rede sprachgis: a geographic information system for linguists · regional-language research ·...
TRANSCRIPT
REDE SprachGIS: A Geographic InformationSystem for Linguists
Juliane Limper, Jeffrey Pheiff, and Anneli Williams
ContentsIntroduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2Theoretical Underpinnings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Linguistic Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5Linguistic Dynamics Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Regionalsprache.de . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7The Repository . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Cartographic Corpus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Wenker Questionnaire Corpus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11Speech Recording Corpus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12Visualization of the Variation-Linguistic Spectra Using Dialectal Measurement . . . . . . . . . . . 15Bibliography and Interfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Cartographic Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18Map Elements and Character Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18Cartographic Examples: Redrawing Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19Cartographic Examples: Map Visualization by Data Import . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20Cartographic Examples: Survey Net . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20Exporting and Sharing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Possibilities for Publication in REDE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23Kleiner Niederländischer Sprachatlas unter Einschluss des Westfriesischen (KNSA) . . . . . . 24Syntax des Alemannischen (SynAlm) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Closing Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
AbstractThe emergence and subsequent dissemination of Standard German via the massmedia in the course of the twentieth century led to the development of a spectrumof variation between the base dialects and the standard language. Although both
J. Limper (*) · J. Pheiff · A. WilliamsResearch Center Deutscher Sprachatlas, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Marburg, Germanye-mail: [email protected]; [email protected];[email protected]
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019S. D. Brunn, R. Kehrein (eds.), Handbook of the Changing World Language Map,https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73400-2_145-1
1
of the former have been intensively studied, there has as yet been no systematicanalysis of the variation existing between these two extremes. The researchplatform Regionalsprache.de (REDE) was developed with the following researchgoal in mind: to document and analyze German in both its vertical and horizontaldimensions. To this end, REDE serves not only as a repository of vast amounts ofcartographic, audio, and bibliographic material that collates the prior researchresults of a long tradition of dialectological, sociolinguistic, and variation-linguistic research but also as an analytical tool with which language dynamicscan be investigated. Initially developed for the investigation of the principles oflanguage change on the basis of German, one of the most well-documentedlanguages in terms of historical depth and areal coverage, REDE has sincebecome an instrument for neighboring philological disciplines, can fulfill didacticpurposes, and can be used to perform forensic speech analysis using maps anddialect recordings. The goal of this contribution is not to discuss the researchfindings enabled by REDE as this has been done elsewhere. Instead, we shall firstdiscuss the necessity of this research platform. Then, following a description ofthe contents that it makes available, we shall give an overview of the technical,analytical, and publication possibilities that REDE affords its users. In particular,we will give an overview of cartographic possibilities for mapping data from anyregion in the world.
KeywordsRegional-language research · Linguistic Dynamics Approach · Geographicinformation system · REDE SprachGIS · Linguistic cartography ·Sprachdynamik
Introduction
Regionalsprache.de (REDE) was initiated at the Research Center DeutscherSprachatlas in 2008 where it is currently under the supervision of Jürgen ErichSchmidt, Joachim Herrgen, and Roland Kehrein. It is funded by the Academy ofSciences and Literature in Mainz for a period of 19 years. The Digitaler Wenker-Atlas (2001–2009) and the Dialektdatenbank gefärbter Standardsprache precededREDE. The goal of the former project was the first-ever complete publication ofGeorg Wenker’s Sprachatlas des Deutschen Reichs, which was compiled over aspan of years from 1888 to 1923, as well as the digitization of select maps fromdiverse regional atlases of German (see Herrgen 2010). From a technical standpoint,the REDE SprachGIS has continued to expand over the years since its predecessor,the Digitaler Wenker-Atlas (compared with Rabanus et al. 2010, pp. 383–384).The principal goal of the Deutscher Sprachatlas is the study of dialects, nonstandardvarieties, and regional varieties of German, which expands the research center’sprior dialectological focus to include spatial and social variation in German.The existence of the Sprachatlas is intrinsically linked to Georg Wenker’s linguisticsurvey of 1876. This survey would not only cover the entirety of the former German
2 J. Limper et al.
Empire but would then also later extend to include extensive parts of continentalWestern Europe (Fleischer 2017). Though Wenker’s primary concern was the localbase dialects, he himself noted that the written German language had exerted aninfluence on dialect speakers (Wenker 2013, pp. 61–62). Prior to the sixteenthcentury, the German language area was characterized by a marked geographicalheterogeneity consisting of diatopic varieties of German known as base dialects,which coexisted. The sixteenth century saw the development of Modern German,which initially existed as a written variety of German. This new written varietyemerged in the East Middle German region through various factors and eventuallyspread throughout the language area. Through the influence of this new writtenstandard language, nonlocal, regionally bound forms of spoken German known aslandscape-based High German (landschaftliches Hochdeutsch) emerged. Thoughoriginally used exclusively by the educated upper and middle classes (Mattheier2003, p. 219), this new variety gained traction and became known to larger swathsof the population. Contrary to the locally bound base dialects, this new spokenvariety of German could be used over farther communicative distances. It wouldvary from region to region because it was spoken based on the phonologicalinventory of a given base dialect. This landscape-based High German would becomethe modern regiolects after a process of reevaluation because of the influence ofthe standard language in the mass media in the twentieth century. Today, thelanguage of German is characterized by a spectrum of variation encompassingthree varieties: a supra-regional Standard German, an intermediate dialectformation-bound variety regiolect, and the locally bound base dialects. For a longtime, the base dialects and the standard language formed the primary object ofinvestigation of linguistic research on German. For example, the base dialectshave been intensively studied since at least Schmeller (1821). However, with thelaunch of the REDE project, whose purpose is to investigate the entire spectrumof variation, Wenker’s initial remarks concerning the influence of the written lan-guage on the dialects can be empirically investigated for the entirety of the modernFederal Republic of Germany with appropriate and systematically collected data.The REDE project should therefore fill major gaps in the research tradition ofGerman in that there are lacking comprehensive, systematic descriptions of theaforementioned spectrum of variation that characterizes Modern German. This isespecially grave given the fact that the intermediate varieties between the two poles(standard language and dialect) represent the everyday speech of most speakersof German. The project’s primary goal is therefore to document and analyze thiscomplex linguistic entity in its horizontal (i.e., areal), vertical (i.e., situational), andtemporal dimensions (see section “Linguistic Dynamics Approach”). To achieve thisend, the REDE project comprises two parts.
1. Creation of an online research-oriented linguistic geographic informationsystem, compiling vast amounts of extant dialectological, sociolinguistic, andvariation-linguistic findings on German, making them geographically exact, andthen making this material available to the scientific community and the generalpublic free of charge. This information system is known as the REDE SprachGIS.
REDE SprachGIS: A Geographic Information System for Linguists 3
2. Investigation of the variation-linguistic structure and dynamics of the modernregional languages of German. This involves the systematic surveying of theentire spectrum of varieties and speech levels between the poles dialect andstandard at 150 locations in the Federal Republic of Germany, with at leastthree (male) informants per location from varying generations (young, middle-aged, elderly). The survey comprises five or six different situations (see section“Speech Recording Corpus”).
The focus of this chapter is the online platform. The SprachgeographischesInformationssystem (SprachGIS or Linguistic GIS) lies at the heart of the REDEplatform. Chang (2017, p. 1) defines a geographic information system as:
[. . .] a computer system for capturing, storing, querying, analyzing, and displayinggeospatial data. Geospatial data describe both the location and attributes of spatial features.A GIS comprises the components of hardware, software, data, people, and organization.
