Creating a Lexicon of Bavarian Dialect by Means of Facebook Language Data and Crowdsourcing

Data acquisition in dialectology is typically a tedious task, as dialect samples of spoken language have to be collected via questionnaires or interviews. In this article, we suggest to use the “web as a corpus” approach for dialectology. We present a case study that demonstrates how authentic language data for the Bavarian dialect (ISO 639-3:bar) can be collected automatically from the social network Facebook. We also show that Facebook can be used effectively as a crowdsourcing platform, where users are willing to translate dialect words collaboratively in order to create a common lexicon of their Bavarian dialect. Key insights from the case study are summarized as “lessons learned”, together with suggestions for future enhancements of the lexicon creation approach

Bairisch 2.0: Erstellung eines Social Media-Dialektlexikons mithilfe von Crowdsourcing

This paper describes the creation of a Bavarian dialect lexicon that is based on social media and that was translated by means of crowdsourcing. In the process, we first obtain a corpus of dialect samples from the social network Facebook. For the translation of the dialect words to standard German, we involve the members of the social network, which allows us to produce a crowdsourced lexicon of Bavarian dialect words

Vielfalt und Integration - diversitá ed integrazione - diversité et intégration: Sprache(n) in sozialen und digitalen Räumen: Eine Festschrift für Elisabeth Burr

Diese Festschrift für Elisabeth Burr stellt Vielfalt und Integration in der Sprachwissenschaft und in den Digital Humanities in den Mittelpunkt. Die Beiträge berühren zentrale Fragen im Schaffen Burrs: Wie kann Sprache und ihre Variation in Abhängigkeit von sozialen und geographischen Faktoren adäquat beschrieben werden? Wie lassen sich informatische und digitale Zugänge dafür nutzen? Verknüpft werden sie mit ihr wichtigen und aktuellen Themen aus Sozio-, Gender- und Korpuslinguistik, Dialektologie und Sprachgeographie sowie den digitalen Geisteswissenschaften. Die Beitragenden sind u. a. Stefania Spina, Thomas Krefeld, Annette Gerstenberg, Lazslo Hinyadi, Carol Chiodo und Lauren Tilton, Manuel Burghardt, Øyvind Eide, Jürgen Hermes, Andreas Witt. Ray Siemens, Arianna Ciula, Alejandro Bía sowie Rob Evans

Models for collaborative engagement in the recovery and preservation of Maltese folk music (seeking new media practices to preserve and disseminate endangered musical genres)

The research focuses on the recovery and preservation of an endangered European music genre that, as intangible heritage, is threatened by a lack of political will to implement a planned strategy in order to establish a national audiovisual archive and fulfill international cultural obligations. In addition to safeguarding intangible heritage, as a facet of collective memory within a digital repository and through the use of new media technology, a model will be proposed, though not necessarily institutional, which may provide a stimulus for its revitalisation and continuity. This study emphasises on Maltese folk music and the important recovery by this author of a substantial magnetic tape open reel collection from the 1957-1988 era. Enthusiasts term this period as the golden age of this genre. The research draws from models of open source collaborative engagement, digital audiovisual practices and new media dissemination to fill this existing black hole in national archiving. With prime folksingers passing away, unique recordings in analog magnetic tape reels and other formats deteriorating, a proposal to address this scenario becomes all the more urgent. Since this musical genre is still active in Malta and no designated repository exists as of yet, new digitally-created folk recordings are also remaining orphaned, and the amount of retrospective material that shall need eventual recovery is ever-increasing.These tangible results attained by this author will be presented throughout the proposed model, based on various examples, including strands of DIY archiving and online collaboration. It shall also prove that the small nucleus of enthusiast archivists can, with a limited budget, apply the successful workings within it to other endangered musical genres, through trusted long-term preservation plans and use of new media in its many different facets as a tool that prolongs their continuity