Historical paths of contact and isolation explain lexical variation in Japanese dialects

Abstract

Differences in language variety keep being important topics and strengthen the feeling of belonging and group formation in Japan too. We argue that historical contact paths can explain a large portion of variation in linguistic differences across Japan. This study explores the patterns in Japanese lexical variation based on digitised dialectal survey data (using the Linguistic Atlas of Japan) and the explanation power of contact paths obtained from different historical sources, presenting some preliminary results of a dialectometric analysis and quantification of some of the factors assumed to affect the lexical variation in Japanese.