The grandparent generation spoke dialect actively and could communicate with dialect speakers across boarders without any problems. The parent generation learned dialect in their childhood but it became more and more passive knowledge.

To me dialect can carry certain facets of live which contains a common identity. All these dialects are very regional and some kilometers of distance result in significant and fluent changes.

The classical methods of conserving these dialects are made by institutions which mostly interview dialect speakers. The results are commonly presented in a written form. That takes a lot of time and effort but a wider public is not reached. On one side we have local societies which want to preserve their own identity and on the other side we have scientific researchers which use e.g. the phonetic alphabet. This is not too useful and interesting for the man on the street. Since time is running I would like to propose a web portal using existing technical opportunities which are already available.

Dialect speakers could upload single words, idioms or complete sentences via an open source audio module.

The major point is about the local character of dialects so that the recognition by speakers and contributors are ensured. The database with audio files can be bound directly to a database which links them to geographic by clicking on a map.

A contributor can directly link an audio entry to a specific location. The maps can already show and suggest dialect areas and boundaries so that the entries can be grouped dynamically.

This project is not meant to turn back time but to motivate everyone to join as a co-worker to preserve cultural heritage with modern means in a time where people in Europe still would like to have their own languages recognized from either linguistic and political point of view.

Expected result: preserve everything still existing which gives the opportunity to do research on it.

Contribution should be easy as possible for everyone.