Importance of the MAND

The MAND is unique in its kind. Language atlasses which illustrate morphological phenomena are available, but are quite unlike the MAND in their limited scope and depth. In those atlasses a morphological process will be illustrated by a single word. The MAND illustrates such a process by a large number of words. The first volume, for example, contains 40 main maps on pluralization.
Many maps on subsidiary problems and tonal issues accompany the main maps.

The Goeman-Taeldeman material allows also for generalizations: the example, vowel length in the plural of the type 'dag-daagen', provides an interpolation of a synthesis of the data of seven words. The effect is a better visualisation of differences.
Mapping techniques as these allow for the prediction of the situation for localities for which there are no data available.

This technique is called universal Kriging:

• Deutsch, C. & A. Journel (1998). GSLIB. Geostatistical Software Library and User's Guide. New York / Oxford: Oxford University Press.

• Wattel, E. & P. van Reenen (1994). Visualisation of extrapolated social-geographical data [Rapportnr. WS-429, Faculteit Wiskunde en Informatica Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam]

• Goeman, T. (1999) T-deletie in Nederlandse Dialecten. Kwantitatieve analyse van structurele, ruimtelijke en temporele variatie, Den Haag: HAG.

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