Digital Cartography in the Service of Preservation of Cultural Linguistic Heritage: Implementing the Electronic Dialectal Atlas of Cappadocian Greek

This paper reports on the compilation of the electronic dialectal atlas of Cappadocian Greek, a state-of-the-art major reference work of the DiCaDLand research project (http://cappadocian.upatras.gr/en), funded by the Hellenic Foundation of Research and Innovation, which aims at the Digitization of the Cappadocian Dialectal Landscape by visualizing in different maps all different aspects of linguistic variation. Users can access the maps in several ways. The maps consist of two layers, a geographic and a linguistic one, which are usercomposable. Different geographic basemaps are integrated, allowing the map reader to correlate linguistic phenomena to geographical space. The linguistic maps are grouped thematically, while the map stock is searchable using several indices (phonetics/phonology, morphology, syntax, etc.) to detect maps featuring specific phenomena. The legends of each map are projected in separate windows facilitating both the demonstration and the analysis of a map, providing an exhaustive range of feature values, and accompanied by examples of authentic use and notes for further reading. Moreover, audiovisual data are incorporated, where feasible. This endeavour is the first attempt, for the Greek standards, to implement a fully digital approach to dialectological research, by applying cutting-edge dialectological methods and informatics tools for the documentation and study of dialectal variation. This output of intangible heritage is meant to constitute, on the one hand, an invaluable cultural artifact securing the sustainable preservation of Asia Minor Greek linguistic heritage, while, on the other, a very useful digital tool for the study of language variation and change.