Past voices, present tools. Citizen Science and the Hesse-Nassau Dictionary

This paper examines the role of Citizen Science in dialect lexicography through the case of the Hesse-Nassau Dictionary (HNWb). It argues that participatory practices have long been integral to dialect documentation, particularly through large-scale questionnaire surveys and the involvement of local speakers as linguistic informants. These historically established forms of collaboration constitute both the material and methodological foundation of the HNWb archive, which comprises thousands of questionnaires and hundreds of thousands of handwritten paper slips.

In light of this context, the paper conceptualises Citizen Science in dialect lexicography not as a methodological innovation introduced by digital media, but as an epistemic reconfiguration of historically embedded participatory practices. Building on this legacy, it analyses how contemporary digital tools allow for a systematic continuation and formalisation of participation under present-day conditions. Two dedicated applications support citizen contributors in the transliteration and annotation of historical dialect materials that cannot be efficiently processed using automated handwritten text recognition.

Through these workflows, contributors move from the role of informants to that of collaborators who actively participate in the archive’s transformation, structuring, and enrichment. The paper argues that incorporating Citizen Science into lexicographic workflows enhances the sustainability, accessibility, and societal relevance of long-term dialect dictionary projects. Digital infrastructures thus allow past voices to be reactivated and reinterpreted, strengthening the preservation and contemporary usability of regional linguistic heritage.