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The progressive palatalization is one of the most debatable questions of the historical Slavic linguistics. For instance, there is no plausible explanation for the Old Novgorodian pronoun vъxe which does not exhibit the effect of the progressive palatalization. It is attested 23 times in the Novgorodian birch bark letters and in Varlaam’s letter. In 17 cases, there is Ъ in the root, in 5 cases the root has no vowel, and only in one birch bark letter there is Ь in the root. The latter text was written after the fall of yers which makes it possible that Ь marks the assimilative palatalization of [v]. I propose a possible explanations for this situation and argue that Ъ in the root predates the split-off of the Novgorodian dialect from Common Slavic. It is a plausible hypothesis since there are Novgorodian phenomena which came into existence during the Common Slavic period and are unattested in other Slavic dialects. If it is so, there is no need to expect the progressive palatalization in the root vъx- because there were no conditions for that, as there is no front vowel before x.
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The present article provides some insights into the issues concerning the translation of advertising slogans. Application of phonetic stylistic devices and the effects their usage cause are studied analyzing slogans in English, Latvian and Russian. The analysis is undertaken with an aim to consider the role of phonetic stylistic devices in operative texts, with the focus on advertising slogans, and to identify the most appropriate translation methods to be applied in the rendition of these devices in operative texts across the working languages to ensure the equivalence of the intended effect of the source and target message.
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This article deals with one of the most promising stages in Lithuanian dialectology discussed in the article “Seven stages of Lithuanian dialectology” published in the 2016 issue of the scientific electronic journal “Lietuvių kalba” (‘The Lithuanian Language’) (see Kardelis 2016). I referred to this stage as typological; however, now I think that the best term for this stage is the term areal-typological complexity (arealtypologische Komplexität) which originates from works by Alfred Lameli (2013). The concept of complexity is not associated with the attempt to classify dialects according to different “distinctive features” but rather with an idea, clearly supported by empirical facts that diatopical variation in language is highly complex. A closer look at the context of Lithuanian dialectology research reveals that the concept of complexity is still not discussed thoroughly; while specific studies are practically non-existent. The most general methodological principle which should be applied in carrying out an areal-typological study of the complexity of Lithuanian dialects could be referred to as the principle of offside. This means that studies of Lithuanian dialectology should offside from the conventionally applied research tradition and from: a) the aim to classify dialects typologically; b) all classifications of Lithuanian dialects published up to date; c) distinctive features described in the contemporary classification (as well as earlier classifications); d) the goal to specify the boundaries of dialects and subdialects. The second general theoretical criterion is related to the approach to the linguistic system. Here I rely on the concept of a diasystem introduced into the field of dialectology by Uriel Weinreich (1954; 1974). The whole area of the Lithuanian language together with its diatopical variants may be interpreted as a diasystem of Lithuanian which consists of separate systems. The most suitable, convenient and universal criteria for the analysis of empirical data established by the long-standing theory and practice of research into phonology are the following: 1) the quality of the elements of a vocalism system; 2) the quantity of the elements of a vocalism system; 3) the interrelationship between the quality and quantity of a vocalism system. Since here we are dealing with the Lithuanian language which features a complex prosodic system, we must introduce an additional criterion, i.e. 4) stress. Empirical data for the present study were collected from modern, phonological “grammars of dialects”.
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This article addresses more questions than suggested by its title (those mentioned in the title are the most relevant and common ones) and provides very few answers. However, the key aim of this article is exactly that – to shed some light to the aspects of Lithuanian prosody which have been at the periphery of linguistic research and which have only scarcely been discussed. There are three most significant questions and points of discussion, namely what constitutes the basis of a linguistic phenomenon known as Lithuanian pitch accent levelling and what difficulties occur in its linguistic analysis. Thus the study raises terminological questions, the relationship between different research paradigms (phonetic, phonological, perceptive) and the issue of the scope of empirical data. The second question addressed in the article is of a terminological nature, i.e. Lithuanian pitch accents or tones? On the basis of the typology of tonal languages, taking into consideration the state of the Lithuanian language, it is suggested that the term tone should be introduced to the terminology of Lithuanian linguistics. In addition, it is also proposed that some other terms should be introduced to refer to specific tones in Lithuanian traditionally referred to as the falling pitch accent (tvirtapradė priegaidė) and the rising pitch accent (tvirtagalė priegaidė). One of the suggestions is to use the terms acute and circumflex tones to refer to these Lithuanian prosodic phenomena. The third question is whether Lithuanian has pitch accents (or tones) in diphthongs. There is an established opinion that in standard Lithuanian pitch accents in diphthongal and mixed diphtongal syllables are clearly distinguished. This article provides phonological arguments which allow raising a working hypothesis that the status of the phonological prosody of diphthongs might be in need of reviewing.