REDE, in its form as a GIS, allows for accelerated publication of research resultsand opens up analytical possibilities that traditional (i.e., analogue) linguisticgeography has hitherto been unable to offer. The REDE SprachGIS providesresearchers with a tool to view and make use of extant materials but also toproduce their own maps and then to set these into relation with other collectionson the platform. Referring to REDE’s predecessor version InformationssystemSprachgeographie (Linguistic Geographic Information System), which formedthe starting point for the development of the REDE SprachGIS, Jost Nickel (2008)had previously identified the necessity for an easy-to-use system for languagecartography:
The introduction of computers has opened up new possibilities for linguistic cartography,many of which have however remained unused. The work of the cartographer has beenfacilitated in some respects, and results have steadily improved with regard to the visualappearance and precision of the maps published. A closer look however reveals that the sameprocedures are applied, as during Wenker’s time. [. . .] A workflow-oriented software thatconsistently integrates and simplifies every step in linguistic cartography does not yet exist.GIS-software that has been developed for modern cartographic purposes is certainly appli-cable in conjunction with geographical databases to execute all of the steps involved fromthe entry and storage of data to automatic plotting in a pre-defined survey net to variousoverarching and until now time-consuming analyses in one program. Unfortunately, suchsoftware is over-fraught with functions unnecessary for variation linguists and is commen-surately complex to learn and expensive. Therefore, researchers have developed isolatedapplications or even rely [. . .] on standard graphic software–as a result, the maps mayreliably document the linguistic circumstances in a given area; however, a comparisonwith maps from other atlases is only possible with considerable effort. (Nickel 2008,pp. 181–182; translation: JL/JP/AW)
Before proceeding to a discussion of the platform’s contents and analytical tools,we shall first consider the linguistic map from a semiotic perspective, given that theREDE SprachGIS primarily functions to allow users to create and view linguistic
4 J. Limper et al.
maps. We shall then briefly sketch the language dynamics approach (Schmidt andHerrgen 2011), which forms the theoretical foundation of the research projectRegionalsprache.de.
Theoretical Underpinnings
Linguistic Maps
Linguistic maps combine topographic with linguistic information and representthe areal distribution of linguistic variables. Following Girnth (2010, p. 99), weunderstand the linguistic map in terms of the triadic sign model (Fig. 1):
The sign consists of a representamen, object, and interpretant. In the case ofthe cartographic sign, the representamen is its visual (and occasionally auditory)form. The object is the topographic and linguistic reality mirrored by it. Finally,the linguistic map is only an indirect interpretation of reality via the interpretant,the mental picture evoked in the map user. With this model, the linguistic map canbe described on multiple levels: structural, thematic, and cognitive. Girnth (2010,pp. 99–100) formulates these levels in terms of questions, which turn out to bedistinct steps in the production of maps (Table 1).
Linguistic Dynamics Approach
The concept of the modern regional language (moderne Regionalsprache) lies at thefoundation of REDE. It has proven itself an object of study par excellence to test theempirical validity of the Linguistic Dynamics Approach; this totality is defined as:
[. . .] an aggregate of varieties and speech levels unified by mesosynchronizations andbounded horizontally by the structural boundaries of the dialect formations or regions andvertically by its differences to the national oralization norms of the standard variety.(Schmidt 2011, p. 153)
Interpretant(Cognitive: What mental picture does it produce?)
Object(Thematic: What is mapped?)
Representamen(Structural: How is it mapped?)
Linguisticmap
Fig. 1 The linguistic map as a semiotic process. (Modified from Girnth 2010, p. 99)
REDE SprachGIS: A Geographic Information System for Linguists 5
The modern regional language comprises a horizontal dimension and a verticaldimension; the German language area has as many regional languages as thereare structurally different dialect formations (Dialektverbände; see section “SpeechRecordings Corpus”). By implication, the modern regional language encompassesthe entire spectrum of variation under the codified standard language, i.e., boththe varieties (Varietäten) and their associated speech levels (Sprechlagen) of adialect formation; it does not simply refer to the single small-scale variety dialect(Dialekt). The modern regional language consists of the elements’ regional accent(Regionalakzent); the speech level located at the pole closest to the standardlanguage; the base dialect(s), located at the pole furthest from the standard language;and an intermediate constellation of speech levels betwixt. Figure 2 schematically
Table 1 Guiding questions and their associated contents in the creation of linguistic maps based onGirnth (2010: 99–100)
Element Level Question Content
– Functional What is the aim ofmapping?
DocumentationInterpretationVisual economy
Object Thematic What is mapped? Topographic data and areal rangeLanguage data: Linguistic levels, maptypes, mono�/multidimensionality
Representamen Structural How is it mapped? Component elements of a mapMapping methods: Symbols,isoglosses, etc.Publication medium: Print, CD, internet
Interpretant Cognitive Which mentalpicture does itproduce?
Reality generated by the map thatpermeates all other levels
National Oralization Norm (Standard Pronunciation)
?REGIOLECTB
Regionalaccent
Uppernonstandard
Lowernonstandard
Regionaldialect
BasedialectIn
creasingcommunicationrad ius
DIALECTS
AREGIOL ECTA
Moselle Franconian Upper Saxon
Fig. 2 The linguistic structure of the modern regional languages (left, Moselle Franconian;middle, Upper Saxon)
6 J. Limper et al.
represents this relationship. It should be noted that the structures given for thetwo leftmost dialect formations are not necessarily valid for the third formation.Instead, it may prove to have a different structuring and availability of varietiesand speech levels, and this may change over time.
Regionalsprache.de
REDE is available to users from anywhere in the world over the Internet. Althoughno prior registration is necessary, it is recommended because certain functions andmaterials are only available to registered users (e.g., ability to access particularatlases, download Wenker questionnaires, and create and save user-generatedmaps). Although REDE emerged against the background of a new research programin German dialectology (see section “Linguistic Dynamics Approach”), it has sinceexpanded its horizon. With the relaunch of the REDE SprachGIS during the courseof 2018, the platform has become available in both German and English, makingit easier for international researchers to take advantage of the numerous aforemen-tioned materials and cartographic tools. This includes the following:
• Integration of Wenker’s questionnaires, which form REDE’s foundation,comprising 19 languages, or 5 language groups, with a survey net extendingfrom Western to Eastern Europe (see section “Wenker Questionnaire Corpus”).
• Integration of speech recordings from German-speaking language islands inNorth America in cooperation with the Linguistic Atlas of Kansas GermanDialects (2013).
• Integration of non-German linguistic atlases (Dutch, Lëtzebuergesch, WestYiddish) including the Kleiner Niederländischer Sprachatlas (see section“Kleiner Niederländischer Sprachatlas unter Einschluss des Westfriesischen(KNSA)”), Dialekt à la carte: Dialektatlas Westmünsterland – Achterhoek –Liemers – Niederrhein (Cornelissen 1993), Fränkischer Sprachatlas (Goossens1988–2002), Westjiddischer Sprachatlas (Beranek 1965), and LuxemburgerSprachatlas (Moulin 2003 and 2016).
• Use of REDE’s cartographic tools is not limited to the German-speaking area,i.e., users can chart data from any region or location in the world.
This chapter will give a brief overview of the structure of Regionalsprache.de.It is broken into two parts: the first gives an overview of the materials available;the second provides examples of how users can conduct their own analyses.
The Repository
In addition to maps, image files (e.g., map legends and Wenker questionnaires),speech recordings, and bibliographic information have been furnished with geo-graphic coordinates. These materials can be either queried using the REDE
REDE SprachGIS: A Geographic Information System for Linguists 7
SprachGIS by searching for data in a point- or surface-based manner or by usingREDE’s more “traditional” search interfaces in the form of a database query bymeans of the Wenker Questionnaire Catalogue, Audio Catalogue, or Georefer-enzierte Online-Bibliographie Areallinguistik.
Cartographic Corpus
REDE makes a variety of linguistic atlases available. The goal of a linguistic atlasis “[. . .] the publication of a self-contained set of maps in which the linguistic featuresof a defined survey area have been documented as completely as possible in theirspatial distribution” (Rabanus 2004, p. 351; translation: JL/JP/AW). REDE offers twotypes of maps depending on the availability of existing data: raster and vector maps.Raster maps are simply high-resolution image files. They are scanned at 600 dpi with24-bit color depth; they are saved as uncompressed TIFFs (tagged image file format).Before being uploaded onto REDE’s server, the TIFF files are first furnished with passpoints (geocoding), and then subsequently undergo georeferencing before beingconverted into compressed. ECW (enhanced compression wavelet) files, a formattypically used for aerial and satellite imagery. Legends are edited (e.g., scanned,cropped, retouched, aligned) with the open-source application GIMP and thenuploaded as JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) files. In this way, users canopen them in a separate window. REDE does not have a function to geocodeand georeference maps. For this reason, we make use of the open-source programQuantumGIS. Although REDE contains many thousands of geographically exactmaps, users cannot upload their own georeferenced maps onto REDE. After comple-tion of this process, maps are geographically precise, allowing users to superimposethem at will by loading them into different layers. This facilitates comparison of apoint a on map x with the same point a on map y. Additionally, it allows for a point bon map x to be compared to a neighboring point c on map z (Fig. 3).
