Dresden 2014 – scientific programme
Parts | Days | Selection | Search | Updates | Downloads | Help
SOE: Fachverband Physik sozio-ökonomischer Systeme
SOE 8: Focus Session: Complex Systems Approaches to Language and Communication
SOE 8.6: Talk
Tuesday, April 1, 2014, 12:15–12:30, GÖR 226
Spatial language dynamics in Northern Italy before standardization — •Gero Vogl1, Michael Leitner2, and Paul Videsott3 — 1Fakultät für Physik, Universität Wien, Austria — 2Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum (MLZ), Technische Universität München, Germany — 3Freie Universität Bozen, Italy
In the year 1200 every city in Northern Italy wrote its derivative from Latin in its own way. We have followed the change from the local to standard language over time (1200 to 1525) and space. Documents from 36 cities with more than 500.000 words have been scanned for 300 specific traits. We constructed similarity matrices and found: (a) there is certain continuity in one and the same city, i.e. similarity of written language over the time is greater than similarity to neighbour cities and even more so than similarity with the average North Italian city. (b) in the period around 1500, in cities along the Via Emilia the trend to standard Italian is strong, whereas in the North of the region towards the Alps local traits persist.