Computational Dialectometry of Phonetic Variatrtions of Taleshi in Guilan Province

Dialectometry is a quantitative approach to measure the differences among varying dialects using statistical measurement on a large number of linguistic features in a dialectal area. A dialect atlas, as such, displays variations of language across a geographical area. The present study employs an aggregate data analysis method as well as RuG/L04 dialectometry and cartography software to provide a perspective of phonological and lexical variation in Guilan province, Iran. The statistical population of the study includes residents of five Taleshi-speaking towns in Guilan province, i.e. Talesh, Rezvanshahr, Masal, Fuman and Shaft. Out of each town, 10 villages with more than 100 Taleshi-speaking households were selected. The selected participants were male and they were also classified in three age groups including the teen, the middle-aged and the elderly. The data were collected using Leipzig and Swadesh language questionnaires which include 65 words. The results indicated that there are similarities and differences of sound varieties in three parts of Taleshi i.e. northern, central and southern, which include varieties in alternation, consonants and vowels.