The former is made possible by an overlay and opacity function. By comparingmaps, locality for locality, users can draw conclusions about trends in languagechange and the co-occurrence of linguistic phenomena in the varieties of German.
If a set of data is electronically available as a database, it is integrated intoREDE’s database; using this information, REDE generates maps automatically.These vector maps are scrupulously compared to printed maps of the same atlas(if available) and are edited directly in the database to ensure that they contain
Fig. 3 Abstract maps superimposed (left) and side-by-side (right)
8 J. Limper et al.
the same information as the original atlas maps. Vector maps are particularlyadvantageous when it comes to comparing maps because raster-based mapsthemselves are not necessarily geographically exact and survey density may varybetween two maps, making it difficult to compare a particular location on twomaps. The use of vector maps solves this problem.
Approximately 14,000 previously published print-based (and to a lesser extentpreviously unpublished) linguistic maps have been edited and made available.The maps chart diverse phenomena especially related to the phonetic-phonological,morphological, syntactic, lexical, and pragmatic linguistic levels. The platformalso contains maps treating the graphemic representation of historical soundsfrom the Historischer Südwestdeutscher Sprachatlas (Kleiber et al. 1979–1980). Inaddition, a series of extralinguistic maps is available for interpretative purposes (basemaps, fieldworker maps, political maps, historical maps, sociodemographic maps,confessional borders, topographic maps, inter alia). The overlay and opacity functions(see Fig. 3) can also be applied to these nonlinguistic thematic maps, offeringadditional insight into the relations between language and society. In addition to theaforementioned overlay and opacity functions, users can apply a sliding-scale zoomand can navigate through the maps at will. Table 2 gives an overview of the types ofmaps available via the REDE SprachGIS. They vary in terms of the functional,thematic, and structural levels (see Table 1):
Table 2 Types of maps in the REDE SprachGIS
Functional level Thematic level Structural level
Mapping methods (point-textmaps vs. area symbol maps; seeFig. 4 and the mappingillustrations in CartographicTools)
Linguistic level (phonetic-phonological vs. morphologicalvs. syntactic vs. lexical)Dimensionality (mono-vs. pluridimensionala)Historical origin (nineteenthvs. twentieth vs. twenty-firstcentury)Areal coverage (small-areavs. large-area atlasesb)Survey density (very densevs. less dense)Elicited data form (mediallywritten vs. medially oral data,translation datavs. spontaneously spoken data;see Lenz 2007)
Mapping methods(point-text mapsvs. area symbol maps;see Fig. 4)Form of the data (rastervs. vector map)
aLinguistic cartography also encompasses the question as to which dimensions of variation beyondthe horizontal are to be mapped. Monodimensional mapping involves only the horizontal (i.e.,diatopic or areal) dimension. If one or more additional dimensions are involved, then the maps inquestion are pluridimensional. These additional dimensions may include the diastratic (i.e., socio-economic), diagenerational, or diasexual dimensions (Girnth 2010, p. 105)bHotzenköcherle and Baumgartner (1962–1997) first made the distinction between small-area andlarge-area atlases. The tradition of small-area atlases began with Georg Wenker’s Sprachatlas derRheinprovinz and Gilliéron’s Petit Atlas phonétique du Valais roman. Large-area atlases covernational areas such as Georg Wenker’s Sprachatlas des Deutschen Reichs (Veith 2006, p. 517)
REDE SprachGIS: A Geographic Information System for Linguists 9
Each map contains a series of standardized metadata including nonlinguisticinformation such as author and map and volume number as well as linguisticinformation such as the form of the question used to elicit the linguistic data inaddition to the linguistic level (vocabulary, sound, form, grammar) of the phenom-enon under investigation on the linguistic map (Table 3). To facilitate the users’search, the phenomena on the linguistic maps have undergone classification withthe help of three reference systems known as registers: historical, morphological,and phonetic-phonological. A historical reference system allows researchersto reconstruct the development of linguistic variants. The historical register wasdeveloped according to the Middle High German vowel inventory and somemorphological categories to archive and analyze the original Wenker maps at theResearch Center Deutscher Sprachatlas (Lameli 2008 §1) and has become knownas the Marburger Systematik (Wiesinger and Hethey 1965). A map is classifiedusing the historical register if it deals with phonetic-phonological phenomena,
Higher
Lower
Degree ofabstraction /reduction
Point map
Area map
Linguistic map
Point-text map
Point-symbol map
Area-text map
Area-symbol map
Fig. 4 Mapping methods.(Modified from Girnth 2010,p. 108)
Table 3 Standardized metadata (e.g., KNSA map K21 bladeren “leaves”)
Header Information Translation
Map Bladeren (dt. Blätter) “Bladeren (Ger. Blätter)”
Map number K21 “Consonant map 21”
Comparablelemma inWenker-atlas
Blätter “Leaves”
Category nnl. d in der Abtaxe “Modern Dutch d in the final tagma”
Linguisticlevel
Lautkarte “Sound map”
Original mapclassification
Konsonanten (K) – Plosive – DasPhonem /d/ – Zu wgerm. *d(d) – din bladeren
“Consonants (C) – Plosives – Thephoneme /d/ – From west-germ. *d(d) – d in bladeren”
Context ofelicitation
In den winter vliegen de drogebladeren door de lucht.In den winter vliegen de drogebladeren in de lucht rond.Im winter fliegen die trocknenBlätter in der Luft herum.
“In winter the dry leaves fly around inthe air.” (Translation: Stone andPriestly 1992, p. 96)
10 J. Limper et al.
and the phenomenon under investigation can be assigned a corresponding soundaccording to the Middle High German vowel inventory. By way of example,users can display all maps charting the modern reflexes of mhg. î. Thereis no means to search for maps according to historical consonant sounds. Themorphological register was initially developed to allow researchers access toGeorg Wenker’s maps via morphological criteria (Rabanus 2005). Maps can besearched based on features inflectional morphology such as case, number, andgender, inter alia, and based on word class. Users could perform a search forall maps displaying the word class verb inflected for the 2nd person pluralactive indicative present. These two registers are complemented by a third classi-fication system based on the phonology of Standard German that allows users tosearch maps based on phonetic-phonological criteria. Maps on the phonetic-phonological level have been classified according to the standard-languagephoneme of the map lemma on a segmental level. To enable users to more narrowlysearch for maps pertaining to a particular phoneme, the segments have beencomplemented with information regarding their position in the lexeme in termsof Anlaut, Inlaut, and Auslaut (see Lameli 2008 for more information on thephonological register).
