Le projet LaDyCa (Language Dynamics in the Caucasus, IDEX Emergence 2017-18): avancées et résultats

Methods and Results from the LaDyCa Project (Language Dynamics in the Caucasus, IDEX Emergence 2017-18)

Abstract

LaDyCa (Language Dynamics in the Caucasus, IDEX Emergence 2017-18, in partnership between Sorbonne University and Ilia State University) is an interdisciplinary project on languages of the Caucasus, strongly focused on the issue of Complexity versus Simplexity. This paper provides an overview of the main results, from three standpoints: (i) multilayered network dialectometry, based on Levenshtein algorithm, applied to the Georgian dialect network, (ii) Paradigm Function Morphology modeling of Kartvelian verb inflection system, enhancing the role of irregular verbs in highlighting rules of stem choices and rules of exponence versus morphophonological rules, (iii) a simplexity approach of intricate North-Western Caucasian phonological systems, such as Abkhaz.
On the one hand, the project applies methods which have proved successful in other geographical and ecological contexts, as Mesoamerica, the converging factor being here verticality and multilayered networks of interactions between communal aggregates (populations) throughout history. On the other hand, the project deals with deep simplexity underlying complex surface patterns in verbal inflection or phonological systems of languages of the Caucasus. Last, but not least, the LaDyCa project also attempts at making a methodological contribution for the development of social dialectology: a community-based approach to fieldwork and elicitation of dialect varieties, with a strong concern for training students and linguists to dialect data elicitation and processing, according to current methods in endangered languages’ documentation.