The computational dialectometry of Talysh varieties across western-southern side of Caspian Sea

Abstract

Dialectometrics is a quantitative approach to measure the differences among varying dialects using statistical measurement on a large number of linguistic features in a dialectal area. A dialect atlas, as such, displays variations of language across a geographical area. The present study employs an aggregate data analysis method as well as RuG/L04 dialectometry and cartography software to provide a perspective of phonological and lexical variation in Guilan province, Iran. The statistical population of the study includes residents of five Talysh-speaking towns in Guilan province, i.e. Talysh, Rezvanshahr, Masal, Fuman and Shaft. In each town/area 10 villages with more than 100 Talysh-speaking households were selected. The selected participants were male and they were classified in three age groups including the teen, the middle-aged and the elderly. The data were collected using Leipzig and Swadesh language questionnaires which include 65 words and 7 sentences. The results indicate that Talysh speakers tend to behave similarly in phonetic and lexical items in some semantic fields whereas in some other fields differences surface. The age variable proves to be significant in using older local words and the younger subjects tend to use standard Persian. In sum, three general dialects are recognized in Talysh, and each dialect has its own phonetic and lexical variations.

Keywords

• dialectometry
• linguistic varieties
• aggregate data analysis
• talysh language
• guilan province