Linguistic geography in Serbia - linguistic notes on maps and their reading

Abstract

The creation of linguistic atlases is the highest achievement of linguogeography. A scientific linguistic map with all the necessary accompanying elements offers the possibility to trace the geographic distribution of an actual linguistic phenomenon. The text starts by pointing out the importance of linguistic atlases as the “central instrument” of contemporary dialectology. Subsequently, it presents the work of the Interacademic Committee for Dialectological Atlases (SASA), founded in 1959 as the Yugoslav Committee for Dialectological Atlases, spanning several decades and constituting the framework for the local activities of three international projects (Atlas of the European Languages - ALE, The General Slavic Linguistic Atlas - OLA, and The General Carpathian Dialectological Atlas - OKDA) and the national project named The Serbian Dialectological Atlas - SDA (earlier The Serbo-Croatian Dialectological Atlas). Further, the paper presents the existence of numerous linguistic maps in national publications, published within dialectological scientific papers and monographic studies and bearing witness to the work performed in the background of our major tasks in the linguogeographic field. The paper also indicates the importance of linguistic maps for various scientific disciplines and areas. [Project of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Grant no. 178020: Dijalektološka istraživanja srpskog jezičkog prostora]

Keywords

• linguistic geography
• Interacademic Committee for Dialectological Atlases (SASA)
• ALE
• OLA
• OKDA and SDA linguistic atlases
• linguistic map
• questionnaire
• network topology
• interpretation of linguogeographic material