All are welcome to join us for the 2022 Kenneth E. Naylor Memorial Lecture. Dr. Andrey N. Sobolev (Russian Academy of Sciences & Philipps-University of Marburg) will present “Torlak in the Slavic Family and Balkan Sprachbund: Linguistic Problems and Methodological Challenges.” Registration is required to join the lecture and can be completed at the link below.
Abstract:
Balkanization, as the spread of innovative Sprachbund linguistic properties, is a process which develops diachronically in the history of every Balkan language, diatopically in their dialect continua and diastratically between their social groups. The Torlak dialect area, one of the heavily balkanized but still archaic parts of the South Slavic linguistic space, presents a well-known challenge for descriptive and explanatory models of Slavic and Balkan language studies. Which glottonym is most appropriate for it? Which Slavic language does it belong to if it doesn't represent an individual linguistic entity? What are its ethnic composition and dialectal subdivisions, and further, does it disintegrate by being divided by actual political borders between Serbia, North Macedonia and Bulgaria? Does the basic traditional dialect survive until today in a kind of diglossia with the standard, or is it being replaced by regiolects in diaglottic situations? What were the mechanisms of its balkanization in history and did a substrate play any role in its formation if at all? The methods of linguistic research, such as descriptive dialectology, areal linguistics, comparative Balkan studies, text analysis, border and migration linguistics and others, in their traditional and especially in their contemporary digital form (digital atlases, text corpora), allow us to definitely solve at least some of the problems and to develop instruments for further progress towards a deeper understanding of this part of the Slavic and Balkan space.
