eDIL - Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language (submitted as a single output with contextual information)
- Submitting institution
-
University of Cambridge
- Unit of assessment
- 26 - Modern Languages and Linguistics
- Output identifier
- 9444
- Type
- S - Research data sets and databases
- DOI
-
-
- Location
- http://www.dil.ie/
- Month
- -
- Year
- 2019
- URL
-
http://www.dil.ie/
- Supplementary information
-
-
- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
-
4
- Research group(s)
-
-
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- eDIL 2019 (www.dil.ie) is an updated and wholly revised version of the electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language. Dr Sharon Arbuthnot was the main researcher on the project, working under the direction of Prof. Gregory Toner, Queen’s University Belfast, Principal Investigator, and Prof. Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, University of Cambridge, Co-Investigator.
The research involved studying the language and meaning of an extensive range of medieval Irish texts (seventy-two editions, and a substantial number of scholarly articles) and making corrections as well as additions to the existing version of the Dictionary as a result of this original analysis of sources. In total about 5,000 changes were made, of which 3,782 were substantial. These were incorporated in a new version which was published online (August 2019). A Companion detailing the nature of the substantial corrections is provided as contextual information
(https://www.asnc.cam.ac.uk/research/Companion%20to%20eDIL%202019%20FINAL.pdf).
As the Senior Research Associate on the project, Dr Arbuthnot carried out the underlying textual research and drafted numerous Dictionary entries based on her findings. Her work was guided by the underlying research question: how can the meaning of medieval Irish words and phrases be elucidated by studying the material in its textual context? The entries were checked and augmented by the project’s PI and Co-I and entries were revised in discussion with them. Dr Arbuthnot’s independent scholarship and critical acumen were central to the process throughout.
The many insights with broad repercussions emerging from her research include an increased awareness of the importance of medical and botanical vocabulary in a medieval Irish context, as well as elucidation of figurative language. Illustrative of individual corrections is ingai (dil.ie/28613; Companion, p. 272), which had been understood incorrectly as ‘one transfixed by a spear’. Introducing words beginning with Q and NG has also transformed our understanding of the ‘conventional’ alphabet associated with Irish.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -
