Interactive Slovenian linguistic atlas (e-SLA) is an online version of the Slovenian linguistic Atlas (SLA), published in a collection Jezikovni atlasi ['Linguistic atlases'] of the ZRC Publishing and Fran Ramovš Institute of the Slovenian language. So far two volumes have been released:
– Slovenian linguistic atlas 1 – human (body, diseases, family) consists of two books: SLA 1.1 Atlas and SLA 1.2 Commentaries. This publication is a product made in the framework of the Slovenian language in synchronic and diachronic development and project Besedje iz pomenskega polja »človek« v slovenskih narečjih – geolingvistična predstavitev (L6-9529-0618-07) ['Vocabulary of the semantic field of ‘man’ in Slovenian dialects: A geolinguistic presentation'], prepared by 11 authors – colleagues of the Dialectology Section of the Fran Ramovš Institute of the Slovenian Language in Ljubljana (Januška Gostenčnik, Mojca Horvat, Tjaša Jakop, Karmen Kenda-Jež, Vlado Nartnik, Matej Šekli, Danila Zuljan Kumar and Jožica Škofic) as well as colleagues and students from Ljubljana University Faculty of Arts (Vera Smole, Petra Kostelec and Urška Petek).
– Slovenian linguistic atlas 2 from the semantic field farm also consists of two books: SLA 2.1 Atlas and SLA 2.2 Commentaries. This publication is a product made in the framework of the Slovenian language in synchronic and diachronic development and project Materialna kulturna dediščina v slovenskih narečjih – geolingvistična predstavitev ['Material cultural heritage in Slovenian dialects – geolinguistic presentation'], prepared by 11 authors – colleagues of the Dialectology Section of the Fran Ramovš Institute of the Slovenian Language in Ljubljana (Januška Gostenčnik, Mojca Horvat, Tjaša Jakop, Janoš Ježovnik, Karmen Kenda-Jež, Vlado Nartnik, Matej Šekli, Danila Zuljan Kumar and Jožica Škofic) as well as two colleagues from Ljubljana University Faculty of Arts (Vera Smole and Vito Hazler).
SLA in the years
– Slovenian linguist Fran Ramovš introduced the idea of the Slovenian linguistic atlas at the establishment of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Ljubljana in 1934,
– Slovenian linguist Tine Logar began to collect the dialectal material in 1946; so far around 230 collectors have been involved in this project, and even more informers (dialect speakers) – leaving us a priceless cultural heritage;
– in 1988 and 1990 first two linguistic maps were published: one by Vera Smole and the other one by Francka Benedik;
– in 1999 the guide for the Slovenian dialectal material collected for Slovenian linguistic atlas Vodnik po zbirki narečnega gradiva za SLA [Guide to the Collection of Dialect Material for the Slovenian linguistic atlas] was published (by Francka Benedik);
– in 2000 digitization of the Slovenian dialectal material begun and the collaboration with the GIS and the experts for spatial analysis (computer mapping);
– in 2007–2010 we worked for applied project L6-9529-0618-07 and in 2011–2015 for applied project L6-4042, co-financed by the Slovenian Research Agency and the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Ljubljana that covered the following:
– the organization of teamwork,
– a complementary collection of the dialectal material in the field for so far not-collected data-points (micro-dialects), in particular in the neighbouring countries,
– digitization and computer archivation of the dialectal material,
– establishment of SlovarRed database and its connection with GIS,
– the unification of commenting and mapping methods for the dialectal material (formatting of the commentaries, choosing the mapping symbols, etc.) and the unification of terminology,
– linguistic (morphological) analysis of dialectal forms (word),
– publishing of the Slovenian linguistic atlas 1 and 2, etc.
→ all on the basis of the experience, that we have gained in the experimental mapping of the dialectal material for SLA (see Ponovne objave člankov s kartami za Slovenski lingvistični atlas (do leta 2008) ['Re-publication of papers containing maps from the dialectal material collected for SLA (until 2008)'] also accessible at http://bos.zrc-sazu.si/c/Dial/Ponovne_SLA/P/index.html) and with collaboration and participation in two international projects: Slavic linguistic atlas (OLA) and European linguistic atlas (ALE).
SLA 1 represents the dialectal lexemes from the semantic field man collected in 413 data-points in Slovenia and neighbouring countries. The material presents the answers to 151 questions naming different parts of the human body, diseases and members of the immediate and wider family.
SLA 2 represents the dialectal lexemes from the semantic field farm collected in 417 data-points in Slovenia and neighbouring countries. The material presents the answers to 88 questions naming the parts of Slovenian farmhouse and equipment in Slovenian farmhouse, outbuildings and selected farm works. So far, a total of 239 answers (lexemes) to questions from SLA questionnaire have all together 4535 different dialectal forms (SLA 1 – 2216, SLA 2 – 2319), which have been commented and geographically presented and displayed on 229 linguistic maps (SLA 1 – 143, SLA 2 – 86), and equipped with commentaries and indexes of dialectal material, written in phonetic transcription with almost 150,000 dialectal words (SLA 1 – over 92.000, SLA 2 – over 57.000).
All preliminary maps together with the attached indexes enable correct reading and interpretation of collected dialectal material. The introduction part of Atlas contains the presentation of Slovenian phonetic transcription which is very complex and underwent some change through decades. Introductory chapters of Commentaries contain a brief presentation of the history of this linguistic project and the methods of commenting and mapping of collected linguistic data. There is also a list of questions in SLA, translated into German, English, French, Italian, Friulian, Hungarian, Russian and Croatian language as well as English summaries of the introductory text. One also finds a list of applied linguistic and other professional literature used in the interpretation of the dialectal material and word indexes.
The central part of the Atlas present linguistic maps in A3 format with indexes of the dialectal material in the Atlas with Commentaries in the other book. Commentaries have unified structure, systematically presenting each question and problems of the interpretation, the morphological analysis of all dialectal lexemes with their origin, the specifics of the mapping and a notation to related maps in selected linguistic atlases. The maps represent an extreme lexical and word-formative richness of Slovenian dialects and their thoughtful linguistic interpretation. They enable a comparative analysis of the Slovenian dialectal lexemes and its word-formation and also some phonological and morphological developments, both within Slovenian language area as well as in comparison with other languages.