The Database of the Southern Dutch Dialects : new opportunities for digital lexicological research

The Southern Dutch dialect area consists of four dialect groups; the Flemish, Brabantic, Limburgian and the Zeeland dialects, partly found in the Netherlands, in Belgium and in NordPas-de-Calais (France). Each of these dialects has been described in a separate dictionary. The Flemish, Brabantic and Limburgian dialect dictionaries are similarly constructed onomasiological dialect dictionaries, whereas the Zeeland dialect dictionary is semasiologically arranged. The Database of the Southern Dutch Dialects (DSDD) project, initiated by Ghent University and undertaken in close collaboration with the Dutch Language Institute, aimed to combine the onomasiological dictionaries into one platform accessible for both dialect researchers and a wider audience. Following the launch of the DSDD platform in 2020, dialect researchers can now make use of extensive search functionalities and geo-visualise their results on an interactive map. The DSDD enables searching for individual dialect words (e.g. puit 'frog'), for all dialect words from a certain municipality or region (e.g. all dialect words from the city of Antwerp) or for all dialect words belonging to a certain concept (e.g. 'frog') or theme (fauna). Filters are available to make the search query as accurate as possible. Based on the search results, interactive maps can be compiled, visualising the data in its geographical setting. The results can be clustered in various ways, using, for instance, frequency or etymologically related entries. The maps are flexible enabling the user, for example, to select the required level of detail to be visualised for the chosen region. A set of symbols and colours is available and can be arranged according to the user’s needs. The area map can be enlarged or reduced in size and printed or downloaded as a PDF file. In the future, the alphabetical dialect data from the Woordenboek der Zeeuwse Dialecten will be added to the platform. References Van Keymeulen, J., V. De Tier, R. Vandenberghe & S. Chambers (2019), The dictionary of the Southern Dutch Dialects (DSDD): designing a virtual research environment for digital lexicological research. in: Dialectologia. Special issue, 8 (2019), 93-115