Living Dictionaries — Reviews & Guides

Resource Type: Video

Living Tongues. “Tutorials.” Living Dictionaries. https://livingdictionaries.app/tutorials. Accessed May 18, 2023.

The Tutorials page offers video tutorials in English and Spanish, offering brief overviews of how to get started with Living Dictionaries, including creating an account and a new project and how to add and edit entries within a dictionary.

Users new to Living Dictionaries and interested in video tutorials only may find it helpful to start their learning process here as the tutorials are basic and brief.

These video tutorials can be found here.

Resource Type: FAQ Page

Living Dictionaries. 2022. Frequently Asked Questions. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MZGkBbnCiAch3tWjBOHRYPpjX1MVd7f6x5uVuwbxM-Q/edit. Accessed May 3, 2022.

The FAQ document on the Living Dictionaries website is a useful portal for connecting users to specific resources such as tutorials. It also offers answers to common issues users may encounter. Topics covered in this document include how to create an account, make entries, record audio, make edits, and many other anticipated issues and processes.

Users new to Living Dictionaries will find this a helpful lace to start as it gives a broad overview of the software and its processes.

This FAQ document can be found here.

Resource Type: Video

Living Tongues. 2022. “Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages.” YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiYtwIJ6yAgO2_IeLMgrirA. Accessed May 3, 2022.

The Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages YouTube channel hosts webinars and tutorials. The Living Tongues team provide free webinars which can be attended synchronously or through recordings on YouTube. Upcoming dates for webinars can be found on page 1 of the FAQ Document. There are also free tutorials available on the YouTube channel. Topics include an Introduction to Living Dictionaries and Documenting Stories.

This resource allows users to connect with the wider Living Dictionaries community through webinar events and recorded tutorials and features.

This YouTube channel can be accessed here.

Resource Type: Website

Living Tongues. 2022. Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages. https://livingtongues.org/. Accessed May 3, 2022.

The Living Tongues website offers general information about Living Dictionaries, including funding information and the goals of the Living Dictionaries Project. Users can also find dates for upcoming webinars and news about the program on the site.

This website is useful for users looking for a broad view of the resource and keeping up to date on community events, development news, and tutorials.

This Living Tongues website can be found here.

Note: The Living Tongues institute will also send users an email they can reply to with any questions when they first apply for a Living Dictionaries account.

Resource Type: Academic Article

Anderson, G. and Daigneault, A. L. 2021. “Living Dictionaries: An Electronic Lexicography Tool for Community Activists.” Proceedings of ELex 2021, 339-360. https://elex.link/elex2021/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/eLex_2021_20_pp339-360.pdf.

Living Dictionaries:
An Electronic Lexicography Tool for Community Activists

Abstract:

“Living Dictionaries are comprehensive, free online technological tools integrating audio, images and other multimedia that can assist endangered and other language communities, providing a simple way to create high-quality multilingual documentation records. The platform is a progressive web application functioning within any Internet browser on any computer or mobile device, Android or iOS. If needed, Living Dictionaries can be created, managed and edited using only smartphones or tablets, which can function as complete workstations for recording and entering linguistic data and other multimedia. Living Dictionaries may be public or private and may include written entries with translations and example sentences in multiple languages and scripts, audiovisual files, parts of speech and semantic domains, morphosyntactic linguistic analysis and be tagged with other metadata. The platform is free because for almost all minority language communities the costs related to producing high-quality linguistic materials can be insurmountable. A moral imperative of the 21st century is the decolonisation and democratisation of linguistic resources. Online dictionaries should reflect the user communities, tailored to suit their needs as well as curated by citizen-linguists. Community resources have greater uptake and engagement by communities if they take a primary role in developing them.”

This article can be found here.

Resource Type: News Article

Mandis, I. 2020. “Talking Dictionaries: Creating Language Accessibility Online.” Wikitongues. https://medium.com/wikitongues/talking-dictionaries-creating-language-accessibility-online-bc39ebc09682.

Talking Dictionaries:
Creating Language Accessibility Online

Abstract:

“In the fight to sustain languages, talking dictionaries are a significant innovation that uses digital technology to make linguistic tools easily accessible to users around the globe.”

The article covers points including the value of multimedia entries, the ability of online dictionaries to store cultural knowledge, and the importance of addressing accessibility issues.

This article can be found here.

Resource Type: News Article

Moskowitz, C. 2012. “Native American Languages Siletx Dee-Ni Ashininaabemowin Facing ‘Extinction.'” Huffpost Science. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/native-american-languages_n_1286345.

Native American Languages Siletx Dee-Ni Ashininaabemowin Facing ‘Extinction’

This article details how tools, such as Living Dictionaries, can support under-resourced language documentation and community language use, by focusing on Siletz Dee-ni language community-based, digital language work.

This news article can be found here.