Group for Atlas Linguarum Europae

The Atlas Linguarum Europae (ALE) is one of the largest international research projects in the history of linguistic geography in terms of both the territory and the number of languages studied. The scope of the project covers 6 language families (Indo-European, Finno-Ugric, Caucasian, Turkic, Mongolic, and Semitic), including 22 language groups and language isolates. As far as the territorial aspect is concerned, ALE includes 51 countries from Iceland to the western part of Russia. Linguistic data is gathered from 2631 localities.

The objectives of ALE are the following:

  • to present the correlative features of languages and their dialects;
  • to illustrate the history of the languages of Europe from the earliest times;
  • to demonstrate the relationship between Romance, Germanic, Slavic, Turkic, and Finno-Ugric cultures using linguistic data;
  • to study the present-day linguistic and cultural relationships.

The research is carried out with the help of computer technologies. ALE uses both lexical and semantic maps which represent inner forms of words. Compared to the former, the latter are important for ethnographic research as they illustrate historic ties between European languages. The so-called motivational maps of ALE are the major innovation in the field of linguistic geography. They allow researchers to concentrate on similar ideological and cultural notions existing in all languages, disregarding their formal distinctions. This provides an opportunity to study the motivational metalanguage common to all languages of the world. Thus, ALE represents a new type of correlative linguistic methodology which is particularly useful in interdisciplinary research along with ethnology, cultural anthropology, history of religion, and archaeology.

The History of ALE

The Atlas Linguarum Europae project was established in 1970 under UNESCO guidance. Prof. Mario Alinei, Prof. Antonius Weijnen, and corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union Ruben Avanesov were project proponents. Initially, the official language of ALE was French.

The Group for Atlas Linguarum Europae was founded as part of the Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1975. Since 1988, the Group belongs to the Department of Caucasian Languages.

30 specialists from research institutions and universities of European Russia work for the ALE Committee. Mikhail Alekseev, Vladimir Gak, Natalia Donadze (Academic Secretary of ALE), Anna Dybo, Vladimir Ivanov, Georgy Klimov, Tatiana Nevskaya, Sergei Starostin, Edhyam Tenishev, Jacob Testelets, Marfa Tolstaya, Natalya Kozhina (Fateeva) contributed or continue to contribute to creating maps and providing commentaries for ALE.

For more details see the official Atlas Linguarum Europae website: Published questions, Symbols, Fill-in forms, ALE Base Table, Model Map, Map instructions. All published issues for the Premier Questionnaire can be found here. 
 

Staff

Natalia DONADZE
Researcher, Ph.D
 

Publications

The ALE project comprises fascicles of the Atlas Linguarum Europae and linguistic maps. All publications are issued in French, English, and German. As of 2016, the Premier Questionnaire, the Second Questionnaire were published, together with the two-fascicle Introduction to ALE, 9 fascicles of monographic commentaries and 9 fascicles of linguistic maps:

  • Atlas Linguarum Europae: Introduction (1975). Assen (Van Gorcum).
  • Atlas Linguarum Europae (ALE): Premier Questionnaire Van Gorcum, Assen/Amsterdam,. 1976, pp.128,. ISBN 90 232 1439 0

  • Atlas Linguarum Europae (ALE): Second Questionnaire Van Gorcum, Assen, 1979, pp. 216, ISBN 90 232 1697 0 

  • Atlas Linguarum Europae (ALE). /sous la red. de Mario Alinei…[et al.] Volume I: Premier fascicule, Commentaires. Van Gorcum, Assen,. 1983, pp.I-XCVII, 178. ISBN 90-232-2034-X 

  • Atlas Linguarum Europae (ALE). sous la red. de Mario Alinei…[et al.] Volume I: Deuxième fascicule, Commentaires. Assen (Van Gorcum). 1986, pp.I-CIII, 230. ISBN 90-232-2103-6

  • Atlas Linguarum Europae (ALE). sous la red. de Mario Alinei…[et al.] Volume I: Troisième fascicule, Commentaires. Assen (Van Gorcum). 1988 pp.I-LXXIV, 140. ISBN 90-232-2103-6 

  • Atlas Linguarum Europae (ALE). sous la red. de Mario Alinei…[et al.] Volume I: Quatrième fascicule, Cartes et Commentaires. Assen (Van Gorcum). 1990, pp.XXII, 204. ISBN 90-232-2448-5 

  • Atlas Linguarum Europae (ALE). sous la red. de Mario Alinei…[et al.] Volume I: Cinquième fascicule, Commentaires. Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato).Roma. pp.I-XVIII, 295,1997 

  • Atlas Linguarum Europae (ALE): sous la red. de Mario Alinei…[et al.] Perspectives nouvelles en géolinguistique. Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato).Roma, pp.I-LXVII, 310. 1997 

  • Atlas Linguarum Europae (ALE). sous la red. de Wolfgang Viereck Volume I: Sixième fascicule, Commentaires. Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato.Roma, 2002, pp.I-LXXXIV, 220. 

  • Atlas Linguarum Europae (ALE). sous la red. de Wolfgang Viereck Volume I: Septième fascicule, Commentaires. Rome (Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato). 2007, pp. I-LXXXIV, 244 . ISBN 978-88-240-1031-3 

  • Atlas linguarum Europae (ALE) : Commentaires / Volume I, huitième fascicule/ ed. Nicolae Saramandu ... [et al.], 1xxxvi, 273 p. Bucureşti : Editura Universitǎţii din Bucureşti, 2014, ISBN 978-606-16-0421-0, Vol. 1: Huitième fascicule: Commentaires. - 2014 – ISBN 978-606-16-0449-4.

  • Atlas Linguarum Europae (ALE). Volume I, huitième fascicule. Cartes linguistiques européennes/ ed. Nicolae Saramandu ... [et al.], 1VII, 120 p.+ 10 cartes linguistiques, Bucureşti : Editura Universitǎţii din Bucureşti, 2014 – ISBN 978-606-16-0456-2  

  • Atlas linguarum Europae (ALE) : Commentaires / Volume I, neuvième fascicule/ ed. Nicolae Saramandu ... [et al.], 1xxxvi, 273 p. Bucureşti : Editura Universitǎţii din Bucureşti, 2015, ISBN 978-606-016-0421-0, Vol. 1: Neuvième fascicule: Commentaires. - 2015 – ISBN 978-606-016-0579-8.  

  • Atlas Linguarum Europae (ALE). Volume I, neuvième fascicule. Cartes linguistiques européennes/ ed. Nicolae Saramandu ... [et al.], 1VII, 120 p.+ 10 cartes linguistiques, Bucureşti : Editura Universitǎţii din Bucureşti,vol.– ISBN 978-606-16-0456-2 – 2015. ISBN 978-606-16-0580-4 

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