A Probe into the Compilation of Oral Language Dictionaries of Ethnic Minorities

The compilation of minority language dictionaries is not only an integral part of the national language cause, but also an important part of the inheritance and protection of language resources. At present, some ethnic minorities in China have gradually lost their own characters in the long historical process, or created characters that have not been implemented. They mainly use their own language to communicate, and their language is called oral language. Due to the limitations of the times and conditions, the development of language dictionaries in this part of the nation is not balanced, and the research on compilation methods and dictionary theory is insufficient. This paper takes the Na-Chinese-English-French Dictionary compiled by Alexis Michaud, a phonologist of the National Academy of Sciences of France, for the Na people (Mosuo) on the border between Sichuan and Yunnan in southwest China as an example, adopts Hartmann’s classified description of the dictionary structure, and mainly analyzes and reviews the macro-structure of the dictionary. This dictionary has international characteristics in the process of compilation, storage format, collection of words, distinction between polysemous words and homographs, which can be used as a reference for the compilation and related research of oral languages of ethnic minorities in China.