The languages of the Balkans are a rich source of data on contact-induced language change. The result of a centuries long process of lexical and structural convergence has been referred to as a ‘sprachbund’. While widely applied, this notion has, however, increasingly been questioned with respect to its usefulness. Addressing the linguistic makeup of the Balkan languages, the notion of sprachbund is critically assessed. It is shown that a) the Balkan languages and the Balkan linguistic exclaves (Albanian and Greek spoken on the Italian peninsula) share similar contact-induced phenomena, and b) the principal processes underlying the development of the Balkan languages are borrowing and reanalysis, two fundamental and general mechanisms of language change.
The paper provides the first description of the borrowing of Croatian collective numerals into Northern Istro-Romanian and explores the consequences of this borrowing for the morphosyntax of the recipient language. It argues that the collective numerals under examination, which are specified as nominative plural feminine in the Slavic model, took on a different structural specification in the Romance replica, in a way that led to a restructuring of the morphosyntactic system, introducing (sub)gender overdifferentiation on just two agreement targets and, thereby, a complexification in this area of grammar. The illustration of this change is placed against the background of the other contact-induced changes that grammatical gender has undergone in Istro-Romanian during the 20th century, which have led to the borrowing of two dedicated forms in distinct inflectional cells and the rise of two separate defective gender values, each the replica of one number value of the Slavic neuter.
Istriotski govor Šišana, zajedno s govorima Bala, Fažane, Galižane, Rovinja i Vodnjana, predstavlja zadnji ostatak predvenecijanskoga romanskog sloja u Istri. Ti govori čine “jezični otok” na jugu Istre. Istriotskim se govorima danas služi mali broj ljudi, a njihova opstojnost ugrožena je uslijed sve jačega utjecaja istromletačkoga i čakavskog te talijanskoga i hrvatskog standardnoga jezika. U radu dajemo pregled povijesnoga konteksta razvoja istriotskih govora i osvrt na njihovu zastupljenost, a zatim analiziramo dva recentna fenomena šišanskoga govora koji ukazuju na potrebu daljnjih istraživanja.
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