DiaClas: Dialect classification – past, present and future 

DiaClas, a symposium on the past, present and future of dialect classification, will take place in Ljubljana (Slovenia), 23-25 April 2025. It will be hosted by ZRC SAZU (Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts) and is co-organized by Fryske Akademy and Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts. The symposium is linked to the DIACLEU project (Dialect Classifications of Languages in Europe), that aims to publish a complete, state-of-the-art, and historical overview of dialect classifications of the endogenous languages spoken in Europe. DIACLEU collects all the classifications published until now for these languages and makes them accessible for an international audience in the open access journal Dialectologia.  

DiaClas invites submissions for paper and poster presentations focusing on methods and techniques for dialect classifications and on the future of dialect classifications in the study of dialectology and language variation. Papers can focus on both linguistic (e.g., usage-based vs. system-based, theoretical frameworks) and quantitative (e.g., sampling, statistical techniques, hierarchization of boundaries) aspects, and their combination (e.g., weight of linguistic features, requirements for definition as a dialect). We also invite scientists involved with technologies or methodologies outside linguistics that can be applied to the investigation of dialect classification. 

Our confirmed guest speakers are Alfred Lameli (Philipps-Universität Marburg) and Danguolė Mikulėnienė (Institute of the Lithuanian Language). 

More information about the symposium can be found at https://diaclas.zrc-sazu.si/en/

Abstract deadline: 12 December 2024. Submit your abstract here

We look forward to welcome you in Ljubljana. 

Jožica Škofic & Hans Van de Velde