Woordenboek of the Nederlandsche Taal
The Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal ( WNT ; German dictionary of the Dutch language ) is the most important dictionary of the Dutch language . It is a very extensive historical-linguistic dictionary.
Beginning of the project
The initiative for the dictionary was taken in 1849 at a Netherlands Congress in Ghent . Matthias de Vries submitted a draft in 1851 and began collecting the sources in 1852. In 1864 he edited the first volume together with Lammert Allard te Winkel .
Changes to the concept
M. de Vries originally intended to compile a dictionary of neat literary Dutch of the 19th century, with a historical look back to 1637. That was the year in which the Statenbijbel appeared, the leading Protestant translation of the Bible in the Netherlands. (See also New Dutch , State Bible section .)
However, the next generation of dictionary editors has already changed this concept. The period was extended to around 1500. This closed the gap to the period of the Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek (Middle Dutch Dictionary). In addition, the limit to literary Dutch was lifted. The non-literary texts were now also evaluated, such as B. Announcements, legal texts, travel diaries, specialist literature, collections of letters, etc. In this expanded concept, foreign words and dialect words were also allowed that did not appear in the first volumes of the WNT.
This subsequent change in the concept meant that the first volumes were incomplete by the standards of the new concept. For this reason, an extensive supplement to the letter A was published in the 1940s and 1950s .
In the 1970s, efforts were made to edit the dictionary faster so that it could be completed before the year 2000. One of the measures was that literary material was no longer used if it was only documented after 1921.
spelling, orthography
The dictionary is written in the spelling of 1863, in the so-called spelling-de Vries-te Winkel ("Spelling of de Vries and te Winkel"). During the spelling reforms of the 19th and 20th centuries, the editors of the dictionary decided to keep the original spelling of the dictionary (from 1863) in order to preserve a certain degree of uniformity. See also History of Dutch orthography and Dutch orthography .
Comparison with other dictionaries
The WNT is much more extensive and detailed than similar historical dictionaries ( German Dictionary and Oxford English Dictionary ). On the other hand, the Oxford English Dictionary is much clearer and more homogeneous because fewer editors have worked on it in a shorter time.
Influence on other dictionaries
The WNT serves as a source and material basis for Dutch hand-held dictionaries , since it is too expensive for commercial hand-held dictionaries to collect and analyze material themselves. For example, in new editions of the van Dale, the new volumes of the WNT are evaluated.
scope
The WNT contains around 400,000 headwords (including 95,000 main headwords) and around 1,700,000 citations. It comprises 49,255 pages, spread over 40 thick volumes.
completion
In the 1980s, the editors of the WNT was up to the letter U and V come. In 1998 the dictionary was completed. In 2001 three supplementary volumes appeared with missing words, mostly from the 20th century. So the dictionary was worked on for about 150 years.
Web links
- The Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal online at the Instituut voor Nederlandse Lexicologie