Wenker Questionnaire Corpus
REDE offers a corpus of Wenker questionnaires which can be accessed via theWenker Questionnaire Catalogue or via the REDE SprachGIS. These questionnairesstem from various phases of Georg Wenker’s survey of the local dialects of theformer German Empire at the end of the nineteenth century as well as from resurveysthat were carried out during the 1930s in other areas of Europe (Fleischer 2017).The questionnaires primarily consist of 40 Standard German sentences to betranslated into the intended base dialect. In addition to the 40 “canonical” Wenkersentences, Wenker had carried out two other surveys with questionnaires containing42 and 38 sentences each (die Rheinischen Sätze “the Rhenish sentences” and dieWestfälischen Sätze “the Westphalian sentences,” respectively). Consult Fleischer(2017, pp. 13–32) for an overview of the survey phases as well as for additionalbackground information. Wenker distributed his questionnaires through the schoolsystem. He instructed local teachers to fill in the questionnaire, if they themselvesoriginated from the place in question. If not, then the teacher should collect aquestionnaire from a dialect-speaking school student. The questionnaires weredigitized following completion of the first phase of the project Digitaler Wenker-Atlas (Rabanus et al. 2010, p. 381). They form a “massively parallel text” in thesense of Cysouw and Wälchli (2007, pp. 95–97). In total, the corpus consists of100,000 questionnaire sheets (typically, one questionnaire consists of two sheets),for a total of five terabytes of image material. Since then, additional questionnairesthat have been recovered have been added after the fact to the database (Fleischer2017). Furthermore, the catalogue will soon incorporate an additional 250 question-naires that were collected in the early 1920s by Rudolf Huss for Luxembourg. These
REDE SprachGIS: A Geographic Information System for Linguists 11
questionnaires are particularly interesting for studies of diachronic language changebecause:
multiple series of the Wenker sentences are available for Luxembourg, which make diachroniccomparisons based on the exact same material possible, as Huss (1927) had already demon-strated. This enables the uncommon opportunity to investigate local language change usingmethodologically exactly comparable data. (Fleischer 2017, p. 73; translation: JL/JP/AW)
The platform provides relevant metadata for each questionnaire including thename of the school location, district, region, nation-state, location, and language.
The questionnaires encompass five language groups in total. The languagesrepresented and the number of questionnaires currently available for each languagein the Wenker Questionnaire Catalogue according to language group are shownin Table 4. Only a fraction of the Dutch questionnaires and none of the West Frisianquestionnaires can be found in the Wenker Questionnaire Catalogue, though they arein the process of being digitized elsewhere.
Speech Recording Corpus
The platform offers three different types of speech recordings, which can all beaccessed either by a specific catalogue or directly in the graphical user interface ofthe REDE SprachGIS:
Table 4 Number of questionnaires in the Wenker Questionnaire Catalogue, by language group andlanguage
Language group Language Questionnaires (#)
Germanic German and Lëtzebuergesch 54,177
Danish and South Jutlandic 288
North Frisian 66
Dutch 44
East Frisian 6
Cimbrian 5
Yiddish 4
Romance French 320
Baltic Lithuanian 61
Latvian (Nehrungskurisch) 1
Slavonic Polish 2,098
Upper Sorbian and Lower Sorbian 88
Cashubian 84
Czech 58
Slovenian 16
Croatian 15
Ulric Hungarian 2
12 J. Limper et al.
I. Recordings made in the context of the REDE-Corpus (“REDE-Neuerhebung”)II. Recordings of the Wenker sentences from various research projects
(“Wenkersätze”)III. Recordings based on the surveys of various linguistic atlases (e.g., Bellmann
et al. 1994–2002)
The most recent recordings stem from the REDE survey (exploration:2008–2015). The fieldwork was conducted to document and analyze the variation-linguistic structure and dynamics of the modern regional languages of German(see Fig. 1). In addition to space, the survey controlled for sociodemographicand contextual variables, including age, biological sex, occupation/education,mobility, and situation. Therefore, fieldworkers interviewed at least 3 male infor-mants differing in age (a secondary school graduate aged 18–25, a police officeraged 45–55, and a former agricultural or mechanical worker aged above 65) at150 locations spread out over the Federal Republic of Germany (cf. Fig. 5). Theselection of informants was affected by the fact that Germany’s emergency calloperators between the ages of 45 and 55 are almost exclusively men. Thus, therewas only spoken data from men for this recording situation, the data stem fromone of REDE’s predecessor projects, Dialect Database of Regional StandardGerman (Ganswindt et al. 2015, p. 427). Thus for practical reasons, and forreasons of better sociodemographic comparability, only men were recorded in theREDE project. The sister project, Language Variation in Northern Germany(Sprachvariation in Norddeutschland), only recorded female informants; in thisway the projects complement one another.
Each interview comprised five or six different situations that served to steerinformants’ response behavior. Recordings for the following five situations areavailable for all speakers:
I. Reading out loud the fable The North Wind and the SunII. Translation of the Wenker sentences from a recording in dialect into the infor-
mants’ best Standard GermanIII. A guided interview on topics such as the informants’ linguistic biography,
language attitudes, language use, and their linguistic upbringing with afieldworker
IV. A conversation with a close friend in the absence of a fieldworker(Freundesgespräch)
V. Translation of the Wenker sentences into the informants’ best base dialect whilethe fieldworker reads the sentences aloud in Standard German
This situation selection is based on the hypothesis that the degree of dialectalityincreases from situation I to situation V. Analyses have shown that the languagebehavior of informants mostly differs from situation to situation depending on thedialect formation and generation. For example, in the Upper Saxon dialectformation, the base dialect has disappeared. Instead, speakers use regiolect in allcommunicative situations. In the Upper German dialects, the base dialect still
REDE SprachGIS: A Geographic Information System for Linguists 13
Fig. 5 REDE-Corpus survey net against the backdrop of a dialect classification (Schmidt 2017a,p. 105). The English translations of the dialect formations are based on Russ (1990)
14 J. Limper et al.
belongs to the informants’ repertoire in addition to the regiolect, thus allowinginformants to switch between varieties. The sixth situation comprises emergencyphone calls, which are exclusively available for the middle-aged police officers.The recordings stem from the data collection phase of the project Dialektdatenbankgefärbter Standardsprache. These recordings are advantageous because the policeofficers habitually answer emergency calls with the knowledge that they are beingrecorded. By considering these recordings, the effect of the observer’s paradox(see Labov 1972, pp. 113–115) can be minimized to a certain degree, thus allowingfor the suppression of distortive effects during the recording. For legal reasons,the REDE SprachGIS only offers the recordings of the Wenker sentences (bothtranslations) and The North Wind and the Sun in full. The recordings documenthow speakers from all German dialect areas and from three different generationsproduce their best base dialect and their best Standard German. The recordingsare also analyzed via dialectal measurements and variable analysis to systematicallyinvestigate the entire variation-linguistic structure and dynamics of the modernregional languages of German for the first time.
The second type of speech recordings consists of the Wenker sentences inintended base dialect stemming from various corpora collected between 1950 and2000. These data can be systematically compared with the most recent data from theREDE-Corpus and can so be fruitful for investigations of diachronic change inGerman base dialects. The third type of speech recordings are by-products of surveysin the context of various linguistic atlases. The surveys differ qualitatively andquantitatively with regard to the type and number of questions. Users can accesseach recording according to its relative placement in the question catalogue of agiven survey in the REDE SprachGIS. The system currently contains such record-ings from three atlases: the Mittelrheinischer Sprachatlas (Bellmann et al.1994–2002) with 631 recordings of a 260-item questionnaire, the SprechenderSprachatlas Bayerischer Wald und Böhmerwald (see SBuB 2017) with 64 recordingsof 184 items, as well as the Sprechender Sprachatlas von Niederbayern (see SNiB2017) with 207 recordings of 110 items. The surveys contain expressions forlifeworld, manual, and agricultural objects and activities among others.
Visualization of the Variation-Linguistic Spectra Using DialectalMeasurement
Within the scope of the REDE-Corpus, users can access visualizations of thevariation-linguistic structure for individual locations in the REDE SprachGIS(Fig. 6). This visualization is based on dialectal measurements, a method ofmeasuring the variance in terms of phonetic distance between a given speechrecording and codified Standard German on the basis of regional features (Herrgenand Schmidt 1989, pp. 306–313). It has since been repeatedly field-tested andexpanded (e.g., Lameli 2004; Kehrein 2012; Vorberger 2019). The lower the dia-lectal measurement, the fewer regional features speakers produce pro word (or,the less speakers deviate from the standard language in their response behavior).
REDE SprachGIS: A Geographic Information System for Linguists 15
These measurements are based on different features, depending on the dialectformation. In the REDE SprachGIS, users can listen to a short 20–30-second clipto get an auditory impression of the entire spectrum for each speaker in eachsituation. The system currently contains the visualization of the dialectal measure-ment for about 35 of the 150 locations of the REDE-Corpus, but will be continuouslyexpanded. By way of example, Fig. 6 shows the dialectal measurement for twolocations: Oldenburg and Trostberg.
