17 - Lexicography in endangered language communities

Summary

This chapter discusses a number of problems which are characteristic of lexicographic work in language-documentation projects on endangered languages. It explains the following issues: the planning of the lexical database and the dictionary, the compilation of word lists, the writing of entries, the transformation of the lexical database into a dictionary, and capacity building in the speech community. The chapter focuses on the planning of the dictionary project including setting the goals, the time factor, the selection of a language variety, orthographical matters, and the question of how much grammatical information is necessary or desirable. The outcome of any kind of lexicographic project heavily relies on the cooperation between the outsiders and their local counterparts, which in the first place requires emotional intelligence and social competence on both sides. The whole process of making a dictionary can raise awareness of the uniqueness and value of a language.