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This paper provides an overview of geographical variation of sibling term systems used in Asia and Africa, which are categorized based on distinctions of (1) relative age, (2) sex, and (3) relative sex. Experts in languages/language groups of Asia and Africa have analyzed and mapped these systems; using their findings, I created summative maps showing the geographical distributions of the system types based on rates (percentages) of each type. Type A (undifferentiated sibling type) is conspicuous in Africa. Type B (relative age type) is used in many languages in Africa and Southeast Asia. Type C (skewed age type) commands an absolute majority in languages of Northeast Asia and is also found in Southeast Asia. The change of Type A > Type B > Type C is inferred from these systems' distributions. Type D (age/sex type) is the only type in Sinitic, and has affected neighboring languages. Type E (brother/sister type) holds the vast majority in Semitic and South Asian languages and has affected surrounding languages. Type F (relative sex type) and its variations are found in peripheral languages in Asia and Africa; this might be the oldest type. This interpretation is supported by attested changes in Japonic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent publication of EDD Online version 3.0 (March 2019), based on Joseph Wright's English Dialect Dictionary (1898-1905), raises the question of what this last version, again provided by an Innsbruck project team, has added or changed in comparison to the previous ones. This paper describes the main improvements, focusing on five points: (1) the integration of the Supplement, (2) the implementation of a new kwic concordance, (3) the elaboration of the sorting modes applicable on the result lists after queries, (4) the new possibilities of quantifying retrievals, and (5) the elaboration of the last-result mode allowing more parameters and filters to be compatible with each other. The last chapter sketchily refers to further assets of the new version. The paper illustrates all its points by practical examples and screen shots. In doing so, it also provides an introduction to the sophisticated search tools now available in our interface and to the enormous dialectological and lexicographic potential of the digitised version of the most comprehensive English dialect dictionary ever published. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Linguists of historical English, of traditional dialects and present-day varieties of English, generally rely on written texts, now often available in the form of corpora. However, the historical development of English, including its regional dialects, was naturally rooted in the spoken vernacular, rather than the literary standard. This paper, based on EDD Online (3.0), therefore, argues that the wealth of sources as used by Wright in his comprehensive English Dialect Dictionary (EDD) should no longer be disregarded, given that no better information is available. After a critical assessment of the widespread scepticism towards the EDD sources and of the different motivation of scholars not primarily concerned with traditional dialects (such as OED lexicographers), the paper first provides a survey of the different types of sources used by the EDD and presented in different lists and tables in EDD Online, and then focuses on the unpublished sources. The subsequent section shows that part of the problem of spoken sources results from the unjustified insistence of many scholars on phonetics to be the level of linguistic interest. In answer to the OED's scepticism towards Wright's sources as expressed in a paper by Durkin (2010a), the final section provides an analysis of Northamptonshire dialect words as a test case, with various linguistic issues beyond the OED's focus on the temporal frame of reference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper has two chief goals: (i) to collate the disparate synchronic evidence for the distribution of 'daughter' and 'son' from the dialect maps available for the modern Celtic languages, namely: the Gaelic languages (Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Manx) and Brittonic (Welsh, Cornish and Breton), (ii) to revisit and analyse the distribution of the terms 'son' and 'daughter' at an early stage of Continental Celtic from two millennia ago in Gaulish and Celt-Iberian with particular reference to the Indo-European lexemes *dʱug̑ʱh2ter 'daughter' and *suhxnú- 'son'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper continues an article devoted to the linguistic description of the local dialect of Vyšneve, cf. DiG 30 (2022), 23–49. The present study, as previously mentioned, completes a piece of a more comprehensive dialectal and sociolinguistic research on the dialects spoken along the Ukrainian-Belarusian and, to a minor extent, Russian borders. This is a territorial segment located in the eastern Polissian macro region and, more precisely, in the north-western part of the Region of Černihiv (Ukraine). In this continuation, the analysed material describes basic verbal morphology, the ways of expressing modality, the most evident syntactic and lexical features of this local dialect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prepositional form and function in Irish, as in other Modern Celtic languages, are topics of much significance. In Modern Irish numerous simple prepositions not only form compounds with possessive forms of personal pronouns but additionally marshal an impressive array of 'conjugated' forms corresponding to the various grammatical persons. Prepositions also play a crucial role in indicating aspect and are involved in passive/ reflexive roles with the verbal noun. This paper offers an overview of the functioning of a selection of important prepositions in the language and provides examples by way of illustration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces the concept of "memory time" and gives an overview of its application to dialect forms that refer to "father". Changes in many regions are shown by glottograms that simultaneously show regional and generational differences. The usage of kinship terms in Japanese shows interesting sociolinguistic features. It is linked to the consciousness of attribution to a specific social class. Due to the agricultural land reform after the war, the difference in social hierarchy within the rural areas became smaller, but the distinction or disparity made by kinship terms remained. Although the agricultural land reform was carried out all over the country at the same time, the standard form o-too-san for "father" gradually spread throughout the country in the latter half of the 20th century. The diffusion pattern is similar to other standard forms. From the above, it can be concluded that the standard form otoo-san was not directly influenced by changes in social stratification, but was the spread of standard language only in words without social-class background. The ultimate mechanism of change was found to be the "law of respect reduction". