Wilbert Heeringa
Biographic Data
| ID | 224048 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Wilbert Heeringa |
| GIVEN NAMES | Wilbert |
| FAMILY NAME | Heeringa |
| SIGNATURE | HEERINGA W |
| AFFILIATIONS | Fryske Akademy |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5082-9293 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 30 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 17 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2001 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Unraveling the Overall Picture of Japanese Dialect Variation
We studied the Japanese dialect by calculating aggregated PMI Levenshtein distances among local Japanese dialects using data from 2400 locations and 141 items from the Linguistic Atlas of Japan Database (LAJDB). Through factor analysis, we found the latent linguistic variables underlying the aggregated distances. We found two factors, the first of which reflects a division into five groups, and the second of which reflects the long-standing East/…
Chinese “Dialects” and European “Languages
In this article, we tested some specific claims made in the literature on relative distances among European languages and among Chinese dialects, suggesting that some language varieties within the Sinitic family traditionally called dialects are, in fact, more linguistically distant from one another than some European varieties that are traditionally called languages. More generally, we examined whether distances among varieties within and across…
Intergenerational Language Transmission of Frisian and Low Saxon in the Netherlands
An important mechanism for language maintenance is transmission from parents to their children. This mechanism is stronger for the regional language Frisian than it is for Low Saxon in the northern Netherlands. In this study, we assessed many variables potentially associated with parental language transmission for these regional languages. We analyzed questionnaire responses from around 25,000 Frisian and Low Saxon speakers participating in the L…
Visible Vowels as a Tool for the Study of Language Transfer
In this paper, we demonstrate the use of Visible Vowels to detect formant and durational differences between L2 and L1 speakers. We used a dataset that contains vowel measures from L1 speakers of French and from L2 learners of French, with Italian, Spanish and English as L1. We found that vowels that are not part of the L1 phonological system are often pronounced differently by L2 speakers. Inspired by the Native Language Magnet Theory which was …
Comparing Germanic, Romance and Slavic
Multivariate Analysis of Geography and Age in Dialect Vocabulary — Comprehensive Analysis of 250 Years of Language Change
In this paper, we analyze long-term changes in dialect vocabulary. By analyzing the age difference of 140 years and the regional difference of 27 survey points, we will examine historical change and geographical spread over the 250 years since the compilation of a dialect glossary. First, we present the distribution of eight representative words according to the traditional method of linguistic geography. After that, we present comprehensive maps…
Regular and Irregular Inflection in Different Groups of Bilingual Children and the Role of Verbal Short-Term and Verbal Working Memory
Bilingual children often experience difficulties with inflectional morphology. The aim of this longitudinal study was to investigate how regularity of inflection in combination with verbal short-term and working memory (VSTM, VWM) influences bilingual children's performance. Data from 231 typically developing five- to eight-year-old children were analyzed: Dutch monolingual children (N = 45), Frisian-Dutch bilingual children (N = 106), Turkish-Du…
Standard German vowel productions by monolingual and trilingual speakers
Aims and Objectives: Studies on vowel productions of speakers from bilingual communities report not only interactions between the first and second language, but also monolingual-like realizations. The present study expands a prior acoustic investigation of Saterland trilinguals by studying the substrate effect of Saterland Frisian and Low German on the trilinguals’ standard language Northern Standard German. The research aim is to test whether th…
The relationship between first language acquisition and dialect variation
It is remarkable that first language acquisition and historical dialectology should have remained strange bedfellows for so long considering the common assumption in historical linguistics that language change is due to the process of non-target transmission of linguistic features, forms and structures between generations, and thus between parents or adults and children. Both disciplines have remained isolated from each other due to, among other …
Modeling Intelligibility of Written Germanic Languages
We measured orthographic differences between five Germanic languages. First, we tested the hypothesis that orthographic stem variation among languages does not correlate with orthographic variation in inflectional affixes. We found this hypothesis true when considering the aggregated stem and affix distances between the languages. We also correlated the stem and affix distances within the cognate pairs in each language pair. We found low correlat…
The role of dialect exposure in receptive multilingualism
Previous investigations of inter-Scandinavian intelligibility have shown that, in general, Norwegians are better at understanding the closely related languages Danish and Swedish than Danes and Swedes are at understanding Norwegian. This asymmetry is often explained by the strong position that dialects hold in Norway as opposed to in Denmark and Sweden. In Norway, the general public is more exposed to language variation than in Sweden and Denmark…
Associations among linguistic levels
Predicting intelligibility and perceived linguistic distance by means of the Levenshtein algorithm
