Croatian Language

Abstract: More than ten years ago I presented my opinion and my doubts concerning the Turkic origin of the Slavonic word *baranъ ‘ram’. They constituted part of a longer study (Stachowski 2005: 438–441) in which other words were also discussed but none of them appeared in the title of the paper. Consequently those remarks may have escaped the attention of interested scholars which is why I have felt impelled to explain my position in a special, more detailed paper.

All South Slavic languages, from Bulgaria in the SouthEast to Slovenia in the NorthWest , are part of a dialect continuum. This paper outlines the position of what is traditionally called Kajkavian in that continuum in light of old accentual isoglosses. Kajkavian shares several old prosodic-phonological iso-glosses with Slovene (such as the rise of the neocircumflex), while on the other hand it is connected with Western Štokavian and Čakavian through some morphological categorial accentual isoglosses (like the innovative accent of the infinitive and l-participle).

(= Slavonic names for mosque with special regard to Polish, Silesian, Czech and Slovak data). -- Abstract: Even though mosques are a typical element of the Islamic culture the channels through which their designations came into Slavonic (as well as some other European languages) are not really well known. This author divides Slavonic reflexes of the Arabo-Turkic word into eight groups and discusses the reasons for their various shapes. The essay is composed of three parts: (1) Background and Western European data; (2) Slavonic and German; (3) Results and questions. The most interesting aspect is that of a semantic difference between two types of words (meczet ~ mešita ~ mošeja and džamija) and its importance for the etymology, as well as some comments on the source of the Czech and Slovak word on the one hand and the Russian term on the other. In the end of part (2) particular attention is paid to the question whether the Silesian name was borrowed from Polish or from Czech.

E ssyste 2001 Bibliotheksund Information m der Universität Oldenburg Einleitender Teil Winfr ied Boeder, Oldenburg Uberblick Variation ist trotz einer langen sprachwissenschaftlichen Tradition, die eher kategorische Unterscheidungen bevorzugt, offen oder verdeckt ein allgegenwärtiges Phänomen in der Sprachbeschreibung. In Anbetracht der unterschiedlichen Bezugsrahmen, in denen Variabilität gefaßt oder auch weginterpretiert wird, ist es immer wieder notwendig, sich über den Inhalt der geläuhgsten einschlägigen Begriffe zu verständigen. Deshalb diskutiert G. Hentschel in seinem einleitenden Beitrag einige definitorische Fragen, die sich mit dem Terminus "Markierungsvariation von Nominalgruppen" oder "Variierenden Markierungen von Nominalgruppen" stellen. Erstens kann eine Variante nicht ohne eine entsprechende Konstante gedeutet werden. Mit anderen Worten, es stellt sich die Frage nach dem Tertium comparationis bzw. die Frage, auf welcher Ebene dieses Tertium comparationis, das als Konstante der Variation (oder: den Varianten) unterliegt, gesucht werden soll: auf einer ontologisch-situativen Ebene, einer universal-kognitiven oder einer oder mehreren Ebenen der innersprachlichen Strukturierung in einer Sprache? Es ist offensichtlich, daß eine Antwort aufdiese Frage nur aufdem Hintergrund einer Sprachtheorie bzw. eines Sprachmodells möglich ist.

This paper offers insight into the way language contacts in the Mediterranean context were dealt with in the Croatian lexicography of the 16th and the 17th centuries. The first part provides the historical background of the contact situations from the 7th century up to the end of the 17th century, focusing on Dalmatia. The second part represents an analysis of Dalmatian-Romance, Italo-Romance and Turkish loanwords in five dictionaries (Vrančić, Kašić, Mikalja, Tanzlingher-Zanotti and Ritter Vitezović), reflecting the results of the language contacts on the eastern shores of Adriatic Sea and in its immediate hinterland. Positive and negative attitudes of the five authors towards language borrowing are discussed, as some important differences can be observed, particularly with regard to Italo-Romance loanwords.

