This project measures and classifies language variation. In contrast to earlier dialectology, we seek a comprehensive characterization of (potentially gradual) differences between dialects, rather than a geographic delineation of (discrete) features of individual words or pronunciations. More general characterizations of dialect differences then become available. We measure phonetic (un)related...

We present MAGEAD, a morphological analyzer and generator for the Arabic language family. Our work is novel in that it explicitly addresses the need for processing the morphology of the dialects. MAGEAD performs an on-line analysis to or generation from a root+pattern+features representation, it has separate phonological and orthographic representations, and it allows for combining morphemes fr...

A shape grammar, which can exemplify and visually explain the style of Taiwanese traditional vernacular dwellings, is presented in the form of rules of composition that are derived from considerations of traditional processes of design and construction, and from cultural influences. Taiwanese traditional architecture Taiwanese architecture is a branch of Chinese architecture with distinct pecul...

Japanese dialects are largely classified into two types in terms of prosodic systems, one having a lexical pitch contrast and the other having no such contrast. Dialects of the latter type are called ‘accentless’ dialects. Many previous studies reported that, in areas where an accentless dialect had been originally spoken, younger speakers acquired Standard Japanese lexical pitch accent and are...

This research suggests a method for machine translation among two Kurdish dialects. We chose the two widely spoken dialects, Kurmanji and Sorani, which are considered to be mutually unintelligible. Also, despite being spoken by about 30 million people in different countries, Kurdish is among less-resourced languages. The research used bi-dialectal dictionaries and showed that the lack of parall...

Short-term accommodation is considered as one of the main factors in dialect levelling and the spread of linguistic innovations. This study investigates how speakers of Grison and Zurich German two Swiss German dialects shift their productions of short vowels after being exposed to each other's dialect in a dialogue. We found asymmetrical behaviour in accommodation between the two dialects: on ...

Previous studies have revealed that, depending on the language, listeners can identify speakers’ dialects quite well. The role of segments and prosody in this task is largely unknown, however. In a between-subjects design, we tested a total of 30 listeners in two conditions: in the unmorphed condition, listeners heard original sentences from two Swiss German dialects; in the duration morphed co...

This paper describes a project which has explored the feasibility of using a computer to perform a significant portion of the changes required to adapt text from one dialect to several others. This ongoing experiment has examined adaptation between various dialects of Quechua, finding that a computer program may be an important tool for adaptation. An experimental computer program was written a...

The DLF dialects of description logic are fragments of first order logic with underlying signatures based on unary predicate symbols and on unary function symbols interpreted as total functions. In earlier work, we have shown how computational properties of logical consequence for dialects of this family without inverse features are preserved when unary function symbols are interpreted instead ...

Lexical pitch accent languages such as Swedish and Japanese have been claimed to exhibit variation in phonological inventory and/or phonetic manifestation of pitch accents. This paper reports variations in the phonetic manifestation as well as phonological patterning of the lexical H*+L pitch accent in two Ryukyuan dialects – Shuri and Nakijin. The F0 manifestation of H*+L pitch accent in the t...