The General Dictionary of the Basque Language has been completed

The Academy of the Basque Language has completed the General Dictionary of the Basque Language (GDBL), having recently published its final volume. All in all, the dictionary includes 125,987 words in the pages of its 16 volumes. The preliminary work for the dictionary was started by the member of the Academy of the Basque Language Koldo Mitxelena , in collaboration with Ibon Sarasola .

Each one of the words or entries in the GDBL offers a definition (in Spanish French, or both languages), a compilation of the previous lexicographic information, as well as examples of usage picked up from literary tradition. The GDBL is therefore not a normative, but a descriptive dictionary, following the guidelines expressly set out by its driving force, Koldo Mitxelena.

The Academy of the Basque Language decided to work on the preparation of the GDBL when considering the republishing of the dictionary by Resurreccion Maria de Azkue, which had been sold out at the time. The Academy had entrusted Koldo Mitxelena with preparing the new edition, but the scholar from Errenteria was immediately aware that the great abundance of material made a more ambitious project necessary. In 1979, Mitxelena asked Ibon Sarasola for help in organising the material available, and from that collaboration arouse the idea of the GDBL. In drawing up this work, the Academy of the Basque Language has been funded by the Basque Government and the Regional Governments of Araba, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa.

The basis for the dictionary consists of over 300 literary works published from the time of Bernat Etxepare (1545) up to 1970. There are, all in all, 5,800,000 text words, 310 works, 125,987 entries and 14,028 pages, compiled and published in 16 volumes.

The huge amount of work carried out by the Academy must, from the translators’ point of view, have its logical continuation in that the GDBL be available on the internet.