The aims and objectives of this work are manifested in the desire that the analysis of religious rhetorical texts, homilies and sermon / vaz contributes to the claim that the religious style is separate functional style, with its specific features and functions. All the religious genres and types, specifically religious rhetorical kinds, sermon / vaz and homilies are  selected, because they  ''stand out '' from the most predefined templates of religious style, with their basic characteristics and they also allow hatib / homilist, the most freedom expressing the individual style. In fact taking '' the freest '' type within the the religious texts, effort were made to point out that regardless of the great influence of individual style and the loss of some characteristic features of religious style, homilies and sermons, nevertheless, retain and demonstrate​ the most characteristical features of religious style, what proves the effect of validity of extraction of this style, as an independent functional style.
Keywords: style, discourse, register, sociolinguistics, functional differentiation of language, functional stylistics, religious functional style, text stylistics, the strong position of the text, the sermon-vaz-homily, God's given condition for language, vocabulary, persuasion, artistic value

LEKTORICA ZA SRPSKI JEZIK: Tamara Krstić PRIJELOM I GRAFIČKO OBLIKOVANJE: Lucija Gamulin DIZAJN KORICA: Lucija Gamulin TISAK: Uvez d. o. o. NAKLADA: 1200 primjeraka NAKLADNIK: Klub studenata južne slavistike A-302 (za nakladnika: Petra Kvasnička) KONTAKT: [email protected] Objavljivanje priručnika omogućili: Ministarstvo znanosti, obrazovanja i sporta Republike Hrvatske Sveučilište u Zagrebu Zagreb, 2015. ISBN 978-953-58388-5-2 CIP zapis je dostupan u računalnome katalogu Nacionalne i sveučilišne knjižnice u Zagrebu pod brojem 000919173. SADRŽAJ PREDGOVOR 7 KRATICE I ZNAKOVI 9 KRATICE I ZNAKOVI A -akuzativ D -dativ G -genitiv I -instrumental jd. -jednina L -lokativ l. -lice m. r. -muški rod mn. -množina N -nominativ nž. -neživo rij. -rijetko s. r. -srednji rod V -vokativ ž. -živo ž. r. -ženski rod * -nepotvrđeno, pogrešno PRAVOPIS

This paper examines the presence of English-origin discourse markers in otherwise Croatian speech. Previous examinations of bilingual discourse marking have focused on habitualisation, pragmatic transference, cognitive processes (in terms of reducing the 'mental load' of distinguishing between two systems) or psycholinguistic factors (e.g. 'non-deactivation' of pragmatic forms from one language which speakers habitually speak). However, such studies only address transference of pragmatic norms, whether features and/or forms. They have limited explanatory power where speakers employ discourse forms from one language and equivalent forms from the other language. This study examines the frequency and functionality of English-origin forms compared to Croatian ones in a sample based on speech recordings of 100 Croatian-English bilinguals. Findings here show that English forms generally co-occur with Croatian forms in a statistical sense and only displace Croatian ones where English forms are polyfunctional or perform more functions that their Croatian counterparts. This accounts for the higher statistical frequency of forms such as yeah and so, while forms such as no and you know co-occur to the same degree as their Croatian equivalents. Where a Croatian item such as kao ('like') can fulfil more functions than its English equivalent it is shown to have a higher incidence than like. Thus, linguistic, in particular micro-discourse, features are shown to influence selection of discourse markers. #

This paper examines the reported actions and strategies of translators working in three closely related languages, Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian, which have recently undergone re-codification in countries that have greatly changed their language planning and language policy regulations. The legacy of former and unofficial designations such as ‘Serbo-Croatian’ or ‘Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian’ within the post-conflict situation is contextualised and translators’ decision-making processes and reported strategies in relation to language form and designation are examined. The paper seeks to demonstrate the explanatory power of Toury’s notion of norms as a framework to account for new regularities of practice. Texts identified to be different from their nominal code, or market requests to work from or into unofficial designations are now problematised and re-negotiated as secondary practices or a less commonly reported behaviour. The paper extends and applies the notion of norms to the social and occupational, macro-pragmatic role that translators occupy.

This is part 3 of 11 parts of a table that contains a reconciliation of Indo-European, Hurrian, Hittite, Georgian (Kartvelian), Finnish (Uralic) words, including a confirmation of Etruscan words. The latest update of this table Is 6.12.21 and can be accessed through the link below.

