Geo-dialect

More specifically, we are focusing on a tool used in dialectology—linguistic atlases—and how we can transfer these works from their original paper format to a digital, computerized format. We are focusing on France’s first major dialectological project, the Linguistic Atlas of France (Gilliéron and Edmont, 1902–1910), and on how we can reorganize the data it contains using computerized methods, particularly Geographic Information System (GIS) tools.

The objective is to define the methodological and technological specifications for extracting the semantic and geographic data contained in the historical geolinguistic maps of the Linguistic Atlas of France (ALF) and integrating them into a geographic information system.

Our proposal consists of:
i) identifying the characteristics of the ALF data as well as the data processing and analysis procedures implemented for this atlas;
ii) defining the specifications for a digitization process tailored to the characteristics of geolinguistic data; 
iii) specify methods for extracting data through the vectorization of content from old maps;
iv) develop a geolinguistic data model enabling its integration into a geographic information system;
v) propose methods and procedures for spatial analysis, as well as
vi) propose cartographic representation methods that facilitate geolinguistic analysis. 

The Geodialect project brings together two research teams from Labex Persyval:

• the SLD team at Gipsa-Lab, specializing in dialectology and linguistic systems;
• the LIG's STeamer team, which specializes in the computer processing of geographic data and geomatics.

This project has received additional funding from the CNRS Interdisciplinary Mission as part of the 2013 PEPS HuMain calls for exploratory projects (CartoDialect Project). As a result, new research teams have joined the consortium:

• The ASPIC team at the 3i Laboratory in La Rochelle and the IMAGINE team at LIRIS in Lyon, both of which specialize in low-level image processing, pattern recognition, and their vectorization,
• The Jean Kuntzmann Laboratory in Grenoble, which specializes in geostatistics.

Teams

LIG-STeamer

• Paule-Annick Davoine
• Marlène Villanova-Oliver
• Jérôme Gensel
• Xiaoyu Yu
• Oton Copi (Intern)
• Camille Briend (intern)

GIPSA-Lab

• Didier Demolin
• Silvia Gally
• Carole Chauvin
• Michel Contini
• Julie Jouanneaux (Intern)

LJK

• Philippe Garat

L3i La Rochelle

• Mickael Coustaty
• Jean-Marc Ogier
• Jean-Christophe Burie
• Marwa Mansri (Intern)

LIRIS Lyon

• Stephane Bres
• Véronique Eglen

Publications and Outreach

Davoine P-A, Chauvin C., Gally S., Garat Ph, Oton C., “A New Approach to Exploring and Studying Cartographic Heritage in Dialectology: Application to the Linguistic Atlas of France,” International Cartographic Conference, ICC 2015, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 23–28, 2015 

Quoc Bao, Dang, Muhammad Muzzamil Luqman, Mickaël Coustaty, Cao De Tran, Jean-Marc Ogier SRIF: Scale and Rotation Invariant Features for Camera-Based Document Image Retrieval - ICDAR 2015 (submitted) 

Gally S., Chauvin C., Davoine P.-A., Demolin D., Contini C., GeoDialect: An Exploration of Geomatics Tools for the Processing and Analysis of Geolinguistic Data, *Géolinguistique* journal, vol. 14, 2014, ELLUG, Grenoble 

Mickael Coustaty, Nibal Nayef, Cao De Tran, Jean-Marc Ogier - A multi-layer approach for camera-based complex map image retrieval and spotting system, IEEE IPTA 2014 http://navidomass.univ-lr.fr/MapDataset/