A Visual Dictionary for an Extinct Language

Williams, Kyle, Sanvir Manilal, Lebogang Molwantoa and Hussein Suleman (2010) A Visual Dictionary for an Extinct Language. In Proceedings The International Conference on Asian Digital Libraries (ICADL) 2010, Gold Coast, Australia.

Abstract

Abstract. Cultural heritage artefacts are often digitised in order to allow for them to be easily accessed by researchers and scholars. In the case of the Bleek and Lloyd dictionary of the |xam Bushman language, 14000 pages were digitised. These pages could not be transcribed, however, because the language and script are both extinct. A custom digital
library system was therefore created to manage and provide access to this collection as a purely “visual dictionary”. Results from user testing showed that users found the system to be interesting, simple, efficient and informative.