The Online Jamieson  (www.scotsdictionary.com) was launched in 2008 to mark the bicentenary of John Jamieson’s Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language: a pioneering text in the development of European historical lexicography. But the dictionary entries that Jamieson published in his lifetime, which are now available in digital facsimile, are only part of the rich linguistic data that survives in relation to his Dictionary. 

Jamieson’s contemporaries – both famous and lesser-known – annotated their copies of the Dictionary with potential new headwords, omitted senses or supplementary quotations, only some of which made it into the published Supplement (1825). This practice continued well beyond Jamieson’s lifetime. Readers throughout the nineteenth century annotated personal copies of the Dictionary, especially the more affordable abridged editions. These unofficial supplements to Jamieson expand the scope of his published work and are of potential interest to historical linguists and lexicographers. How can they be recorded and captured to provide a complementary resource for users of the Online Jamieson? 

The Annotated Jamieson project aims to record and analyse this unpublished supplementary material. Who were the various contributors and annotators? What do their contributions tell us about contemporary perceptions of Scots, and about the editorial decisions which Jamieson and his later editors made? By recording and making these personal ‘Jamiesons’ available, the project hopes to enable a fuller appreciation of the cultural impact of Jamieson and the lasting legacy of his work on Scots language and lexicography.

The Annotated Jamieson Project was launched at the “English Historical Lexicography in the Digital Age” conference at the University of Bergamo in April 2019. A copy of the slide presentation by Dr Susan Rennie which accompanied her keynote lecture is available below.