Language Atlas and Measurement of Language Distances in the Regions (Duhok, Zakho, Semel and

Abstract

The linguistic atlas and its method have been given much importance recently. Hence, according to different linguistic phenomena and evidence, linguists have presented means of distributing various linguistic forms in the linguistic atlas. Here, geographical distances between areas are considered important factors in geographical linguistics.

The main aim of this study is to put a unique linguistic atlas for measuring and presenting linguistic distances in Duhok, Zakho, Summel and Shekhan accentual areas, according to geographical linguistics and dialectology bases. The method used for analyzing the data is analytical and descriptive. The data collected from these areas have been selected randomly on the basis of four semantic categories (kinship, kitchen items, fruits and names of insects). Five words. Four words have been used from each category. The frequencies and percentages of using these words as well as the highest and lowest rates of similarity between the different dialectal distances have been measured, analyzed and interpreted via dendrograms (in form of tree diagrams).