Dinamika u razmjenskom sloju kulturnog identiteta: istraživanje slučaja turcizama u srpskohrvatskom
The dynamics in the interaction lexical layer of cultural identity: a case study of Near Eastern loanwords in Serbo-Croatian

Author(s): Danko Šipka
Subject(s): Language studies, Language and Literature Studies
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego
Keywords: loanwords; linguistic contacts; cultural identity; lexical changes; Serbo-Croatian
Summary/Abstract: The author analyzes a sample of approximately ten percent of entries from Škaljić (1966), a classic dictionary of Near Eastern loanwords in Serbo-Croatian, to determine the present-day status of these loanwords. The analysis demonstrates very clearly that a vast majority of these loanwords is out of use in standard language, replaced by non-Near- Eastern, mostly inherited Slavic lexicon (61.9% of the sample). Another sizeable group is defunct vocabulary given that the realities they refer to are not in use anymore (19.8 of the sample). Only a limited number of entries of 18.3% are still in standard language use, most of them (13.7% of the sample) restricted in some way (by the field of usage, register, etc.). These results serve as a correction in the comparison between the loanwords in Slavic languages, where it would seem that Near Eastern loanwords sharply divide Serbo-Croatian from Russian, Polish and many other Slavic languages. At the same time, they debunk nationalist myths about a special role of Near Eastern loanwords in separating ethnic variants of standard Serbo Croatian.

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