The Norwegian Language Collections to move to the University of Bergen

Norsk Ordbok 2014 is delighted that a solution for the future has been found for the Norwegian Language Collections and the dictionaries based on them, i. e. Norsk Ordbok, Bokmålsordboka and Nynorskordboka. It is a great relief that the University of Bergen is willing to undertake long term management and development of the Language Collections. These are invaluable resources for the Norwegian language community, and it is now essential to build an organization capable of sustaining the huge language infrastructure collected in the language collections and the dictionaries.

The Project organization Norsk Ordbok is due to close down when the last volume is sent to the publisher, which will happen before the first of December this year. But the researchers who have been involved in the producing Norsk Ordbok, will be happy to contribute to a transfer of knowhow and expertise when a new research environment starts taking over the responsibility for managing and developing the Norsk Ordbok resources.

About Norsk Ordbok 2014

Norsk Ordbok: Dictionary of Norwegian dialects and the written language Nynorsk gives an exhaustive account of the vocabulary of Norwegian dialects and Nynorsk (the dialect-derived variety of written Norwegian). Entries in Norsk Ordbok include information on word meanings, dialect forms, grammatical features and etymology.

Norsk Ordbok is set to be completed in time for the 200th anniversary of the Norwegian Constitution in 2014. The completed dictionary will contain more than 300.000 word entries. The oldest parts of the dictionary are currently not digitally available. At the moment, word searches can only be carried out for the alphabet stretch "i-stæveleg". Norsk Ordbok is available in print, and can be ordered here.

Norsk Ordbok 2014 is a project that was launched in 2002. Its aim is to continue and complete a lexicographical work process that started in the 1930s: the work to create Norsk Ordbok. With the new organization, the Dictionary was set to be completed in 2014. 9 of the 12 volumes of Norsk Ordbok will be published during the project period. Considering that it took 72 years to collect data for and edit volumes 1-4, it is clear that the project faces great challenges with regard to productivity. However, these are challenges that can be coped with, as the framework necessary to do so is in place.

The launching of the project Norsk Ordbok 2014 was accompanied by increased funding, partly from the Ministry of Culture and partly from the University of Oslo, which enabled us to expand our staff greatly. A new management structure was also put in place, so that the project is now managed by objectives. And not least - we have firmly entered the digital age. Not only are our sources and archive available in digital format, but our printed sources have been supplemented by an electronic text corpus. Moreover, the dictionary itself is now a complex database where entries are created directly by means of an editing program. The database is searchable, and we can easily extract production reports from it. Also, a separate application has been developed in order to generate the right typeface directly from the database.

List of employees.

Street address:
Norsk Ordbok 2014
Gaustadalleen 30 D
0373 Oslo

Mailing address:
Norsk Ordbok 2014
PO box 1021 Blindern
0315 Oslo