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Computer models based on finite-state transducers are well suited for compact representations of pronunciation lexicons that are used both in speech synthesis as well as in speech recognition. In this paper, we present a finite-state super transducer, which is a new type of finite state transducer that allows the representation of a pronunciation lexicon with fewer states and transitions than using a conventional minimized and determinized finite-state transducer. A finite-state super transducer is a deterministic transducer that can, in addition to the words comprised in the pronunciation lexicon, accept some other, out-of-dictionary words as well. The resulting allophone transcription for these words can be erroneous, but we demonstrate that such errors are comparable to the performance of state-of-the-art methods for grapheme-to-phoneme conversion. The procedure for building finite-state super transducers and a validation of their performance is demonstrated on the SI-PRON pronunciation lexicon. In addition, we also analyze several properties of finite-state transducers with respect to their minimum size obtained by their determinization and minimization. We show that for highly inflected languages their minimum size begins to decrease when the number of words in the represented pronunciation dictionary reaches a certain threshold.

The Proposal for a Dictionary of Contemporary Slovene, published in May 2013, has stirred many debates in both academic circles and in media. The topic central to all the debates was whether a new dictionary of Slovene should follow the tradition established by the Dictionary of Literary Slovene (published in 1970s), which was based on the structuralist theories of the Prague school, or move away from this tradition. All this lead to differing views on what a dictionary tradition is, and on the role of new lexicographic methods. By analyzing the concepts of the Dictionary of Literary Slovene and the Dictionary of New Slovene Lexis (published in 2012), as well as making an overview of scientific articles dealing with the topic of a concept for a new dictionary of Slovene, this paper attempts to establish which elements of lexicographic theory can be viewed as traditional and which represent innovation in Slovene lexicography. Simultaneously, a concept for a new dictionary is considered from three perspectives: the user, the medium, and the use of language technologies, which would facilitate language description and meet the needs of language community. As the author argues, a new dictionary of Slovene will do well to carefully consider the status of literary language in contemporary Slovene, be corpus driven and user oriented (rather than academic), incorporate various lexicographic findings, e.g. use different approaches to defining (depending on their efficiency at different word classes or categories of words), be digital born, i.e. devised with an online medium in mind, offer updates on a regular basis, and utilize various language technologies, such as automatic example extraction, in its design to facilitate dictionary compilation. Only thus will the new dictionary become a state-of-the-art lexicographic product and a worthy successor to the Dictionary of Standard Slovene.

V prispevku se obravnava besednovrstna kategorizacija s stališča navajanja besednovrstnih oznak v slovarskem opruiročniku za slovenski jezik na splošni ravni, veljavni ne glede na določeni slovarski koncept. Uvodoma je prikazana svojskost besednovrstnega kategoriziranja v slovnični teoriji, čemur sledi ponazoritev vloge besednovrstnega določanja leksikalnih enot znotraj slovarskega pomenskega opisa. Ob primerih za povedkovnik, členek in izdeležniške tvorjenke je prikazan razvoj besednovrstnega kategoriziranja v doslejšnjih slovenskih slovarjih in na osnovi tega so podane smernice za besednovrstno označevanje leksikalnih enot v prihodnjih slovenskih slovarskih priročnikih.

