter Kaltenböck & Ursula Lutzky (ed.). Tracing English through Time: Explorations in Language Variation. In Honour of Herbert Schendl on the Occasion of his 65th Birthday. Wien: Braumüller. pp. 133–183. Heuberger, Reinhard (2010). "Retrieving Pragmatic Information in Wright's EDD Online: Methods, Benefits and Problems". In Markus, Manfred, Clive Upton & Reinhard Heuberger (ed.). Joseph Wright’s English Dialect Dictionary and Beyond: Studies in Late Modern English Dialectology. Frankfurt/M.: Peter Lang. pp. 153–167. Markus, Manfred (2010). "Diminutives in English Standard and Dialects: A Survey Based on Wright's English Dialect Dictionary". In Markus, Manfred, Clive Upton and Reinhard Heuberger (ed.). Joseph Wright’s English Dialect Dictionary and Beyond: Studies in Late Modern English Dialectology. Frankfurt am Main etc.: Peter Lang. pp. 111–129. Markus, Manfred (2015). "Spoken Features of Interjections in English Dialect (based on Joseph Wright's English Dialect Dictionary)". In Taavitsainen, Irma, Merja Kytö, Claudia Claridge & Jeremy Smith (ed.). Developments in English: Expanding Electronic Evidence. Cambridge: Cambridge UP. pp. 116–134. Markus, Manfred (2017). "Review of Monika Wegmann. 2016. Language in Space: The Cartographic Representation of Dialects. Travaux de Linguistique et de Philologie. Strasbourg: Éditions de Linguistique et de Philologie". Anglia. 136 (3): 530–537. Markus, Manfred (2021). English Dialect Dictionary Online: A New Departure in English Dialectology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Markus, Manfred (2021). "Aphesis and aphaeresis in Late Modern English dialects (based on EDD Online)". English Studies. 102 (1): 124–141. Markus, Manfred (2021). ""Dirt" in Dialect: Linguistic Ubiquity of Pollution in EDD Online". English Today. doi:10.1017/S0266078421000183. Markus, Manfred (2021). "OED and EDD: Comparison of the Printed and Online Versions". Lexicographica: International Annual for Lexicography. 37: 261–280. Markus, Manfred (2022). "A critical assessment of English dialect feature catalogues: Towards a dialectometrical evaluation of the English Dialect Dictionary Online". Lingua, online publication first view 279:1-18. 103428. Markus, Manfred (2022). "Phonetic spellings in the Late Modern English Dialect of the Isle of Wight". Journal of Linguistic Geography, online publication first view, 1-12. Markus, Manfred; Yoko Iyeiri; Reinhard Heuberger; Emil Chamson, eds. (2012). Middle and Modern English Corpus Linguistics: A Multi-dimensional Approach. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Müller, Thorsten; Stadelmann, Vera (2010). "From Cock-throwing to Croquet: Games and Sports in Joseph Wright's English Dialect Dictionary". In Markus, Manfred, Clive Upton & Reinhard Heuberger (ed.). Joseph Wright’s English Dialect Dictionary and Beyond: Studies in Late Modern English Dialectology. Bern etc.: Peter Lang. pp. 167–186. Onysko, Alexander (2010), “Phrases, combinations and compounds in the English Dialect Dictionary as a source of conceptual metaphors and metonymies in Late Modern English Dialects.” In Markus, Manfred, Clive Upton and Reinhard Heuberger (ed.). Joseph Wright’s English Dialect Dictionary and Beyond: Studies in Late Modern English Dialectology. Frankfurt am Main etc.: Peter Lang. pp. 131-153. Praxmarer, Christoph (2010). "Joseph Wright's EDD and the Geographical Distribution of Dialects: A Visual Approach". In Markus, Manfred, Clive Upton & Reinhard Heuberger (ed.). Joseph Wright’s English Dialect Dictionary and Beyond: Studies in Late Modern English Dialectology. Frankfurt/M. etc.: Peter Lang. pp. 61–73. Upton, Clive (2012). "The Importance of Being Janus. Midland Speakers and the "North-South Divide"". In Markus, Manfred, Yoko Iyeiri, Reinhard Heuberger & Emil Chamson (ed.). Middle and Modern English Corpus Linguistics: A Multi-dimensional Approach. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. pp. 257–268.