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the ability to identify different Chinese dialects through the English language and evaluates how often respondents pay attention to phonological features and rate of speech to explain their categorizations. The research includes 100 Chinese undergraduate students and 100 young people without advanced degrees aged 20 to 25. Discrete independent data samples collected during the interview of participants are analyzed with the help of such statistical methods as Student's t-test, Mann-Whitney U-test, and Wilcoxon's test. The obtained results indirectly show the ability of respondents to identify native and non-native English speakers around the world, as well as determine their nationality. The outcomes of the paper explicate who, in general, categorize Chinese dialects better and which dialects are the most recognizable. Research data reveal a high degree of stereotypization of various dialects, especially the Beijing and U dialects. Moreover, based on the data obtained, it can be concluded that speaking rate significantly affects the perception and classification of a speaker from a particular province of China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a dialectological account of the variety spoken by the first generation to grow up in a community in Essex populated by East Londoners after World War II. The dialect spoken by 15 speakers (female = 9; male =6) born between 1944 and 1969 is detailed in terms of vowels, consonants, morpho-syntactic features, and a brief discussion of Cockney Rhyming Slang. Comparisons are made with previous accounts of the working-class, East London dialect, Cockney, as well as the dialects of Essex (East London's neighbouring county), East Anglia, South East England and Multicultural London English, the dialect now prevalent in the speech of young East Londoners. There are remarkable similarities between the English spoken in this Essex community and previous accounts of Cockney, including its most defining features. This Essex dialect is certainly encapsulated within the natural range of variation within Cockney and far surpasses the Cockney influences observed in other areas of the South East. Conclusively it can be determined that Cockney did move to Essex along with the communities who relocated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A discourse is considered coherent only if all its parts are semantically related to each other and if it makes sense. However, coherence cannot be attributed to a discourse in advance because it depends on how the participants understand what they hear/ read. So we can say that it is not the discourse that establishes coherence, but the participants according to their understanding of a discourse. In practise, this means that for the same discourse there are at least two coherences that may or may not match up. Usually they match up to some extent because participants follow the cooperative principle of mutual willingness to establish coherence in discourse. There are several strategies for establishing and maintaining discourse coherence; among them, repetition and inference form an extensive group. In this paper, however, I will focus only on the strategies that are typical of spontaneous spoken discourse. These are the following: questions, completion, contradiction and polyphonic talk. In the second part of the article I will present each of them in the examples of spontaneous dialectal discourse. The texts were recorded in Brda, a region in the far west of Slovenia. The dialect spoken there is called the Brda dialect. It belongs to the Littoral dialect group of the Slovene language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the specific linguistic situation of print media in German language abroad based on the example of the "Batschkaer Spuren", a regional newspaper of the German minority in Hungary. The goal is a linguistic assessment of the current manifestations of the used media language regarding its typological structures and fundamental characteristics. Additionally, journalistic possibilities and types of procedures, specifically with regards to regionalisms (informed by local dialects), multilingualism, and inter- as well as transculturality are discussed. The study identified a spectrum of minority-specific patterns und types of linguistic composition with highly variable characteristics of German. The analyzed linguistic practices of the newspaper show a type of dynamic multiliteracy that in itself causes an emergence of new patterns. The majority of findings can be attributed to multilingual or language-contact induced phenomena on different levels: from word to text/discourse (the text routines are occasionally influenced by the contact language Hungarian). The other central aspect of the analyzed text world lies in the regionalisms that are influenced by local dialects. The complete picture is determined by heterogeneity and inconsistency and presents itself as a mixture of linguistic and stylistic forms. Especially noteworthy is the established conflict between orality and scribality i.e., between a "language of proximity" and a "language of distance". Hence, the analyzed newspaper articles present a large quantity of forms and structures of every-day written language that metaphorically can be termed "Parlando texts". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper treats linguistic changes over a long time span, covering 100 years in terms of the birth years of the informants and over 250 years since the compilation of a dialect glossary. Data from seven generations about 20 years apart were acquired. We compare the absolute time of linguistic change in lexical items recorded in Hamaogi, a dialect glossary, with the results of a large-scale sociolinguistic survey in Tsuruoka City. For lexical phenomena, the change seems to be continuous over the 250 years. Lexical changes occurred in the feudal ages, after modernization, after WWII and even recently. New dialect is discussed as a symbol of language change in the opposite direction to language standardization. A "glottogram map" or "3D glottogram" presents concrete data of the spatial diffusion of the new dialect form, ganpo. We offer concrete observations of the development of new dialect, which is part of a language change in progress. More than 250 years seem to be necessary from the beginning to the end of a lexical change. This suggests that many dialect forms will remain until the 22nd century.. