Official online Maltese dictionary launched

An official online Maltese dictionary was launched this morning, following a year and a half of preparation.

The dictionary was a joint project between the Malta Communications Authority, the University of Malta, and the National Council for the Maltese Language, and the Vodafone Foundation as sponsors.

It can be accessed at www.maltesedictionary.org.mt and is also available as a downladable app. 

At the launch, MCA chairperson Edward Woods said that he made the launch of the dictionary one of his priorities upon his appointment to the post in 2013.

“Now that it has finally been launched, it is crucial that it is kept alive and constantly updated,” he said, adding that he plans to include a translation feature to the website in the future.

Linguistics lecturer Albert Gatt said that the dictionary was originally envisioned as a lexicon, but later expanded into a fully-fledged online dictionary and an accompanying app.

The dictionary project was initially proposed by the Maltese Language Resource Server, an ongoing project by the UOM’s Institute of Linguistics and the Department of Intelligent Computer Systems.

It was initially developed by PhD language technology student John Camilleri and later fine-tuned by the MLRS team.