Linguistic Balkanization: Contact-Induced Change By Mutual Reinforcement

Abstract

The Balkan Sprachbund was the first linguistic area discovered by modern scholarship. According to Kopitar's (1829: 86) famous statement about Albanian, Wallachian, and Bulgarian (in modern terms: Albanian, Balkan Romance, and Balkan Slavic), in the Balkans "nur eine Sprach/orm herrscht, aber mit dreyerley Sprach/wtftene". The main features of the Sprachbund were described in Sandfeld's (1926, 1930) masterpiece and subsequent research by others (see Schaller 1975, Solta 1980, Asenova 1989). But we still lack an overall description of the historical development of this linguistic area. Especially the question of the origins and causation of the main areal features of the Balkans, the linguistic Balkanisms, is notoriously difficult. In this paper I shall discuss the typological characteristics of grammatical Balkanisms, as well as the nature of the sociolinguistic contact situation which gave rise to the convergence that can be observed among the languages of the area. I shall argue that the origins of most grammatical Balkanisms are not to be sought in the internal development of any one of these languages, but rather in the multilingual contact situation itself, to the extent that the traditional notions of "source language" and "target language" may not always be applicable. The languages or language groups of the Sprachbund are Albanian, Greek, Balkan Romance, Balkan Slavic, and Balkan Romani. Balkan Romance comprises the (Daco-)Romanian language spoken in Romania and Moldova, as well as Aromanian (Arumanian) and Megleno-Romanian spoken in the Central Balkans. Balkan Slavic means Bulgarian, Macedonian, and the so-called Torlak dialects of Serbian; Muslim speakers of Bulgarian and Macedonian are ofted referred to as Pomaks. Balkan Romani should be understood as an areal term comprising both Balkan dialects proper and those Vlax dialects spoken in the Balkan area. In addition to these five language groups, Ladino (Judezmo) and various forms of Balkan Turkic (such as Rumelian Turkish and Gagauz) have adopted some areal features; I will have to take them into account at a later stage of exploration.