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coda-final consonant deletion has been extensively documented in Eastern Andalusian Spanish; however, its effects on neighbouring segments is still unknown. Scholars working on consonant deletion in Eastern Andalusian Spanish have mainly focused on /s/, given the semantic importance of this consonant in Spanish. As a result, other consonants which are often deleted syllable-finally in this geolect have been studied to a much lesser degree. The present paper aims to expand the traditional view on vowel doubling by analysing /-s/, /-r/, and /-Ɵ/ deletion before /a/. Firstly, the speech of 24 speakers from El Ejido (Eastern Andalusia) is analysed to ascertain how the deletion of word final /s/, /r/, and /Ɵ/ changes the quality of a preceding /a/. Secondly, a perception test is carried out with native speakers from the local area to confirm whether these speakers can differentiate perceptually between word-final /a/ and /a/ preceding underlying /-s/, /-r/, or /-Ɵ/. This paper presents two main conclusions: 1) /-s/, /-r/, and /-Ɵ/ deletion changes the quality of a preceding /a/ to different degrees; 2) EAS speakers can identify whether /a/ is followed or not by an underlying /-s/, /-r/, or /-Ɵ/, but they cannot identify which consonant has been deleted in each case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tracing the diffusion of linguistic innovations in space from historical sources is challenging. The complexity of the datasets needed in combination with the noisy reality of historical language data mean that it has not been practical until recently. However, bigger historical corpora with richer spatial and temporal information allow us to attempt it. This paper presents an investigation into changes affecting first person non-singular pronouns in the history of Norwegian: first, individual changes affecting the dual (vit > mit) and plural (vér > mér), followed by loss of the dual-plural distinction by merger into either form or replacement of both by Danish-Swedish vi. To create dynamic spatial visualisations of these changes, the use of kernel density estimation is proposed. This term covers a range of statistical tools depending on the kernel function. The paper argues for a Gaussian kernel in time and an adaptive uniform (k-nearest neighbours) kernel in space, allowing uncertainty or multiple localisation to be incorporated into calculations. The results for this dataset allow us to make a link between Modern Norwegian dialectological patterns and language use in the Middle Ages; they also exemplify different types of diffusion process in the spread of linguistic innovations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the results of a preliminary study of documentation and description of Sammarinese, a peripheral variety of Romagnol spoken in the Republic of San Marino. Despite having been the country's primary oral language for almost 1,000 years, Sammarinese is on the verge of extinction today as universal education and economic development have caused language shift to Italian beginning from the 1960s. A corpus of primary oral language data was collected from 17 informants in the form of semi-structured interviews with the goal of creating an archive of oral language histories in Sammarinese. These data, together with a corpus of vernacular and folkloric literature, served as the database for a descriptive analysis of some of the major phonological and morphosyntactic traits of the language. The results confirm Sammarinese's status as a borderline Romagnol variety. However, the findings also reveal a language that stands apart from neighboring varieties due to complex historical and geographical factors, including a Celtic substratum from the pre-Roman and Roman times, a Byzantine Greek heritage and Lombard/ Germanic influence from the second half of the first millennium, and a geographic position that resulted in linguistic isolation from the vernaculars spoken in the Central Romagnol plain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this paper is to offer an overview of the grammatical and lexical properties of spatial categories in Aquilan, an Italian dialect. The paper shows that spatial prepositions (e.g. a 'at/to', 'nfronte a 'in front of'), pronouns and indexicals (e.g. pe'nfronte lit. 'to in front (of a place)', loc'arrete 'there behind', respectively) share two key properties. The first, a lexical property, is their ability to refer to the location of discourse referent, whence the “spatial" label. The second, a grammatical property, is their similar distribution in sentences and discourse contexts. The paper thoroughly presents these Aquilan data and sketches, as a theoretical analysis that connects these categories into a unified account. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although dialectology in England received two major boosts at the end of the 19th century and the middle of the 20th century (Ellis 1889 and Orton & Barry 1956-8), discussion of dialect change since that time has avoided discussion of many areas, concentrated as it was in those Universities with a tradition of dialectology (Essex, Leeds, Sheffield, Newcastle). Though many areas have since been re-examined in England; notably Bristol dialect (Blaxter & Coates 2019), Newcastle dialect (Milroy 1994, Milroy et al. 1999) Sunderland dialect (Burbano-Elizondo 2007), and Manchester dialect (Baranowski & Turton 2015, Bermúdez-Otero et al. 2015) there remain many areas which were never fully explored at the time of the Survey of English Dialects (Birmingham as an urban area for example was completely bypassed by that survey), as well as many areas which remain little known and studied. This paper brings together what is known about the dialects of the Upper Southwest and suggests pointers for directions in future research there based on the data from Worcestershire and Herefordshire that we discuss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses variation and change in the realization of superlative constructions in the light of the evidence provided by Modern Greek dialectal variation as a window into the study of the organization of grammar. Dialectal data show that analyticity prevails in the realization of