WOWA (Word Order in Western Asia) is an open-access collection of transcribed and annotated spoken texts from 41 languages spoken across a region loosely referred to as Western Asia. Most texts are spontaneous (i.e. unscripted) narrative monologues such as oral history and traditional tales. The languages selected are generally under-researched, non-standardized minority languages, which reflect the long-term linguistic diversity of the region more faithfully than the currently dominant written official languages (Turkish, Arabic, and Persian).

The collection includes original text sources for all languages, and sound files for a large subset. WOWA was designed to investigate areal effects in word order, and in particular post-predicate domain. The main results of have been published in Haig et al. (2024). For further details and references, please consult the README file included in the archive.

WOWA was funded by the Alexander-von-Humboldt Stiftung (grant number 1135327-IRN-IP), awarded to Geoffrey Haig (Bamberg) and Mohammad Rasekh-Mahand (Hamedan), 2019–2023. The archive was designed and implemented by N. Schiborr.

Citation for the entire WOWA collection:
Haig, Geoffrey & Stilo, Donald & Dogan, Mahîr C. & Schiborr, N. (eds.). 2024. WOWA — Word Order in Western Asia: A spoken-language-based corpus for investigating areal effects in word order variation. Bamberg: University of Bamberg. (DOI: 10.48564/unibafd-gyws0-g4218) (date accessed)

Additionally, each data set in the collection is an individually citable resource with the contributors as authors. Please refer to the citation guides included in the archive with each data set for more information.

List of data sets ([*] = with audio)

Armenian
Armenian (Eastern, Agulis) — Katherine Hodgson [*]

Hellenic
Pontic Greek (Madan) — Katherine Hodgson [*]
Pontic Greek (Romeyka) — Laurentia Schreiber

Indo-Aryan
Kholosi (Kholos) — Maryam Nourzaei [*]

Iranian
Balochi (Coastal) — Maryam Nourzaei [*]
Balochi (Koroshi) — Maryam Nourzaei [*]
Balochi (Turkmen) — Geoffrey Haig [*]
Bashkardi (Northern) — Agnes Korn, Ilya Gershevitch [*]
Bashkardi (Southern) — Agnes Korn, Ilya Gershevitch [*]
Gorani (Gawraju) — Masoud Mohammadirad [*]
Kumzari (Musandam) — Geoffrey Haig
Kurdish (Central, Sanandaj) — Masoud Mohammadirad [*]
Kurdish (Northern, Ankara) — Kateryna Iefremenko [*]
Kurdish (Northern, Lachin) — Donald Stilo
Kurdish (Northern, Mus) — Geoffrey Haig [*]
Kurdish (Southern, Bijar) — Masoud Mohammadirad [*]
Mazandarani (Kordxeyl) — Donald Stilo, Geoffrey Haig
Persian (New) — Elham Izadi [*]
Persian (New, Early Classical) — Mehdi Parizadeh
Talyshi (Lerik) — Donald Stilo
Tati (Hazarrudi) — Raheleh Izadifar [*]
Vafsi (Gurchani) — Mahîr Can Dogan [*]
Zazakî (Çewlîg) — Netîce Demir, Mahîr Dogan [*]
Zazakî (Siwêreg) — Netîce Demir, Mahîr Dogan [*]

Kartvelian
Laz (Arhavi) — Donald Stilo, René Lacroix

Semitic
Arabic (Jewish, Baghdad) — Assaf Bar-Moshe, Alexandru Craevschi [*]

Arabic (Christian, Ka'biye) — Paul Noorlander
Arabic (Khuzestan) — Bettina Leitner [*]
Central Neo-Aramaic (Mlahso) — Paul Noorlander
Central Neo-Aramaic (Turoyo, Midyat) — Paul Noorlander
NE Neo-Aramaic (Christian, Barwar) — Donald Stilo
NE Neo-Aramaic (Christian, Shaqlawa) — Paul Noorlander
NE Neo-Aramaic (Christian, Urmi) — Paul Noorlander
NE Neo-Aramaic (Jewish, Dohok) — Dorota Molin [*]
NE Neo-Aramaic (Jewish, Sanandaj) — Paul Noorlander
NE Neo-Aramaic (Jewish, Urmi) — Paul Noorlander

Turkic
Oghuz (Ankara) — Kateryna Iefremenko [*]
Oghuz (Erzurum) — Mahîr Dogan
Oghuz (Gagauz) — Mahîr Dogan
Oghuz (Qashqai) — Sohrab Dolatkhah, Laurentia Schreiber [*]
Oghuz (Tabriz) — Donald Stilo