Who is who in the Lur Encyclopedic Dictionary? Comparative digital demography of the first encyclopedia in Basque.

Abstract

The objective of the Encyclopedic Dictionary Lur, published in 1991, was to end the Basque diglosssia, offering a general and universal encyclopedia in Basque. We’ve looked at what it means for an encyclopedia to have a universal goal and whether or not it’s met. Using OpenRefine and Wikidata, we have analyzed and paired all the biographies that appear in the Encyclopedic Dictionary Lur. This has allowed us to do a digital demography. To see if this goal of universality has been achieved, we have compared these biographies with other general encyclopedias. The result shows that this work in Basque, although simpler, was similar to the rest of European encyclopedias.