Stage 5 Prepare the front and back matter.

The five stages of developing a dictionary. 1.Collect words (using semantic domains). 2.Add fields (automated if possible). 3.Define words (working one domain at a time. 4.Edit each entry for publication. 5.Prepare the front and back matter.

Design the covers. Pick a design that reflects something of the culture, such as the kimono design in this PowerPoint. You might want to consider a cultural artifact. Use a color scheme that is used by the people and that they find attractive. Make it eye-catching.

Produce the title page. (Look for a template coming soon with the DDP materials.)

Produce the copyright page. (Look for a template coming soon with the DDP materials.)

Produce the table of contents. (Look for a template coming soon with the DDP materials.)

Write the introduction. (Look for a template coming soon with the DDP materials.) Give information about the language. Give information about how the dictionary was produced and by whom. Explain the structure and parts of the article. Give credit where credit is due. Remember—few people will read a long introduction. Keep it short, sweet, and to the point.

Include a map. Include a map that locates the language area within the country. Include a large scale map with important towns and geographical features. Mark the boundaries of the language area. Indicate dialect areas and mark dialect boundaries.

Include a list of abbreviations. Your list of abbreviations should be part of your style guide and should have been maintained throughout the length of the project. If you didn’t keep a list, you will have to search your dictionary for them. If the only abbreviations are parts of speech, you can list them in the explanation of the article in the introduction.

Include a brief orthography guide. This is especially important for newly literate groups. The dictionary will be a powerful influence on standardizing the orthography. People will refer to it for the ‘correct’ way to spell a word.

Write a grammar sketch. (See the template in FieldWorks.) Tables are easier to find and understand than lengthy prose descriptions. Remember—few people will take the time to read a lengthy treatise. Keep it short and simple, and publish a companion grammar.

Include tables of important lexical sets. Consider including tables for the numbers, days of the week, months of the year. Consider a table of proper nouns— personal names, family names, place names—rather than including them in the dictionary proper. Skip this if you are going to include an index of semantic domains. Consider putting these after the dictionary proper as appendixes.

Print the dictionary proper. This is where the alphabetic listing of dictionary entries goes.

Generate the reversal index. If you are producing a bilingual dictionary, generate a second language-vernacular index. This is sometimes called a ‘finder list’.

Produce any appendixes. Some dictionaries include special appendixes for special sets of words. Consider including a list of semantic domains. Consider including a list of irregular verbs. Consider including a list of numerals.

Include a bibliography. This could go at the end of the introduction. If very little has been published about the language or in the language, list everything. List any previous dictionaries, especially if you referenced them or incorporated them. List any grammars of the language. List any literacy materials, such as a published orthography guide. List language learning materials. List published texts that you used in your text corpus.

Find a publisher. There are several publishing companies that specialize in minority language dictionaries. Look at published dictionaries in your region to see who the publisher was. Often the national university will be interested in publishing a dictionary.

Determine how many copies to print. Your publisher should be able to help you decide how many copies to print. Dictionaries tend to sell well. But minority language groups are often too poor to afford a large, well-bound book. On the other hand you may sell lots of copies to university libraries around the world. If your language is large and important for commercial or political reasons, you may sell lots of copies to people needing to communicate in the language. It is better to sell out and have to reprint, than to print too many and go bankrupt.

Find a source of funding. Your most likely sources of funding are the national government, international aid organizations, educational institutions, and private foundations. (Sorry, but I’m poor and cannot fund dictionaries.)