Research Project VARIACIÓN LÉXICA EN ESPAÑOL DEL MUNDO (VARILEX-R)

The project Variación Léxica en Español del Mundo (Varilex-R), created by Dr. Hiroto Ueda (Tokyo University), aims to analyze the state of Spanish vocabulary and its dialectal variation worldwide. Varilex-R is a database in which linguistic data are classified by country of origin. It has been developed by Dr. Ueda and HCIAS Prof. Dr. Francisco Moreno-Fernández. 

Due to the international and pluricentric nature of Spanish, its vocabulary is subject to dynamic processes of convergence and divergence that shape varying degrees of cohesion and specificity among its different varieties. The project has collected a substantial body of linguistic data from 61 Spanish-speaking cities across several continents. The data were gathered through questionnaires that included questions regarding 981 lexical, phraseological, and syntactic aspects of contemporary Spanish, as it is spoken in everyday urban environments. 

The current phase of the project focuses on updating the empirical material to explore linguistic distance between Spanish varieties, identify systematic contrasts, and analyze (lexical) features of Spanish at both the local and global level.