marco@work - Comparing and Classifying Dialects

Dit is een verkorte webversie van John Nerbonne en Wilbert Heeringa's paper Computationele vergelijking en classificatie van dialecten.

Introduction: In traditional dialectology, maps are divided into dialect areas on the basis of isoglosses or with the use of the arrow method (Daan and Blok, 1969). However, isoglosses often simplify dialectal reality too much, not only when isoglosses fail to coincide (or even cross), but more importantly, when language varieties are dispersed through migration or war. The arrow method can only be used if dialect areas are contiguous. In this paper we show computational dialect comparison and classification methods. First we show three comparison methods and several variations on them, and next we show two classification methods. By using these methods, the problems signalled above are solved. On the basis of the output of the comparison methods, the dialects can be classified.