Lexical Variation of Austrian Dialects in the 20th ct.

The project focuses on the accessibility, mapping and analysis of historical dialect data from the 20th century. This data was collected around 85 years ago in the context of the Marburg research project German Word Atlas. As part of this project, questionnaires were sent to almost 50,000 school locations in German-speaking countries and regions with the task of asking teachers to translate the words on the questionnaires and a few complete sentences into the dialect of the school location. The questionnaire data formed the basis for the printed German Word Atlas (1951-1980), which comprises a total of 22 volumes with black and white dialect maps, which are, however, quite difficult to read. For Austria, completed questionnaires (4 pages each) from almost 3,400 location points are available from this project. The new FWF project will start with the digital processing of the handwritten questionnaire data, namely the conversion of the data into a machine-readable format. Artificial intelligence methods and tools will also be used for this conversion. This will provide the basis for a wealth of linguistic analyses on the one hand and a significantly optimized remapping of the historical data on the other. The project will provide answers to the following research questions: Variationist linguistics: What patterns of variation are evident in the lexis of Austrian dialects in the 20th century? Which types of lexical variants (which are also determined using statistical methods) can be identified in terms of their variation patterns? Which characteristics can be assigned to these variant types (e.g. different degrees of semantic complexity)? Which (semantic, morphological, etc.) sections of the lexicon exhibit which degrees of heterogeneity and homogeneity? Linguistic geography/areal linguistics: What lexical patterns of intra- and interlocal variation (in the locality or in the comparison of different places and regions) are evident in the dialects of Austria in the 20th century? How do these areal patterns relate to traditional dialect-geographical classifications of language space, which were determined primarily on the basis of phonetic- phonological dialect phenomena or on the basis of current data from everyday language (regiolectal) registers? Language dynamics: What do interregional differences tell us about the dynamics of lexis? Which phenomena show what degree of stability and sensitivity to change? Which Austrian regions show what degree of sensitivity to change or stability? Which parts of the lexicon show which degree of dynamics? Lexical variation and beyond: What parallels are there between lexical variation and variation at phonetic and grammatical level? What research potential do the DWA data have beyond lexical analyses (e.g. with regard to semantic, phonetic, grammatical phenomena)?