Termin:
03.09.2010
Balkanisms today
Vienna, September 3-5, 2010
International Slavistic Commission (Commission for Balkan linguistics)
Austrian Academy of Sciences (Balkans Commission)
University of Vienna (Institute for Romance languages)
Since Trubetzkoy (1923), if not earlier, linguistics speak of a "Language Union" ("Sprachbund") or a "Balkanic Language Union" when speaking about south-eastern European languages. Ever since Sanfeld presented these so-called Balkanisms, many researchers (Reichenkron 1962, Schaller 1975, Solta 1980, Asenova 1989, Reiter 1994, Hinrichs 1999, Mišeska-Tomic 2006) have further contributed to this line of research. Thus, most focus on the entirety of Balkan languages and seek to explain them as the expression of mental and pragmatic structures. In contrast, our conference will now focus on the question of how actual and appropriate this approach may seem today. The question was particularly relevant after an initial phase of political deconstruction of the Balkan area, and the linguistic uniformisation of once closely-related languages. How did the so-called Balkanisms develop in the era during which the standardized national languages of Eastern Europe, in part consciously, separated themselves from their Balkanic origins and common sources?
Over 30 renowned experts from around the world give their views on how the status of the Balkanic Language Union can be described and on the prognosis for its future.
Program and abstracts [PDF]
Kontakt:
Thede Kahl
T +43 1 51581-2427
thede.kahl@oeaw.ac.at