How to submit a new word to the Taller de Tinoco dictionary
Ladino, or Judeo-Spanish, lives through the words used by its speakers, families, writers, and communities. Each vocabulary entry can preserve a pronunciation, expression, or regional form that might otherwise disappear from everyday use. The Taller de Tinoco dictionary provides a shared space for recording this linguistic heritage.
Submitting a new word is useful whether you are a native speaker, a heritage learner, a researcher, or someone who has encountered Ladino in a song, letter, book, or family conversation. A strong contribution gives other users enough context to understand how the term is spelled, what it means, and how it functions in a sentence.
The process is collaborative rather than competitive. You do not need to know every detail before sending a proposal. Clear evidence, careful notes, and honest uncertainty are more valuable than guesses presented as facts.
Find the contribution area
Begin by opening the Taller de Tinoco dictionary and looking for the option to submit, add, or propose a word. It may be available from the main navigation, the search page, or within an individual entry. If you already searched for the term and found no result, use that search as your starting point before opening the submission form.
Search several spellings when appropriate. Ladino has been written with different alphabets and spelling conventions, and a word may appear with variations in accents, vowels, consonants, or word separation. A missing exact match does not always mean the form is absent from the dictionary.
If the website requests an account or contact information, provide it accurately. Editors may need to clarify a reading, ask about a source, or distinguish between two regional forms. Your name or contributor profile can also help document the community history behind the submission.
Prepare the word and its meaning
Enter the word as it appears in your source or as you know it from speech. Preserve accents and special characters where they are meaningful, but do not silently “correct” an unusual spelling. If you are unsure whether a form is standard, include the uncertainty in the notes rather than replacing the original form with a familiar equivalent.
Add a concise definition in plain English or another available working language. Explain the sense that you have actually observed. A word can have several meanings, grammatical roles, or levels of formality, so separate them when necessary instead of combining unrelated senses into one vague definition.
Translations into Castellano, English, and Turkish can make the entry more useful to a wider audience. Give the closest natural equivalent, and mention when a translation is approximate. Some Ladino expressions carry cultural or emotional meanings that cannot be represented by a single word in another language.
Include evidence and context
An example sentence is one of the most valuable parts of a dictionary contribution. It shows how the word behaves in context, whether it describes a person or object, and whether it belongs to an idiom or fixed phrase. Write an original sentence if the word comes from family speech, or record the source sentence when quoting a text.
Add pronunciation information if you know it, especially when the spelling could be read in more than one way. You can also identify the part of speech, such as noun, verb, adjective, adverb, or interjection. Regional information is helpful too: note the family, city, community, or publication associated with the form when that detail is known.
Etymological information should be based on a reliable source or clearly marked as a hypothesis. Ladino vocabulary reflects contact among Spanish, Hebrew, Aramaic, Turkish, Greek, Arabic, French, Italian, and other languages. A familiar-looking word may have a different history, so avoid presenting an attractive but unverified origin as established fact.
| Information to provide | What makes it useful | Example of a helpful note |
|---|---|---|
| Headword | Identifies the form being documented | Include accents, variant spelling, or alternate form |
| Definition | Explains the meaning clearly | State the everyday or specialized sense |
| Translations | Helps speakers and learners compare languages | Add Castellano, English, and Turkish equivalents |
| Example sentence | Shows real usage and grammar | Include a natural sentence or cited quotation |
| Source | Supports verification and future research | Name a speaker, book, recording, archive, or website |
| Etymology | Connects the entry to wider language history | Separate documented origin from speculation |
| Regional notes | Records variation within the Ladino-speaking world | Identify a community, country, or family tradition |
Describe spelling and variant forms
Ladino vocabulary may have multiple accepted representations. A term recorded in Latin characters may differ from a form found in a Rashi or Hebrew-script source. Pronunciation can also vary between communities, and borrowed words may retain features from the language they came from.
When you know a related form, include it as a variant or cross-reference if the submission interface allows. Explain whether the variation is phonetic, regional, historical, grammatical, or simply a different spelling choice. This helps dictionary users find the entry even when their search does not match your preferred form.
Do not create separate entries for every minor difference unless the dictionary’s editorial practice calls for it. A note linking related forms can be clearer than treating them as unrelated words. The editors can decide whether a form should become a separate headword, an alternate spelling, or a reference within an existing entry.
Check the details before sending
Read the proposed entry from the perspective of someone who has never encountered the word. Is the definition specific? Does the example sentence use the word naturally? Are the translations actually equivalent, or do they describe only part of the meaning? These checks often reveal missing accents, duplicated text, or an unclear grammatical form.
Verify quotations and references before submitting them. For a book, include the author and title if available; for an audio recording, identify the speaker, collection, or date. If your evidence comes from family usage, say so. Oral knowledge is important evidence, and describing its origin is more useful than disguising it as a published citation.
Keep the tone factual and distinguish memory from documentation. If two speakers use different forms, record both where relevant. A collaborative dictionary becomes stronger when it preserves variation rather than forcing every contribution into a single uniform version.
Help Grow The Shared Lexicon
Before sending a proposed entry, use this short checklist:
- Search for the word and likely spelling variants first.
- Provide a clear definition, grammatical category, and natural example sentence.
- Add Castellano, English, and Turkish translations when you can verify them.
- Identify the source, speaker, publication, recording, or community connected to the word.
- Mark uncertain etymologies, pronunciations, and regional details as uncertain.
After submission, the entry may be reviewed, edited, combined with an existing record, or returned for clarification. Editorial changes do not diminish the value of your contribution; they help make the record more consistent and searchable. Keep any supporting notes so you can respond if the editors request additional information.
Every carefully documented word expands the dictionary’s usefulness for speakers, learners, teachers, and researchers. Open the Taller de Tinoco submission area, search for the form you want to preserve, and send the fullest reliable record you can provide. Your contribution can help keep Ladino vocabulary visible, connected, and in use.