relative comparative constructions, while absolute ones seem to resist more persistently due to their high relevance with another morphological category, evaluative intensification. Our findings argue in favour of the strong interplay among all three processes, viewed as realizations of the conceptual category of gradation, accounted for in terms of a continuum. The proposed organization captures the strong interplay between intensification and absolute superlatives on the one hand, while relative and absolute superlative formations on the other. On a theoretical level, this account could contribute further to important issues such as the controversial status of comparison and evaluation in grammar, which may differ cross-linguistically, suggesting that a combined account of the three processes might prove more adequate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Any scholarly description of Hungarian dialects may only be possible for the time period after the settlement of the Hungarian-speaking population in the Carpathian Basin. Research in historical dialectology has primarily focused on the phonological characterization of 11th-14th century conditions, while in terms of sources, scholars have so far relied primarily on early data related to tribes' names, historical data recorded in charters, today's dialects, as well as evidence provided by related languages and elements borrowed from others. My paper sets out to establish the value of various sources in historical dialectology in view of our current knowledge in language history and calls attention to related methodological pitfalls. As most of these source types may also greatly contribute to the better understanding of the history of other languages, these methodological issues are relevant not only for Hungarian historical linguistics and dialectology but also more generally. The research and writing of this essay has been supported by the University of Debrecen and the MTA Premium Postdoctoral Research Program, Eötvös Loránd Research Network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the second part of a general study about semantic determinism, this article continues to analyze the topographic lexicon of Gallo-Romance dialects. The new concepts ('river', 'brook', 'valley', 'cave') that I examine in this paper complete my previous survey about the designations of hills and mountains. Most of all, the new set of data allows me to go beyond isolated concepts and to present for the first time the motivational synthesis of a whole theme. The result is that, whatever the concept, words referring to topography are generally created according to four matrices of designation: such words originally allude to (1) level; (2) concavity/convexity; (3) physical composition; or stem from a (4) conceptual confusion due to adjacency. The method that reduces hundreds of lexical forms to a handful of creative patterns leads to a direct perception of how the lexicon is structured and has a strong heuristic potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In variationist linguistics, the concept of implicational hierarchies, i.e. the idea that feature x implies y but not the reverse, has passed into oblivion the last decades (cf. Rickford 2002: 142). This paper aims at showing the usefulness of implicational scales as an analytical tool, especially when attempting to understand stylistic dynamics and the structure of intermediate variations in dialect/standard continua. The discussion is based on results from empirical research in Flanders, where intermediate language use between dialect and standard language (the so-called tussentaal) is increasingly prevalent. In general, tussentaal is conceived of as the whole continuum of regionally coloured language use in between the poles 'traditional dialect' and 'standard language', and it is hence said to differ from region to region, situation to situation and even from speaker to speaker (Willemyns 2005: 31). Necessary and sufficient conditions would be impossible to define (cf. De Caluwe 2006: 19). This paper however demonstrates, on the basis of quantitative analyses of nine language features as used by ten West Flemish speakers in three types of speech settings, that tussentaal is not just a random idiolectal mix of dialect features, but that it is structured by implicational principles shared across the speech community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The following article strives to present a project that was launched by language enthusiasts in an attempt to revive Norn, a Scandinavian language that used to be spoken on the Northern Isles but died out about 200 years ago. On that account, the reasons and mechanics of language endangerment and language death are examined in this paper as well as different approaches to language revival or revitalization. The importance of language as a means of preserving one's identity is only one of the reasons why these kinds of projects deserve more attention than they have gotten so far. Although Norn is classified as a Trümmersprache, which means that not a lot is known about it, a lot of works have been published about it. As a topic, it is far from being exhausted. The Nynorn project, however, is a relatively new attempt that hasn't been covered by scientific research yet. The aim of this paper is to provide insight into the work of the Nynorn community that tries to reconstruct a version of Norn that people will be able to speak one day. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the acoustic and articulatory characteristics of the fricative realization of /t/ in the dialect of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality, in Nova Scotia, Canada. Two experiments were conducted to determine the similarities and differences betwee fricative /t/, or 'slit-t', and other voiceless coronal sounds. Previous research on this sound in some communities has found it to be more similar to /s/ than /ʃ/, while in other communities it has been found to be more similar to /ʃ/ than /s/. The first experiment conducted was a qualitative analysis of static palatograms of one Cape Breton speaker's production of six different coronal sounds. Results from this experiment suggest 'slit-t' to be articulatorily distinct from both /s/ and /ʃ/. The second experiment conducted was a statistical analysis of several acoustic measurements of six Cape Breton speakers' production of six different coronal sounds. Results from this experiment suggest 'slit-t' is acousticcally distinct from both /s/ and /ʃ/, or rather on a cline between these two sounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper