Mapping Aggregate Variation

We proceed from the view that linguistic variation must be examined from an aggregate perspective, i.e. from a perspective which encompasses as much of the variation between language varieties as possible rather than concentrating on single linguistic features. We review the motivation for this position in the rst section of the article, and then examine ways in which aggregate variation can be projected to maps, focusing on the questions of how geography in uences language variation and how maps can aid our understanding of that question.