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2003 keynote address.

Article Excerpt
EL ATLAS LINGUISTICO DE MEXICO: SUS APORTACIONES DE METODO A LA DIALECTOLOGIA

ABSTRACT. A few years ago, the Atlas Linguistico de Mexico (Linguistic Atlas of Mexico) was published in six volumes. It is one of the few complete atlases that has appeared in the Spanish-speaking Americas. The Atlas is the result of a long scientific tradition in Mexican dialectology that had its inception at the beginning of the 20th century. The immediate predecessor of the Atlas was the Proyecto de Delimitacion de las Zonas Dialectales de Mexico (Project to Demarcate the Dialect Areas of Mexico). When the director of this project, Juan M. Lope Blanch, realized that the materials being gathered described more than a collection of simple dialect boundaries, he decided to convert the project into a far more ambitious undertaking. This new project resulted in the Atlas Linguistico de Mexico.

This paper highlights the innovations in methodology employed in producing the Atlas, compared to methodologies employed in gathering data for other similar geographic linguistic atlases. Most of these innovations have resulted, to some extent, from the objectives of the project from its inception. In particular, this study was not focused on the speech of older, literate, male consultants, as was the case in most of the classic European linguistic atlases.

Professor Juan M. Lope Blanch, the principle force behind modern linguistic studies in Mexico, died in May 2002. This address is being delivered in his memory.

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Los linguistas y filologos del siglo XIX, preocupados por precisar las relaciones de las diferentes lenguas derivadas de un tronco comun, asi como por investigar sus origenes, comenzaron, sin proponerselo, los estudios dialectales pues, particularmente los neogram ticos, pensaban encontrar en las hablas locales una confirmacion de las leyes foneticas. Las primeras investigaciones cientificas en este campo estaban orientadas totalmente a la descripcion de los patois, de los dialectos claramente diferenciados de la lengua estandar, con el preciso objeto de asegurar con datos exactos los estudios de linguistica historica, o bien de rescatar esas manifestaciones de lengua, dado que eran consideradas tambien como importantes documentos culturales en vias de desaparicion.

La dialectologia, como toda ciencia, ha venido perfeccionando sus metodos. Se han llegado a precisar muy satisfactoriamente los requisitos indispensables que deben llenar los cuestionarios, los informantes, los lugares de encuesta, el alfabeto fonetico, etcetera. Ahora bien, cada trabajo dialectal pretende aportar no solo informaciones sobre las hablas que describe, sino tambien las innovaciones de metodo que...

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