Vol.1, No 5, 1998 pp. 333 - 334
Projects
TYPOLOGICAL RESEARCH OF SERBIAN DIALECTS
IN THE SOUTHEAST PARTS OF SERBIA
Ever since the Research Center of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts
and the University of Niš was established, the Section of Language and
Literature has been working on the Project "Typological Research of Serbian
Dialects in the Southeast Parts of Serbia".
Those peripheral dialects of the Serbian language, referred to in the
science as the vernaculars of the Prizren-Timok dialectal region, have
their place in the science. It might even be said that the Serbian dialectology
was in fact founded by the famous study Dialects of East and South Serbia
(Aleksandar Belić, Belgrade, 1905).
So far, several specific monographs have been edited (Dialects of Bučum
and Beli Potok, - N. Bogdanović; Lužnica Vernacular, - Lj. Ćirić; Dialect
of Leskovac, - J. Mihajlović; Dialect of the Aleksinac Region of Morava
Basin - N. Bogdanović; Serbian Dialect of Prizren, - S. Remetić; The Vernacular
of Crna Trava and Vlasina, - V. Vukadinović; Dialect of the Upper Nišava-Basin
Region, - Lj. Ćirić; The Zaplanje-Region Vernacular, J. Marković; Vernaculars
of Niš and Neighboring Villages, - Paul-Louis Thomas, and others), and
numerous problems have been studied concerning the grammatical system of
the dialects of this zone, which differ from the average štokavian state
by significant archaisms and interesting innovations (mainly in a Balkan
spirit).
The above-mentioned Project, alongside with its typological orientation,
appears on one side as a more precise systematization of dialectal phenomena
already described in various studies and monographs. On the other side,
it represents a step forward in studying the dialects that, being situated
in the vicinity of the Bulgarian and Macedonian languages (as Slavic languages
from the Balkan linguistic league) and next to Albanian to the southeast
or Romanian to the northeast, still develop their own system, which is
quite astray from the Serbian linguistic standard.
The studies that have been established after the foundation of the
Project (headed by Professor Dr. Slobodan Remetić), although not being
absolutely dedicated to the problems of linguistic typology, do respect
both the efforts and the wish to investigate as many phenomena as possible
from the aspect of typology, as well.
Following the publication of The Inventory of Syntactic Problems in
Kosovo-Resava and Prizren-Timok Vernaculars (S. Rakić, SDZo, XLI, Belgrade,
1995), The Inventory of Morphologic Problems in Prizren-Timok Vernaculars
(N. Bogdanović, manuscript) has been prepared. In dependence of personnel
and material possibilities, particular points are being studied according
to it.
The members of the teaching staff of the Faculty of Philosophy in Niš,
the same faculty in Priština, and from other Serbian centers are collaborating
in the Project.
Nedeljko Bogdanović
