'DiaTech': A new tool for dialectology
G. Aurrekoetxea, Karmele Fernández‐Aguirre, Carlos Rubio‐Terres, B. Ruiz, Jon Sánchez · Literary and Linguistic Computing · 2013
The aim of this article was to present a new tool for doing dialectometry. The program, called ‘DiaTech’, incorporates features of previous programs, especially features of the VDM program created under the direction of H. Goebl. Its main goal is to motivate dialectology studies and dialectologists by providing a new comfortable and efficient tool. With regard to the linguistic features of the program, the most novel feature of ‘DiaTech’ is its ability to manage ‘multiple responses’, that is, for each question, the dialectologist has the option to record more than one item. As far as its basic technological features are concerned, the ‘DiaTech’ program can be used with different platforms; it has an interface in different languages. Regarding statistical procedures, the DiaTech program gives access to a wide variety of distances, including those that are most typically used in dialectometry for bidimensional and multivariate analyses (cluster, correlation, etc.). In addition, the program makes use of different algorithms for visualization and classification. Finally, it provides the necessary tools to create different types of maps with a polygonized background: question by question maps (as in a linguistic atlas), identity maps, honeycomb maps, synopsis of skewness, standard deviation, dendrogramic maps, correlation maps, etc.