The Dictionary of the Scots Language (DSL) was officially launced last
Thursday by Geoffery Crossick, Chief Executive of the AHRB. A free
Internet resource, complementary in scale and ambition to the OED, it is
available at http://www.dsl.ac.uk
In addition to being a major resource for the study of Scottish
language and culture, the DSL will be useful for glossing earlier
northern forms of English. Full text searches on words, phrases or
strings, with or without right truncation (*), will locate anything in
the text, including unique spelling variants. A double-click on any
word in the text, Scots, English, Latin, whatever, including dates,
authors and titles (also separately searchable), will bring up a
relevant screen. Double-click searches can go on ad infinitum, and your
browser will take you backwards and forwards through your searches.
You may find it handy, if switching between 'Search Headwords' and
'Search the DSL', to copy and paste your entry into the query box.
Scholars of Renaissance literature will particulalry benefit from
entries prefixed 'DOST' - Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue,
representing the period 1200 to 1700. Entries prefixed 'SND' are from
the Scottish National Dictionary, covering roughly 1700 to 1976.
With best wishes,
Victor
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