two simplification techniques are used in order to represent geographical distribution patterns of standard Japanese. The first technique is a representation of two-dimensional geographical distribution patterns in one dimension. The second is the plotting of geographical locations making use of railway distances from cultural centres. By simplifying the two-dimensional geographical distribution into one by railway distance, another dimension on a sheet of paper can show one other characteristic of standard Japanese forms. In order to see the patterns of distribution of Japanese standard forms, numerical data based on the Linguistic Atlas of Japan are utilized. Gravity centres of railway distance are calculated for each standard Japanese form, and correspondence with the degree of nationwide usage and the year of first attestation in historical documents is considered. Two-dimensional graphs (scattergrams) of the three factors are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on phonetic variation within the standard German language register of Austria. While the norm status and a high socio-symbolic value are attributed to certain lexical variants of standard language in Austria, the norm and usage status of characteristic phonetic properties remain unclear, due to lack of empirical analyses. By investigating the relation between standard language norms and "standard usage" (Gebrauchsstandard) in Austria, our study aims to close this research gap by using the example of unstressed ‹-ig›. The analyses are based on data gathered from 52 speakers from two generations, covering all Austrian dialect regions. Elicitation settings varied from strongly standardized tasks with a graphic or visual stimulus (reading aloud tasks, picture naming tasks) to translation tasks (translation from dialect into standard) with oral stimuli. The results demonstrate that although ‹-ig› is predominantly pronounced like [ɪk], (socio-)linguistic factors as phonetic context, part of speech, setting, gender and regional background influence the ‹-ig›-variation. In total, the data suggest that German speaking Austrians are situated in a conflict between transnationally diverging norms and intra-nationally varying model speakers of German. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The comitative represents a particular case in the Romance languages of the Iberian Peninsula. Except for Catalan, the rest of varieties possess a redundant form inherited from the evolution of the Latin postposition plus the preposition con ('with'). However, some authors point out a tendency that favours subject forms or even stressed object forms in persons in which the norm prohibits them. With the aim of finding the vernacular responses to this respect, this paper attempts to account for all the possibilities in the comitative in the Romance languages of the Iberian Peninsula as well as the factors upon which the selection of either strategy depends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article deals with the influence of colloquial syntax on the spontaneous non-prepared media discourse of professional presenters. It presents a syntactic analysis of radio program broadcasts on two Maribor radio stations, i.e. the commercial station Radio City and the Slovene public station Radio Maribor. Specifically, the paper focuses on typical syntactic colloquial features, i.e. incomplete syntactic patterns, interruptions, repetitions and corrections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Western Peninsular Spanish possesses a type of causative construction in which an intransitive lexeme is used as transitive. Specifically, the verbs caer ('to fall'), quedar ('to stay') and entrar ('to enter) can induce a direct object in detriment of the standard verbs tirar ('to throw'), dejar ('to leave') and meter ('to put in'). This phenomenon (called lability) has not been investigated in depth for Spanish and, with this paper I attempt to pinpoint its current geographical extension as well as the semantic factors that favour the transitivisation of these verbs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of computerized systems for geolinguistic data processing began in the 1970s with the production of maps for linguistic atlas projects. From that moment, dialect studies have continuously benefitted from the innovations that took place in the field of digital technologies. At present, linguistic geography projects are fully integrated within the Digital Humanities and are governed by the same principles that guide studies in this discipline: the interoperability of applications, free reuse of data and interdisciplinarity. This paper provides a brief outline of the structure and design of the database that currently houses the Atlas Lingüístico Galego materials, a linguistic atlas of Galician begun as a project in the 1970s. This database is being used as an information source for the publication of the project's volumes, for research into variation and change of Galician varieties, and to contribute to the elaboration of geolinguistic projects that are greater in scope. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a phase of language divinisation is posited as the deeply-rooted origin of the standard language/variety ideology, which devalues the nonstandard dialects thus causing a permanent sociolinguistic conflict. Present linguistic standardisation is seen as the form divinisation has taken in the course of the history of humankind and it is justified by the search of stability and functionality for organised speech communities, which is not objectionable as such for some aspects of social life. The sociolinguistic conflict emerges because the first stage of the process requires the selection of usually one variety (or more than one in some cases) out of the dialectal complex of any natural language, generally responding to class-related interests allied to power and prestige. It is evidently, an ideological issue. Our approach to this problem is based on data from the Spanish-speaking world, analysed mainly on a minimal unitary phonetological approach (MUPA) in search of different dialectal dimensions and parameters. MUPA is justified and possible because of the great cohesiveness of Spanish varieties. When attention is paid to this extensive linguistic dominion, one finds that the notion of the inevitability of the weakening of regional varieties has to be revised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Linguistics and Dialectology are two sides of the same coin: the former deals with the rigorous analysis of natural