Giovanni Oman (1922-2007). Un ritratto del più prolifico raccoglitore dell’Atlante ‎Linguistico del Mediterraneo (ALM)

L’Atlante Linguistico del Mediterraneo (ALM) – The Mediterranean Linguistic Atlas – is a body of work put ‎together thanks to the great effort of experts in the field of linguistics and dialectology in collecting material dedicated, ‎in primis, to sea life and life on the sea. The project was defined in Oslo and Venice between 1957 and 1959. It was ‎illustrated by Deanović and Folena, with the support of Fondazione Cini di Venezia (FC) as a stable partner. The last of ‎the thirteen issues of the ALM bulletin – Bollettino ALM (BALM) dates back to 1980-1986. It was a time when a ‎number of meetings and congresses were held to define the structure of the questionnaire and the delicate problem of ‎the phonetic alphabet, to establish data collection points, data-collectors, and the creation of an ALM body. It is with ‎these very objectives in mind that 60 years after its creation, new promoters and established scholars have got together ‎to promote ALM’s precious heritage and to relaunch this ambitious geo-linguistic project. I have been assigned the ‎Syrian-Lebanese area and the task of illustrating the work of Giovanni Oman, ALM’s most prolific datacollector for ‎the first issue of BALM magazine.‎