Linguistic Geography and Its Application to the Development of Dialect Atlases

Abstract

This article presents the theoretical foundations and historical development of linguistic geography, emphasizing its role in studying the spatial distribution of linguistic variants and in the development of dialect atlases. Worldwide, many countries have developed linguistic atlases at both national and regional levels, whereas in Vietnam, the development of language/dialect atlases has not received sufficient attention. The article highlights the role of Geographic Information System (GIS) and tools such as ArcGIS, QGIS, and WebGIS in managing, analyzing, and visualizing linguistic data. It concludes that the application of GIS technology is an inevitable direction for modernizing dialect research as well as for developing dialect atlases