A computerized geo-linguistic approach to Cappadocian Greek dialectal variation:

first results and future aspects

Dimitra Melissaropoulou¹ & Stavros Bompolas²

Aristotle University of Thessaloniki¹ & University of Patras²

This paper offers a presentation of the first attempt to visualize different aspects and patterns of geo-linguistic variation of Cappadocian Greek reporting on “DicaDLand”, a large-scale research project on the Digitization of the Cappadocian Dialectal Landscape. For the purposes of this presentation, we focus on mapping of phonological and morphological variation, the ultimate goal being the compilation of a complete computerized dialectal atlas of Cappadocian. This atlas will serve as an empirical database documenting the linguistic profile of Cappadocian for a variety of geographical locations (Map 1), providing a solid background for the implementation of dialectometric methods so as to verify, counterargue existing and/or discover new patterns of geographical distribution of dialectal phenomena among Cappadocian varieties.

The starting point of this contribution is the observation that linguistic phenomena usually exhibit well-formed spatial patterns (Auer & Schmidt 2010: 760–877). Although physical space does not affect directly linguistic structure, it may play a central role in the pathways of language variation and change (Glaser 2013; Kortmann 2013). In this line, linguistic atlases facilitate an in-depth study of the systematicities of the various linguistic phenomena on the grounds that they represent a highly appropriate — if not the most significant — means of visualizing and analyzing dialectal data (Kehrein et al. 2010: xi). Though numerous linguistic studies have taken advantage of the computerization of linguistic cartography (Lameli 2010: 585–587), only few emphasize Greek (Ralli et al. 2010–2015, 2017–2018). Furthermore, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first dialectometric study on Greek dialectal data.

To this end, a wide range of dialectal phenomena are drawn in order to create a linguistic atlas which visualizes the linguistic profile of the Cappadocian sub-varieties in terms of geographical locations. Cartographic work is carried out with the use of QGIS software, a free and open-source geographic information system (QGIS Development Team 2020), accompanied with a geodatabase, in which every point on the map is georeferenced to its place in the coordination system, enabling the integration of georeferenced data of different type (e.g. linguistic, cartographic, etc.). Subsequently, we input the georeferenced linguistic data to the Gabmap web-application for dialectometrics (Nerbonne et al. 2011; Leinonen et al. 2016), which allows us to use various dialectometric calculations to visualize different aspects of patterns and plot several types of dialectometric maps (Heeringa 2004; Nerbonne & Heeringa 2010).

We aspire that the implementation of such an approach to Cappadocian Greek will prove advantageous in that the study of areal distribution is not pre-structured on the basis of linguistic or other assumptions, but it is generated from a huge set of data in which form variations in a single area are considered. In this vein, it may not only verify or counterargue patterns of the existing analyses (Dawkins 1916; Karatsareas 2011; Janse forthcoming; Tzitzilis, forthcoming), but also recognize further and more deeply entrenched patterns that would be otherwise hidden (for similar techniques on different regions, cf. Heeringa 2004; Nerbonne & Siedle 2006; Shackleton 2007; Wieling et al.2007; Nerbonne 2015).

Map 1: Location of the various Greek-speaking Cappadocian subvarieties

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