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The current article analyzes the variability of length of /i/ and /u/ in stressed word endings characteristic to Lithuanian residents of Vilnius. Some Vilnius residents of Lithuanian origin pronounce these vowels as long or semi-long, though in written language they are written as short vowels. In the Lithuanian standardization ideology, such variability is characterized negatively and is referred to as the lengthening of the word ending. It is socially stigmatized, associated with the speech of uneducated Vilnius residents, speakers that belong to the working class, have a lower social status, or are affected by a Slavic language.The main goal of this survey was to identify the length of the stressed /i/ and /u/ in word endings and to determine with which social categories their longer variants correlate in Vilnius speech. A computerized sound analysis programme was applied to study 800 variants of /i/ and /u/ vowels, which were selected from interviews with 40 Vilnius city dwellers of different age, gender, professional activity, and social status.The analysis has revealed that in the Lithuanian speaking community of Vilnius the length of stressed vowels in word endings functions as a marker of speaker’s age, professional activity, and educational background. A statistically significant higher average length of /i/ and /u/ is typical of those Vilnius residents who are older, educated, and work in traditional industries or manufacturing, but not for service providers.
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The paper aims to analyse and compare children’s acquisition of phonotactic patterns in two regional areas in Lithuania: Southern Samogitia and Western High Lithuania. The sample of the study consisted of 48 children: 24 children living in Kelmė (representing the Raseiniškiai subdialect of Southern Samogitian) and 24 children living in Kaunas area (representing the Kauniškiai subdialect of Western High Lithuanian). The data was collected using a non-word repetition test task in Lithuanian.In general, since in Lithuanian dialects vowels differ more than consonants, the pronunciation of vowels serves as one of the main criteria used to define dialects. The main dialect divisions are based on the variants of the stressed diphthongs uo and ie when they occur in the non-final position in a word. In the Samogitian subdialects, the vowels o and ė are pronounced as uo and ie (for example, kuoje [= koja] and dieti [= dėti]); the diphthongs uo and ie are pronounced as long vowels ū and ī.The results of the current research have disclosed that some features of the Raseiniškiai subdialect of Southern Samogitian prevail in children’s language. For example, instead of the vowel o, children employ uo: geluoša [= geloša], talabuosa [= staligosa]; instead of the vowel u, they opt for uo: lasmuove [= lasmuvi]; and instead of the vowel e, they tend to use ei: šveila [= švela].The results of the research also demonstrate that Lithuanian children apply the typical universal strategies of pronunciation simplification, mostly substitution and omission; other strategies, such as consonant assimilation, metathesis, sound migration to another syllable, and sound addition, were much less frequent.
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Here are a number of adverbialized individual words and adverbs without suffixes in Lithuanian slang and non-normative language. Most of them are assimilated borrowings adapted to the language system. Adaptive adverbialization of borrowed adverbs is determined by certain systemic features which are related to the territorial dialects of the Lithuanian language and the standard language. When the Slavic formants of the borrowed individual words are phonetically adapted, analogous hybrid derivatives with that formant are already available in Lithuanian slang. There are few adverbs derived from the singular nominative case. There are also few adverbs derived from the conjugation forms of the verb, mostly the forms are borrowed from informal Russian language. There are a number of borrowed adverbs without formants: there are mostly phonetically, graphically adapted borrowings from Russian language; borrowings of this type are rare from English and German languages. The analysis found that the adaptive features of the slang adverbs are determined by systemic regularities. Slang adverbs are adapted phonetically and graphically according to the principle of substitution of foreign phonemes as close as possible to their own. Slang lexicon tends to copy standart language models and integrate into Lithuanian language derivative and flexic paradigms.