The visualizations should be read as follows: the codified standard language isdepicted with a value of 0.0 at the top of the y-axis. The three generations underinvestigation are shown on the x-axis, and each survey situation is representedby a symbol. The elderly informant’s translation of the Wenker sentences (reddiamonds) diverges the most from the standard language in both Oldenburg andTrostberg, with an average of 2.6 and 2.4 deviations from the standard languagepro word, respectively. Listeners will perceive recordings with such values notonly as dialectal, but the recordings themselves will also be hardly intelligible fordialect speakers and non-dialect speakers from other dialect formations (see Schmidt2017a, pp. 112–122 for a discussion of Germans’ active and passive dialect compe-tence). The middle-aged speakers minimally differ from the elderly speakers inboth locations. The measurements differ to a larger extent in terms of the youngestgeneration. Whereas in Oldenburg the youngest speaker lacks dialect competence,
Fig. 6 Visualization of the variation-linguistic spectra for the locations Oldenburg (seeLanwermeyer 2011) and Trostberg (see Kehrein 2012) depicting two different types of spectrum.Note: Two values were not available in the Oldenburg data. The police officer from Oldenburg didnot agree to record a conversation with a close friend; therefore, that value is missing. In therecordings of the young informant from Oldenburg, the translation of the Wenker sentences into thebase dialect is missing because of his lack of dialect competence
16 J. Limper et al.
the youngest generation is still competent in dialect in Trostberg. But the youngestspeaker of Trostberg differs from the other two generations in the situation “inter-view” (purple circles). In this situation he speaks nearly as standard German as whenreading out loud (blue bars) or translating the Wenker sentences into his bestStandard German (blue diamonds), whereas the D-value in the older generationsremains comparatively high. Furthermore, the speakers from Oldenburg andTrostberg differ with respect to how dialectally they speak their best StandardGerman (by reading out loud The North Wind and the Sun and translating theWenker sentences into their best Standard German). The Oldenburg speakers allhave much lower dialectal values than the Trostberg speakers. That is to say thatlisteners will perceive the manner of speaking of the Oldenburg speakers as muchcloser to the standard language than the Trostberg speakers in the exact samesituation. These two locations illustrate more innovative language dynamic changesin Oldenburg and less innovative changes in Trostberg.
Bibliography and Interfaces
The REDE project maintains an extensive interactive online database of scholarlyliterature concerning regional languages, the Georeferenzierte Online-BibliographieAreallinguistik (GOBA or Georeferenced Online Bibliography of Areal Linguistics).GOBA is continually being expanded and currently contains 26,600 publications.GOBA’s bibliographic entries are in the process of being georeferenced to theirassociated geographic locations and regions, with 9,000 titles georeferenced to date.As a result of this process, linguistic, geographic, and bibliographic data have beenbundled together and made accessible to users through GOBA’s search interface(Table 5). Additionally, a keyword classification system (Schlagwort-Systematik)has been developed to tag bibliographic entries with keywords, enabling users toconduct more specific searches.
Similar to the Wenker Questionnaire Catalogue, the GOBA database is accessibleto users either in the form of a traditional search interface or within the REDESprachGIS. The former makes it possible for users to query material using a varietyof filters, notably including the aforementioned keyword search feature, whichallows users to query using one or more keywords. In this search interface, resultscan be sorted by author, title, or year. The GOBA search function within the REDESprachGIS enables users to query material using various linguistic and cartographicparameters. Results from such queries can be viewed in the REDE SprachGIS witha base map of the user’s choosing as well as in combination with other user-specifiedlinguistic or geographic data. These results can also be exported in list form orimported into the map viewer.
With regard to the data from interfaces, they are not stored on the servers of theResearch Center Deutscher Sprachatlas, but rather on the servers of other institu-tions. These data can be searched within the REDE SprachGIS (though not directlyaccessed) because of their value for regional-language research. This was done in
REDE SprachGIS: A Geographic Information System for Linguists 17
cooperation with other institutions. From the REDE SprachGIS, users can bedirected to the online platforms of theWörterbuchnetz (see Hildenbrandt and Moulin2012) or the audio recordings from the project Datenbank für gesprochenes Deutsch(see Schmidt 2017b). Following registration on the IDS-database, users can directlyaccess audio recordings.
Cartographic Tools
Map Elements and Character Sets
For creation of user-generated maps, the REDE SprachGIS contains diverseelements to represent topographic, political, or other extralinguistic information(see the thematic and structural level in Table 1). This set of map elements isavailable in the form of points (e.g., for locations), lines (e.g., for survey borders,map borders, rivers, transportation networks, isoglosses, confessional boundaries),and polygons (e.g., for lakes, settlement areas, administrative borders and regionssuch as Bundesländer “federal states” and nation-states). In addition to a set ofmap elements provided by the system, users can also make use of drawing toolswith which they can create points, lines, and polygons to recreate the punctualdistribution of a linguistic variable, trace isoglosses, or define the area for a surveynet, respectively. For the pre-existing map elements in the REDE SprachGIS, theproject Regionalsprache.de currently makes use of the vector data provided by theopen-source platform Natural Earth (2018).
For input of phonetic characters, the REDE SprachGIS uses the open-source font,Doulos SIL, a unicode-based serif font that provides complete support for theInternational Phonetic Alphabet (see Doulos SIL 2018; at the time of this writing,the font is available for download at https://software.sil.org/doulos/). Glyphs areentered either via the keyboard or via a drop-down virtual keyboard. Doulos SIL is
Table 5 GOBA traditional search interface functions
User action Parameter options
Search Enter word(s)
Select as many asdesired
Author, title, journal/anthology, series title, location,call number
Select one All words, at least one of the words, exact phrases
Select one Whole word, word beginning, word component,vague
Keyword Select sorting method Systematic, alphabetic
Search Select operation AND, OR, AND NOT
(MarburgerSystematik)
Select keywordcategory orsubcategory
All; dialect, language islands, German in languagecontact, formal classification, scientific classification
18 J. Limper et al.
offered in Web Open Font Format, which allows for display of characters regardlessof whether Doulos SIL is installed locally. For display of certain glyphs such asdiacritical marks, the Doulos SIL font was supplemented with additional anchorpoints on base characters using the open-source software FontForge ( 2015). Finally,at the time of writing, additional glyphs had to be manually created using FontForgeto represent phonetic characters from the transcription system Teuthonista (seeWiesinger 1964), a phonetic alphabet developed in particular for use in Germandialectology. Everson et al. (2011) presented a proposal for integration ofTeuthonista characters into the Unicode Standard. It has been accepted in partsince then, but has not yet been fully implemented.
Cartographic Examples: Redrawing Maps
Using the SprachGIS’s drawing tools, users can draw points, lines, and polygonsin an empty layer in the SprachGIS’s layer manager. These drawing tools mayserve to define areas for search queries in the SprachGIS (e.g., searches for Wenkerquestionnaire forms, speech recordings, or literature); additionally, they may serveto digitally redraw or trace raster maps. Map 440 from the Sprachatlas desDeutschen Reichs (Wenker 1888–1923) has been recreated in Fig. 7; it shows thedistribution of the formation of the diminutive in the word form Stück “piece” inGerman base dialects. By redrawing the map, a new interpretation of the map wasmade possible, which is insinuated by the colors on the redrawn map.
Fig. 7 Stückchen “piece.DIM” map 440 Sprachatlas des Deutschen Reichs (Wenker 1888–1923).(Used with permission of Marina Frank, Philipps-Universität Marburg)
REDE SprachGIS: A Geographic Information System for Linguists 19
Cartographic Examples: Map Visualization by Data Import
Users can import object-linguistic and topographic data in table form via animport function into the REDE SprachGIS using text files (*.csv) to create thematicmaps. Using a visualization function, users can then create various map types.The following maps show different degrees of abstraction (functional level inTable 1 as illustrated in Fig. 4). These different degrees of abstraction are realizedon a structural level by different map types which will then necessarily evokedifferent mental images in users on the cognitive level. Figure 8 contains a point-text map of the dialect reflexes of mhg. uo in the word form Kuchen “cake” asrealized by speakers from six locations in the REDE-Corpus.