languages and the latter with concrete varieties of language in its cohesive and identifying social roles. Linguistics today is moving towards an integration of its various dimensions: phonology and phonetics are now so intricately tied that the unimodular phonetological approach is gaining ground rapidly; synchrony and diachrony are moving towards a reintegration, thus moving away from their parallel paths; and, finally, the so-called 'non-structural' elements of language are gradually being acknowledged as an integral part of the analysis that was traditionally reserved for the 'structural' ones. As linguistics moves, so does dialectology, since the latter has always been the laboratory of linguists, even if they have not formally accepted it as such. A new approach to dialectal matters must therefore move away from mere description and search for a more comprehensive analysis that confirms the essential inviolability of the binomial language-society. The traditional view of Hispanic linguistics and dialectology has been a victim of the dichotomic approach: conservative versus radical, Iberian versus American, high lands versus low lands, North-Central Castilian versus 'Atlantic' Spanish among others. This paper aims at taking an integrated approach to linguistics and dialectology, with its case study addressing the so called 'Atlantic' Spanish and the phonetological changes it is going through in search of a more satisfying explanation of short-term and long-term variability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given its early date, breadth of coverage (geographical and linguistic) and the huge amount of data it contains, Alexander Ellis's The Existing Phonology of English Dialects marks an extremely significant episode in British dialectology. Despite this, there has been very little in the way of detailed linguistic analysis of Ellis's survey, and no attempt has been made to construct a linguistic atlas from the data it contains, although several studies have included a few preliminary maps based on it. Why is this so, and what might we discover if we did investigate this early survey of the dialects of English and Scots in more detail? The aim of this paper is to begin such an investigation and, in particular, to demonstrate that there is considerable mileage (and benefit) in mapping the data in Ellis (1889). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The subject of this dialectological paper is a synchronous description of the major phonetic, morphological and accentual characteristics of the dialects that exist in the upper and middle river basin of the Moravica and in the upper flow of the Studenica, i.e. in the regions which belong to the municipalities of Arilje and Ivanjica (in west Serbia). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The major aim of this paper is to demonstrate through the grammar of the verb phrase in Standard English (StdE) and Nigerian Pidgin English (NPE) that NPE is a distinct language. The paper draws on data collected from 30 Nigerian University Graduates from three ethnolinguistic regions. Although many scholars have pointed out that NPE is a language (Agheyisi, West African Pidgin: Simplification and Simplicity, University of Stanford, 1971; Elugbe and Omamor, Nigerian Pidgins: Background and Prospects, Heinemann, 1991), not many of them have examined the verb phrase in NPE with a view to showing that its grammar is distinctive. It has been shown in this paper that the NPE verb phrase is sharply different from StdE verb phrase, and because the verb is at the centre of the clause and can determine its argument, it can be argued that NPE whose verbal grammar is radically different from that of English is a separate language. The pattern of clustering of NPE verb phrases with other NPE verb phrases or other crieterial features of NPE is also a demonstration that NPE is a distinct language. Finally, the subjects made sharp switches from StdE to NPE, speaking in blocks of first one code and then the other: this is like the behaviour of bilinguals moving from one language to another. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the gender changes that can take place in neuter nouns in Slovene dialects on the basis of number (singular, plural and dual). Using linguistic geography methods and material collected for the ongoing ‘Slovene Linguistic Atlas’ (SLA), the forms of a selected neuter noun are presented on three linguistic maps, which show the geographical spread of the gender changes. The paper also draws a comparison with earlier syntheses of these phenomena in Slovene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the functions and different frequency of blendwords in contemporary German, English and Japanese, respectively. It is shown that blendwords in the three languages investigated have a role that extends far beyond the simple filling of lexical gaps, particularly concerning Japanese. In addition, blendwords frequently take the place of an existing equivalent in the respective mother tongue where they perform various functions such as attention seeking or getting devices and for euphemistic effect. Drawing largely on the evaluation of data from internet corpora and their frequency as well as on the specific characteristics of the three languages and their speakers' attitudes towards them, this paper attempts to conclusively prove different extents of tendency concerning the formation and usage of blendwords. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

German-speaking Switzerland can certainly be regarded as one of the liveliest and at the same time best researched dialect areas in Central Europe. It is all the more surprising that dialectometric analyses in this area have only recently been performed and none of them included an investigation into the level of syntax. In this paper we pursue two goals: First, we present digital data that has been made available in recent years on the basis of the Sprachatlas der deutschen Schweiz (SDS) and the Syntaktischer Atlas der deutschen Schweiz (SADS). Our second goal is to present dialectometric analyses performed with this data. A special focus is put on the comparison of different linguistic levels (lexis, phonology, morphology and syntax). Our methods include hierarchical cluster analyses (of the whole dataset as well as of the linguistic levels), correlations (between pairs of linguistic levels and between linguistic levels and geography) and parameter maps which allow us to draw conclusions about the distributions of innovative and conservative regions, dialect centers and transition zones. Our results