The compilation of electronic dictionaries for the African languages

Abstract

Lexicographers increasingly acknowledge the enormous potential of electronic dictionaries. The great capacity and speed characteristic of electronic products, combined with enhanced query and data retrieval technology, pave the way to a new generation of dictionaries unimagined in the paper-dictionary era. It is amazing to see how many of the lexicographer's greatest obstacles disappear in the electronic dictionary. This article will, firstly, attempt to give a perspective on typical features of electronic dictionaries. Secondly, electronic-dictionary entries will be designed as a solution to some of the most burning lemmatization problems encountered by lexicographers for African languages in paper dictionaries. Keywords: electronic dictionary, lexicography, data retrieval, lemmatization, cd-rom, access route, pop-up functionalities, pop-up screens, edutainment, cross-referencing, information retrieval, encoding, decoding, African languages, navigation bar.