For point-symbol maps, users can assign colors to the symbols based on hexadec-imal color codes. Furthermore, users can choose from different shapes (e.g., circles,squares, triangles) and can alter the borders of the shapes. In addition to point-symbolmaps, users also have the option of visualizing their object-linguistic data at a locationpoint as pie charts or bar graphs (Fig. 9). This may be particularly useful for maps thatdepict more than a single attestation at a location point. There is also a function to scalethe symbols so that their size reflects the absolute number of attestations. Figure 9illustrates these three map types using the same raw data set for each map to highlightthe differences. The maps in Fig. 9 are collectively based on the same data taken fromthe responses to a translation stimulus (test sentence 028) from the Syntactic Atlas ofDutch Dialects: Vertel mij eens wie dat zij had kunnen roepen “Tell me who that shecould have called.” The data are freely available in Barbiers et al. (2006). The stimulusserved to collect data to determine the spatial distribution of the use of finite comple-mentizers following question words in imbedded questions in the base dialectsof Dutch. In addition to providing an example of the various visualizationstrategies, the maps also exemplify REDE’s ability to plot data from areas outside ofthe German-speaking area; in this case, data from three other European countrieshas been plotted: Flanders (Belgium), the Netherlands, and French Flanders (France).
In the REDE SprachGIS, users can generate choropleth maps based on Voronoipolygons. The Voronoi tessellation partitions a plane into regions using a pre-definedset of points called generators. Choropleth maps are thematic maps displayingareas in relation to the measurement of a particular attribute. Each generator hasa particular value; the choropleth map, which consists of the Voronoi cells, is thenautomatically generated based on these values. Figure 10 is a choropleth map thatcharts the realization of syllable-initial <h>/[h] in Belgian and Dutch dialects innine items. The map shows a reversed spectral color scale: the more h is realized,the more blueish a Voronoi cell is, while the less often h occurs, the more reddish thecell should appear as depicted in the legend.
Cartographic Examples: Survey Net
Users can create and save their own survey nets. Instead of importing data directlyinto the system, they can link symbols representing certain variants of a variable atlocations in their survey net. Figure 11 contains a raster map from the Luxemburger
20 J. Limper et al.
Fig. 8 Point-text map for mhg. uo in the word Kuchen “cake” in the North and Central Bavariandialect area (realized by elderly informants from the REDE-Corpus)
Fig. 9 Doubly filled COMPs in the Dutch and West Frisian dialects of Flanders (Belgium), theNetherlands, and French Flanders (France) represented by point symbols, pie charts, and bar charts
REDE SprachGIS: A Geographic Information System for Linguists 21
Fig. 10 Choropleth map displaying h-realization in Dutch and Flemish dialects
Fig. 11 Vectorization of a raster map (left) with the resulting legend and map image (right)
22 J. Limper et al.
Sprachatlas documenting the variants of the variable “formation of the diminutivein singular substantives whose base ends in [k].” To recreate an electronic versionof the map, first a survey net was created with REDE whereby each of the locationsfrom the Luxemburger Sprachatlas was recorded in a table; then for each surveylocation, the geographic coordinates, in this case a REDE-specific reference numberknown as the REDE GID (geographische ID “geographic ID”), were sought usingREDE’s research function. After establishing the survey net, a new map levelwas created in the REDE SprachGIS’ layer manager and then subsequentlysaved. Nine legend entries were created: a header for the title of the map, threesub-headers, and then entries for the symbols themselves that stand for linguisticvariants. A survey net can be used not only to recreate vectorized versions of rastermaps but also for users to create their own atlases (see section “Possibilities forPublication in REDE”). By using the legend function in the layer manager, usershave access to three different sets of symbols to represent linguistic informationin addition to the font Doulos SIL. Furthermore, for maps that have a survey net,the REDE SprachGIS generates automatic frequency counts so that other usershave a direct overview of the number of occurrences of linguistic variants.
Exporting and Sharing
Users are themselves the owner and administrator of their maps and data in thesystem. These may not be viewed or altered by other users. Users have variousoptions for exporting and sharing their maps and data. Maps can be exported in threedifferent formats and in varying sizes (the system defines four optimal export sizes).This includes image files (TIFF or PNG) or vectorized PDF files. Users have100 MB of storage space for a maximum of 25 maps in an “Image Gallery” on theserver to archive previously exported maps. The map image and the legend areexported separately as two files; the latter is exported as a PDF and can be editedin open-source image editing software such as Inkscape (available at https://inkscape.org/de/.). Additionally, users can automatically generate permalinks toa constellation of maps in the layer manager. Furthermore, if users wish, theycan give certain other users or a defined group of users reading, writing, or admin-istration access to a map (e.g., participants of a class or the co-authors of apublication). To publish a map, i.e., to make a map accessible to all, users mustcontact the system administrator who will perform a standardized audit forreasons of quality control and the prevention of misuse.
Possibilities for Publication in REDE
Users can potentially create an unlimited set of linguistic maps using the REDESprachGIS. These maps may serve a variety of purposes such as for use in pre-sentations, in print publications, or in classrooms. In addition, REDE can serve asa publication medium that authors can use to publish research findings online,
REDE SprachGIS: A Geographic Information System for Linguists 23
making them freely available to anyone with an Internet connection and allowing fora more rapid dissemination of research results. In addition to the online publicationof individual maps for research articles and dissertations, the publication of an entirelinguistic atlas is also possible. REDE offers access to other atlases and maps, whichopens up a possibility for map validation and the ability to create new maps on thebasis of old data, a possibility that was not previously available:
Traditional printed maps are based on a selection of data by their authors. These data are notusually available to the users of the maps. This is particularly the case when the mapsvisualize the geographic distribution of complex linguistic data that can only be representedabstractly in the legend of a map, as in the field of syntactic or phonological variation forinstance. A user of printed maps cannot select different data, make new combinations ofvariants on one map, check the validity of the data underlying the map or perform statisticaloperations on them. As a consequence, it is often difficult, if not impossible, to use printedmaps as a tool in analytic and quantitative linguistic research. (Kunst and Barbiers 2011,pp. 401–402)
Contrary to prior research praxis as illustrated by Kunst and Barbiers (2011),publication of data on REDE SprachGIS facilitates dissemination of research resultsto both the “scientific community” and the public, an obligation on the part of theresearcher, allowing other researchers to verify the findings and facilitating notonly cooperation but also the ability of other researchers to build on extant results.An additional advantage is that users can perform analyses of the data throughcomparison of maps.
Kleiner Niederländischer Sprachatlas unter Einschluss desWestfriesischen (KNSA)
The Concise Linguistic Atlas of Dutch including West Frisian (KNSA) waspublished posthumously in cooperation between Lutz Hummel and the ResearchCenter Deutscher Sprachatlas (Veith and Hummel 2017). It is based on the Belgianand Dutch Wenker sentences and consists of 374 maps (161 vocalic maps, 136 con-sonant maps, 27 morph maps, 50 lexical maps). Exploiting REDE’s functionalities,an interactive vectorized base map was developed. Apart from its function as ameans of spatial orientation, this user-generated base map allows atlas users todisplay and hide certain map elements (e.g., waters such as rivers and the NorthSea, the map grid). Figure 12 gives an example of a linguistic map depicting therealization of the Standard Dutch intervocalic voiced obstruent d in bladeren“leaves” (see Table 3).
The set of data was exported from its original database into a text file basedon which the data was converted and imported into REDE’s database. Beforegenerating maps and legends, a survey net with the 450 Belgian, Dutch, and Frenchlocations had to be created. Furthermore, a set of characters (linguistic symbols)and symbols (for the representation of linguistic variants in the thematic map)had to be created. Finally, the maps generated based on the text files were
24 J. Limper et al.
compared with the original plotter-file maps with regard to their completenessand exactitude in a lengthy editing process.
