Dialectology, the study of language variation across geographical space, may not be a subject that is as accessible to everyone as before. At the end of the 19th century and throughout the 20th century, there were numerous dialect surveys conducted around the world, and some of these surveys were published as linguistic atlases (maps) and dialect surveys (tables, lists). These data typically reflect the more old-fashioned speech spoken in rural areas, which were on the verge of extinction when the surveys were conducted due to societal changes. These data, now mostly sitting in the library in book form, are covered in dust and are waiting for more people to utilize them. This workshop series aims to introduce the kind of data present in these linguistic atlases/ dialect surveys, as well as to introduce how to extract these data and analyze them.

Throughout the semester, we will digitize a dialect dataset together. From this process, we can learn what kind of problems one might face in digitization, as well as learning how to overcome some of them. The digitized dataset will be used in the next semester (Introduction to Dialectometry 2024).

pdf Description of workshops in the Methods in Dialectology workshop series 2023.

Organiser: Matthew Sung (LUCL/ LUCDH PhD Candidate)

Email: h.w.m.sung@hum.leidenuniv.nl

If you are interested in joining the workshop, please sign up using the form below.