Comparative Dictionary of Tibetan Dialects

ལོ་རྒྱུས་ཞིབ་བསྡུར་བྱས་པའི་བོད་ཀྱི་ཡུལ་སྐད་ཚིག་མཛོད།

Comparative Dictionary of Tibetan Dialects (CDTD)

Work on the Comparative Dictionary of Tibetan Dialects commenced in 1992. As the culmination of 16 years of collaborative effort, the Comparative Dictionary of Tibetan Dialects was completed in 2008, and pre-print copies together with A Short Guide to the CDTD were circulated amongst colleagues from that year. However, proof-reading and extensions continue even today. Under the direction of Professor Dr. em. Roland Bielmeier, the team consists of Katrin Häsler, Chungda Haller, Felix Haller, Brigitte Huber, Thomas Preiswerk, Marianne Volkart, Manuel Widmer, Marius Zemp, Veronika Hein and Ngawang Tsering.

The scourge of planned obsolescence and compounded software incompatibilities have delayed the publication of the dictionary. However, in 2011 and 2012 the CDTD database was reengineered in order to enable to the physical publication of the dictionary. Publication can be expected in the course of the academic year 2012-2013. At the same time, the Comparative Dictionary of Tibetan Dialects has been integrated into the Trans-Himalayan Database (THD).

In this way, even after its physical publication in a bound edition, the Comparative Dictionary of Tibetan Dialects will continue to grow and expand and will in future be accessible online. The Comparative Dictionary is being transformed into a sustainable resource for the lexicography and historical comparison of Tibetic languages. Although integrated within the Trans-Himalayan Database, the CDTD will remain a sovereign, self-contained module under the direction of Professor Dr. em. Roland Bielmeier.