ISO 24613-3:2021

Overview

ISO 24613-3:2021 - Language resource management - Lexical Markup Framework (LMF) - Part 3: Etymological extension - defines a standardized extension to the LMF core for encoding etymological and diachronic information in born-digital and retro-digitized lexicons. The standard provides a meta-model and a set of data categories to describe word origins, historical development, cognates and etymons, enabling interoperable representation of etymologies across lexicographic and language-technology resources.

Key topics and technical requirements

• Extension to LMF: Builds on ISO 24613-1 (core model) and ISO 24613-2 (MRD model) to add etymology-specific classes and attributes.
• Primary classes: Defines classes such as Etymon, Cognate, Etymologizable, Etymology, EtyLink, CognateSet, Date, and Gloss to model etymological structure.
• Etymology and EtyLink: Etymology instances can include types/subtypes (e.g., borrowing, inheritance, compounding, sense shift, phonological processes) and are composed of ordered EtyLink steps connecting lexical elements; links use prev/next sequencing and may include temporal attributes.
• CognateSet and onomasiology: Supports grouping of cognates across languages to document shared etymological sources or cross-linguistic comparisons.
• Dating and precision: Uses a Date class with attributes (date, circa, notBefore, notAfter) and mandates ISO 8601‑1/ISO 8601‑2 compliant date/time formats.
• Metadata and references: Etymology instances can reference bibliographic sources (per ISO 24613-2). Cross-references require id attributes for target objects (CrossREF usage).
• Data categories: Annex B lists normative data categories for consistent etymology description; Annex A provides typology examples.

Applications and who uses it

ISO 24613-3:2021 is practical for:

• Lexicographers and dictionary projects standardizing etymological entries in digital and retro-digitized lexicons.
• Digital humanities researchers documenting diachronic language change and historical corpora.
• Computational linguists and NLP engineers needing structured etymological metadata for lexical databases, morphological analyzers, or multilingual lexicons.
• Language technology developers building interoperable lexical resources, machine-readable dictionaries, and etymology-aware search/indexing tools.
• Archivists and publishers converting legacy dictionaries into standardized, machine-actionable formats.

Benefits include improved interoperability, consistent etymological annotation, and easier aggregation of historical linguistic data for research and language technology.

Related standards

• ISO 24613-1:2019 - LMF core model
• ISO 24613-2:2020 - LMF MRD model
• ISO 8601-1 / ISO 8601-2 - Date/time representations
• Other parts of the ISO 24613 series for additional lexical extensions (see ISO for list)

Keywords: ISO 24613-3:2021, Lexical Markup Framework, LMF etymology, etymological extension, lexical resources, etymology metadata, cognate, etymon, diachronic lexicon.