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The article analyses the dialectal material collected in the area of the West Aukštaitian of the Kaunas subdialect in the written sources of the 1950s and 1960s at the Dialect Archive of the Geolinguistic Centre of the Institute of the Lithuanian Language. Based on the data in written sources the goal is to describe the peculiarities of the accentuation of the West Aukštaitian adjectives of this period and to discuss the tendencies of their accentuation. The stress of the singular forms of the disyllabic u-stem adjectives of the masculine gender may have come down from old times. Maintaining the root accent of these forms is related to the forms the neuter gender of the stressed stem (suñku, šviẽsu) and the adjectives of the old o-stem (suñkas : suñkus). The pronunciation of polysyllabic adjectives in the West Aukštaitian subdialect of Kaunas is characterized by different accent tendencies. The accentuation of the derivatives with the suffix -inis, -ė varies most of the polysyllabic adjectives analysed in the article. More than a third of them are accented by two accentual paradigms – they have accentual parallel forms of the first and second accent paradigms. The accentuation of the derivatives with the suffixes -inis, -ė is only partly related to the accentuation of the root words. The accentuation of the adjectives discussed in the researched subdialects tends to be generalized by the second accent paradigm. The derivatives with the suffixes -ėtas, -a regardless of the accentuation of the root words, are usually accented by the second accent paradigm, cf. molétas, -a (: mólis 1), pūslétas, -a (: pūslẽ 4). Only the accent of the derivatives with the suffixes -uotas, -a can be linked to the accentuation status of the root words, cf. langúotas, -a (: lángas 3). The author of the article is of the opinion that the accentual variance of parallel derivatives with suffixes could have been determined not by one factor, but by a set of factors. The appearance of accentual variants is linked to semantics, the accentual and semantic model of two plurals and the accentual variance of the root words and is explained by the stress analogy of the same type of word formation.
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Based on dialectometric methods, the article discusses the geolect of Plungė in terms of regressive assimilation of vowels i, u. The study material consists of about 9 hours of audio recordings, 57 sentences, recited by nine presenters of younger, middle and older generations. 6 words were chosen in which regressive assimilation of vowels can take place, i. e., the words with vowels i, u in accented, unaccented and shifted accent positions. Quantitative analysis of the material (sentences read by the presenters) was performed with the tools of the computer program Gabmap. Pseudo maps of networks, reference points, cluster analysis, as well as differential dialectal features were analyzed. The analysis performed using dialectometry methods shows that differences in limb reduction, word stem, consonant softening become apparent, but in many cases regressive assimilation of vowels i, u becomes the main variable feature. The operation/inaction of the regressive assimilation of vowels i, u is greatly influenced by accent. When vowels are accented, presenters of all generations pronounce them without regressive vowel assimilation. When the vowel i is unaccented, it is assimilated, and the vowel u is spelled narrowly by only a third of the presenters. Dual behavior exists in cases where vowels receive a shifted accent. The pronunciation of both vowels is approximate. Maintaining the main distinguishing feature of the residents of Plungė from the dialect of the residents of Telšiai, although inconsistent, would allow predicting that the linguistic dialect peculiarity of this area could compete with the language code of Telšiai – based on the Samogitian regiolect – or whether the regiolect itself would be / become dual-core (more detailed research based on a multi-faceted research model is needed to confirm this statement). The effect of regressive assimilation in the Plungė dialect, in the geolectic zone in general, can be both a proof of resemblance to the northern Samogitian Telšiai residents and a sign of a decrease in the importance of assimilation as a distinctive feature of the dialects.
