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Citizen Science and the Hesse-Nassau Dialect Dictionary
The questionnaires of the Hesse-Nassau Dialect Dictionary
As the most modern dialect dictionary of its time, the Hesse-Nassau Dialect Dictionary was the first project at the beginning of the 20th century to incorporate the results of questionnaire surveys into the word articles. This approach is known as word-geographical principle which has since been used by numerous other dictionaries.
In addition to reference slips, the archive of the Hesse-Nassau Dialect Dictionary contains around 6,500 questionnaires answered by reliable participants. The information provided in the questionnaires was evaluated and collated by the Hesse-Nassau Dialect Dictionary office. However, only a selection of the collected data was included in the card index. As a result, the questionnaires still contain untapped information. Some of the documents are currently in a critical state of preservation as the questionnaires are regularly reviewed in order to produce dictionary articles and scientific queries. Additionally, some documents use paper that is of low quality or that contains a significant amount of wood.
Transliterating Digital Copies
Although the digitisation which makes the questionnaire catalogue of the Hesse-Nassau Dictionary accessible as a whole, is completed, evaluating and finding comprehensive usage according to modern scientific criteria is still difficult for an extensive data collection such as ours. This requires the transliteration of the existing linguistic material, i.e., translating the answers on the questionnaires letter-by-letter into distinctive, machine-readable characters.
For this purpose, we have developed an application with which interested parties can support us in transferring the language material.
Our experience at the Forschungszentrum Deutscher Sprachatlas shows that there are many people interested in this subject who still know the Kurrent script or simply enjoy deciphering manuscripts. Are you interested in becoming a “citizen scientist” as well? By dedicating some of your free time, you can make a valuable contribution to science whilst actively engaging with the dialectal diversity of your region. We are looking forward to your participation!
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