Dialect Classification and Everyday Culture

A Case Study from Austria

Bibliographic Data

ID5900200
AuthorsPhilip C Vergeiner (0000-0002-9044-0610)
Year2025
Volume10
Issue2
Pages17
Publication date2025-01-23
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueLanguages (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2226-471X • E-ISSN: 2226-471X
PublisherMDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.3390/languages10020017
OpenAlexW4406766207
LanguageEN
References cited22

Considering dialect areas as cultural areas has a long tradition in dialectology. Especially in the first half of the 20th century, researchers explored correspondences between dialect variation and other elements of everyday culture such as traditional clothing and customs. Since then, however, few studies have compared dialect variation with everyday culture, and virtually none have used quantitative methods. This study addresses this issue by employing a multivariate, dialectometric approach. It examines dialect variation in phonology and its relationship to non-linguistic aspects of everyday culture in Austria using two types of data: (a) dialect data from a recent dialect survey, and (b) ethnographic data published in the 'Austrian Ethnographic Atlas'. Analyzing 90 phonetic-phonological and 36 ethnographic variables, statistical methods such as multidimensional scaling (MDS) and cluster analysis (CA) are employed. The results show only limited overlap between the linguistic and ethnographic data, with cultural patterns appearing more fragmented and small-scale. Geographical proximity is more indicative of cultural than linguistic similarity. MDS and CA reveal clear geographical patterns for the linguistic data that align with traditional dialect classifications. In contrast, the cultural data show less distinct clustering and only small-scale regions that do not coincide with the linguistic ones. This article discusses potential reasons for these differences

Linguistics · Sociology · Linguistic research and analysis · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Linguistics, Language Diversity, and Identity · Philosophy

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