On the Development of an Interdisciplinary Annotation and Classification System for Language Varieties – Challenges and Solutions

The Special Research Programme (SFB) ‘German in Austria: Variation – Contact – Perception’ is a project financed by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF F60). Its nine project parts are collaboratively conducting research on the variation and change of the German language in Austria. The SFB explores the use and the subjective perception of the German language in Austria as well as its contact with other languages. Methodologically and theoretically, most SFB project parts are situated within variationist linguistics, others in contact linguistics and perceptionist linguistics. This paper gives an insight into the conception of a framework for the annotation and ultimately also classification of language varieties, which is being developed within the SFB. It outlines the requirements of the various project parts and reviews, whether and how standardised language codes (ISO 639) and language tags (following BCP 47) can be utilised for the annotation of language varieties in variationist linguistic projects.