The Influence of Geographic Variables in Linguistic Variation

Dialectologia • Vol/Iss. 32 • University of Barcelona • Barcelona • Published In • Pages: 165-191 •
By Orlando Fernández, Javier, Bonilla, Johnatan, Ángela Rocha, Luz

Abstract

It has long been suggested among linguists that geographic boundaries between dialect communities correlate with ecological, environmental and even infrastructure-related boundaries on the landscape. This article tests that hypothesis quantitatively, using a suite of spatial statistics to test for autocorrelation between environmental factors within a series of dialect regions throughout Colombia. The authors find that several variables (including precipitation, agroclimatic suitability and access to roads) show significant spatial dependence within dialect regions.
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