Diatopic Variation Research Articles

Some Aspects of Lexical Variation in Na-Našo/-u (Molise, Italy)

Molise Croatian is a Štokavian Ikavian variety brought from the East Adriatic coast to the region of Molise at the end of the 15th and the beginning of the 16th century. Today it is spoken in three out of four officially recognized Croatian Molise villages in the region of Molise in south Italy, namely those of Mundimitar / Montemitro, Kruč / Acquaviva Collecroce, and Filič / San Felice del Molise, but even there its use has been declining, and intergenerational transmission is interrupted in some parts of the community. The aim of the paper is to present and discuss aspects of diatopic variation in lexicon between the three local varieties on the basis of the terms collected in a local language documentation project and published in Vocabolario polinomico (Sportelli linguistici 2020).

Geminate latency in Djibouti Somali

Abstract Our aim in this article is first to contribute to the documentation of the diatopic variation in the realization of Somali geminates, and second to determine whether Djibouti Somali exhibits geminate latency, on a par with Standard Somali (Barillot 2002, Barillot & Ségéral 2005). To this effect, we present the results of two production experiments that were conducted with one Djibouti Somali speaker. Section 1 examines the realization of the contrast /b, d, ɡ/ vs /bb, dd, ɡɡ/ in nouns in Djibouti Somali (Experiment 1-Nouns) in comparison with the previous experiment we conducted on Standard Somali (Bendjaballah & Le Gac 2021). Based on the results of this experiment, Section 2 addresses the question of geminate latency in Djibouti Somali. ‘Latent’ geminates are segments that are phonologically long but whose phonetic duration is short. We examine the acoustic realization of voiced singletons (/b, d, ɡ/), voiced geminates (/bb, dd, ɡɡ/) and voiceless geminates (/tt, kk/) in Djibouti Somali (Experiment 2-Verbs). Section 3 concludes the article, and argues in favour of an extension of geminate latency both in Standard Somali and in Djibouti Somali: geminate latency does not only concern the voiceless stops but also the voiced stops.

El impacto de la migración en la fraseología del español en los Estados Unidos: un estudio comparativo de California y Nueva York

This comparative study aims to analyse the impact of migration on Spanish phraseological diatopic variation in two American states: California and New York. For this purpose, a sample of verbal locutions extracted from the Hispanic press in both regions was collected, a phraseological corpus of 362 units was created and compared with the verbal locutions of mainland standard Spanish. The phraseological comparison was carried out from various fields of linguistic knowledge, considering sociolinguistic and cognitive contributions to phraseology. The results show that, in both California and New York, there is significant diatopic variation in phraseology compared to standard Spanish. This variation, a result of the demographic characteristics of each region, is largely attributed to the linguistic influence present in both regions, especially English and other Hispanic variants, such as Mexican Spanish in the case of California and Caribbean Spanish in the case of New York. This paper aims to provide a significant contribution to the field of applied linguistics and sociolinguistics in the context of migration and the evolution of the Spanish language in the United States.

Inscriptions in stone, literacy in question: The confusion between <b> and <v> in inscriptions from Roman Africa

AbstractIn this paper, a quantitative and qualitative analysis is conducted on the <b>/<v> alternations found in the epigraphic texts from three representative subsets of Roman African inscriptions from both urban centres and more peripheral areas (1st century BCE – 7th century CE). The distribution of the confusion has been related to the dating and provenance place of the inscriptions and the level of literacy of those involved in their crafting. The results show a difference in the distribution of <b>/<v> confusions in the three areas examined, with a higher incidence in later inscriptions from Sabratha. Thus, it is discussed whether the different distribution of the <b>/<v> confusions observed in the different regions might be a cue for internal diatopic variation.

Exploring Microvariation in Verb-Movement Parameters within Daco-Romanian and across Daco-Romance

