Dialect lexicography in Japan

Dialect lexicography in Japan is introduced. The first dialectal information appeared in a dictionary in 1559, and the first dialectal dictionary in 1775. The present situation of Japanese dialectal dictionaries is described using five factors: 1. The area that the dictionary covers, 2. Data on which the dictionary was based, 3. Content, 4. Editors and Audience, and 5. Purpose. The dialectal dictionary may be based on previously published dialect dictionaries, original surveys, or the analysis of the dialect corpus. As well as a list of words with definitions, parts of speech, and example sentences, the dialectal dictionary may include linguistic description of a dialect, linguistic maps, dialectal texts, or multimedia files. In addition to academic and educational values, dialectal dictionaries are useful at the time of disaster. The new technologies have helped develop a new wave of multimedia dialectal dictionaries.