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Traditional dialectology describes dialecticism as a whole of dialectal attributes, while multimodal dialectology portrays it as a certain expression by which those attributes are realised. As a result, an analysis of the latest dialectal formations – geolects and regiolects – faces a varying degree of dialecticism because the most prominent dialectal attributes are ‘erased’ from usage or have become unstable dialectal markers that not everyone and not every time uses. The degree of dialecticism can be measured. One option to reveal it is to apply Fumio Inoue’s method of quantitative values, which the author of this article construes as a relationship between theoretically probable and actually used dialectal forms. The higher the percentage of dialectal instances, the more dialectal the local language variation is. To obtain the most objective view possible, the dialecticism of the language of local informants must not be measured purely as the means of the observable dialectal instances. The boundaries between the minimum and maximum degree of dialecticism have to be mapped at all times. Furthermore, these boundaries need to be verified with statistical methods.
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The paper expands on the problem of sustainability of dialecticity, i.e. the conditions and the potential of the dialect codes in the regions of Lithuania based on the data of the project “Distribution of Regional Variants and Quasistandard Language at the Beginning of the 21st Century: Perceptual Approach (Perceptual Categorisation of Variants)”. It aims to reveal whether and to what extent the narrative of an ordinary member of a language community allows to approach regional dialecticity via the dimension of (non)sustainability of dialecticity. The empirical basis for the analytical discourse developed in the paper was constructed from the data revealing the language attitudes of 910 young persons from 21 regional points (which in the etic narratives were estimated as includable into the zone of the already formed (or forming) variant on the basis of the traditional dialect), fixed by applying the instrumentarium worked out in perceptual dialectology (PD). Having generalised the data of language self-observation and acknowledgement of dialecticity in the micro-/macro-environment, it might be claimed that, in the region of Lowland dialecticity, the areas of the sustainable dialecticity dominate: here, no less than 2/3 of the community might be estimated as having the potential to choose and realise the dialect code. The PD research including the young Highland people, which was based on the comparative analysis of the data, concerning the application of the language behaviour of young people and their a priori attitudes toward the spread of the dialect code, led to the observation that the following ab intus estimations of the dialect codes have been constructed: I am more tolerant toward it; I show less attempt at self-identification. It should be stressed that, in the regions of Highland dialecticity, not merely the areas of the sustainable dialecticity have been fixed, where the communal members firmly positioned their identity as active (im)permanent representatives of the dialect code. The emic narratives reconstructed from the PD research data allowed to distinguish the areas of the relatively sustainable dialecticity, where only around 1/2 of communal members might be identified as the active (im)permanent representatives of the dialect code, and the areas of the unsustainable dialecticity where only 1/3 and less of the communal members were apt to recognise their dialect identification. The holistic estimation of both the Lowland and the Highland dialecticity, based on the reconstructed fragments of the emic narratives revealing the tendencies of code adjustment, led to the conclusion that Lowland dialecticity should be claimed as more sustainable. It should be maintained that the concluding remarks are based on the reconstruction of the emic narratives of the group of recipient participants who represent one age category. Therefore, to achieve a more accurate (non)sustainability discourse in dialectology, further steps are required, e.g. the PD research should include the recipients of various age groups; the results obtained in the PD analysis should be compared with the data of direct observation, etc.
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Dialects change, transform, and new ones – transitional, intermediate varieties between dialect(s) and standard language – emerge due to various extralinguistic factors (see Lenz 2010, 296). The research shows that the variety of the periphery of Samogitia, Akmenė region has also changed (Murinienė 2018). The aim of this study is to reveal the gymnasium students’ competence to identify local intermediate variety by assessing it from the perspective of three language varieties – dialect, semi-dialect (intermediate variety) and standard language, and also its value. The data was obtained from a questionnaire, based on the methodological principles of sociolinguistics and perceptual dialectology, to reveal attitudes of young residents of Akmenė region. The analysis shows that gymnasium students, according to their verbalised and visualised attitudes, identify the local variety as a semi-dialect and reflect a less marked dialect. Respondents call it semi-Samogitian dialect, semi-Samogitian and semi-Highland dialect/standard language. In the mental maps, the local dialect is also marked as a semi-dialect and is located between Šiauliai and Mažeikiai, which reveals the reflected peripherality of the local language variety. According to the associations with users of semi-dialect, this variety acquires a high value compared to the (traditional) dialect. The user of the intermediate language variety is described as adaptable, flexible, and simultaneously modern, but not the person who abandons the traditions. The local language variety is important for expressing the local identity because the standard language usage is not recognised among the local dialect users as a conscious separation from the community if it is used in informal situations.
