If you are in or near Belfast…

Please come along to our free talk/quiz on Medieval Irish, which forms part of this year’s Being Human festival of the humanities. Entitled ‘Words You Didn’t Know You Needed’, the event will be presented by Professor Greg Toner and Dr Sharon Arbuthnot. Details as follows:

Monday, 19 November 6-7pm
Peter Froggatt Centre, QUB (Room /02/018)
Everyone welcome
Bring your phone … and spread the word!

https://beinghumanfestival.org/event/words-you-didnt-know-you-needed/

Words You Didn’t Know You Needed - Being Human

Fun and informative, ‘Words You Didn’t Know You Needed’ is an interactive quiz-based performance which aims to stimulate interest in broad concepts of language renewal, obsolescence and change, and to build awareness of the varied history of the Irish language in particular. The event focuses ...

In the lead-up to our event in Belfast on 19th November for the Being Human festival, I’ve written a short blog on forgotten phrases, the dictionary and what to expect from the 2019 update. It’s called ‘Modern Words from Medieval Ireland.

https://beinghumanfestival.org/modern-words-from-medieval-ireland/

On Saturday, at the Tionól of the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, Professor Máire Ní Mhaonaigh showcased some of the changes that we will be making when eDIL is updated in 2019, including words that will be listed for the first time, new senses that will be added to existing entries, and ghost words that will be 'busted'. Favourite new addition so far? DO UCHTBIDGADAR 'they were shaken to the core’, literally ‘they breast-jumped’ (Stair Nicoméid 28.518)!

Marie-Luise Theuerkauf and Máire Ní Mhaonaigh will be holding a workshop on eDIL at this year’s Tionól of the Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies. The event takes place on Saturday, 3rd November, between 10.10 and 11.00am, and everyone is very welcome to attend.

Following the success of last year’s event, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh (eDIL) and Richard Dance (the Gersum project) will be taking part in the Cambridge ‘Festival of Ideas’ again this year. The theme this time is ‘The Long and the Short of It: Words and Their Extremities in the Languages of Early Medieval Britain and Ireland’ and the presentation promises to look at ‘everything from æ and mo to hwæthwugununges and fianamailecharadhartai’! The date is Wednesday, 24 October (5-6pm); the place is the English Faculty, West Road, Cambridge. This is very much an event for the general public, so please come along and bring a friend!

https://www.festivalofideas.cam.ac.uk/events/long-and-short-it-words-and-their-extremities-languages-early-medieval-britain-and-ireland

TEACHERS!!

We are delighted to announce the award of a grant from the University of Cambridge Arts and Humanities Impact Fund which will enable staff from eDIL to work with secondary school teachers (in the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and England) to prepare resources for modules on medieval history and Irish language, and for use in student independent research projects (EPQs etc.). If you are a teacher who would like to get involved, please contact Máire Ní Mhaonaigh at mnm21@cam.ac.uk. If you know of anyone who might like to be involved, please spread the word!!

The final meeting of the eDIL Advisory Board took place yesterday in Belfast.

Sincere thanks for your input and support over the years:

Prof. Liam Breatnach
Dr Anthony Harvey
Prof. Séamus Mac Mathúna
Prof. Ruairí Ó hUiginn
Prof. Roibeard Ó Maolalaigh
Dr Jürgen Uhlich

It's great to see that other historical dictionary projects are also doing great!!
The "Dictionary of Old English: A to I" is now online and can be found here:

https://tapor.library.utoronto.ca/doe/

In addition to new entries for the letter "I", the "DOE: A to I" has added new headwords to some of the previously published fascicles. Recent additions include new compounds, high-frequency words such as "ic", and even some mysterious vocabulary from Beowulf!

The DOE is one of hundreds of sources used by eDIL, which means that their work will enrich our work as well!

In a weeks' time, from 5-8 Sept 2018, the Annual Colloquium of the Henry Sweet Society will be held in Maynooth University. Apart from papers on Irish, Welsh, Cornish and Pictish, among others, there will also be contributions on Patagonian, Japanese, Aztec, and Yiddish!
Check out the conference programme here:
https://www.maynoothuniversity.ie/sites/default/files/assets/document/HSS_Programme_0.pdf

It is with great sadness that we learn of the passing of Prof. Anders Ahlqvist yesterday, 23rd August. Prof. Ahlqvist was a generous supporter and advocate for Celtic Studies. His work on various aspects of the Irish language has greatly informed our work on eDIL and is continuing to make a significant impact in the current phase of the project. He will be sorely missed!

Gregory Toner
Máire Ní Mhaonaigh
Sharon Arbuthnot
Marie-Luise Theuerkauf

Issues such as how to standardise headwords in eDIL and whether ghostwords ought always to be deleted will be discussed at the 18th EURALEX International Congress, in Ljubljana, Slovenia, this week. Sharon Arbuthnot’s paper ‘Updating and Expanding a Retro-digitised Dictionary: Some Insights from the Dictionary of the Irish Language’ is on Friday at 10.30am. The talk will be available on Videolectures.net soon after the conference. Details to follow!

Examples from the work being done on eDIL will feature in Anthony Harvey’s plenary lecture at the 3rd Poznán Conference of Celtic Studies on Monday, 9th July. Entitled ‘The Case of the Hidden Hazel Trees: Ghost-Busting and Word-Finding in Celtic Lexicography', the paper will discuss how dictionaries have tackled the issue of ghostwords and will introduce also the concepts of poltergeist words, Frankenstein words and even predator words!

The full programme can be accessed at:

https://poznanconferenceblog.files.wordpress.com/2018/06/programme-final2.pdf