From traditional to electronic lexicography: the dictionaries of Old English

Abstract

The aim of this article is to review the standard dictionaries of Old English from the perspective of the evolution from traditional lexicography to electronic lexicography and to fnd the similarities and diferences, together with their pros and cons. The ultimate purpose is to fnd which of these four dictionaries is more suitable for linguistic research in Old English for scholars in the feld. An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary (Bosworth and Toller in Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1973), The Student’s Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon (Sweet in Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1976), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary (Hall in University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 1996) and The Dictionary of Old English in Electronic Form A–G (Healey et al. in Dictionary of Old English Project, Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto, Toronto, 2008) are examined with respect to headwords, alternative spellings and cross-references, vowel quantity and textual evidence.