How the French dialectal data enter theAtlas Linguarum Europae

Abstract

The Atlas Linguarum Europae is a great working site which rallies dialectologists from all the language areas of Europe, from the Atlantic to the Ural Mountains and to the Caucasus. The first fascicle of maps and the first volume of commentaries were published in 1984 by Van Gorcum, Assen (The Netherlands). In order to compose the European linguistic map, every national committee sends its dialectal material to the data bank of the University of Marburg (F.R.G.) As an example we will show how the French data concerning the Gallo-Romance and Catalan speech patterns of France are sent to the data bank. These language areas have been explored by the French linguistic atlas (l'Atlas Linguistique de la France) of Gillidron and Edmont (Paris, Champion, 1902-1910) and by the collection of the C.N.R.S. regional atlases. In addition to these areas, which are within the boundaries of France, the French national committee covers five GalloRomance points of the A.L.E.-network located in Italy. These points correspond to Francoproveneal and Occitan and are situated between the Francoproveneal valley of Aosta and the col of Tende. Let us take as an example the concept of "GENDRE" = "mari de la fille" (son-in-law). This concept has a great lexical variety which on the one hand is sufficient for the purpose of our demonstration and on the other hand is quite restricted, so that the lexical variety will not make the demonstration complicated. The area under consideration is divided into