Diachronic Atlas of Comparative Linguistics (DiACL)-A database for ancient language typology

PLoS One. 2018 Oct 11;13(10):e0205313. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0205313. eCollection 2018.

Abstract

Feature stability, time and tempo of change, and the role of genealogy versus areality in creating linguistic diversity are important issues in current computational research on linguistic typology. This paper presents a database initiative, DiACL Typology, which aims to provide a resource for addressing these questions with specific of the extended Indo-European language area of Eurasia, the region with the best documented linguistic history. The database is pre-prepared for statistical and phylogenetic analyses and contains both linguistic typological data from languages spanning over four millennia, and linguistic metadata concerning geographic location, time period, and reliability of sources. The typological data has been organized according to a hierarchical model of increasing granularity in order to create datasets that are complete and representative.

Publication types

  • Historical Article
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Databases, Factual
  • History, Ancient
  • Humans
  • Language / history*
  • Linguistics / history*

Grants and funding

This research was supported by the Marcus and Amalia Wallenberg Foundation (MAW 2012.0095, received by GC), https://www.wallenberg.com/maw/; and by the Crafoord Foundation (20120794, recieved by GC), http://www.crafoord.se/. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.