Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal

The Woordenboek Nederlandsche Taal ( Dictionary of the Dutch Language ) is the most important dictionary of the Dutch language. It is a very comprehensive historical- scientific language dictionary. The abbreviation is WNT.

Beginning of the project

The initiative for the dictionary was taken in 1849 on a Niederlandisten Congress in Ghent. Matthias de Vries put a 1851 draft and began in 1852 with the collection of resources. In 1864, he was together with Lammert Allard te angle out the first tape.

Changes to the plan

Originally M. de Vries was planning to create a dictionary of literary polished Dutch of the 19th century, with an historical background to the year 1637th This was the year in which the Statenbijbel appeared, the prevailing Protestant Bible translation in the Netherlands. ( See also Modern Dutch, Section states the Bible. )

However, already the next generation of the dictionary editors has changed this concept. The period was extended to about 1500. Thereby, the gap to the period of Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek (Middle Dutch Dictionary ) has been closed. In addition, the limit on literary neat Dutch was lifted. The non-literary texts are now also evaluated, such as notices, legal texts, travel diaries, literature, collections of letters, etc. In this expanded concept also foreign words and dialect words have been approved that do not occur in the first volumes of the WNT.

This subsequent change of approach led to the first volumes by the standards of the new concept were incomplete. Therefore, an extensive additional band was issued to the letter A in the 1940s and 1950s.

In the 1970s, efforts have been made to edit the dictionary faster in order to finish it before 2000 can. One of the measures was that literary material was not used when it was occupied until 1921.

Spelling

The dictionary is written in the orthography of 1863, in the so-called spelling -de Vries - te Winkel ( " spelling of de Vries and te Winkel "). In the spelling reforms of the 19th and 20th century, the editors of the dictionary have opted to retain the original spelling of the dictionary (of 1863) in order to preserve a certain uniformity. See also spelling of Dutch.

Comparison with other dictionaries

The WNT is compared with similar historical dictionaries ( German Dictionary and the Oxford English Dictionary) much more extensive and detailed. But the Oxford English Dictionary is much clearer and more homogeneous, because there have worked in a shorter time because less processor.

Influence on other dictionaries

The WNT serves Dutch Hand dictionaries as source and material basis, since it is the commercial hand dictionaries too expensive itself to gather material and evaluate it. For example, the added volumes of the WNT be evaluated in the next edition of the Van Dale.

Scope

The WNT contains about 400,000 keywords (of which 95,000 Main keywords ) and approximately 1,700,000 citations. It covers 49 255 pages, spread over 40 thick volumes.

Completion

In the 1980s, the editors of the WNT had come up to the letter U and V. In 1998 the dictionary was completed. 2001 published three supplementary volumes of hitherto missing words, especially from the 20th century. It was about 150 years worked on the dictionary.