The Cooperative Dictionary of the Rhinelandic Colloquial Language () was a website that both documents and collects data on the current distinct variety of German used colloquially in the Rhineland region - where some 15 million speakers live.
It is run by the Landschaftsverband Rheinland (LVR), a public body of municipal self governance of the Rhineland in West of North Rhine-Westphalia in Western Germany, under the auspices of the Bureau of Research and Documentation of the Rhineland (Amt für rheinische Landeskunde); and is the first of its kind - replacing interviews with individual speakers, or questionnaires, by an interactive web application quasi anonymously collecting scientific evidence about a contemporary language.
The Project started the interactive World Wide Web site towards the end of February 2007.
Website
The cooperative dictionary website has several pages describing what it is all about, how to use it, and such. It has an editorial-like "featured word of the month" series of articles which is added to every six or seven weeks. Its main areas are: Read (German: ) – allows reading the dictionary pretty much like a printed copy. Page layout resembles print. Catchwords are sorted alphabetically. Related words appear under their associated main catchwords. Each initial letter starts another page, only page size exceeds normal sheet length by far, meanwhile. Page (German: ) – The paging function permits access to individual words through a set of keyword lists, each covering a portion of the alphabet. Keywords link to the individual pages on words in the format, that also the search function presents. Search (German: ) – There is a simple and a slightly more sophisticated search form, supporting limited fuzziness and wildcards. They usually yield two word lists of links to pages on individual words. One list has catchwords only, the other occurrences in sample sentences presented with arbitrary catchwords. Any such word page presents the data already collected and edited for the word, and, usually, related words, and sample sentences demonstrating its use in everyday colloquial speech. After that, there is a form, where additional comments can be made by users. Submitted comments appear on the page at once, they are visible for everyone. Editors incorporate comments into word articles every now and then, and delete comments that are done. Contribute (German: ) – Missing words, expressions or phrase constructs, as well as any sort of information, can be entered into an online form here. Along with the submitters e-mail address (optional) and town, city or region (optional), everything is sent per e-mail to the team of editors. Submissions are usually integrated into the dictionary within several weeks. Participants are asked to submit words, and sample sentences. Optionally, they should also enter their regional background, e.g. the town or village where they live, or the region within which a word or expression is being used. They are under no obligation to do so, but they can enter their names for publication, and e-mail addresses, which are always kept confidential and not published. There is no login and no identity check. False impersonations are generally possible, but pretty pointless. The list of contributors having agreed to have their names mentioned grew from none to about 600 in the 1st half year once the website was online. Submissions take several days to weeks, occasionally months, to be incorporated in the dictionary by the editors who read, filter, and process them.
Even though the cooperative dictionary conceptually builds upon volunteer contributions, it is not a commonplace Web 2.0 type of website, since there is a board of editors collecting and condensing contributions, and editing them, before they get published. The project in a way works similar to the most popular German Duden editors, who are watching and observing the use of written Standard German, reporting their findings in the form of a printed dictionary. The cooperative dictionary only focuses on the spoken language, and on a much smaller region, so instead of new books, magazines, and papers, they evaluate voluntary statements of speakers about their everydays colloquial language use.
Subject of research and methods of assessment
Subject matter of research and documentation is the spoken colloquial language of the Rhineland.