In this article, we investigate the predictive value of so-called Levenshtein distances for both intelligibility scores and perceived linguistic distances. Additionally, we compare two measuring methods, namely normalised and non-normalised Levenshtein distances. The Levenshtein algorithm is a string edit distance measure that quantifies the distance between the pronunciations of corresponding words in different dialects or closely related langua…
Do Surname Differences Mirror Dialect Variation
Our focus in this paper is the analysis of surnames, which have been proven to be reliable genetic markers because in patrilineal systems they are transmitted along generations virtually unchanged, similarly to a genetic locus on the Y chromosome. We compare the distribution of surnames to the distribution of dialect pronunciations, which are clearly culturally transmitted. Because surnames, at the time of their introduction, were words subject t…
Perceptive evaluation of Levenshtein dialect distance measurements using Norwegian dialect data
The Levenshtein dialect distance method has proven to be a successful method for measuring phonetic distances between Dutch dialects. The aim of the present investigation is to validate the Levenshtein dialect distance with perceptual data from a language area other than the Dutch, namely Norway. We calculate the correlation between the Levenshtein distances and the distances between 15 Norwegian dialects as judged by Norwegian listeners. We carr…
Computational Comparison and Classification of Dialects
In this paper a range of methods for measuring the phonetic distance between dialectal variants are described. It concerns variants of the frequency method, the frequency per word method and Levenshtein distance, both simple (based on atomic characters) and complex (based on feature bundles). The measurements between feature bundles used Manhattan distance, Euclidean distance or (a measure using) Pearson’s correlation coefficient. Variants of the…
Dialect areas and dialect continua
The organizing concept behind dialect variation is still seen predominantly as the areas within which similar varieties are spoken. The opposing view—that dialects are organized in a continuum without sharp boundaries—is likewise popular. This article introduces a new element into the discussion, which is the opportunity to view dialectal differences in the aggregate. We employ a dialectometric technique that provides an additive measure of pronu…
Perceptive evaluation of Levenshtein dialect distance measurements using Norwegian dialect data
The Levenshtein dialect distance method has proven to be a successful method for measuring phonetic distances between Dutch dialects. The aim of the present investigation is to validate the Levenshtein dialect distance with perceptual data from a language area other than the Dutch, namely Norway. We calculate the correlation between the Levenshtein distances and the distances between 15 Norwegian dialects as judged by Norwegian listeners. We carr…
Dialect areas and dialect continua
The organizing concept behind dialect variation is still seen predominantly as the areas within which similar varieties are spoken. The opposing view—that dialects are organized in a continuum without sharp boundaries—is likewise popular. This article introduces a new element into the discussion, which is the opportunity to view dialectal differences in the aggregate. We employ a dialectometric technique that provides an additive measure of pronu…
Associations among linguistic levels
Comparing Germanic, Romance and Slavic
The relationship between first language acquisition and dialect variation
It is remarkable that first language acquisition and historical dialectology should have remained strange bedfellows for so long considering the common assumption in historical linguistics that language change is due to the process of non-target transmission of linguistic features, forms and structures between generations, and thus between parents or adults and children. Both disciplines have remained isolated from each other due to, among other …
Computational Comparison and Classification of Dialects
In this paper a range of methods for measuring the phonetic distance between dialectal variants are described. It concerns variants of the frequency method, the frequency per word method and Levenshtein distance, both simple (based on atomic characters) and complex (based on feature bundles). The measurements between feature bundles used Manhattan distance, Euclidean distance or (a measure using) Pearson’s correlation coefficient. Variants of the…
Dialect areas and dialect continua
The organizing concept behind dialect variation is still seen predominantly as the areas within which similar varieties are spoken. The opposing view—that dialects are organized in a continuum without sharp boundaries—is likewise popular. This article introduces a new element into the discussion, which is the opportunity to view dialectal differences in the aggregate. We employ a dialectometric technique that provides an additive measure of pronu…
Perceptive evaluation of Levenshtein dialect distance measurements using Norwegian dialect data
The Levenshtein dialect distance method has proven to be a successful method for measuring phonetic distances between Dutch dialects. The aim of the present investigation is to validate the Levenshtein dialect distance with perceptual data from a language area other than the Dutch, namely Norway. We calculate the correlation between the Levenshtein distances and the distances between 15 Norwegian dialects as judged by Norwegian listeners. We carr…
Predicting intelligibility and perceived linguistic distance by means of the Levenshtein algorithm
In this article, we investigate the predictive value of so-called Levenshtein distances for both intelligibility scores and perceived linguistic distances. Additionally, we compare two measuring methods, namely normalised and non-normalised Levenshtein distances. The Levenshtein algorithm is a string edit distance measure that quantifies the distance between the pronunciations of corresponding words in different dialects or closely related langua…
Do Surname Differences Mirror Dialect Variation