This article reviews some of the principal patterns of morphosyntactic variation within Daco-Romanian and across Daco-Romance in support of a distinction between low vs high V-movement grammars variously distributed in accordance with diatopic variation (Daco-Romance: west vs east, Aromanian: north vs south), diachronic and diagenerational variation (Megleno-Romanian) and endogenous vs exogenous factors (Istro-Romanian). This approach, which builds on the insights of the Borer–Chomsky conjecture, assumes that the locus of parametric variation lies in the lexicon and the (PF-)lexicalization of specific formal feature values of individual functional projections, in our case the clausal heads T and v and the broad cartographic areas that they can be taken to represent. In this way, our analysis locates the relevant dimensions of (micro)variation among different Daco-Romance varieties in properties of T and v. In particular, we show that the feature values of these two heads are not set in isolation, inasmuch as parameters form an interrelated network of implicational relationships: the given value of a particular parameter entails the concomitant activation of associated lower-order parametric choices, whose potential surface effects may consequently become entirely predictable, or indeed render other parameters entirely irrelevant. In this way we can derive properties such as verb–adverb order, auxiliary selection, retention vs loss of the preterite, the availability of a dedicated preverbal subject position, the distribution of DOM, and the different stages of Jespersen’s Cycle across Daco-Romance quite transparently, based on the relevant strength of T and v in individual sub-branches and sub-dialects.

Aspects innovants des métonymies dans le discours quotidien de Brazzavillois

Innovative Aspects of Metonymies in Brazzavillois' Everyday Discourse
 This article examines the innovative aspects of metonymies in the everyday speech of Brazzavillois residents, who live in an environment influenced by both the French language and local languages. The primary goal of the study is to discern the network of metonymies in oral communication and to identify the stylistic reasons for their expressive use in Brazzaville French.The chosen methodology involves compiling a corpus sourced from recordings, posters, and various daily uses related to the professional and linguistic habits of the Brazzaville community. Data selection criteria prioritize relevance and qualitative value. Utilizing this corpus, we applied the linguistic components criteria and the implicit approach developed by Catherine Kerbrat-Orecchioni (1998), along with the ellipsis approach proposed by Michel Le Guern (1973). This application aims to elucidate the discursive implications of metonymy in everyday conversation, seeking to verify how metonymic expressions illuminate the subjectivity, culture, and language proficiency of the speaker. Furthermore, metonymies in oral communication hold implicit value as they allow for the examination of undisclosed informational content omitted by the speaker through ellipses. The ellipsis approach aids in analyzing metonymy as a process that accentuates the container, with the content being elliptically placed by the speaker based on communication needs, intending to magnify a salient element of metonymic adjacency. Our anticipated results are expected to confirm that metonymy actively contributes to the semantic innovation of French in the Brazzaville context. This is attributed to its discursive techniques, particularly the containing/content relationship, which remains a decisive factor in semantic evolution and polysemy. Additionally, metonymy, being a figure of everyday life, permeates various domains such as family, professional settings, religious language, and even in journalism. It is commonly employed in familiar discourse, the realm of transportation, educational institutions, and commercial communication. This usage often arises from the application of verbs like 'pay' and 'buy,' where the content is replaced by the container (e.g., the bottle replaces the gas, and the invoice replaces the company). In conclusion, our findings indicate that metonymy in oral communication is not merely a tool for aesthetic language creation; rather, it emerges as a phenomenon driving linguistic innovation. It adds new layers of meaning to verbs like 'buy' and 'pay' within the specific context of Brazzaville, contributing to a diatopic variation of French in Africa.

Advances in the Automatic Lemmatization of Old English: Class IV Strong Verbs (L-Y)

The morphological features of an inflectional language like Old English (OE), which also presents generalized spelling inconsistencies, limit the use of lemmatizing and tagging tools that can be applied to natural languages. Consequently, the development of Natural Language Processing (NLP) models, which crucially depend on lemmatized corpora, is slowed down. Against this background, this article develops a lemmatizer within the framework of Morphological Generation that allows for the type-based automatic lemmatization of OE class IV strong verbs (L–Y). The lemmatizer incorporates a set of algorithms to account for features of inflectional, derivational, morphophonological and diatopic variation. The generated forms are automatically compared with Taylor et al. (2003) and Healey et al. (2004) to confirm their attestation and are assigned a lemma. Overall, the research proves successful in setting up form-lemma associations, while highlighting areas of ambiguity and mismatches. The main conclusion of the article is that taking the route of automatic lemmatization with this methodological framework will contribute to the field of OE lexicography by both lemmatizing attested inflectional forms and by identifying areas for manual revision.

