Preserving terminology in dialect through citizen science: The case of Austrian dialects

Description

Although Austria is a monolingual country, in which German is the main official language, it boasts a wealth of dialects. Since dialects are characterised by their diversity, the lack of a codified form and their oral tradition, terminology work in dialects has received scant attention in the literature compared to terminology projects in standard language. Since dialects are also rich in terminology, this poster addresses the ‘Wortgut’ citizen science initiative, which invites members of the public to collect expressions in standard and non-standard German in Austria. Participants can enter their data according to academic principles on a website. Although ‘Wortgut’ started as a lexicographical project, the participants contributed a breadth of terminology in standard and non-standard language, including dialects.
On the one hand, the terminology in dialect entered by the participants demonstrate terminological gaps between German dialects and standard German in Austria. On the other, it shows the citizens’ preservation efforts for dialects since the participants enter rare or obsolete terms in dialect, including terminology in the field of (historical) agriculture, handicraft or topology. This shows both the societal relevance of terminology and the different ways of how dialects (that are usually only transmitted orally from one generation to the next) are put into writing. Since the participants also create entries for emojis, the project also raises questions about the termhood of emojis. Moreover, additional training of the participants is necessary to further introduce them to the principles of terminology work as well as an investigation into the participants’ motivation for voluntarily collecting terminology in dialect.
Therefore, future steps include the preparation of a terminological module for ‘Wortgut’, the mapping of the lexicographical entries onto the termbase exchange format and the integration into larger research infrastructures as well as the Austrian Language Resource portal.
The participants’ focus on terminology in this citizen science initiative demonstrates the awareness and importance of terminology among the general public and lays the foundation for further terminology projects concentrating on Austrian dialects

Period	25 Nov 2021
Event title	EAFT Summit 2021: Terminology in Challenging Circumstances
Event type	Conference
Location	IrelandShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International