Our focus in this paper is the analysis of surnames, which have been proven to be reliable genetic markers because in patrilineal systems they are transmitted along generations virtually unchanged, similarly to a genetic locus on the Y chromosome. We compare the distribution of surnames to the distribution of dialect pronunciations, which are clearly culturally transmitted. Because surnames, at the time of their introduction, were words subject t…
Associations among linguistic levels
Modeling Intelligibility of Written Germanic Languages
We measured orthographic differences between five Germanic languages. First, we tested the hypothesis that orthographic stem variation among languages does not correlate with orthographic variation in inflectional affixes. We found this hypothesis true when considering the aggregated stem and affix distances between the languages. We also correlated the stem and affix distances within the cognate pairs in each language pair. We found low correlat…
The role of dialect exposure in receptive multilingualism
Previous investigations of inter-Scandinavian intelligibility have shown that, in general, Norwegians are better at understanding the closely related languages Danish and Swedish than Danes and Swedes are at understanding Norwegian. This asymmetry is often explained by the strong position that dialects hold in Norway as opposed to in Denmark and Sweden. In Norway, the general public is more exposed to language variation than in Sweden and Denmark…
The relationship between first language acquisition and dialect variation
It is remarkable that first language acquisition and historical dialectology should have remained strange bedfellows for so long considering the common assumption in historical linguistics that language change is due to the process of non-target transmission of linguistic features, forms and structures between generations, and thus between parents or adults and children. Both disciplines have remained isolated from each other due to, among other …
Standard German vowel productions by monolingual and trilingual speakers
Aims and Objectives: Studies on vowel productions of speakers from bilingual communities report not only interactions between the first and second language, but also monolingual-like realizations. The present study expands a prior acoustic investigation of Saterland trilinguals by studying the substrate effect of Saterland Frisian and Low German on the trilinguals’ standard language Northern Standard German. The research aim is to test whether th…
Multivariate Analysis of Geography and Age in Dialect Vocabulary — Comprehensive Analysis of 250 Years of Language Change
In this paper, we analyze long-term changes in dialect vocabulary. By analyzing the age difference of 140 years and the regional difference of 27 survey points, we will examine historical change and geographical spread over the 250 years since the compilation of a dialect glossary. First, we present the distribution of eight representative words according to the traditional method of linguistic geography. After that, we present comprehensive maps…
Regular and Irregular Inflection in Different Groups of Bilingual Children and the Role of Verbal Short-Term and Verbal Working Memory
Bilingual children often experience difficulties with inflectional morphology. The aim of this longitudinal study was to investigate how regularity of inflection in combination with verbal short-term and working memory (VSTM, VWM) influences bilingual children's performance. Data from 231 typically developing five- to eight-year-old children were analyzed: Dutch monolingual children (N = 45), Frisian-Dutch bilingual children (N = 106), Turkish-Du…
Comparing Germanic, Romance and Slavic
Intergenerational Language Transmission of Frisian and Low Saxon in the Netherlands
An important mechanism for language maintenance is transmission from parents to their children. This mechanism is stronger for the regional language Frisian than it is for Low Saxon in the northern Netherlands. In this study, we assessed many variables potentially associated with parental language transmission for these regional languages. We analyzed questionnaire responses from around 25,000 Frisian and Low Saxon speakers participating in the L…
Visible Vowels as a Tool for the Study of Language Transfer
In this paper, we demonstrate the use of Visible Vowels to detect formant and durational differences between L2 and L1 speakers. We used a dataset that contains vowel measures from L1 speakers of French and from L2 learners of French, with Italian, Spanish and English as L1. We found that vowels that are not part of the L1 phonological system are often pronounced differently by L2 speakers. Inspired by the Native Language Magnet Theory which was …
Unraveling the Overall Picture of Japanese Dialect Variation
We studied the Japanese dialect by calculating aggregated PMI Levenshtein distances among local Japanese dialects using data from 2400 locations and 141 items from the Linguistic Atlas of Japan Database (LAJDB). Through factor analysis, we found the latent linguistic variables underlying the aggregated distances. We found two factors, the first of which reflects a division into five groups, and the second of which reflects the long-standing East/…
Chinese “Dialects” and European “Languages
In this article, we tested some specific claims made in the literature on relative distances among European languages and among Chinese dialects, suggesting that some language varieties within the Sinitic family traditionally called dialects are, in fact, more linguistically distant from one another than some European varieties that are traditionally called languages. More generally, we examined whether distances among varieties within and across…
Linguistics (17 works) · Linguistic Variation and Morphology (13 works) · Philosophy (12 works) · Computer Science (9 works) · Philosophy (9 works) · Phonetics and Phonology Research (8 works) · Psychology (8 works) · History (6 works) · Natural Language Processing Techniques (5 works) · Geography (4 works)