Volume 32, Issue 1

In the first half of the twentieth century, Irish continued to be spoken as a community language in Ballybacon, south-west Tipperary, Ireland. A commission, Coimisiún na Gaeltachta, was appointed in 1925 by the three-year-old Free State government to designate Gaeltacht (Irish-speaking area) boundaries and to recommend social, economic and educational improvements therein. Ballybacon (Baile Uí Bhéacáin), was part of its remit and the commission deemed it to be 66% Irish-speaking; as the government had set an 80% threshold for full Gaeltacht status, Ballybacon was deemed to be a breac-Ghaeltacht or ‘partly Irish-speaking district’. The recording work of Albert Doegen (1877–1967) is discussed with particular reference to a single Ballybacon native, James Lyons or Séamas Ó Liatháin (1877–1934), who is placed in his linguistic, geographical and social context and in the context of state policy towards Irish-speaking districts. The recordings made of his speech by Doegen have been transcribed and translated.

The article reviews the possibilities of applying the web application Gabmap developed by researchers at the University of Groningen to the analysis of vowel formant data based on the results of the study of one Lithuanian dialect. The Western Aukštaitian dialect of Kaunas is traditionally considered the basis of Standard Lithuanian. The study was based on the data of 18 male speakers from six dialectal localities representing distinctive areas. The normalized mean values of the first two vowel formants (F1, F2) were analyzed in certain word positions illustrating distinguishing features, which were processed using Gabmap tools designed for analyzing numeric sequences. Gabmap tools most beneficial for the researchers of experimental phonetics along with the aspects of their application to research were emphasized in the study; it also underlined those tools the use of which requires additional application of other conventional methods of experimental sound analysis, such as sound spectrum analysis, planimetric models, etc. In the study of the Western Aukštaitian of Kaunas, the Gabmap analysis confirmed significant horizontal variation within the dialect area and foregrounded the most tightly related sites sharing the greatest number of common features in their vocalism.

The subject of this study is a particular type of compound preposition found in Irish and Scottish Gaelic. The compound consists of a simple preposition followed by a noun which it governs, the noun in question often pertaining to human perception or activity. The membership of this ‘nominal’ prepositional class, as will be seen, is quite extensive, so that the category in question, as well as refining the reach, and extending enormously the range, of prepositional activity, adds a separate, often somewhat picturesque, dimension to syntax in the languages in question.

In the Lithuanian and Latvian languages, forms of adjective degrees do not have a common etymological basis. The New Curonian (Kuresnieku) language which is a relatively new Baltic geolect has preserved a fairly distinct archaic layer of phonetics and grammar, where one can look not only for the archaisms of the western dialects of the Latvian language but also for traces of the substrate of Old Curonian. Although synthetic forms of the degrees of adjectives with the suffix - āk - are used in the current Latvian language area they are almost unknown in New Curonian. The forms of the comparative degree are made with the particle juo and an adjective of the positive degree. Analytical forms with the pronoun visu and the pronominal form of an adjective express the superlative degree. In the western Latvian and Lithuanian dialects and the Livonian language in Latvia, the relics of the analytical forms of the comparative and superlative degree are recorded in written sources and rarely in modern spoken language. Since a large part of the western dialects of the Lithuanian and Latvian languages take up the former territory of the old tribe, it may be assumed that the analytical forms of adjective degrees are possibly a sign of the substrate of Old Curonian.

The primary and direct source material for describing phonological dialectal differences is represented by linguistic data found in charters. The source value of the data in particular charters for historical linguistics, however, may vary greatly. This is especially true for the earliest attested era, the early Old Hungarian period, which lasted from 895 to 1350. My study deals with the usability of linguistic records of the early Old Hungarian period. In this period the data found in charters are mainly proper names: place names and personal names, accordingly my examples are also of this category.

In this paper, new quantitative methods were applied to elucidate the geographical distribution of Japanese dialects. (1) Regional differences (individual differences) of usage rate of standard language at each locality in GAJ (Grammar Atlas of Japanese Dialects) were dealt with. (2) In addition to the railway distance from Tokyo to each locality, the walking distance from the railway stations to the survey localities was measured and used as the “railway-walking distance”. (3) Using a scatter-plot in what is called a “limestone cave model”, the values on the axis of standard language usage were reversed, and the Japan Islands were divided into east and west according to their direction from Tokyo. It showed that the standard language usage rate and distance show a proportional relationship even at each locality (individual informant) value. (4) Focusing on the prefectures near Tokyo, the distance from Tokyo regulates the usage rate. From this, the rapid spread of standard language from modern Tokyo and influence of railway can be ascertained. It was found that the phenomena pointed out by the average values by prefectures of vocabulary items in LAJ are valid to the data for each locality (individual) of GAJ.

Jooshani dialect belongs to the Jooshan village, one of the villages of Golbaf town in Kerman city, Iran. The study tries to linguistically investigate and analyze the phonological processes of Jooshani. It also tries to present some grammatical and lexical features of this dialect. Here, Jooshani features are compared with those of Standard Persian (SP) and Kermani. The data have been gathered during nine years by one of the authors living in Jooshan and through close relations with the informants, most of whom were old, illiterate, and untraveled. The data are presented in three main parts: phonological system and phonological processes (metathesis, insertion, elision, lenition, spirantization, alternation, assimilation and devoicing), noun word-formation, and lexicon. The results obtained in each part showed that there are considerable differences between this language variety and the Standard Persian in all of the three above-mentioned parts.

In this article, the focus is on the pivotal role of speakers in shaping language dynamics and dialectal stability, particularly within the context of dialectal variation. It is evident that language is intricately tied to human experience, serving as a tool for navigation, problem-solving, and social interaction. This article posits that understanding the interplay between language dynamics and stability of dialects requires a nuanced consideration of speakers and their practical relationships with the world as well as their linguistic mental representations. People are not passive recipients of language; rather, they actively engage with it in various contexts, adapting to new situations and influencing linguistic change. Through empirical examples from German dialectology, the article illustrates how speakers’ interactions with their environment shape language evolution. Overall, the article aims to provide insight into the role of speakers in driving linguistic change and maintaining linguistic conventions within dialectal contexts. By examining the practical relationships between speakers and their environment, it contributes to the development of a comprehensive framework for understanding the complexities of language variation and evolution considering linguistic representations.

This article discusses the innovations that have arisen during the last several centuries in three pluralizing morphemes in the Basque dialect of Labourd (continental Basque Country). First, I will present the characteristics of Basque auxiliary and synthetic verbs so that we may better understand the three developments that I will then address and analyze: 1) a pluralizer used with transitive verbs that has moved to present tense intransitive verbs by analogy with its occurrence in past tense forms, driven by phonetic similarity; 2) a pluralizer that shows a complex development in its grammar, time and geography, and that we find in the continental Basque Country, but also in the peninsular Basque Country; and 3) a pluralizer that arose in verbs with dative and that came to be used in the transitive verb without dative jakin ‘to know’ only in Labourd.