The research of usernames in comments of online articles and on Twitter showed that users who comment online news tend to cover their identity more often than Twitter users. We assume that the reason for this is that online news commentators mostly express their opinion, which may differ from the point of view of the online news portal. Due to anonymity, the opinion can be intensified or even radicalized. Therefore, commentators wish to at least partially conceal their identity. On the other hand, Twitter users frequently reveal their identity in their username, namely by using their real name and/or surname since the main purpose of using Twitter is for private communication and entertainment. On Twitter, it is also possible to find individuals who conceal their identity in order to express their opinion; however, they are less frequent. In usernames, users of both CMC types frequently replace their real name and/or surname with words that relate to their personal features (location, religion, characteristics, activity, horoscope and age) or express their interests (celebrities, nature, trademarks, interests, technology and mathematics, events, food). In this way, their identity is indeed obscure to some extent; however, they still express something about themselves. Users largely cover their identity by choosing an innovative username; they may use a general or neutral word or even construct their username in such way to make it difficult to determine its motivation. The analysis of the collected usernames also revealed some other username characteristics typical for online communication in general. In their usernames, users often play with language because they want the username to be innovative and unique in order to represent them online. Modifications of the text are frequent, i.e. switching letters or replacing them with numbers. Omitting diacritical signs (carons) on č, š, ž is also particular as such letters are often substituted by c, s, z or by letter combinations. Numbers may be used only as indexes or they may indicate the user%s age or year of birth or even refer to a number known from popular culture. Username specific are also the ways of marking word boundaries % words are most often separated by using upper- or lowercase and underscores. Usernames are predominantly written in lowercase. Vzdevki oz. uporabniška imena v računalniško posredovani komunikaciji so reprezentacija uporabnikov v spletu, zato predvidevamo, da se ti zelo potrudijo in jih oblikujejo tako, da jih ta kar najbolje predstavljajo. Uporabniška imena so pogosto zelo inovativna in izkazujejo visoko stopnjo igranja z jezikom, na kar na eni strani vpliva dejstvo, da v obravnavanih tipih računalniško posredovane komunikacije ne sme biti uporabnikov z enakim uporabniškim imenom, na drugi strani pa želja posameznika, da bi bilo njegovo uporabniško ime kar se da inovativno in unikatno. Pri oblikovanju uporabniškega imena uporabniki svojo identiteto zakrivajo oz. razkrivajo na različne načine, in sicer glede na tip računalniško posredovane komunikacije, v katerem sodelujejo. Raziskava uporabniških imen v komentarjih novinarskih prispevkov in na Twitterju je pokazala, da uporabniki, ki komentirajo spletne novice, bolj težijo k zakrivanju identitete kot uporabniki Twitterja. Po drugi strani uporabniki Twitterja v uporabniškem imenu pogosteje razkrijejo svojo identiteto, in sicer tako, da v njem uporabijo ime in/ali priimek.

The paper presents the first part of the study within the research project Opportunities and possibilities of preservation and revitalization of the Slovene language among the Slovene minority community in the neighbouring states, which aims to analyse the situation in Benečija. In the era of global processes, European integrational processes, more favourable and sound legal bases (protection laws) and especially because of bilingual schooling, we assume that in the province of Udine there are the premises for linguistic revitalisation and de-assimilation of younger generations, including the intergenerational transmission of language and/or study of Slovene among the generations where this transmission has been interrupted. The paper introduces the first results of the study which aims to analyse the intergenerational transmission of the Slovene language, the reasons why parents have chosen bilingual schools and their expectations about bilingual schooling. A combination of qualitative and quantitative data has been analysed. Available data concerning Slovenes in Italy has been reviewed. Special stress has been put on data regarding the areas of Udine/Videm and Benečija. In the empirical part, qualitative data has been collected with interviews among parents of children attending the bilingual school in the school year 2016/17. On the basis of the answers, it can be presumed that in the previous generation the intergenerational transmission of Slovene language was often interrupted as schooling started, more exactly nursery school, which marked the transition to Italian. Consequently, bilingual schooling represents an important achievement for the Slovene population of the province of Udine. However, bilingual schooling itself cannot guarantee language preservation and revitalisation. There is the need of more support by means of language planning and policies. It has to be highlighted that all these processes are going on in an environment that is increasingly open and favourable for the Slovene language and bilingualism. Članek predstavlja prvi izsek raziskovalnega dela pri ciljnem raziskovalnem projektu Priložnosti in možnosti za ohranjanje oziroma revitalizacijo slovenščine med slovensko manjšinsko skupnostjo v sosednjih državah, namenjenem preučevanju stanja slovenskega jezika v Beneški Sloveniji. V kontekstu globalizacijskih procesov, evropskih integracijskih procesov, ugodnejših in trdnejših zakonskih podlag (t. i. zaščitnega zakona) ter predvsem zaradi prisotnosti dvojezične šole lahko oblikujemo hipotezo, da v Beneški Sloveniji obstajajo ugodne okoliščine za jezikovno revitalizacijo in deasimilacijo mlajših generacij, kar vključuje tudi ponovno učenje slovenščine med generacijami, pri katerih je medgeneracijski prenos jezika zastal. Iz zbranih podatkov je mogoče izluščiti, da je v prejšnji generaciji medgeneracijski prenos jezika pogosto zastal z začetkom šolanja oz. vstopom v vrtec, ki je zaznamoval prehod na italijanski jezik. Tudi zato je dvojezično šolanje za Beneško Slovenijo pomemben dosežek, vendar samo po sebi še ni zadosten pogoj za ohranjanje ali oživitev medgeneracijskega prenosa jezika. Potrebni so še drugi ukrepi jezikovnega načrtovanja in jezikovne politike. Ob tem gre poudariti, da se ti procesi razvijajo v okolju, ki je bolj naklonjeno slovenščini in dvojezičnosti, kot je bilo v preteklosti.