Furthermore, with the publication on an online platform, users have access tometadata and additional resources. This pertains to metadata such as map number,the placement of the map within the context of the atlas, the historical soundwhose dialectal reflexes the map depicts, and the elicitation context. The additionalresources include documentary materials such as pdf files of the original plotter-filesthat would have served as the basis of the originally planned print atlas. Publishingthe maps on REDE not only allows users to view thematically related maps fromthe atlas itself but also to compare these maps with other Dutch atlases (Dialekt à lacarte: Dialektatlas Westmünsterland – Achterhoek – Liemers – Niederrhein,Fränkischer Sprachatlas) and with the German Wenker data.
Fig. 12 The KNSA’s vectorized base map together with a thematic map (K21 bladeren “leaves”).(Used with permission of Lutz Hummel)
REDE SprachGIS: A Geographic Information System for Linguists 25
Syntax des Alemannischen (SynAlm)
The investigation of European dialect syntax has been well underway since the turnof century (Edisyn 2012). Within this context, the project Syntax des Alemannischenis performing a detailed survey of theoretically relevant phenomena in the spokenAlemannic base dialects in Germany, France, Switzerland, and Austria indirectlyusing standard elicitation techniques (e.g., acceptability judgments; see Brandner2015 for an overview; An example map is given in Fig. 13). REDE will serve as apublication platform for the maps resulting from this indirect survey of Alemannicdialect syntax.
Fig. 13 SynAlm map produced and published with REDE SprachGIS. (Used with permission ofEllen Brandner, SynAlm-project)
26 J. Limper et al.
Closing Remarks
Nickel (2008) has already discussed the necessity of a uniform cartographicapplication for variation linguists that makes their research results both accessibleand comparable to one another. The REDE SprachGIS fills in this technicaland analytical gap. It provides both a rich repository of empirical data and thetechnical tools in the form of a sophisticated cartographic application neededto interrelate these and other data for such fields as regional-language research,dialectology, sociolinguistics, historical linguistics, and onomastics. With this con-tribution, it has been shown how the REDE SprachGIS can be fruitfully used byresearchers from these disciplines. First, we presented the contents available overthe REDE SprachGIS in the form of a cartographic corpus, an audio corpus, anda bibliographic corpus. Furthermore, this contribution presented the various analyt-ical possibilities that users have in the creation of their own user-generated maps.The REDE SprachGIS highlights the relevance of modern dialectology as a labora-tory for the testing of linguistic theories (Herrgen 2001, p. 1527).
References
Barbiers, S., et al. (2006). Dynamische Syntactische Atlas van de Nederlandse Dialecten(DynaSAND). Amsterdam: Meertens Instituut. http://www.meertens.knaw.nl/sand/. Accessed9 July 2018.
Bellmann, G., Herrgen, J., & Schmidt, J. E. (1994–2002).Mittelrheinischer Sprachatlas. Tübingen:Max Niemeyer Verlag.
Beranek, F. J. (1965). Westjiddischer Sprachatlas. Marburg/Lahn: N.G. Elwert.Brandner, E. (2015). Syntax des Alemannischen (SynAlm). Tiefenbohrungen in einer
Dialektlandschaft. In R. Kehrein, A. Lameli, & S. Rabanus (Eds.), Regionale Variation desDeutschen. Projekte und Perspektiven (pp. 289–322). Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter Mouton.
Chang, K. T. (2017). Geographic information system. In D. Richardson, N. Castree, M. Goodchild,A. Kobayashi, W. Liu, & D. Marston (Eds.), The international encyclopedia of geography(pp. 1–9). New York: Wiley-Blackwell.
Cornelissen, G., Schaars, A., & Sodmann, T. (Eds.) (1993). Dialekt à la carte: DialektatlasWestmünsterland – Achterhoek – Liemers – Niederrhein. Köln/Pulheim. (=RheinischeMundarten. Vol. 5; Westmünsterland. Quellen und Studien, Rheinland-Verlag GmbH. Vol. 3).
Cysouw, M., & Wälchli, B. (2007). Parallel texts: Using translational equivalents in linguistictypology. Sprachtypologie und Universalienforschung, 60(2), 95–99.
Doulos SIL (2018). Sil non-roman script initiative. https://software.sil.org/doulos/. Last accessed8 Apr 2018.
Edisyn (2012). http://www.dialectsyntax.org/wiki/Welcome. Last accessed 8 Apr 2018.Everson, M., Dicklberger, A., Pentzlin, K., & Wandl-Vogt, E. (2011). Revised proposal to encode
“Teuthonista” phonetic characters in the UCS. http://std.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc2/wg2/docs/n4081.pdf. Last accessed 19 Dec 2017.
Fleischer, J. (2017). Geschichte, Anlage und Durchführung der Fragebogen-Erhebungen vonGeorg Wenkers 40 Sätzen. Dokumentation, Entdeckungen und Neubewertungen. Hildesheim:Georg Olms Verlag. (=Deutsche Dialektgeographie (DDG) 123).
Fontforge (2015). https://fontforge.github.io/en-US/. Last accessed 8 Apr 2018.Ganswindt, B., Kehrein, R., & Lameli, A. (2015). Regionalsprache.de. In R. Kehrein, A. Roland, &
S. R. Lameli (Eds.), Regionale Variation des Deutschen – Projekte und Perspektiven(pp. 421–453). Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter.
REDE SprachGIS: A Geographic Information System for Linguists 27
Girnth, H. (2010). Mapping language data. In P. Auer & J. E. Schmidt (Eds.), Language and space.An international handbook of linguistic variation. Theories and methods (Vol. 1, pp. 98–121).Berlin/New York: Mouton De Gruyter.
Goossens, J. (1988–2002). Sprachatlas des nördlichen Rheinlands und des südöstlichenNiederlands “Fränkischer Sprachatlas” (FSA). Installment 1–3. Marburg: N. G. Elwert Verlag.
Herrgen, J. (2001). Die Dialektologie des Deutschen. In S. Auroux, E. F. K. Koerner, H.-J.Niederehe, & K. Versteegh (Eds.), History of the language sciences (Vol. 2, pp. 1513–1535).Berlin/New York: de Gruyter. (=Handbooks of Linguistics and Communication Science.An International Handbook of Linguistic Variation 18.2).
Herrgen, J. (2010). The digital Wenker Atlas (www.diwa.info): An online research tool formodern dialectology. Dialectologia. Special Issue I, 89–95.
Herrgen, J., & Schmidt, J. E. (1989). Dialektalitätsareale und Dialektabbau. In W. Putschke,W. Veith, & P. Wiesinger (Eds.), Dialektgeographie und Dialektologie. Günter Bellmann zum60. Geburtstag von seinen Schülern und Freunden (pp. 304–346). Marburg: Elwert.
Hildenbrandt, V., & Moulin, C. (2012). Das Trierer Wörterbuchnetz. Vom Einzelwörterbuch zumlexikographischen Informationssystem. Korrespondenzblatt des Vereins für niederdeutscheSprachforschung, 119, 73–81.
Huss, R. (1927). Studien zum Luxemburgischen Sprachatlas. Luxemburg: Luxemburger Sprachge-sellschaft. (=Beiträge zur Luxemburgischen Sprach- und Volkskunde 11).
Kehrein, R. (2012). Regionalsprachliche Spektren im Raum. Zur linguistischen Struktur derVertikale. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner. (=ZDL-Beihefte. 152).
Kleiber, W., Kunze, K., & Löffler, H. (1979–1980). Historischer Südwestdeutscher Sprachatlas.Bern/München: Francke Verlag. (=Bibliotheca Germanica).
Kunst, P., & Barbiers, S. (2011). Generating maps on the internet. In R. Kehrein, A. Lameli, &S. Rabanus (Eds.), Language and space. An international handbook of linguistic variation.Volume 2: Language mapping (pp. 401–422). Berlin/New York: De Gruyter Mouton.
Labov, W. (1972). Some principles of linguistic methodology. Language in Society, 1(1), 97–120.Lameli, A. (2004). Standard und Substandard. Regionalismen im diachronen Längsschnitt.