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The article discusses the most important differences in the sound structure of contemporary Lithuanian and Latvian standard languages, scientific and practical benefits of a fundamental comparative instrumental sound research, reviews possible further innovations in theories and methods of acoustic and articulatory phonetics and phonology, and perspectives as well as tasks of such research. In his monograph Comparative History of the Baltic Languages (2019), Pietro Umberto Dini observes that there is a constant decline in the synthetic structure in the Baltic language systems, most notably as a reduction of the flexural forms of the noun and verb. He argues that the Baltic languages, like all other Indo-European languages, recognise a structural development: agglutination → synthetic → isolation language. According to the author, the isolation stage of development in the Lithuanian language is just starting, and the isolation structure of the Latvian language is becoming more and more pronounced. Pietro Umberto Dini states that “from the Baltic systems, the Latvian language ‘drifts’ faster in terms of structural development, and the Lithuanian language remains the most morphologically conservative of the current Indo-European languages due to the much slower change” (Dini 2019, 577). The author, based on, for example, the growing tendency in the colloquial Lithuanian language to move the accent to the first syllable (where the accent has long been emphasised in the Latvian language), considers that analogous tendencies are observed in both languages, i.e. the Baltic languages are evolving towards convergence. The data presented in this article and the latest synchronous instrumental studies of the sounds of the Baltic languages do not confirm the convergence trends: the sound structure of the Lithuanian and Latvian languages is still quite different (cf. Urbanavičienė, Indričāne, Jaroslavienė, Grigorjevs 2019, 286; see also Jaroslavienė, Grigorjevs, Urbanavičienė, Indričāne 2019). Both Baltic languages are characterised by quantitative vowel opposition, adjective system (polytonicity), sufficiently simple structure of consonant compounds (e.g. CV and CVC syllable types make up 79% of all Lithuanian syllables, see Karosienė, Girdenis 1994, 40), the same phonological opposition of consonants (voting, modal, local). However, the Lithuanian language has a free accent, while the Latvian language has a fixed accent. One of the most important distinguishing features of the current Baltic languages is palatalization: Lithuanian language is characterised by secondary palatalization and opposition palatalised vs. unpalatalised realisation, which presupposes a twice as large inventory of consonant phonemes in the Lithuanian language and, in comparison with the Latvian language, an accurate, precise articulation of consonants. The article highlights certain similarities and differences in the sound structure of the contemporary Lithuanian and Latvian standard languages based on the latest synchronous comparative research of the Baltic sound system: two scientific monographs of the series Sounds of the Baltic Languages in the early 21st Century (Jaroslavienė, Grigorjevs, Urbanavičienė, Indričāne 2019; Urbanavičienė, Indričāne, Jaroslavienė, Grigorjevs 2019), where the sounds of Lithuanian and Latvian languages are instrumentally studied and described according to the same principles. This is an excellent basis to continue the instrumental study of the contemporary Baltic sounds (and to discuss the importance of the research) on other relevant aspects and perspectives (a few new instrumental non-comparative studies already exist, cf. Ledichova 2020); to update and highlight the practical benefits of such studies and audio recordings (by taking into account the assistance in language learning, examining standard language norms, pronunciation tendencies, the importance in medicine, developing tools and instruments for language technology and artificial intelligence), innovations and perspectives of theories and methods. It is a very important incentive to continue instrumental scientific and practical research of Lithuanian sound methodological innovations, drawing increasingly clear prospects for further research.
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13 сентября 2020 года не стало Леонида Леонидовича Касаткина — выдающегося языковеда, крупнейшего специалиста в области русской фонетики и диалектологии, доктора филологических наук, профессора, заведующего Отделом диалектологии и лингвистической географии (1998–2012) и Центром по изучению старообрядчества (2012–2017) Института русского языка им. В.В. Виноградова РАН (далее — ИРЯ). Из жизни ушел мужественный, стойкий, порядочный и принципиальный человек, для которого слова честь и достоинство даже в самые сложные застойные советские времена никогда не были пустым звуком.