The paper describes three types of challenges that were detected in teaching Slovene as a mother tongue at schools. First, a number of orthographic and grammatic mistakes can be detected in pupils’ writings (see Kosem et al., 2012; Križaj in Bester Turk, 2018; Gomboc, 2019). Second, low phraseological literacy was noticed and the pupils often have problems understanding phrasemes (Vorsic, 2018). Third, the challenges of communicative competence were addressed, referring to production and interpretation of different written, spoken as well as multimedia genres, as only appropriate genre literacy enables efficient use of different genres (Nidorfer Siskovic, 2013). To address these challenges, we have developed a complex e-learning environment for improving writing and communication skills of Slovene pupils – “Slovenscina na dlani”. The developed environment is divided into four general topics – orthography, grammar, phrasemes and texts. Each topic covers a number of subtopics, and for each sub-topic a number of exercises is available, along with explanations. We have used the most up-to-date language technologies and programming solutions in order to automatise the e-environment. The user’s knowledge is automatically evaluated, and based on this s/he is automatically guided through the environment in a way to improve her/his writing and communication skills. The e-environment has also a special user interface for teachers which enables easy way to assign tasks as well as to track the performance of each pupil individually or a group of pupils as a whole. The gamification and professional graphic design fulfil the user experience. The “Slovenscina na dlani” will be freely available at https://slo-na-dlani.si from September 2021 on.

Monolingual lexicography for Norwegian started some decades after political independence from Denmark in 1814. Since 1885 two written standards have been recognized, one based on Danish as spoken in Norway (today Bokmål), and one based on the Norwegian vernacular (Nynorsk). Both are fully described in major scholarly dictionaries, now completed and freely available on the web. Both receive some public funding, with a view to further development. Because of frequent orthographic revisions, at first aimed at bringing the written standards closer to each other, spellers dominated the market through most of the 20th century. Today linguistic stability is aimed for, incorporating only such changes in the written standards as are supported by general usage. The first general monolingual defining dictionaries Bokmålsordboka and Nynorskordboka, covering the central vocabulary of each written standard, were first published as parallel volumes in 1986, and are now undergoing revision at the University of Bergen in cooperation with the Language Council of Norway. These dictionaries are now stored in databases, are available on the web and as a free smartphone app. Public funding of monolingual mother tongue lexicography is seen as an investment in essential linguistic infrastructure, as is bilingual lexicography between the Nordic languages and Norwegian, while other bilingual lexicography is dealt with by private publishers.

A new approach to lexicographic work, in which the lexicographer is seen more as a validator of the choices made by computer, was recently envisaged by Rundell and Kilgarriff (2011). In this paper, we describe an experiment using such an approach during the creation of Slovene Lexical Database (Gantar, Krek, 2011). The corpus data, i.e. grammatical relations, collocations, examples, and grammatical labels, were automatically extracted from 1,18-billion-word Gigafida corpus of Slovene. The evaluation of the extracted data consisted of making a comparison between the time spent writing a manual entry and a (semi)-automatic entry, and identifying potential improvements in the extraction algorithm and in the presentation of data. An important finding was that the automatic approach was far more effective than the manual approach, without any significant loss of information. Based on our experience, we would propose a slightly revised version of the approach envisaged by Rundell and Kilgarriff in which the validation of data is left to lower-level linguists or crowd-sourcing, whereas high-level tasks such as meaning description remain the domain of lexicographers. Such an approach indeed reduces the scope of lexicographer’s work, however it also results in the ability of bringing the content to the users more quickly.

Poseben tematski sklop letošnje prve številke vsebuje osem kratkih znanstvenih prispevkov, ki pregledno opisujejo trenutno stanje na področju leksikografije na Danskem, Švedskem, Norveškem, Hrvaškem, v Grčiji, Baskiji, Estoniji in Braziliji. Prispevki so nastali kot rezultat znanstvenega sodelovanja v evropski mreži ENeL – European Network of e-Lexicography [ISCH COST Action IS1305].