History Of CTILD

The Center for Turkic and Iranian Lexicography and Dialectology (CTILD) was founded at Indiana University in 2008, to address a growing need for new general and specialized dictionaries of Turkic and Iranian languages and dialects for English speakers who work or specialize in the Turkic- or Iranian-speaking countries of Uzbekistan, Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, and Afghanistan in Central Asia and the Caucasus, Turkey, Iran, and Iraq in the Middle East, as well as in other countries in the region with significant Turkic- or Iranian-speaking populations, such as China and Pakistan.

CTILD was established to consolidate resources and expertise to foster the production of general and specialized dictionaries of Turkic and Iranian languages and dialects for English speakers, as well as research in Turkic and Iranian lexicography and dialectology. CTILD will produce and maintain dictionaries in print and/or online format, for which, in the latter case, textual data and audio recordings will be presented together, along with images and videos of cultural items.

CTILD receives funding from the College of Arts and Sciences at Indiana University, as well as from the U.S. Department of Education for individual projects related to its primary objectives. It also receives administrative and technical support from the American Indian Studies Research Institute and the Center for Languages of the Central Asian Region at Indiana University.