Questo studio si propone di analizzare dal punto di vista qualitativo e quantitativo le metafore presenti negli articoli di calcio italiani e croati, apparsi sulle principali testate sportive nazionali, La Gazzetta dello Sport e Sportske novosti. Parlare di metafore significa parlare dei modi di rappresentazione collegati alla nostra percezione della realtà, che spesso varia da una lingua all’altra. Nei contatti interculturali questi modelli diversi compromettono la conservazione del significato metaforico che può risultare alterato, adattato, ricostruito o eliminato. Uso appropriato e adeguata compresione delle metafore dipendono non solo dalla competenza linguistica ma soprattutto dalla competenza comunicativa, pragmatica e culturale. Le metafore raccolte saranno organizzate per domini concettuali: ad esempio, uno degli aspetti più caratteristici di una cronaca di calcio è il paragone tra una partita e una battaglia. Devoto già nel 1972 ha fatto notare questa epicità che pure doveva essere attenuata. Intorno alla coppia archetipica di difesa e attacco vengono costruite tutte le metafore belliche e rappresenta il campo semantico più usato in ambedue le lingue. Inoltre, saranno comparati diversi esempi dell’uso delle metafore appartenenti ai diversi campi semantici nel linguaggio calcistico e riportate le percentuali di occorrenza delle metafore e dei vari domini concettuali per poter osservare le somiglianze e le differenze nell'uso di questa figura retorica in entrambe le culture, conducendo un'analisi contrastiva tra le due lingue.

This paper discusses different definitions of identity with a focus on the place of language in these definitions. The centuries-long study of the standardisation of the Croatian language shows that the notion of a national language is also a component of a group’s collective identity. This paper gives an overview of designations used for the Croatian language, from the first known records to those used in the 21st century. These records clearly show that in past centuries language was indeed a connecting link between Croatian areas otherwise disconnected from each other through administrative or other boundaries. Language as an indicator of identity is also apparent in reactions to some recent EU initiatives that have suggested that collective terms such as ‘Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian’ or ‘Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian’ could be employed to also encompass the Croatian language.

I examine the very general principle of morphology-free syntax, and consider two potential counter-examples from Serbo-Croat ( a linguistic cover term for Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin and Serbian; an alternative is Central South Slavonic). The first example has been discussed previously, and will be recapitulated in order to highlight the type of argumentation involved. It concerns conjoined noun phrases (the “carelessness and capriciousness problem”). The second has received little attention, and will be our main focus. It may be summarized as the “two colleagues problem”.

The relativization systems of most Slavic languages include relative pronouns that can be conventionally labelled as ‘who’ and ‘which’ and differ in a number of logically independent parameters (etymology, animacy, grammaticality of attributive contexts, and morphological distinction for number and gender). Prior research has shown that the choice between ‘who’ and ‘which’ in Slavic languages is largely dependent on the head type. Some of the languages allow the ‘who’ pronouns to be used with pronominal heads, but not with nouns in the head, while in others, the pronominal heads in the plural are also ungrammatical with the pronoun ‘who.’ The present study aims to complement the available qualitative data on the distribution of the relativizers with quantitative data and to propose a unified account for all the observed tendencies. A corpus-based study was conducted in order to establish language-internal statistical tendencies comparable to the known grammaticality restrictions. The results show much agreement between the qualitative and quantitative tendencies. Thus, the head ‘those,’ unlike the head ‘that,’ is incompatible with the relativizer ‘who’ in Slovak, Polish, Upper Sorbian, and Lower Sorbian languages, while the same tendency is quantitative in Czech, Slovene, Serbo-Croatian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, and the older varieties of Russian. Corpus data suggest that there is also a stronger tendency for the relative pronoun ‘who’ to be avoided with the head ‘those’ than with the head ‘all.’ One more relevant parameter is the semantic type of the clause, maximalizing semantics being the preferred option for ‘who.’ I suggest that all these and some other tendencies can be subsumed under a macro-parameter of the extent to which the head is integrated into the relative clause.

This contribution studies address forms in grammars and textbooks of several
West and South Slavic languages of the eighteenth and nineteenth century, espe-
cially in the pedagogical dialogues that accompany these works. The languages in
focus had been using several address forms borrowed from German (or Italian),
and due to the efforts of linguistic purism, these borrowings were eliminated in
the nineteenth century. The result is in all those languages a system of address
pronouns consisting of the second person singular and plural. The purist efforts
were motivated by the wish of restoring an older language form, or to approach
an imagined ideal type of Slavic language; they are an effect of the national
movements of these non-dominant ethnic groups (National Revival).

Accepted manuscript (post peer review); copyright assigned to John Benjamins (who should be contacted for reproduction permissions).

