Department of Geography and Geology, University of Turku, Turku, Finland.
Giellagas Institute for Saami Studies, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland.
PLoS One. 2022 Jun 8;17(6):e0269648. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0269648. eCollection 2022.
Despite remarkable progress in digital linguistics, extensive databases of geographical language distributions are missing. This hampers both studies on language spatiality and public outreach of language diversity. We present best practices for creating and sharing digital spatial language data by collecting and harmonizing Uralic language distributions as case study. Language distribution studies have utilized various methodologies, and the results are often available as printed maps or written descriptions. In order to analyze language spatiality, the information must be digitized into geospatial data, which contains location, time and other parameters. When compiled and harmonized, this data can be used to study changes in languages' distribution, and combined with, for example, population and environmental data. We also utilized the knowledge of language experts to adjust previous and new information of language distributions into state-of-the-art maps. The extensive database, including the distribution datasets and detailed map visualizations of the Uralic languages are introduced alongside this article, and they are freely available.
尽管数字语言学取得了显著进展，但仍缺乏广泛的地理语言分布数据库。这既阻碍了语言空间性的研究，也阻碍了语言多样性的公众宣传。我们通过收集和协调乌拉尔语系的分布情况作为案例研究，提出了创建和共享数字空间语言数据的最佳实践。语言分布研究采用了各种方法，研究结果通常以印刷地图或书面描述的形式呈现。为了分析语言空间性，必须将信息数字化为包含位置、时间和其他参数的地理空间数据。当编译和协调这些数据时，可以用来研究语言分布的变化，并与人口和环境数据等结合使用。我们还利用语言专家的知识，将语言分布的新旧信息调整为最新的地图。本文还介绍了包括乌拉尔语言分布数据集和详细地图可视化的广泛数据库，并免费提供。