show that while all four levels generally yield similar geographic patterns (dynamic areas in the North vs. conservative areas in the South, agreement of dialect and cantonal borders, high correlations with geography), syntax deviates most from the other levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For describing a particular area from a geolinguistic perspective, the basic procedure is to create a two-dimensional table with an axis showing forms or phenomena and another axis showing localities. In this table, observing the specific reaction in every cell will allow us to develop both co-occurrence and coefficient matrixes, as well as clustering and multivariate interpretation graphs. In this table, which is the starting point for multivariate analyses of geolinguistic data, certain convergences and divergences of the reaction points are revealed. Our interest is in a quantitative evaluation of the degree of convergence and divergence that takes the form of a rectangular linkage of the reacted points; that is to say, an analysis of the state of their continuity set out in rectangular plots. In order to evaluate properly the absolute values in numbers of unions (U) it is necessary to develop a mathematical function that will return the maximum number of unions (Umax) in a parameter with the number of reactions (n): Umax (n). Once the Umax function has been established, the desirable 'Degree of Binding' will be formulated through the division of U by Umax(n). The aim of this paper is to put into practice this method with the data from La flexió verbal en els dialectes catalans ('Verbal Flexion') (1929-1932), by Antoni M. Alcover, previously analysed in Perea & Ueda (2010). The calculation of the Degree of Binding is applied to the data in both its forms: the original data and the patternized distribution of data (see Perea & Ueda 2010: 103-111). The result of our calculations gives rise to a new multivariate perspective of 'isoglosses' for overcoming the problems of mismatched lines on the linguistic maps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with a morphological issue, the inflection in Luxemburgish family names. While in colloquial High German only the one inflective form -s is attested in the plural forms of family names, for instance Schmit-s, we discover in colloquial Luxemburgish, besides the different plural forms, the composition 'family name + first name', for instance Schmit's Paul instead of Paul Schmit. First, we give precise details about the morphological complexity of this construction. Next, its numerous connotations are emphasized. Finally, we put the question, if the new attitude of the young generation towards the inflected composite form generates a linguistic development in this local specified field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of dialectal microvariation in spoken Spanish faces challenges due to the absence of an adequate morpho-syntactically annotated and parsed corpus. Therefore, this article introduces a novel technique, a game-based approach, for creating resources for non-standard Spanish language varieties. The article provides an overview of the progress in designing three Games With A Purpose (GWAPs) prototypes, to wit, Agentes, Tesoros, and Anotatlón. These games aim to facilitate the confirmation and correction of the morpho-syntactic tagging task of the COSER-AP (Corpus Oral y Sonoro del Español Rural-Anotado y Parseado, 'Annotated and Parsed Audible Corpus of Spoken Rural Spanish'). First, the article presents the methodology used to build the games. Second, it offers a detailed description of the implemented Game Design Elements (GDEs). Finally, the article discusses the results of a pilot evaluation that assesses player enjoyment and the linguistic accuracy. Findings are promising, with Tesoros and Anotatlón demonstrating high levels of enjoyment. Additionally, Agentes proves to be effective in collecting a large number of annotations. The linguistic accuracy also shows potential benefits of gamified approaches in linguistic annotation tasks. However, it also emphasizes the importance of considering regional in player assessment and training them in multidialectal contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The traditional focus of (German) dialectology has been on spatial patterns observed in phonology. However, dialectometric approaches have generated interest in exploring geographical structures in other linguistic subsystems, including morphology. Building on this research, this study investigates geolinguistic patterns of dialect morphology in contemporary Austrian dialects using aggregative and non-aggregative measures, such as Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Multidimensional Scaling (MDS), and Cluster Analysis (CA). Data are based on a comprehensive dialect survey with 163 speakers from 40 locations across Austria, examining 120 linguistic variables related to inflection. The results show a clear geographic structuring of morphological variation, which significantly differs from traditional dialect classifications. The analysis of the linguistic basis of the geographical patterns suggests that these differences might be ascribed to methodological factors and language change. Methodologically, it is also demonstrated that the findings of aggregative and non-aggregative methods are complementary, not contradictory. Ultimately, the study underscores the importance of integrating diverse methods to gain a comprehensive understanding of geographical patterns in dialect variation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The strategies that have been developed for the incorporation of loanwords are mainly the same in Standard Turkish and its dialects. However, the adaptation process of these words has certain differences in Cypriot Turkish. The paper primarily focuses on the types and examples of phonetic adaptation of loanwords that show differences in this dialect and the standard language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dialect variation is perceived and encoded in everyday language situations. Studies in the field of folk linguistic enquiry which has come to be known as perceptual dialectology, pioneered in the 1980s by scholars such as Dennis Preston, showed that beliefs nonlinguists have about language variation can play a critical role in language maintenance and change. This paper is an attempt to rethink the issue of accent identification from the perspective of perceptual dialectology by discussing the methodological hurdles to overcome when assessing folk perception of dialects. Illustration