This paper examines the presence of English-origin interjection - affirmatives and negatives - in otherwise Croatian speech. Previous examinations of bilingual discourse marking have focused on habitualisation, pragmatic transference, cognitive processes (in terms of reducing the "mental load" of distinguishing between two systems) or psycholinguistic factors (eg. "non-deactivation" of pragmatic forms from one language which speakers habitually speak). However, such studies only address transference of pragmatic norms, whether features and/or forms. They have limited explanatory power where speakers employ discourse forms from one language and equivalent forms from the other language. This study examines the frequency and functionality of English-origin forms compared to Croatian ones. Findings here show that English forms generally co-occur with Croatian forms in a statistical sense and only displace Croatian ones where English forms are polyfunctional or perform more functions than their Croatian counterparts.

This table shows an unusual spectrum of cognates: Indo-European - Sanskrit, Avestan, Persian, Belarusian, Croatian, Polish, Romanian, Greek, Armenian, Albanian, Latin, Irish, Scots-Gaelic, Welsh, Italian, French, English, Etruscan, Hittite, Tocharian, Luwian;; in addition, Hurrian, Urartian, Akkadian, Georgian, Latvian, Baltic-Sudovian, and Finnish-Uralic. Overlaying the Semitic Sumero-Akkadian cognates in this table has produced an unusual Concordance. The Concordance is also part of our Copeland-Akkadian-English.Dictionary which integrates the findings in our Indo-European Table. Part 6 (http://www.maravot.com/Indo-European_Table1B.1.html) is our first integrated Akkadian-Indo-European, Altaic, etc. Table,  Click on it for the most current version.

This study addresses a puzzle in Croatian regarding the fate of the underlying palatal glide in intervocalic position. Approaching the puzzle from the perspective of Cognitive Phonetics (CP), we advance two claims: First, output phonological representations consisting of features are not directly interpretable by the articulatory system; rather, the interface between the phonology and the articulatory system is mediated by a universal transduction system. Second, the main units of speech production are transduced phonological features, and not segments, syllables, or articulatory gestures.

(from a work published in 1981)This table shows an unusual spectrum of cognates: Indo-European - Sanskrit, Avestan, Persian, Belarusian, Croatian, Polish, Romanian, Greek, Armenian, Albanian, Latin, Irish, Scots-Gaelic, Welsh, Italian, French, English, Etruscan, Hittite, Tocharian, Luwian;; in addition, Hurrian, Urartian, Akkadian, Georgian, Latvian, Baltic-Sudovian, and Finnish-Uralic. Overlaying the Semitic Sumero-Akkadian cognates in this table has produced an unusual Concordance. The Concordance is also part of our Copeland-Akkadian-English.Dictionary which integrates the findings in our Indo-European Table.  We have colored words that may be related among the various languages/families. The coloring provides an unusual view of the mix of the cited languages, where some languages appear as unusual bedfellows, i.e., Sanskrit tan, tanoti, Hurrian tan, Irish dean, Scots-Gaelic dhèanamh; Hurrian nahh-, Armenian anel, Hittite anniya, Latvian taisit, Finnish tehda, Hittite taks, all meaning "to make, place" and Georgian  ghvino, Armenian ginin, Welsh, gwin, Belarusian, віно, vino, Croatian, vino, Polish, wino, Latvian, vīns, Romanian, vin, Finnish-Uralic, viini, Latin, vinum-i, Irish, fíon, Scots-Gaelic, fìon, Welsh, gwin, Italian, vino,  French, vin, Hittite, wian, winia, all of which mean "wine." This table's latest update can be viewed at the below link.

In questo contributo ho analizzato la prima grammatica italiana per croati di Giacomo Micaglia del 1649, mettendo in rilievo, in particolar modo, la sua figura di studioso della lingua italiana nel XVII secolo. L'articolo propone inoltre la traduzione e il commento linguistico della prima parte dell'opera incentrata sull'analisi del nome. Si tratta di uno studio preliminare che è parte di un lavoro più ampio che mira all'edizione della grammatica.
Key words: Giacomo Micaglia, Prima Grammatica Italiana per Croati, Linguistica Italiana
In this paper I have analyzed the first Italian grammar for Croatian (1649) of Giacomo Micaglia 1649, highlighting, in particular, his figure as a scholar of Italian language in the seventeenth century. The article also proposes the linguistic translation and commentary of the first part of the work focuses on the analysis of the name. This is a preliminary study that is part of a larger work that aims to the edition of grammar.
Key words: Giacomo Micaglia, First Italian grammar for Croatian, Italian Tongue

