LINGUIST List 13.131

Mon Jan 21 2002

FYI: Welsh Lexical Database, Frisian Language Course

Editor for this issue: Marie Klopfenstein <marielinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Nick Ellis, Welsh lexical database and frequency count
2. Wolf, Frisian language course

Cronfa Electroneg o Gymraeg (CEG)

A 1 million word lexical database and frequency count for Welsh

	Please circulate to those interested

	This is a word frequency analysis of 1,079,032 words of 
written Welsh prose, based on 500 samples of approximately 2000 words 
each, selected from a representative range of text types to 
illustrate modern (mainly post 1970) Welsh prose writing. It was 
conceived as providing a Welsh parallel to the Kucera and Francis 
analysis for American English, and the LOB corpus for British 
English, in the expectation that such an analysed corpus would 
provide research tools for a number of academic disciplines: 
psychology and psycholinguistics, child and second language 
acquisition, general linguistics, and the linguistics of Modern 
Welsh, including literary analysis.

 The sample included materials from the fields of novels and short 
stories, religious writing, children's literature both factual and 
fiction, non-fiction materials in the fields of education, science, 
business, leisure activities, etc., public lectures, newspapers and 
magazines, both national and local, reminiscences, academic writing, 
and general administrative materials (letters, reports, minutes of 
meetings).

 The resultant corpus was analysed to produce frequency counts of 
words both in their raw form and as counts of lemmas where each token 
is demutated and tagged to its root. This analysis also derives basic 
information concerning the frequencies of different word classes, 
inflections, mutations, and other grammatical features.

 Available on-line:

 Ellis, N. C., O'Dochartaigh, C., Hicks, W., Morgan, M., & 
Laporte, N. (2001). Cronfa Electroneg o Gymraeg (CEG): A 1 million 
word lexical database and frequency count for Welsh. [On-line], 
Available:
	http://www.bangor.ac.uk/ar/cb/ceg/ceg_eng.html
	http://www.bangor.ac.uk/ar/cb/ceg/ceg_cym.html
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 Nick Ellis, e-mail: N.Ellisbangor.ac.uk | /\
 Professor of Psychology, | / \/\
 University of Wales, Bangor, Tel: +44 (0)1248 382207 | /\/ \ \
 Gwynedd, Fax: +44 (0)1248 382599 | / ======\=\
 Wales, LL57 2DG, U.K. | B A N G 
O R 
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 http://www.psych.bangor.ac.uk/index.html
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Our North Frisian language course is now available on the Internet. A 
preliminary version can be found at: 
http://www.fa.knaw.nl > fakgroepen > taalkunde > noardfrysk.

The site is bilingual German/West Frisian. We are working on interfaces 
for German, West Frisian, English and Dutch. A printed version and a 
cd-rom will appear by the end of 2002.

Comments are welcome!
Eric Hoekstra, Ingo Laabs, Henk Wolf

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Henk Wolf
hwolffa.knaw.nl (Fryske Akademy)
FryskeRiefa.knaw.nl (Fryske Rie)
henkwolfaltavista.com (privee)
Fryske Akademy, Postbus 54, NL-8900 AB Ljouwert
tel. 058-2336918 / 058-2131414, faks 058-2131409