ABLA

The Atlas of the Balkan Linguistic Area project will build an online database of language contact phenomena as attested in the Balkan languages and contribute to theoretical discussions in areal linguistics. ABLA will consist of 100+ phonological, morpho-syntactic, semantic, and lexical features, drawing on a linguistic questionnaire to be designed based on the Russian team’s expertise with atlases. Each feature will be matched to a map covering 70+ localities across all Balkan countries. Each map will be accompanied by a chapter co-authored by the project contributors. The online database will be developed by the French team and hosted by HumaNum via the Pangloss Collection with a mirror site in Russia. ABLA will also be published by an international publisher. ABLA will not only be the first online database for the Balkans, an area shaped by multilingualism in forms that are rapidly disappearing, but will further serve as an example for other linguistic areas in the world.