Diatopic variation in digital space

The availability of large amounts of social media text offers tremendous potential for studies of diatopic variation. A case in point is the linguistic geography of Texas, which is at present insufficiently described in traditional dialectological research. This paper summarises previous work on diatopic variation in Texas English on the basis of Twitter and presents an approach that foregrounds functional interpretability over a maximally clear geographical signal. In a multi-dimensional analysis based on 45 linguistic features in over 3 million tweets from across the state, two dimensions of variation are identified that pattern in geographically meaningful ways. The first of these relates to creative uses of typography and distinguishes urban centres from the rest of the state. The second dimension encompasses characteristics of interpersonal, spoken discourse and shows an East-West geographical divide. While the linguistic features of relevance for the dimensions are not generally considered in dialectological research, their geographic patterning reflects major tendencies attested in the literature on diatopic variation in Texas.[1] [1]I am grateful to Alex Rosenfeld for sharing his data with me. This work was initially presented at a panel on Twitter in sociolinguistic research at NWAV 49, organised by Stef Grondelaers and Jane Stuart-Smith. I would like to thank both of them for giving me this opportunity and the attendees of the panel, especially Lars Hinrichs and Alex Rosenfeld, for fruitful discussion. Finally, my gratitude goes to Erling Strudsholm and Anita Berit Hansen for their invitation to participate on the Coseriu Symposium and their patience in organising this special issue.

The effect of standardisation on collocations in Colombian and European Spanish translations of the work "Rootless"

The empirical study of syntactic, stylistic, and lexical patterns through corpora has frequently revealed a tendency towards standardisation, as Toury (1995/2012) defines it, in translated texts. In this vein, some studies have found that diatopy tends to become blurred in translations, particularly into transnational languages. In the case of Spanish, it has been stated that the enormous geographical richness of the language is not really reflected in translated Spanish. This paper argues that the translation of the work Rootless by Chris Howard into Colombian Spanish exhibits traits more typical of the European Spanish than of the Colombian Spanish variety. For this purpose, diatopic distribution of verb + noun (object) collocations extracted from a parallel corpus and a monolingual corpus of Rootless and its translations published in Colombian and European Spanish, is examined in a reference Spanish corpus.
 Keywords: parallel corpus; translated Spanish; Colombian Spanish; standardisation in translation; diatopic variation

A Pan-Hispanic approach to the usage of Anglicisms in the thematic area of sports

The influence that English exerts on different languages has been widely examined. Particularly, many studies that have brought the classification of Anglicisms according to thematic fields into focus have shown that, in relation to various languages and varieties, sports is the area in which Anglicisms seem to appear most frequently (Seidel 2010, Andersen 2011). Considering Spanish, when introducing English names of sports, the two main choices are either to adopt/adapt these foreign names or to calque them into the recipient language. This paper aims to clarify which of these two options has been the most successful one and whether diatopic variation plays a part in this respect. To fulfil this goal, a series of equivalent pairs and their variants are looked up in CORPES XXI, and the statistics provided by this corpus in relation to geographical distribution are analysed. Results show that diatopic variation affects disparity in the frequency of use of the different forms of English ball sports names in Spanish.

Variation and Use of Relativizers in the Spanish of Medellín, Colombia: A Corpus-Based Study

The study of relativizers in the Spanish language has not been quite explored from a sociolinguistic point of view. A few research papers have analyzed varieties found in Santiago de Chile, Mexico City, Sevilla, and Madrid. Nevertheless, none of them has addressed a Colombian variety in depth. This variationist study aims to fill the gap by reporting the results of a correlational study focused on the use and variation of relativizers in the preseea-Medellín corpus. An anova test, a Games-Howell test, multiple Tukey’s tests, and pairwise comparisons t-tests with Bonferroni correction were run to identify the variables with significant effects (e.g., geographical position, gender, level of education, and social class). Results suggest that, while there is significant diatopic variation in the selection of relativizers, diastratic variables have a minor role in their frequency of use. It was also noted that while the use of the pronoun que tends to spread in all varieties of Spanish, the relative adjectives cuyo and cuanto continue their trend towards disuse. Further studies are necessary to determine if this tendency to simplification is related to psycholinguistic constraints (i.e. mental load) or functional aspects of Spanish. Finally, this study opens the doors to the analysis of relativizers in other varieties of Colombian Spanish from a sociolinguistic perspective.

