The ABC of dialect: exploring historical notes digitally

Wider research context: Citizend have always played an important role in empirical linguistics. Especially in the field of lexis - long before the term Citizen Science was established to describe a methodological paradigm - they were not only passive suppliers of linguistic data, but actively participated in its collection. A prominent example, whose data collection will also be the focus of the planned project, is the "Wörterbuch der bairischen Mundarten in Österreich" (WBÖ) ('Dictionary of Bavarian Dialects in Austria').
Objectives: The TCS extension project aims at transcribing and evaluating the handwriting and lexis contained on the over 100-year-old WBÖ paper slips with the intention of engaging citizens with their linguistic and regional heritage, making the historicalinformation digitally accessible, and connecting to current research on lexis and language variation and change in the DiÖ project.
Methods: Citizens will be guided and trained in transcription, with citizen exoerts and academic researchers ensuring the validation process. The scans of the paper slips and the obtained knowledge will be made available via a web interface such as Zooniverse which is a well-known platform for citizen engagement.
Level of originality: Our approach is novel in that it brings together linguistic and cultural knowledge from the area of lexical research and variation in Austria that covers material from one of the largest and richest collections of Austrian language, the WBÖ collection, which was originally collected by citizens. We thus aim to process it together with, and make it available again for, citizens. Additionally, the project aims to establish an evaluation and reflection of this historical material, the meaning and use of Austrian German lexis, in the present day.
Primary researchers involved: The TCs project is led by Univ.-Prof. Dr. Alexandra Lenz, coordinator of the SFB "Deutsch in Österreich" and director of the ACDH-CH ÖAW. Dr. Philipp Stöckle will function as the reserach partner at the ACDH-CH ÖAW and the LIÖ platform, while Dr. Amelie Dorn will be the contact person for PP03 in the DiÖ project. Rebecca Stocker will be the main TCS personnel for the citizen science activities.