ABSTRACT
One characteristic of the Spanish lexicography tradition (including the pre-academic period) is receptiveness to expanding its dictionaries quite significantly to include words from narrow geographic areas. This has been demonstrated through research conducted on the works of Nebrija, Covarrubias, and the Diccionario de Autoridades (Dictionary of Authorities), as well as in subsequent projects from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. However, the selection criteria for incorporating regional lexicon into general dictionaries and the standard of diatopic marker (provincial ~ regional ~ national ~ supranational) have not always been clear. Historical and political factors (of subordination regarding the reference variety) have tended to become mixed with strictly geolinguistic ones.
In this chapter, we analyse the various types of markers found in different dictionaries from the introduction of so-called “provincialisms” to the introduction of the concept of “Americanism” during the second half of the nineteenth century. We also discuss: the significant progress achieved by the 1925 Diccionario de la lengua española (DRAE15); the criteria adopted in the metalinguistic system of geographic marking for recent macro projects such as the Diccionario del español actual (Seco, Andrés y Ramos 1999 [2011]; DEA); and, above all, the Pan-Hispanic approach that has prevailed in the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) over recent decades. This line became apparent from the twenty-first edition of its dictionary (1992), when the abbreviation Esp., was included, albeit symbolically. Even though there seems to be a consensus in reviewing different Americanisms and Spanishisms, regionalisms have not yet received the same treatment.
The rapid rise of differential lexicography, the discovery of numerous lexicographical repertoires and the creation of highly specialized document databases have made available a series of tools that will allow lexicographers to develop new projects for geo-referential marking. These tools will also help to improve our understanding of how diatopically restricted words are used. In the new digital dictionary, it will be necessary to establish a dynamic marking system with a search engine sensitive to diatopic contexts and an automatic data mapping that shows actual records of language diversity.
