Lexicon schemas and their use are discussed in this paper from the perspective of lexicographers and field linguists. A variety of lexicon schemas have been developed, with goals ranging from computational lexicography (DATR) through archiving (LIFT, TEI) to standardization (LMF, FSR). A number of requirements for lexicon schemas are given. The lexicon schemas are introduced and compared to each other in terms of conversion and usability for this particular user group, using a common lexicon entry and providing examples for each schema under consideration. The formats are assessed and the final recommendation is given for the potential users, namely to request standard compliance from the developers of the tools used. This paper should foster a discussion between authors of standards, lexicographers and field linguists.

General morphological/phonological analysis using ordered phonological rules has appeared to be computationally expensive, because ambiguities in feature values arising when phonological rules are “un-applied” multiply with additional rules. But in fact those ambiguities can be largely ignored until lexical lookup, since the underlying values of altered features are needed only in the case of rare opaque rule orderings, and not always then.