Towards a new face of the Atlante Linguistico Italiano (ALI). Processes of enhancement in ArcGIS environment

Abstract

The DigitALI project, launched within the framework of the PNRR «CHANGES», aims to digitize and enhance
the Atlante Linguistico Italiano (ALI) by means of advanced digital tools and specific functionalities in a GIS
environment. The initiative had to address the accessibility limitations of printed ALI, integrating and connecting
linguistic and socio-demographic data, photographic images and geographic coordinates, all organized in a
relational geodatabase implemented in PostgreSQL/PostGIS. A key aspect of this is the conversion of the
ALIcode – an ASCII-based encoding used to represent phonetic data – into Unicode and subsequently into IPA,
to facilitate compatibility with international standards and enable further developments. The project also foresaw
precise georeferencing of informants, the processing of the information present in the fieldwork reports as
metadata, and the restructuring of data through Python and R scripts. Thanks to these interventions and a series
of tabular concatenations and specific methodological steps aimed at guaranteeing the quality and overlap of the
migrated data in a GIS environment and the workflow fluidity, a digital version of the Atlante is being developed
in ArcGIS Pro. In this paper various digital maps are presented which act as prototype output products, on some
regions and at national level, able to support interactive queries and give back the connected metadata in the
form of pop-ups. Prospectively, DigitALI is an example of interdisciplinary collaboration, paving the way for
linguistic, geographical and historical studies, contributing to significantly fostering the usability and analysis of
Italy’s linguistic heritage.