comes from two recent studies tackling the perception of geolinguistics variation in Eastern Canada. A comparison of the most common data collection techniques such as mental mapping, dialect identification tests requiring informants to listen to voices of different degrees of dialect markedness and dialect questionnaires raises several issues that call for a diversification of research design including indirect attitude measurements, especially affective priming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the relations between three domains dealing with linguistic variation: dialectology, typology, and contact linguistics. It aims to contribute to dialectal research that also considers syntactic questions, exploring the syntactic domain of comparative constructions of superiority in Purepecha (a language isolate spoken in Mexico). I demonstrate that the expression of the comparison of superiority can be mapped onto the language by means of ten constructions, which may be divided into four types, showing that language contact can lead to the emergence of new types. This study points out that the consequences of language contact are not homogeneous, but fall into various types of construction aligned with local specificities and geographical distribution. I argue that the integration of dialectology, typology, and contact linguistics results in a dynamic and multidimensional organization, which I characterize as a multi-layered perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To manually detect geometric structures in large quantities of dialect maps is a tedious and error-prone (if not impossible) task. Methods from stochastic image analysis and pattern recognition can help to automate, objectify and thus facilitate this process. This paper presents a quantitative method for detection of ellipsoid patterns and their centers in dialect maps using the Randomized Hough Transform. It will outline the necessary parameters, which are fully customizable, thus making the method adaptable to any kind of map. The centers of these structures can be divided into two types, a geographic and a linguistic one. Previous approaches were unable to make such a distinction. It will be argued that the aggregations of such linguistic centers could best be described as attractors of a dynamic system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Majorcan dialectologist Antoni M. Alcover (1862-1932) was the first researcher to record information for use in the study of the conjugation of Catalan verbs. He compiled almost 500,000 verb forms corresponding to the complete conjugation of 75 verbs in 149 localities in the Catalan-speaking area. These data were published under the title 'La flexió verbal en els dialectes catalans'. From 1999, work began to complete and computerize these materials in order to make them accessible to scholars in the field and to the public. These computer applications have a descriptive character: they show dialectal and subdialectal areas, and isoglosses, in a graphic form. However, it is also possible to use these materials from an interpretative point of view. The aim of this paper is to apply a suitable dialectometric analysis to the 'Verbal flexion' materials, which can only be interpreted using quantitative analysis techniques. Taking multiple answers into account, we use the calculation of the Mean Degree of Confluence and we compare the results with the dialectometric analysis obtained applying Hans Goebl's methodology, which is based on the use of single answers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I have attempted to classify and explain 30 words and phrases representative of language medley in Northern France. They illustrate a mixture of Germanic and Romance languages: Flemish in French and Picard, French in Flemish, Picard in French and vice versa. I will discuss imagination, word-play and lexical creativity in code-switching situations, as well as the dynamics of regional variation in the epilinguistic data under consideration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The methodological aspects that characterize any dialectal survey were defined in Jules Gilliéron's Atlas Linguistique de la France (Champion, 1902–1910) and they were the starting point for later dialectal works. From then on, the number of informants interviewed, the qualities of the researcher or the typology of the questionnaire are characteristics that determine the design and the realization of any atlas. This paper examines different methodological aspects related to the dialectal survey and proposes a method that gives account of the progressive variation observed in the speakers of a cohesive dialectal territory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the language used in Latvian settlements in Siberia. It is based on the author's observations and on data gathered during three ethnolinguistic expeditions to Lejas Bulana, in the Krasnoyarsk District, in 1991 and 2004, as well as to Timofejevka, in the Novosibirsk District, in 2006. An analysis was carried out to assess the extent of the Latvian language in these areas, which are separated from their ethnic territory. The study focussed on the language skills of different generations, depending on their education, religious identity and amount of communication with Latvia. The situation is better in Lejas Bulana, where in recent years teachers have been coming from Latvia. However, this community is losing its young generation to big cities, where their exposure to Latvian culture is lost, and thus little by little they begin to forget the Latvian language [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the evolution of aspectual formations in Insular Celtic. It is argued that the emergence of these formations and their unusual morphosyntactic structure have been determined by internal systemic factors. It is also suggested that the manner in which these formations developed is of importance for our understanding of the processes involved in the emergence of grammatical subsystems in general. It is demonstrated that the Celtic aspectual system evolves in a manner reminiscent of the concept of developmental stratification and, significantly, that it evolves in a remarkably coherent and ordered fashion. The inexorable and structured nature of this evolution would seem to provide evidence for the claim that there may exist within languages a certain teleological impulse; in other words, that rather than being simply random, language change is in some fundamental and meaningful sense goal-directed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]