Mapping Innovations in North Germanic with GIS

Abstract

The mapping of innovations, as opposed to taxonomic features, has so far been little used in historical linguistics and dialect geography. Here I show with two examples from Peninsular North Germanic how linguistic theory may cast light on complex mosaics of geographically competing features and how dialect geography can help choose between competing reconstructions. This research builds on a database of more than 50 innovations and over 1000 municipalities in the Nordic countries coupled with mapping software (ArcGIS).