SerBoCroatian (henceforth SBC) displays a zero:a alternation within paradigms, which always has the effect of disrupting consonant clusters in certain forms of a word (e.g. in koverat~kovert-a ‘envelop NOMSG~GENSG’). This alternation is traditionally termed nepostojano a ‘wobbly a’. We present an overview of the contexts in which the ‘wobbly a’ alternation is attested and argue for an OT-analysis which requires no special ‘wobbly’ segments, and distinguishes between an epenthetic and a metathetic wobbly a, which surface in different phonological contexts triggered by different morphemes. We further account for the observed underapplication of the two types of ‘wobbly a’ using a special type of Faithfulness indexed to loanwords (DEP(LOAN)) and  Lexical Conservatism, respectively. We finally discuss dynamics of the present-day SBC lexicon, in which the class of words which allow wobbly a acts like a closed class and the traditionally inseparable ST clusters (which were originally treated as single segments) show different signs of reanalysis into regular clusters.

The EU is considered by most to have exemplary language and interpreting/translating (I/T) policies: EU parliamentarians may use their own language when speaking in parliament and the 20 official languages of all 25 member states have equal status in regard to I/T services. This paper traces official EU and Croatian policies in regard to language choice and examines some of the translation practices employed by  both the EU and Croatia. So far, bi-directional translation practices have involved a language variety that is unmistakeably Croatian and one of the EU’s ‘working languages’, usually English. But interpreting practices have not always followed the same pattern and EU-employed interpreters do not always interpret into Croatian. There is some evidence to suggest that the form and name of the language in EU-Croatia contacts may not always remain uniquely Croatian. If Croatian continues to be employed, this may be a consequence not only of principles applied by EU (or Croatian) bureaucrats. Rather, it may in some part be due to the absence of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia-Montenegro as co-applicants for EU membership. Thus, amongst the rhetoric of respecting member states’ language designations and most Croats’ adherence to the term ‘Croatian’ as their native language it is the absence of Bosnian/Bosniak and Serbian (and possibly Montenegrin) as closely related codes which may co-determine the EU’s I/T practices just as much as its official language policies.

Questo contributo ha per oggetto l'analisi dell'adattamento morfologico dei verbi italiani nell'idioma croato-molisano di Montemitro. Il corpus esaminato contiene italianismi verbali tratti dal Dizionario dell'idioma croato-molisano di Montemitro di Agostina Piccoli e Antonio Sammartino (2000). Come fonte dei modelli è utilizzato: (1) per le varietà dialettali molisane: Dizionario Abruzzese e Molisano (vol. I e II) di Ernesto Giammarco (1968/9), (2) per l'italiano: Il dizionario della lingua italiana De Mauro di Tullio De Mauro (2000). Il lavoro è organizzato in base al confronto dei sistemi verbali della lingua donatrice e la lingua ricevente, cioè, l’analisi riguarda il confronto tra la replica e il modello proveniente sia dall'italiano standard sia dall'italiano regionale molisano. Nel quadro teorico della linguistica contrastiva si esamina l'adattamento morfologico della replica in base alla distinzione tra la fase primaria e quella secondaria dell'adattamento (Filipović, 1986). Nella formazione dell'infinito i verbi italiani della prima coniguazione (-are) ottengono la desinenza -at(i): ferm-are, fərmà > ferm-at, mentre quelli della seconda (-ere) e della terza coniugazione (-ire) ottengono il suffisso -it(i): guar-ire, guarí > guar-it. Nel processo dell'adattamento viene determinato l'aspetto verbale che è espresso morfologicamente nell’idioma ricevente. Esso viene perlopiù definito tramite un prefisso o un suffisso. Nell'idioma croato-molisano si distinguono tre tipi di verbi visti in rapporto all’aspetto: (1) verbi perfettivi: bagnare, bbagnà > banjat ; (2) verbi imperfettivi: riflettere, arflittà > arfletivat ; (3) verbi biaspettuali: maltrattare, maldrattà > maldratat. Con l’esame dell'adattamento dell’aspetto verbale cerchiamo di gettare luce su alcune caratteristiche grammaticali delle lingue analizzate concernenti la modalità con cui la realizzazione di un evento viene presentata.

When we talk, sometimes we say things directly." I'll be going to the store, I'll be back in five minutes." Other times though, we talk in a way that conjures up a small scene." It's raining cats and dogs out," we say, or "I was waiting for the other shoe to drop."

