Rola dialektologii w typologicznej charakterystyce południowosłowiańskich systemów gramatycznych

Abstract

Southern Slavonic languages are more grammatically differentiated than other Slavonic groups. At the South-Western extreme of their linguistic area ( Slovenia, the Kaykavian dialects in Croatia) certain archaic forms, unknown in other Slavonic languages and dialects, have been preserved. On the other hand the South-Eastern extreme (Bulgaria, Macedonia, South-Eastern Serbia) is characterized by a number of importand grammatical innovations of the Balkan type. The author's intention was to present a chain of intermediary systems constituting subsequent transitional stages between the said extremes. The frontiers between individual structure types do not coincide with the extents of literary languages. The localization of these frontiers may be determined only on the basis of dialectological studies.