Working on an historical dictionary: the Swedish academy dictionary project

Abstract

The Swedish Academy Dictionary is one of the world's largest dictionary projects. Work on it was started in 1884 and it will be completed by 2017. The dictionary describes the written standard language of Swedish from the beginning of the sixteenth century until the present. It is therefore both historical and contemporary. In this article the background and scope of this huge project are presented with a description of what an entry contains, and how it is constructed. The problems of describing a language simultaneously from both an historical and a contemporary aspect are also dealt with.

Keywords: chronology, contemporary dictionary, diachrony, entry, historical dictionary, language history, lexicographic description, standard language, synchrony.