This study examines attitudes, reported actions and professional practices in regard to language from an occupational group that consists of 'language experts' − interpreters. It focuses on the topic of linguistic variation, perceptions of 'native-speakerness', accommodation to other languages, and nominated accounts for perceived difficulties in working with others – due to linguistic, extra-linguistic or other situational factors. The first part contextualises the sometimes separate and sometimes shared paths that characterise the standardisation of Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian and how these languages are classified formally by interpreter directories and universities in Germany and Austria. Empirical data from practising interpreters are then presented that contain responses to different features relevant to the discourse and interactional management of interpreter assignments, such as nominated first language(s) and ethnicity, perceptions of others' designations and conceptualisations of the languages, language variant employed with 'same-language' vs. 'congruent-language' interlocutors, discourse features of German-speaking judicial officials and of allophone clients, the 'me-diator role' of the interpreter etc.

This paper provides an analysis of Croatian nasal place assimilation from the perspective of Substance Free Logical Phonology. Treating phonology as application of logico-mathematical functions to abstract, symbolic primitives such as features, the analysis explicitly captures both the fact that in Croatian each underlying nasal behaves differently with respect to place assimilation and the fact that in certain cases nasals assimilate in continuancy as well as in place. On the basis of the provided analysis and on theoretical grounds, it is argued that not all possible why-questions that could be asked about phonology are grammatically relevant: True phonological why-questions, those that receive explanation within a formal grammar, should be strictly distinguished from functionalist why-questions, which concern themselves with aspects of phonology that are reducible to language-external systems and should not be encoded in a generative grammar.

This paper examines the presence of English-origin discourse markers in otherwise Croatian speech. Previous examinations of bilingual discourse marking have focused on habitualisation, pragmatic transference, cognitive processes (in terms of reducing the ‘mental load’ of distinguishing between two systems) or psycholinguistic factors (e.g. ‘non-deactivation’ of pragmatic forms from one language which speakers habitually speak). However, such studies only address transference of pragmatic norms, whether features and/or forms. They have limited explanatory power where speakers employ discourse forms from one language and equivalent forms from the other language. This study examines the frequency and functionality of English-origin forms compared to Croatian ones in a sample based on speech recordings of 100 Croatian–English bilinguals. Findings here show that English forms generally co-occur with Croatian forms in a statistical sense and only displace Croatian ones where English forms are polyfunctional or perform more functions that their Croatian counterparts. This accounts for the higher statistical frequency of forms such as yeah and so, while forms such as no and you know co-occur to the same degree as their Croatian equivalents. Where a Croatian item such as kao (‘like’) can fulfil more functions than its English equivalent it is shown to have a higher incidence than like. Thus, linguistic, in particular micro-discourse, features are shown to influence selection of discourse markers.

"Diese Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit den Bedeutungen und Verwendungen der kroatischen Sprache bei burgenländischen Kroatinnen, deren primäre Alltagssprache deutsch ist.
[...]
In dieser Abhandlung möchte ich danach fragen, welche Rolle die kroatische Sprache bei deutschsprachigen burgenländischen Kroatinnen einnimmt und wie sie diese bedeuten und verwenden.
Um einen möglichst umfassenden Blick auf die Lebenswelt der befragten Burgenlandkroatinnen zu schaffen, möchte ich auch das deutschburgenländisch geprägte Umfeld als soziale Wertelandschaft behandeln. Davon erhoffe ich mir einerseits Einflüsse in den Deutungsstrategien aufzudecken und andererseits einen ganzheitlicheren Überblick über die Gesellschaft im Südburgenland zu erhalten.
[...]
Gleichzeitig ist es mein Ziel, den Lesenden eine Übersicht über die vorliegende Thematik zu geben, um die Problematiken im Feld verständlich, transparent und nachvollziehbar zu machen, wenngleich darauf zu achten ist, dass die Recherchen und Erhebungen zu dieser Arbeit als nicht vollständig aufgrund von Einschränkungen im zeitlichen wie ressourcentechnischen Rahmen zu betrachten sind." (ebd.: 4)

The aim of this paper is to analyze the intensifying function of German modal particles and equivalent modal expressions in Croatian and English. The analysis is based on the hypothesis that some modal particles in German and Croatian and corresponding functional equivalents in English can express different degrees of intensity and types of intensification. The latter is approached as an additional aspect of the modal particle’s meaning which extends their basic function of relating the respective utterance to a verbalized or unverbalized pragmatic context. The study comprises two parts. First, the use of intensifying modal particles by a group of speakers of L1 Croatian, L2 German/English is investigated. On the basis of the results obtained, and by means of a previously conducted corpus analysis, an intensification scale with respect to the inventory of German modal particles which also takes into account corresponding particles in Croatian as well as equivalent English expressions is suggested. The results of the analysis lead to the conclusion that some German and Croatian modal particles and equivalent modal elements in English express different types of intensification and different degrees of intensity. The corresponding elements can be classified mainly on the upper and partially on the lower part of the proposed intensification scale when compared to the norm, i.e. an utterance unmarked by a modal particle.

