A Dialect App for Lithuanian Dialectology

Schneider, Christa (6 May 2017). A Dialect App for Lithuanian Dialectology (Unpublished). In: Revitalizing Baltic Linguistics. Bern. 06.- 08. 05. 2017.

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A Dialect App for Lithuanian Dialectology

A pilot study in perceptual dialectology (cf. Schneider 2013) shows that 70% of the questioned students think that the traditional Lithuanian dialects are low prestige variants. Nevertheless, more than 90% of the questioned dialect speakers regard dialect as a part of their identity. In addition, the study also makes clear that Lithuanian culture is strongly connected with its dialects (e.g. songs, poems, customs) and that Lithuanian dialects are therefore regarded as a part of the cultural heritage of Lithuania. The evaluation of the pilot study also illustrates, together with other studies (cf. Mikulėnienė et al. 2015), the research potential that lies in the field of the traditional Lithuanian dialectology.
The recent development of crowd sourcing methods via cell phone applications, which are used in variationists' projects, for instance in Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the USA (cf. Leemann and Britain forthcoming), have created a new way to collect data corpora in a short time. Such methods are also highly applicable for Lithuania due to the dialect situation and the existence of a historical dialect atlas (cf. Lietuvių kalbos atlasas 1977-1991). The app would help to illustrate how widely dialects are effectively used and where the most dialectal areas have to be situated. Therefore, a short set of questions has to be answered by the users. The questions are chosen on the basis of the most salient variables found in the Lietuvių kalbos atlasas. Based on the answers the users will then be located in a certain part of Lithuania. But due to migration and mobility, which has highly influenced language in the past 30 years, the users will possibly be located at incorrect places. They then have the opportunity to specify their location and, furthermore, they have the possibility to record themselves. The self-location of the users' speeches and the recorded data provide highly valuable insights into the socio-dialectal situation in Lithuania.

References:
Mikulėnienė, Danguolė; Meiliūnaitė, Violeta; Aliūkaitė Daiva (2014): XXI a. pradžios lietuvių tarmės: geolingvistinis ir sociolingvistinis tyrimas : žemėlapiai ir jų komentarai. Vilnius: Briedis

Morkūnas, Kasys (ed.) (1977). LKA I – Lietuvių kalbos atlasas 1: Leksika. Vilnius: Mokslas

Morkūnas, Kasys (ed.) (1982). LKA II – Lietuvių kalbos atlasas 2: Fonetika. Vilnius: Mokslas

Morkūnas, Kasys (ed.) (1982). LKA III – Lietuvių kalbos atlasas 3: Morfologija. Vilnius: Mokslas

Schneider, Christa (2013). Die litauischen Dialekte: Dialect Death durch Low Prestige, Identitätsmerkmal der Litauer oder nur noch Kulturgut? Master's thesis. Bern: s.n.

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