[Lingtyp] Possible publication venues and funding sources for two dictionary projects?

[Benjamin Brosig]

Dear all,

together with two colleagues from Ulaanbaatar, I have been contemplating
two dictionary projects for a while, and I think it is time that I progress
to the application stage. What I am wondering about is where I could apply
for funding for the creation of a dictionary and where I could publish it,
ideally open-access and online. Let me briefly describe the two projects:

Plan 1: Digmu (a native speaker of Haixi Deedmongol living in Ulaanbaatar,
with an MA in Mongolian language and literature) has written down over 3000
words and phrases in which Deedmongol differs from Khalkha Mongolian. These
are not listed in the single dictionary of Deedmongol (Bayasqal et al.
1997) that in turn contains about 4100 words with paraphrases or
explanations in Standard Southern Mongolian (that differ between the two).
Our plan is to compile a dictionary that combines Digmu’s list with
relevant entries from Bayasqal and possibly additional words (from
participant observation and introspection - there is no sufficient corpus
data for such an undertaking). The dictionary would use a headword in an
IPA-equivalent Latin transcription, its rendering into Mongolian script,
its paraphrasis in (Cyrillic-script) Khalkha Mongolian, and its translation
into English, along with information on word class and semantic field,
possibly along with sound files.

Financial requirements: When implementing this project, my own work -
editing and ensuring the quality of the Khalkha explanations, doing the
English translations, etc. - would be paid from my salary. Digmu would work
on this project 2.5 days a week for a limited number of months and would
have to be paid, with a salary ideally at 750 USD per month. I don’t know
how long this work would take her, but given her preparation, 10 months
should be sufficient. Moreover, the budget would include 1500 USD for two
journeys from Astana to Ulaanbaatar and back. Ideally, there should be
somebody to edit Digmu’s Khalkha text, since neither of us is a native
speaker. Digmu is not currently employed in academia, so the project would
probably be based at Nazarbayev University, which might have overhead. I
haven’t figured out the non-wage labor costs yet. Still, 10,000 USD funding
should do.

Plan 1: Gantulga (a native speaker of Khalkha Mongolian, with an MA in
Mongolian philology) has been my first consultant for discussing different
vocabulary and idiomatic expressions for almost 20 years. He has been
dissatisfied with the existing literature on idiomatic expressions and
proverbs for a long time. Focusing on the former, he compiled a list of
5500 multi-word expressions from everyday usage and media, most of which
have been explained in insufficient detail or not at all in the existing
(mostly mono-lingual) literature. In an application, we intend to compare
our own list for the letters “аа” and “аб” with existing dictionaries and
their explanations to demonstrate this. The plan is to turn this material
into a phraseological dictionary, aiming for at least 8000 entries.
Gantulga would prepare extensive explanations in Khalkha Mongolian that I
would edit and shorten down to a briefer, more lexicon-oriented style for
English translation, which I would then edit.

Financial requirements: Gantulga could work in this project for perhaps a
year, 3.5 days a week, for 1000 USD a month. Since his left side is
partially paralyzed after a stroke, he would record some of the lexicon
entries which would then have to by typed in and edited by an assistant.
This assistant could be employed for 600 USD a month (which in Ulaanbaatar
is above the average) over 3 months. Once the Mongolian lexicon entries are
ready, I would employ a translator for the Mongolian descriptions into
English, for perhaps a total of 200,000 words and 3000 USD. Total costs
would be at 17,000 USD, though 15,000 USD would still be doable.

It should point out that Deedmongol is an endangered and shrinking minority
language (spoken in the Gansu and Qinghai provinces of China) with perhaps
35,000 speakers, while Khalkha Mongolian is de facto the official language
of Mongolia and thus the only variety of Mongolic that is not endangered.

Regarding the products, the resulting dictionaries should ideally be
open-access and online, but accessible offline, too. They should be
publications in a sense that they can secure funding and ideally satisfy
the requirements for publication of my university (which, for this type of
publication, I would have to figure out in the first place). Working with
spreadsheets as input should be ideal. I am currently aware of
https://dictionaria.clld.org/, though I have not contacted them yet. I am
not aware of any other feasible venues of publication.

With best regards currently from Ulaanbaatar
Benjamin (Brosig)
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