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This paper is the second part of the three part´s study presenting recommendations for the transcription of Arabic texts into Slovak in scientific – mainly linguistic works, based on the author´s own experience. The present part focuses on the transcription – or rather adoption and adaptation of Arabic words and expressions to be incorporated into the Slovak system of declination for the purposes of usage in Slovak syntactic surroundings. The task may seem easy but this premature impression proves to be precarious mainly but not only when dealing with personal proper names.
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The current state of the description of Kirundi shows that there are different ways of considering long vowels in this Bandu language. On the one hand, long vowels are predictable in specific combinations; on the other hand, they are long by nature and play an opposite function. This article aims to determine the phonological nature of long vowels in Kirundi. According to an interpretation of the vowel length based on the mora concept, different switching tests show that the long vowels of Kirundi with an oppositive function are full-fledged phonemes. The combination of tone with vowel's length proves that the long vowels function exactly like their short ones. Thus, instead of having short vowels (/i/, /u/, /e/, /o/, /a/) only, the Kirundi language adds to these their long counterparts (/ii/, /uu/, /ee/, /oo/, /aa/).
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The paper systematically and analytically delves into conspicuous accent characteristics of the declension of nouns in the Ijekavian West-Serbian speeches (less commonly of lexical categories and individual examples). The demonstrated instances (mainly of prosodic declensional relations) are examined from multiple perspectives: lexical productivity of accent types, areal and/or systemic limitations, the level of accordance with exemplary (Vuk’s or Daničić’s) accent patterns, the nature of the correlations with appropriate circumstances in kindred speeches. On the basis of the chosen corpus and analytical viewpoints, we have confirrmed the following: the special status and inherent incompatibility of West-Serbian Ijekavian complex somewhat modifies classic prosodic models. Some of Daničić’s alterations are missing (e.g. svekar-svekra type), some are areally limited (e.g. starac-starca type), some are lexically reduced (e.g. rod-roda type). Nevertheless, the observed differences are dialectally inevitable and therefore cannot be said to undermine the organic unity of the West-Serbian Ijekavian complex with the other segments of the vast and extensive East-Herzegovinian dialect.
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The subject of the article is the functioning of dialectal expressivisms in unofficial internet communication. In their statements on internet forums, internet users use numerous dialectisms, a significant percentage of which are expressive lexemes. This group consists not only of dialect expressivisms, but also of neutral dialect lexemes that have become expressivisms in colloquial communication. In the analyzed texts, dialectal expressivisms perform various functions, namely nominative, evaluative, persuasive, identifying, characterizing and ludic. Often, the use of a particular lexeme involves the realization of several functions simultaneously, but only one of them is the main one, while the other is secondary.
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The subject of the article are the results of an analysis of the perception and evaluation of linguistic styling in the film Wołyń (Volhynia), directed by Wojciech Smarzowski (2016). The analysis of the reception of these linguistic choices is the last element of the research process, which is difficult to conduct without discussing elements such as the genesis of the film, its plot, the creators and the markers used in the styling process. Therefore, in this article I briefly present these elements. The research material comprises the spontaneous reactions of Filmweb website users to the film and the responses of 182 people who took part in my survey. The analysis leads to the conclusion that linguistic styling is rarely discussed by forum users. If the viewers pay attention to it, they subject it to broad (not always justified) criticism. Among the collected statements, however, there were also some that testify to the high linguistic awareness of the audience in the discussed area. The results of the survey led to the conclusion that the hero’s speech, stylized in the Polish Eastern Borderlands Dialect, is identified by almost everyone (91%) as evidence of Eastern Borderlands origin. Among the differential markers, viewers mainly indicate phonetic markers typical of the Polish Eastern Borderlands Dialect (e.g., pronunciations of the type dz’ec’i, ł coronal) or general dialect (e.g. labialization).
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