14001500talen

14001500talen is a proposed digital archive and metadata schema for cataloging languages attested between the years 1400 and 1500. The name combines the year span with the Dutch word talen, emphasizing a historical focus rather than contemporary languages. The concept is used in academic discussions to illustrate how a standardized dataset could support diachronic study of medieval and early modern linguistic evidence.

Scope and content would include languages documented in manuscripts, incunabula, glossaries, dictionaries, chronicles, and official records from the late medieval and early modern periods. Each entry would record language name as used in sources, regional provenance, approximate dates or date ranges, script and orthography, known dialects, and salient linguistic features. Entries may also provide representative texts, glosses, lexicon items, and citations to primary sources. The archive would aim to capture both phonological and grammatical notes, as well as lexical items that illuminate contact phenomena between languages.

Structure and access would rely on a standardized schema with unique identifiers, bibliographic metadata, and cross-references to related languages or dialects. The system would support advanced search by geography, period, linguistic feature, or source type, and would facilitate data export for scholarly analysis or integration with larger digital corpora.

Applications and limitations: The dataset would aid historians, philologists, and linguists in tracing sound shifts, morphological developments, and lexical borrowing. Limitations include uneven documentation, dating uncertainties, transcription variance, and biases toward literate cultures of the period. If implemented, 14001500talen would be maintained by an international scholarly consortium as an open-access resource.