Key words: particles, modal particles, modality, intensity, intensification, intensifiers, intensification scale, German, Croatian, English

This paper examines the phenomenon of receptive multilingualism where speakers of two different languages communicate through each speaking his/her own language and understanding the other’s. Comprehension in such an interaction is aided by the speaker and the listener employing linguistic, discourse-pragmatic and other features which represent strategies of accommodation (ie. reduction of linguistics dissimilarities). This phenomenon is not presented as an alternative to interpreting, but in the context of interpreters who work from or into a language which is closely related, but not identical to the language spoken by one of the participating clients. Background information is provided from language pairs with a high level of mutual intelligibility and the experiences of interpreters, while the focus of the data sample is on 23 interpreters who have accreditation in one, two or three of the following, closely-related languages: Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian. Responses are elicited on the following: self-reported incidence of accommodation in non-interpreted interactions; linguistic and ethical protocols when a different, but closely-related language is used by a client; comments from clients about interpreters’ proficiency and ethnicity; attitudes on the distinctiveness of the three languages and future intelligibility. Informants’ linguistic behaviour is analysed according to the number of accreditations held and, in general, those with three accreditations report the highest levels of accommodation. Overall, most interpreters report employing common and non-specific linguistic forms with other-language clients and discourse-pragmatic strategies such as reiteration, metalinguistic back-channelling and role-relationship protocols to clarify their and other clients’ linguistic choices. The negotiation of these situations, including interpreter protocols for the acceptance or refusal to work in unpredictable and linguistically non-homogenous situations, is likely to receive further attention as both human mobility and the demand for translation and interpreting services increase.

Recent phonological studies suggested on purely formal (rule-based) grounds that in Croatian, an underlying alveolar nasal /n/ assimilates in place as well as in continuancy to velar obstruents /k, g, x/, but so far this claim has not been verified experimentally. Thus, in this study, electropalatography (EPG) was used in order to investigate tongue-to-palate contact patterns during the production of Croatian alveolar nasal + velar obstruent clusters. Five native Croatian speakers were recorded while producing seven distinct utterances containing the relevant clusters for six times each. The differences between assimilation conditions (/nx/ vs. /nk/ and /ng/) were tested using Repeated Measures ANOVA. The results showed that nasal place assimilation is consistently present in all examined speakers and that it is generally coupled with continuancy assimilation: underlying /n/ surfaces as a continuant [ŋ] before /x/ and as a non-continuant [ŋ] before /k/ and /g/. Implications of these results for phonological theory are considered and ways to obviate the limitations of the present study are discussed.

A table in 11 parts that shows interesting relationships between these languages: Sanskrit, Persian, Georgian, Akkadian, Hurrian, Urartian, Belarusian, Croatian, Polish, Latvian, Romanian, Finnish, Greek, Armenian, Albanian, Latin, Irish, Scots-Gaelic, Welsh, Italian, French, Tocharian, Luvian, Hittite and Etruscan.  (Etruscan declines and conjugates very close to Latin--See our Etruscan GlossaryA for a detailed list of Etruscan words that correlate to Latin, French and Italian and the Index to Indo-European Table1). Words in this table and the Etruscan Glossary are arranged alphabetically according to the Etruscan words; the Index to the Indo-European Table is alphabatized English-Latin-Etruscan.
    More than 600 Etruscan texts are represented by the table and glossary that include over 2,800 words.
    We have colored comparable words to reflect common affinities; i.e., "red" connotes words that appear to relate to Latin; blue to Sanskrit and Persian. Purple is used to show connections between Georgian, Hittite and others, Orange shows mainly Akkadian and  Eastern European (Slavic, Finnish, Baltic) connections and Green Western European, Celtic, Gaelic, English.  Frequently a shift in one of the selected languages links two otherwise unrelated languages/groups. For instance, in the words for milk and whey we have:
Sanskrit,  kṣīram, milk, Persian, shir, شیر  milk,  Georgian შრატში, shrat’shi, whey, Belarusian, сыроватка, syrovatka, whey, Croatian, surutka, whey, Latvian, seroma, serom, Romanian, zer, whey, Albanian, SEROM, serom, Latin, serum-i, whey, Irish, serom, serom, Scots-Gaelic, seomar, serom, Welsh,  serom, serom, Italian, siero del latte, whey, French, sérum, serum, Etruscan, serom (SERVM). Then are the words for milk, colored green, Belarusian, малако, malako, milk, Croatian, mlijeko, milk, Polish,  mleko, milk, Finnish, maito, milk, Irish, meadhg, whey, Scots-Gaelic, meud, whey, Welsh, maidd (meiddion), English, milk [<OE milc]. The red group are: Romanian, lapte, milk, Latin, lac-lactis, milk, Welsh,  llaeth (lleithion), milk, Italian, latte, milk, French, lait, milk. The Orange group is most interesting: Finnish, hera, whey, Albanian, hirrë, whey. Allowing for a consonant shift in Sanskrit, mastu, whey, to mad-, would explain the direct link to Sanskrit from Celtic: meadhg, meud and maidd. This kind of link appears frequently in the tables.

