Lea Schäfer
Dialect syntax was long considered the stepchild of dialectology (see Glaser 2000). In the meantime, this gap has been reduced, especially in relation to the modern Germanic and Romance dialects. Now it is about time to leave the comfort zone of modern dialects and to establish a historical dialect syntax and morphology. We explicitly seek for a historical dialectology as dialects are more natural than standard/written languages (Weiß 2009). An overarching goal would be a comparative compilation of these re
The feasibility of a historical comparative dialectology is demonstrated by numerous phonological studies (cf. Cravens 2002). For syntax and morphology, however, we have just begun to identify and analyze historical oral varieties using fine scaled geolinguistic, statistical, and philological methods.
Therefore, there is a need to unite experts in different varieties, grammatical structures, and fields (dialectology, typology, and historical linguistics) to discuss basic questions towards a historical comparative dialect syntax and morphology:
Lea Schäfer