Dialectology and Linguistic Diffusion

Abstract

Dialect variation brings together language synchrony and diachrony in a unique way. Language change is typically initiated by a group of speakers in a particular locale at a given point in time, spreading from that locus outward in successive stages that reflect an apparent time depth in the spatial dispersion of forms. Thus, there is a time dimension that is implied in the layered boundaries, or isoglosses, that represent linguistic diffusion from a known point of origin. Insofar as the synchronic dispersion patterns are reflexes of diachronic change, the examination of synchronic points in a spatial continuum also may open an important observational window into language change in progress.

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