Living Dictionaries: New Features Launched!

Living Dictionaries are mobile-friendly web tools that support endangered, under-represented and diasporic languages. They include thousands of written entries for words and phrases paired with compelling audio and video recordings, as well as images. Led by community activists and linguists around the globe, Living Dictionaries are collaborative multimedia projects that can help languages survive for generations to come. These digital dictionaries represent the future of languages: vibrant and continually expanding.

Background
With nearly three decades of fieldwork experience around the world, researchers at Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages have the skills and methods in place to help communities document, protect, and promote their languages. The Living Tongues team has been refining the Living Dictionary software since 2006 and currently safeguards over 120 Living Dictionaries on the platform, with many more in production.

NEW FEATURES UPDATE: November 2020

Message for Dictionary Creators

We have a new name! To reflect the multimedia and ever-expanding, collaborative nature of our dictionaries, our platform name has been changed from “Talking Dictionaries” to “Living Dictionaries”. Your browser will automatically redirect you to the new URL of the website with no problem if you go to the old URL. For those of you who are currently working on your dictionaries, you will have to log in again.
Search and Speed: We now have a partnership with tech giant Algolia and our search engine capability is much better on mobile and on desktop. It allows you to search much more efficiently, as well as use new filters. You can search by word, part of speech, or semantic domain and much more. As you navigate through the website, you will notice that the speed has improved.
Dictionary View: You can view the dictionary content through “List view” and “Table view” which can be adjusted according to the type of data you want to see. We are also developing a “Gallery View” (in beta) for browsing by images.
URLs: There is now a unique URL for every dictionary entry, and for search terms. You can share those links with people in your community. It’s a great way to help speakers learn new words.
Interface: The interface is now available in English, French and Spanish. Please let us know if you see any errors!