Geographic boundary of a certain linguistic feature
Isoglosses on the Faroe IslandsHigh German subdivides into Upper German (green) and Central German (cyan), and is distinguished from Low Franconian and Low German (yellow). The main isoglosses, the Benrath and Speyer lines, are marked in black.
An isogloss, also called a heterogloss, is the geographic boundary of a certain linguistic feature, such as the pronunciation of a vowel, the meaning of a word, or the use of some morphological or syntactic feature. Isoglosses are a subject of study in dialectology, in which they demarcate the differences between regional dialects of a language; in areal linguistics, in which they represent the extent of borrowing of features between languages in contact with one another; and in the wave model of historical linguistics, in which they indicate the similarities and differences between members of a language family.
Major dialects are typically demarcated by bundles of isoglosses, such as the Benrath line that distinguishes High German from the other West Germanic languages and the La Spezia–Rimini Line that divides the Northern Italian languages and Romance languages west of Italy from Central Italian dialects and Romance languages east of Italy. However, an individual isogloss may or may not have any coterminus with a language border. For example, the front-rounding of /y/ cuts across France and Germany, while the /y/ is absent from Italian and Spanish words that are cognates with the /y/-containing French words.
One of the best-known isoglosses is the centum-satem isogloss.
Similar to an isogloss, an isograph is a distinguishing feature of a writing system. Both concepts are also used in historical linguistics.
An isogloss, also called a heterogloss, is the geographic boundary of a certain linguistic feature, such as the pronunciation of a vowel, the meaning of...
labiovelars merged with the plain velars. The centum–satem division forms an isogloss in synchronic descriptions of Indo-European languages. It is no longer...
its division of north and south dialects. It is close to the north/south isogloss of the three key hallmarks of Northern English and Southern English: foot–strut...
Canaanite, including Moabite, show differences from one another. A lexical isogloss exists between the Northwest Semitic languages Aramaic, Hebrew and Moabite...
line (French: ligne Joret; Norman: lène Joret: Picard: line Joret) is an isogloss that divides the langues d'oïl. Dialects north and west of it preserve...
Isogloss for the pronunciation of "R" (c. 1960), being alveolar north of the boundary and uvular ("French R") south of it. It follows that the R+S combination...
absorbed diverse Slavic tribes and not a particular language. The main isogloss separating the Bulgarian dialects into Eastern and Western is the yat border...
linguistics, the Benrath line (German: Benrather Linie) is the maken–machen isogloss: dialects north of the line have the original /k/ in maken (to make), while...
dialect. The two dialect regions are mainly separated by the das / dat isogloss; in the northwestern portion of the state, including cities such as Saarlouis...
vocabulary which other Eastern Iranian languages lack Cheung suggests a common isogloss between Pashto and Ossetian which he explains by an undocumented Saka dialect...
across much of South East England, including an area south of the "broad A" isogloss, but the modern West Country dialects are now most often classified west...
Dutch: Uerdinger linie; named after Uerdingen by Georg Wenker) is the isogloss within West Germanic languages that separates dialects which preserve the...
Kansai. However, this isogloss largely corresponds to several grammatical distinctions as well: West of the pitch-accent isogloss: The perfective form...
various subordinated articles Germanic placename etymology German name Isogloss South Germanic languages Estimates of native speakers of the Germanic languages...
different sound outcomes. (The La Spezia–Rimini Line, the most important isogloss in the entire Romance-language area, passes only about 30 kilometres or...
(Ikavian, Ijekavian or Ekavian), and third is presence of Young Proto-Slavic isogloss (Schakavian or Shtakavian). Modern dialectology generally recognises seven...
that /æ/ was used by almost everyone who was from clearly north of the isogloss for BATH words. She wrote, "There is no justification for the claims by...
phenomenon of the pronunciation of the letters ⟨g⟩ and ⟨ch⟩ and also a major isogloss within that language. In southern dialects of Dutch (that is, those spoken...
16 December 2009. For some maps of various isoglosses, see the online Isogloss maps for Iberian Peninsula Spanish, according to ALPI Archived 28 September...
'to thunder'. According to scholar Peter Jackson, the Celtic–Germanic isogloss *Þun(a)raz ~ *Tonaros may have emerged as the result of the fossilization...
dialects is called the La Spezia–Rimini Line and is one of the most important isogloss bundles of the Romance dialects. The changes (instances of diachronic lenition...
peoples over several centuries, accounting for the P-Celtic vs. Q-Celtic isogloss. This view has been challenged by the hypothesis that the islands' Celtic...
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