LINGUE MINORITARIE, LESSICOGRAFIA E TECNOLOGIA: ampliamento del dizionario online spagnolo-kichwa per l’organizzazione Sisawu

The aim of this dissertation is to illustrate the workflow adopted for the expansion of the Spanish Kichwa online dictionary and the results obtained. This activity was carried out in collaboration with the Ecuadorian organisation Sisawu and the Academia de la Lengua Kichwa (ALKI). The work was based on the selection of words related to two domains, i.e. means of transport and technology. The words were extracted from texts collected from the web using the BootCaT toolkit and analysed by comparing them with various sources on the Kichwa lexicon, in particular the ALKI Shimiyukkamu Diccionario, kichwa-español, español-kichwa (2007), which was the reference for the expansion of the online dictionary. The process also led to the creation of two termbases with MultiTerm, the first on means of transport and the second on technology, in Spanish, Kichwa and Italian. The aim of this project was also to create neologisms for the above-mentioned domains, in order to add more words to the dictionary, as well as to provide new vocabulary for Kichwa with the purpose of enhancing its linguistic revitalisation. The dissertation is divided into five chapters. The first chapter aims at introducing the Kichwa language, its history and linguistic characteristics. The second chapter provides an overview of the revitalisation and standardisation processes of minority languages, as well as the current situation of Kichwa in Ecuador. The third chapter then discusses the field of lexicography, with a focus on electronic dictionaries on the web and Spanish-Kichwa bilingual lexicography. The fourth chapter focuses on the presentation of the project, its aims and workflow. Finally, the fifth chapter provides an illustration of the lexicographic entries, the final product of the project and the problems encountered during the lexicographic activity. The vocabulary added and created, as well as the lexicographic entries, can be found in the annexes at the end of the paper.