Integrating different data types in a Typological Database System

The aim of theTypological Database System project is the creation of a unified interface to numerous independently developed typological databases, which will allow the user to simultaneously query them from a single gateway. The main challenge behind the project lies in the great variability of the included data. In order to provide a unified interface the system will rely on detailed metadata, which will describe the content of each component database in terms of a common description framework. The common framework will be organized into an ontology of linguistic terms and notions, including alternative definitions, glossing standards, and database specific