Dialectologia 1 (2008), 135-156. A REPORT ON THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE: GEOLINGUISTICS AROUND THE WORLD Chitsuko Fukushima & David Heap Niigata Women’s College (Japan) / University of Western Ontario (Canada)
[email protected] /
[email protected] The National Institute for Japanese Language held its 14th international conference, for the first time on dialects, on 22-23 August 2007 in Tokyo. The symposium was entitled “Geolinguistics around the World“ and focused on Current Trends in Geolinguistics around the World (Day 1) and Application Techniques of Linguistic Atlases (Day 2). The lecturers were Shinji Sanada (Osaka University, Japan), Hans Goebl (University of Salzburg, Austria), Takuichiro Onishi ( National Institute for Japanese Language, Japan), Lee Sang Gyu (National Institute of the Korean Language, Korea), Iwata Ray (Kanazawa University, Japan), Joachim Herrgen (University of Marburg, Germany), Heinrich Ramisch (University of Bamberg, Germany), and Maria-Pilar Perea (University of Barcelona, Spain). The commentators were Chitsuko Fukushima (Niigata Women’s College, Japan) and David Heap (University of Western Ontario, Canada). The National Institute of the Japanese Language (NIJL) must be warmly congratulated on the publication of the Grammar Atlas of Japanese Dialects (GAJ, 1991-2006): this is an important milestone not just in Japanese geolinguistics but also for the field of linguistic geography internationally. While the GAJ undoubtedly provides material for future linguistic studies for many decades to come, today it offers us the ideal occasion to reflect on common challenges and different approaches, both in the 135 Chitsuko Fukushima & David Heap techniques of linguistic cartography and in our theoretical reflections on the goals of geolinguistic research.