A Frisian dictionary for health care
How a growing health care vocabulary helps patients and care workers communicate in their own language.
To meet the need for more Frisian in health care in Fryslân, the Fryske Akademy recently started working on the Domein Gezondheidszorg (domain health care) in the Online Nederlânsk-Frysk wurdboek (ONFW, Online Dutch-Frisian dictionary), which is incorporated in frysker.nl, the Frisian language tool of the Fryske Akademy.
Main researcher: Janneke Spoelstra
Where we started
An earlier Dutch–Frisian glossary of 3,000 words, Wurdlist Sûnenssoarch (glossary health care), has been imported into the dictionary writing system of the ONFW. The glossary was created by Janneke Spoelstra as a study project for Frisian Studies at NHL, Leeuwarden, in 2005.
Some 2,000 of these words happened to be already existing entries in the ONFW. At importing the Wurdlist Sûnenssoarch these entries were given the health care label, the same for the imported words that were not yet entries in the dictionary.
Growing the health care vocabulary
Over the next two years, we will expand this health care domain with other entries from the ONFW in the field of health care, together with words from, for example, the websites of hospitals, general practitioners and care centres.
The dictionary function in frysker.nl, , as well as the machine translation function, will improve for health care, which will benefit both health care workers and patients.
Future use of the Domein Gezondheidszorg can be imagined in a health care pocket dictionary, in health care apps and care robots.
Who is involved
Janneke Spoelstra
Researcher
Janneke Spoelstra is a researcher at the Fryske Akademy, working on lexicography and literature. Since 2018, she has been an editor for the Online Dutch-Frisian Dictionary and now contributes to the maintenance of Frysker.nl.
