A regional dictionary among dialect dictionaries

The article discusses the most significant examples of regional vocabulary. Such a vocabulary list is not a new-type dictionary of dialect; essentially it emphasizes certain elements in the structure of a dictionary entry. Developing a regional dictionary involves attempts to achieve an effect that would be accepted not only by dialectologists and lexicographers, but also by the local community. Local vocabulary users should be able to recognize not only their own words, but also, through them, their own culture. At present, there is much demand in society for such dictionaries. Desired effects can be achieved by such measures as: 1. Choice of lexemes, with dictionary entries accepted as being commonly-used combinations characteristic for the local culture which, in traditional lexemic division, could be broken up into single lexemes, such as zgrzebná sceć, paceśná sceć, omiesná sceć, etc. 2. Special treatment of quotations to illustrate respective entries. If their role is not only to document occurrence in dialect, but also their cultural ramifications, they must be selected for their meaning, and besides they should be many more than is usual in abridged dictionaries. 3. It is important to show ethnographic relevance. It may appear in extended definitions, in quotations, or it may be itemized in the form of the author’s commentary in a separate segment in the entry. For the sake of clarity of the entire entry, the last solution seems preferable. 4. Another important complement of a worded definition in a regional dictionary is iconography. Pictorial additions are essential to record objects of material culture that are disappearing from sight.