VARIAÇÃO DIATÓPICA DOS FRASEOLOGISMOS DO FUTEBOL BRASILEIRO ABRIR O PLACAR E TIME DA CASA

ABSTRACT The present paper aims at describing and mapping the diatopic variation found in the pairs of phraseologisms of Brazilian soccer — abrir o placar (open the score) e time da casa (home team). The theoretical framework adopted is limited to the French school of phraseological studies based on Mejri (1997, 2009, 2012), who points out basic properties of recognition of these structures: polylexicality, fixity, congruence, frequency, predictability and idiomaticity. Regarding the phenomenon of diatopic variation, we adopt the conception of Coseriu (1980), Chambers and Trudgill (1980), as well as Razky and Guedes (2015) regarding the issue of linguistic grouping, in addition to Corpas Pastor (1996) and Garcia-Page (2008) in the treatment of phraseological variation. The sample considered includes soccer written texts published in the period from 2008 to 2015 and extracted from the column Caderno de Esportes of five Brazilian electronic newspapers. The results show two variants for time de casa and six for abrir o placar. The analysis points to a diatopic configuration of the selected phraseologisms with a characteristic use of figurative language.

Origens de variação diatópica do português brasileiro

The aim of the article is to present the origins of regional diversity of Brazilian Portuguese. The paper defines diatopic variation and describes the influence of other languages on Brazilian Portuguese over the years, especially at the phonetic and lexical levels. The analyzed languages are: European Portuguese (the language of the colonizer), South American indigenous languages, African languages, the Arabic language, as well as European languages (Dutch, French, Italian, German and Spanish).

Contrastando o português paulista e o português gaúcho: interpretação da formalidade dos pronomes sujeito de segunda pessoa do singular

Brazilian Portuguese, regarding its second person singular pronouns, is seen by some authors as a dyadic system: the pronoun "você" is the informal pronoun, while "o senhor" is used in situations that require more formality. Although the canonical informal pronoun “tu” still occurs, it is considered that “tu” and “você” are not in complementary distribution, their choice being mostly the result of diatopic variation, with a region where the use of “você” is dominant (e.g. the state of São Paulo), another one where the use of “tu” is dominant (e.g. the state of Rio Grande do Sul), and their more balanced coexistence in a third zone (the largest one in territory). Also, when “tu” occurs, it is generally followed by a verb with third person inflection morphology, although differences can be observed regarding this phenomenon as well. Pereira (2021), based on the specific scenario found in Rio Grande do Sul (predominance of “tu”, with low rates of canonical inflection), conducted a formality judgement test with native speakers of that dialect and found out they actually attributed different levels of formality regarding the type of pronoun used in the sentences, evincing what seems to be a triadic system, at least regarding the speakers’ representation, composed by, from the most informal to the most formal, “tu” (with third person inflection), “você” – paired with “tu” with the canonical inflection –, and “o senhor”. Thus, this study aimed to replicate Pereira’s (2021) study with participants who lived and had been raised in the state of São Paulo, since “você” is predominant there. The results showed a similar gradient of formality, although not identical averages, with different sociolinguistic factors (age, schooling, and gender) affecting the results. Moreover, “tu” with the canonical inflection was paired to “o senhor” at the formal extreme of the scale, which might be due to the fact it is a rarer form and speakers only have contact with it in situations regarded as formal (e.g., in Portuguese grammars or textbooks at school). Thus, the data and comparisons brought out in this study demonstrate the relevance of uniting different methodologies as to reach more robust conclusions regarding the different phenomena in variation in Brazilian Portuguese.

Florence "blues" are clothed in triple basic terms.

Psycholinguistic studies provide evidence that Italian has more than one basic color term (BCT) for “blue”: consensually, blu denotes “dark blue,” while “light-and-medium blue,” with diatopic variation, is termed either azzurro or celeste. For Tuscan speakers (predominantly from Florence), the BLUE area is argued to linguistically differentiate between azzurro “medium blue” and celeste “light blue.” We scrutinized “basicness” of the three terms. Participants (N = 31; university students/graduates born in Tuscany) named each chip of eight Munsell charts encompassing the BLUE area (5BG-5PB; N = 237) using an unconstrained color-naming method. They then indicated the “best exemplar” (focal color) of blu, azzurro and celeste. We found that frequencies of the three terms and of term derivatives were comparable. Referential meaning of blu, azzurro, and celeste was estimated in CIELAB space as L*a*b*-coordinates of the mean of focal colors and as “modal” categories, that is, dispersion around the mean. The three “blue” terms were distinct on both measures and separated along all three CIELAB dimensions but predominantly along the L*-dimension. Our results provide evidence that Tuscan speakers require all three terms for naming the BLUE area, categorically refined along the lightness dimension. Furthermore, celeste appears to be a third BCT for “blue,” along with commonly considered BCTs azzurro and blu. The “triple blues” as BCTs for Tuscan speakers are in contrast with outcomes of two “blue” basic terms estimated by using the same methodology in two other locations in Italy—azzurro and blu (Verona, Veneto region) or celeste and blu (Alghero, Sardinia).

