Abstract : 

The Typological Atlas of the Languages of Daghestan (TALD) is a tool to map the distribution of linguistic features among the languages spoken in Daghestan. The initial idea behind the project was to create a WALS-style resource specialized in the languages of Dagestan. In this talk we introduce the philosophy behind the project, the structure of the data and visualizations, and the topics covered so far. We would also like to discuss some further possible applications of the data.

Speaker's biography :

Michael Daniel

Michael Daniel is a Professor at the School of Linguistics and a Research Fellow in the Linguistic Convergence Laboratory, both at HSE University in Moscow, and teaches at the Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics at Moscow State University. He received his PhD from the Russian State University for the Humanities in 2001. His domain of study includes linguistic typology, variational sociolinguistics, bilingualism and the languages of the Caucasus. He has published his papers in Language Variation and Change (2020), Language (2021), Oxford Encyclopedia of Morphology (2021) and Oxford Handbook of Languages of the Caucasus (2021). He is actively involved in linguistic fieldwork and language documentation of minority languages.

Chiara Naccarato

Chiara Naccarato is a research fellow at the Linguistic Convergence Laboratory at HSE University in Moscow, where she has been working since 2018. She has been working on Nakh-Daghestanian languages (particularly Botlikh) since 2019 and together with Samira Verhees she now coordinates the students' workshop on the Typological Atlas of the Languages of Daghestan. She also works on contact varieties of Russian, particularly Daghestanian Russian.

Timofey Mukhin

Timofey Mukhin is a research assistant at the Linguistic Convergence Laboratory (HSE University, Moscow) and 4th year BA student at the School of Linguistics (HSE University, Moscow). His main research interests include Nakh-Daghestanian languages, especially Kina Rutul (Lezgic). Since 2019 he has been taking part in the Typological Atlas of the Languages of Daghestan project. One of his main tasks in TALD is developing and maintaining the website for the project.

Samira Verhees

Samira Verhees is a research fellow at the Linguistic Convergence Laboratory at HSE University in Moscow. Together with Chiara Naccarato she coordinates the students' workshop on the Typological Atlas of the Languages of Daghestan. Her research interests are East Caucasian languages (especially of the Andic branch), morphology, and areal typology. In the past she has worked on evidentiality as part of tense-aspect and lexical convergence in East Caucasian languages.