Geografía lingüística y diccionarios

Abstract

Good quality linguistic atlases have been available here in Spain for quite some time now. Therefore, it is high time that good use be made of the material s they offer. If, for example, dialectalisms are included in the Diccionario de la Real Academia Española (Dictionary of the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language), as they indeed are, why are some included while others are not? And what criteria is used in deciding which should be included? At the end of the 20th century, we cannot affor to allow chance or caprice to determine which voices will be included in dictionaries. Today we are fortunate enough to have linguistic atlases in Spain and they should contribute to the process of elaborating lexicographic works. In this paper we will show the frequently missed advantages that linguistic geography offers in areas such as semantics, etymology, lexicology and lexicography among others. In our opinion, linguistic geography is a relatively untapped field in lexicography and it is here where its benefits might be surprising. If we want lexicography studies to be truly rigorous, we have no choice but to make use of linguistic atlases.