Detection of Loanwords in Angolan Portuguese: A Text Mining Approach

Angola is characterized by many different languages and social, cultural and political realities, which had a marked effect on Angolan Portuguese (AP). Consequently, AP is characterized by diatopic variation. One of the marked effects is in the loanwords imported from other Angolan languages. Our objective is to analyze different Angolan texts, analyze the lexical forms used and conduct a comparative study with European Portuguese, whose aim is to identify the possible loanwords in Angolan. This process was automated, as well as the identification of cotexts of all loanwords. In addition, we determine the lexical class of each loanword and the Angolan language of origin. Most lexical loanwords come from the Kimbundu, although AP includes loanwords from some other Angolan languages, too. Our study serves as a basis for preparation of an Angolan regionalism dictionary. We note that more than 700 loanwords identified do not figure in the existing dictionaries.

La variation libre phonologique et morphologique du dialecte niçois: essai d’illustration

"Phonological and Morphological Free Variation in the Dialect of Nice – an Illustration. A project has been launched to make a dialectal dictionary of Nice and its surroundings. As an important amount of data is being gathered from various texts and in the field, the proportion of free variation in the Occitan dialect spoken in the city of Nice appears to be significantly greater than what studies (especially grammars and dictionaries) report. Using a substantial set of examples, this descriptive article shares with the scientific community some important features of phonological and morphological polymorphism in urban Niçois. In the phonological part, it also shows the links that tie together polymorphism and diatopic variation in a relatively homogeneous dialectal area. Keywords: free variation, phonology, morphology, Niçois (Niçard, Nissart), Occitan "

“Every fox praises its own tail”. Jan Blahoslav (1523–1571) on Slavic dialects

Summary Jan Blahoslav (1523–1571) was one of the first – if not the first – to devote a separate chapter to the phenomenon of vernacular diatopic variation in his Czech grammar. His pioneering attempts at making sense of this issue have thus far remained understudied, especially outside of the Czech Republic. In this contribution, we open up this important text, largely written in Czech, to a wider audience by means of an annotated English translation. In addition, we frame his interest in dialectal variation in the intellectual trends of 16th-century language study, especially within the Protestant circles in which Blahoslav was active.

Medieval multilingualism and the expression ofemotion:fearin theGawain-poet's texts

The Gersum Project has significantly developed our understanding of Norse-derived terms in English by providing a highly systematic typology for their identification. However, this article shows that, in order to fully comprehend the lexical impact that Anglo-Scandinavian contact had on medieval English, we need to go beyond the identification of the Norse-derived terms and explore their process of integration into English. To exemplify the benefits of this approach, the article analyses the make-up of the lexico-semantic field ofemotion, particularlyfear, in the texts attributed to theGawain-poet, and examines the interaction between native, Norse- and French-derived terms. This analysis moves away from the traditional study of the texts’ vocabulary in relation to their sociohistorical context, considering the terms instead from semasiological, onomasiological and stylistic perspectives. By taking this novel approach, this article addresses key linguistic and literary topics: the formal and semantic factors that facilitated the integration of Norse-derived terms into this lexico-semantic field and, more broadly, the impact that multilingualism had on the expression of emotions in medieval England; diachronic and diatopic variation in the field; and theGawain-poet's artistry and interest in fear as a key emotion closely linked to other affective and cognitive processes.

Some observations on the composition by blending in contemporary French from Petit Robert

Abstract The objective of this article is to analyze the composition by amalgam in current French by focusing on the one hand on the notion of amalgam in linguistics and on the other hand on the use and the frequency of use of the chosen amalgams in the diatopic variation of French. The notion of amalgam and / or of portmanteau word does not seem obvious and the explanations or definitions offered by dictionaries as well as by works on lexicology are not unanimous and differ from one another. Before presenting the results of a more detailed research, we therefore find it essential to frame the contribution in a theoretical context dealing with the notion of amalgam, or even of portmanteau word, which allows us to better understand the whole problem.