ISLEX — a Multilingual Web Dictionary

AbstractISLEX is a multilingual Scandinavian dictionary, with Icelandic as a source language and Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Faroese and Finnish as target languages. Within ISLEX are in fact contained several independent, bilingual dictionaries. While Faroese and Finnish are still under construction, the other languages were opened to the public on the web in November 2011. The use of the dictionary is free of charge and it has been extremely well received by its users. The result of the project is threefold. Firstly, some long awaited Icelandic-Scandinavian dictionaries have been published on the digital medium. Secondly, the project has been an important experience in Nordic language collaboration by jointly building such a work in six countries simultaneously, by academic institutions in Iceland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, The Faroe Islands and Finland. Thirdly, the work has resulted in a compilation of structured linguistic data of the Nordic languages. This data is suitable for use in further lexicographic work and in various language technology projects.