Introducción a los problemas y métodos según los principios de la Escuela Dialectométrica de Salzburgo (con ejemplos sacados del "Atlante Italo-Svizzero", AIS)

Resumen

This paper documents the many taxometric and cartographic achievements of the Salzburg school of dialectometry. The paper discusses the following topics: 1) problems of measurement ("taxatation") of linguistic atlas data (with particular consideration of Romance linguistic atlases), 2) establishment of the data matrix, 3) choice of the similarity index (here: Relative and Weighted Identity Value), 4) generation of the respective similarity and distance matrices, 5) their subsequent cartographic exploitation, which encompasses the following cartographic tools: similarity maps, parameter maps, interpoint maps, dendrograms (and their spatial projection), and correlation maps. The ultimate purpose of these highly sophisticated cartographic tools (choropleth and isopleth maps) is to increase our knowledge of the complex mechanisms of the "dialectal management of space by man". From a methodological point of view our paper deals with problems related to Romance dialectology and linguistic geography, historical linguistics, numerical classification, statistics and statistical cartography.
   The examples are drawn from the Italian linguistic atlas AIS (Atlante-Italo-Svizzero, recte: Sprach- und Sachatlas Italiens und der Südschweiz published by Karl Jaberg and Jakob Jud, Zofingen: Ringier, 1928-1940, 8 volumes) whose data have been dialectometrically analyzed between 2007 and 2009.
   The taxometric calculations and their respective visualizations are realized by a powerful computer program called "Visual DialectoMetry" (VDM), created by Edgar Haimerl between 1997 and 2000 in Salzburg, which is freely available for research purposes.