Digitization of older Croatian dictionaries

Tihomir Živić,Marina Vinaj,Dina Koprolčec

doi:10.15291/libellarium.v9i2.284

Abstract

Considering that the present-day Croatian still frequently fails to have the exact translational equivalents for the novel ideas developed and disseminated via metalinguistic Eurospeak, the paper adopts and employs an unorthodox scientific method to refer to an articulated correlation between a conceptual framework theorized (i.e., the noninvasive library digitization projects pertaining to the select Croatian bi- and trilingual lexicography from the 17th to the 20th century) and the hypothetical questions addressed (i.e., their applicability to the coinage of Croatian neologisms that formationally imitate the previous paragons), with a pronounced tendency to signify a progressive replacement of the perplexingly anglicized language registers by the more decipherable formality levels. Consequently, such a succinct analysis results in a revalorization of the computerized conversion efforts and a permanent appraisal of the Croatian thesauri, which are neither antiquated nor obsolescent but may be incentively put into service for further similar studies in the subject matter.

Highlights

For two thousand years, a spoken and a written word have been a backbone of our lives and a witness to a historical progress of the humankind
Within the European community of Tihomir Živić, Marina Vinaj, Dina Koprolčec, Digitization of older Croatian dictionaries: a possible substratum for terminological neologisms?, Libellarium, IX, 2 (2016): 251 – 266 states and English as the principal colloquial speech these days, the paper tends to signify a permanent value of the Croatian antiquated lingual heritage in a translational and in a lexicographic sense, i.e., as an incentive to the formation and systematization of Croatian expressions as a response to the necessities at the moment
The digitized older Croatian dictionary corpus exemplified that both the Slavic borrowings and idiolectal neologisms are findable in lieu of loanwords, including astute insertions of a classical Chakavian or Kajkavian lexical stock