Overview
ISO 24613-3:2021 - Language resource management - Lexical Markup Framework (LMF) - Part 3: Etymological extension - defines a standardized extension to the LMF core for encoding etymological and diachronic information in born-digital and retro-digitized lexicons. The standard provides a meta-model and a set of data categories to describe word origins, historical development, cognates and etymons, enabling interoperable representation of etymologies across lexicographic and language-technology resources.
Key topics and technical requirements
- Extension to LMF: Builds on ISO 24613-1 (core model) and ISO 24613-2 (MRD model) to add etymology-specific classes and attributes.
- Primary classes: Defines classes such as Etymon, Cognate, Etymologizable, Etymology, EtyLink, CognateSet, Date, and Gloss to model etymological structure.
- Etymology and EtyLink: Etymology instances can include types/subtypes (e.g., borrowing, inheritance, compounding, sense shift, phonological processes) and are composed of ordered EtyLink steps connecting lexical elements; links use prev/next sequencing and may include temporal attributes.
- CognateSet and onomasiology: Supports grouping of cognates across languages to document shared etymological sources or cross-linguistic comparisons.
- Dating and precision: Uses a Date class with attributes (date, circa, notBefore, notAfter) and mandates ISO 8601‑1/ISO 8601‑2 compliant date/time formats.
- Metadata and references: Etymology instances can reference bibliographic sources (per ISO 24613-2). Cross-references require id attributes for target objects (CrossREF usage).
- Data categories: Annex B lists normative data categories for consistent etymology description; Annex A provides typology examples.
Applications and who uses it
ISO 24613-3:2021 is practical for:
- Lexicographers and dictionary projects standardizing etymological entries in digital and retro-digitized lexicons.
- Digital humanities researchers documenting diachronic language change and historical corpora.
- Computational linguists and NLP engineers needing structured etymological metadata for lexical databases, morphological analyzers, or multilingual lexicons.
- Language technology developers building interoperable lexical resources, machine-readable dictionaries, and etymology-aware search/indexing tools.
- Archivists and publishers converting legacy dictionaries into standardized, machine-actionable formats.
Benefits include improved interoperability, consistent etymological annotation, and easier aggregation of historical linguistic data for research and language technology.
Related standards
Keywords: ISO 24613-3:2021, Lexical Markup Framework, LMF etymology, etymological extension, lexical resources, etymology metadata, cognate, etymon, diachronic lexicon.