Stuttgart: Franz Steiner. (=ZDL. Beihefte. 128).Lameli, A. (2008). Kommentar zum phonologischen Register der standardsprachlichen
Vergleichskarten. In J. E. Schmidt, & J. Herrgen (Eds.), Digitaler Wenker-Atlas (DiWA).Prepared by Alfred Lameli, Alexandra Lenz, Jost Nickel, Roland Kehrein, Karl-Heinz Müllerand Stefan Rabanus. Marburg: Forschungszentrum Deutscher Sprachatlas, 2005. https://www.regionalsprache.de/phonologisches-register.aspx. Last accessed 6 June 2018.
Lanwermeyer, M. (2011). Das regionalsprachliche Spektrum in Oldenburg. Eine variationslin-guistische Untersuchung zur vertikalen Dimension im Nordniederdeutschen. Marburg:Magisterarbeit.
Lenz, A. (2007). Zur variationslinguistischen Analyse regionalsprachlicher Korpora. InW. Kallmeyer & G. Zifonun (Eds.), Sprachkorpora – Datenmengen und Erkenntnisfortschritt(pp. 169–202). Berlin: de Gruyter. (=IDS-Jahrbuch 2006).
Linguistic Atlas of Kansas German Dialects (2013). http://www2.ku.edu/~germanic/LAKGD/Atlas_Intro.shtml. Last accessed 8 Apr 2018.
Mattheier, K. J. (2003). German. In A. Deumert & W. Vandenbussche (Eds.), Germanic standard-izations. Past to present (pp. 211–244). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: Benjamins.
Moulin, C. (Ed.) (2003; 2016). Digitaler Luxemburgischer Sprachatlas auf der Grundlage desLaut- und Formenatlas von Robert Bruch. Digitale Fassung und Zusatzmaterial. Prepared byRoland Kehrein, Alfred Lameli, Jost Nickel, Stefan Rabanus. In REDE newly prepared byBrigitte Ganswindt, Jeffrey Pheiff, Tillmann Pistor and Anna Wolańska.
Natural Earth (2018). http://www.naturalearthdata.com/. Last accessed 8 Apr 2018.Nickel, J. (2008). Das “Informationssystem Sprachgeographie”: Ein Kartographieprogramm für
die Variationslinguistik. In S. Elspaß & W. König (Eds.), Sprachgeographie digital. Die neueGeneration der Sprachatlanten (pp. 181–196). Hildesheim/Zurich/New York: Georg OlmsVerlag. (=Germanistische Linguistik).
28 J. Limper et al.
Rabanus, S. (2004). Sprachkartographie des Deutschen: von Schmeller bis zum Digitalen Wenker-Atlas. In C. Di Meola, A. Hornung, & L. Rega (Eds.), Perspektiven Eins. Akten der 1. TagungDeutsche Sprachwissenschaft in Italien (Rom, 6.–7. Februar 2004) (pp. 345–363). Rome:Istituto Italiano di Studi Germanici 2005.
Rabanus, S. (2005). Kommentar zum morphologischen register. In: J. E. Schmidt, & J. Herrgen(Eds.), Digitaler Wenker-Atlas (DiWA). Prepared by Alfred Lameli, Alexandra Lenz, JostNickel, Roland Kehrein, Karl-Heinz Müller and Stefan Rabanus. Marburg: ForschungszentrumDeutscher Sprachatlas. https://www.regionalsprache.de/morphologisches-register.aspx. Lastaccessed 6 June 2018.
Rabanus, S., Kehrein, R., & Lameli, A. (2010). Creating digital editions of historical maps.In S. Rabanus & A. Lameli (Eds.), Language and space. An international handbook oflinguistic variation. Theories and methods (Vol. 1I, pp. 375–385). Berlin/New York: MoutonDe Gruyter.
Rudolf, H., & Baumgartner, H. (1962–1997). Sprachatlas der deutschen Schweiz. Bern:Francke Verlag.
Russ, C. V. J. (1990). The dialects of modern German. London: Routledge.SNiB (2017). https://www.bayerische-landesbibliothek-online.de/sprachatlas-niederbayern.
Last accessed 8 Apr 2018.SBuB (Sprachatlas Bayerischer Wald und Böhmerwald) (2017). http://www.phil.uni-passau.de/
deutsche-sprachwissenschaft/forschung/sprachraumforschung/sbub/. Last accessed 8 Apr 2018.Schmeller, J. A. (1821). Die Mundarten Bayerns grammatisch dargestellt. München: Karl
Thienemann.Schmidt, J. E. (2011). Formation of and change in regiolects and (regional) dialects in German.
Taal and Tongval, 63, 143–174.Schmidt, J. E. (2017a). Vom traditionellen Dialekt zu den modernen deutschen Regionalsprachen.
In Deutsche Akademie für Sprache & Dichtung, Union der deutschen Akademien derWissenschaften (Eds.), Vielfalt und Einheit der deutschen Sprache. Zweiter Bericht zur Lageder deutschen Sprache (pp. 103–141). Tübingen: Stauffenburg Verlag.
Schmidt, T. (2017b). DGD – die Datenbank für Gesprochenes Deutsch. Zeitschrift fürgermanistische Linguistik, 45(3), 451–463.
Schmidt, J. E., & Herrgen, J. (2011). Sprachdynamik: Eine Einführung in die moderneRegionalsprachenforschung. Berlin: Erich Schmidt Verlag. (=Grundlagen der Germanistik.49).
Schmidt, J. E., Herrgen, J.,& Kehrein, R. (Eds.) (2008 et seq.). Regionalsprache.de (REDE).Forschungsplattform zu den modernen Regionalsprachen des Deutschen. Prepared by DennisBock, Brigitte Ganswindt, Heiko Girnth, Roland Kehrein, Alfred Lameli, Slawomir Messner,Christoph Purschke and Anna Wolańska. Marburg: Forschungszentrum Deutscher Sprachatlas.
Stone, G., & Priestly, T. (1992). Carinthian Slovene in the archives of the Deutscher Sprachatlas:Unpublished materials. In C. M. Macrobert, G. S. Smith, & G. C. Stone (Eds.), Oxford slavonicpapers, new series (Vol. VVX, pp. 84–119). Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Veith, W. H. (2006). Dialect atlases. In K. Brown (Ed.), Encyclopedia of language and linguistics(2nd ed., pp. 517–528). Amsterdam: Elsevier Science.
Veith, W. H., & Hummel, L. (2017). Kleiner Niederländischer Sprachatlas (KNSA) unterEinschluss des Westfriesischen. I. Einleitung und Kommentar by Werner H. Veith and LutzHummel, II. Sprachkarten. In REDE prepared by Dennis Bock, Jeffrey Pheiff, Anna Wolańskaand Jürg Fleischer. In J. E. Schmidt, J. Herrgen, & R. Kehrein (Eds.), REGIONALSPRACHE.DE(REDE). Marburg: Forschungszentrum Deutscher Sprachatlas.
Vorberger, L. (2019). Regionalsprache in Hessen. Eine Untersuchung zu Sprachvariation undSprachwandel im mittleren und südlcihen Hessen. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner (=ZDL-Beihefte. 178).
Wenker, G. (1888–1923). Sprachatlas des Deutschen Reichs. Marburg: Handgezeichnet.Wenker, G. (2013). Schriften zum “Sprachatlas des Deutschen Reichs.” Gesamtausgabe. In
A. Lameli (Ed.), Band 1: Handschriften, Allgemeine Texte, Kartenkommentare 1889–1897.Hildesheim/New York/Zurich: Olms. (=Deutsche Dialektgeographie 111.1).
REDE SprachGIS: A Geographic Information System for Linguists 29
Wiesinger, P. (1964). Das phonetische Transkriptionssystem der Zeitschrift “Teuthonista.” EineStudie zu seiner Entstehung und Anwendbarkeit in der deutschen Dialektologie mit einemÜberblick über die Geschichte der phonetischen Transkription im Deutschen bis 1924.Zeitschrift für deutsche Mundartforschung, XXXI/1, 1–20.
Wiesinger, P., & Hethey, E.-H. (1965). Kartenverzeichnis des Laut- und Formenatlasses derdeutschen Mundarten. Marburg: Forschungsinstitut für deutsche Sprache.
30 J. Limper et al.