This article examines aspects of linguistic behaviour, attitudes and professional practices amongst a group of forty-seven “expert users” who are translators or interpreters for one, two or three of the following languages: Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian. The official terms for these languages in the respective successor states of SFRY and elsewhere reflect not only historic but also popular designations. Incumbent on translators and interpreters are the professional regulatory norms that require practitioners to follow these designations. An overview of the re-codification of the three languages is provided, followed by a discussion of models that account for how speakers and text-producers negotiate verbal and written interactions with speakers or text of different language varieties. Data are elicited on the following: informants’ reported behaviour in professional and non-professional situations; unanticipated differences in the language for which an assignment was accepted and its actual form; attitudes on assignments with unofficial or unclear language designations; others’ assumptions of informants’ native speaker competency and ethnicity; and attitudes towards the distinctness of the three languages. Accommodation to clients’ language varieties is reported by half of all informants, and those with multiple accreditations report converging to others’ language varieties more so than those with accreditation in one language only. Metalinguistic talk, with or without accommodation, is also a common practice in the initial stages of interpreted interactions or the negotiation of translation assignments. The reported behaviour and practices of translators and interpreters are likely to be indicative of “lay speakers’” and marketplace requirements, and therefore reflective of actual language use amongst users of these three languages when interacting with one another.

This paper investigates the phenomenon of ‘unconscious’ or ‘unintended’ switching between languages - triggering - on the basis of accessing items - trigger words - whose language-specific membership may be ambiguous. Triggering as a phenomenon in some examples of bilingual speech was first noticed and explored by Michael Clyne in the first of his many books, Transference and Triggering (1967), and has been subsequently problematised by many researchers in the field of language contact. A linguistic corpus based on taped interviews with 100 second-generation Croatian-English bilinguals provides the bilingual speech sample in which triggered switching is examined. While the relative number of instances of triggered switching is small, two categories of triggering are distinguished - consequential and anticipational, while two productive categories of trigger words are identified - proper nouns and English-origin lexical transfers (almost always nouns). The data suggest that items whose semantic-referential value is similar cross-linguistically are more likely to offer potential ‘cross-over points’ leading to ‘unconscious’ and ‘unimpeded’ switching.

Having other, closely-related languages to one’s own or working languages would appear, to many practitioners, to be a welcome opportunity to increase work opportunities and income. This paper examines the situation of 23 interpreters for the Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian languages and elicits responses on the whether they hold one, two or three accreditations and how they negotiate requests for assignments in languages other than their ‘own’ and whether they accommodate to other interlocutors’ language varieties. Data is also gathered on self-reported behaviour in non-interpreted situations, negotiation of assumed mismatches between ethnicity and perceived language variety spoken as well as interpreters’ general opinions about the distinctness of the three languages. Three slightly different outlooks on working in other languages emerge: some informants work in one language only; a second group conceive the languages as separate but employ accommodation to others’ varieties as a strategy in impromptu as well as formal interpreting assignments; a third group see themselves as ‘double’ or ‘triple’ monolinguals of two or three languages and conceive themselves as having multiple-group memberships. Statistical data is augmented by comments and observations from informants and the findings are related to the possible situation of interpreters who work in other closely-related languages.