On the criteria for language profiling of dialect speakers from the Russian-Belarusian borderland
Abstract
Modern dialects of the Russian-Belarusian borderland (including the dialects of the Hislavichy district of the Smolensk region) are interesting not only in terms of the degree of preservation of old dialect differences, but also in terms of belonging of these idioms to one or another literary language. During the last century, the dialects of this territory were in a specific situation: if at the beginning of the 20th century they were confidently attributed to the North-Eastern dialects of the Belarusian language, then after the transfer of the administrative border they began to be classified as belonging to the Western subgroup of South Russian dialects. Therefore, modern dialects combine both characteristic Belarusian (North Belarusian) features and characteristic features of the Russian language, which actively penetrate into these dialects over the past decades. To trace the dynamics of the development of these dialects, it is necessary to analyze the idiolects of their speakers of different generations, and for such an analysis, first of all, it is necessary to develop a method of description. It seems that in such a situation it may be effective to work out a statistical method that will allow to establish the frequency of dialect distinguishing features in the spontaneous speech of speakers of such dialects. The object of this study is the recording of the spontaneous speech of two dialect speakers from the Hislavichy district; in the future it is expected to obtain a quantitative tool for assessing the degree of dialect preservation for any variant of dialect speech. Of course, each region should have its own list of relevant dialect differences, on the basis of quantitative analysis of which it is possible to create a language profile of each native speaker of the non-standardized idiom. The preliminary list of relevant dialect differences was compiled on the basis of studying the description of these dialects in the previous literature, in this article it was refined by analyzing a continuous sample of dialect differences on the material of transcripts of spontaneous speech of dialect speakers. Besides that, to refine the list, such criteria were applied: 1) the binarу character of dialect differences, 2) the presence of variability not determined by position and 3) the specificity of this dialect feature for the Russian-Belarusian borderland. As a result of the study, a table was compiled, which indicates the number of uses of the "Russian" or "Belarusian" variant of the dialect difference and its compliance with the "Belarusian ideal" in percentage terms. The language profile of each informant is presented on the diagram, which clearly represents the degree of compliance of each idiolect with the Northern Belarusian dialects. The language profile of each informant is presented on the diagram, which visually represents the degree of compliance of each idiolect with the Northern Belarusian dialects.
References
Аvanesov R. I., Orlova V. G. (eds.) (1964) Russkaya dialektologiya [Russian dialectology]. Mosсow: Nauka. (in Russian)
Avanesav R. I. (ed.) (1964) Narysy pa bielaruskaj dyjaliektalohii [Essays on Belarusian dialectology]. Minsk: Navuka i technika. (in Belarusian)
Biryla M. V., Šuba P. P. (eds.) (1985) Bielaruskaja hramatyka [Belarusian grammar]. 1: Fanalohija. Arfaepija. Marfalohija. Slovaŭtvarennia. Nacisk. [Phonology. Orthoepy. Morphology. Word formation. Accent]. Minsk: Navuka i technika. (in Belarusian)
Bromley S.V., Bulatova L.N., Getsova O.G. et al. (2005) Russkaya dialektologiya [Russian dialectology]: Textbook for students of philological faculties of higher school. Ed. L.L. Kasatkin. Mosсow: Akademiya. (in Russian)
Bukrinskaya I. A., Karmakova O. Ye., Ter-Avanesova A. V. (2008) Govory belorussko-russkogo pogranich'ya [Dialects of the Belarusian-Russian borderland]. In: Issledovaniya po slavyanskoy dialektologii [Research on Slavic dialectology]. Iss. 13: Slavyanskiye dialekty v situatsii yazykovogo kontakta (v proshlom i nastoyashchem) [Slavic dialects in a situation of language contact (in the past and present)]. Mosсow: Institut slavyanovedeniya RAN: 118–179. (in Russian)
Janukoŭski F.M. (1983) Histaryčnaja hramatyka bielaruskaj movy [Historical grammar of the Belarusian language]. Minsk: Vyš. škola. (in Belarusian)
Konior D. V., Makarova A. L., Sobolev A. N. (2019) Statisticheskiy metod yazykovogo profilirovaniya nositelya dialekta (na materiale vostochnoserbskogo idioma sela Berchinovats) [Linguistic/ Dialectal Profiling of Dialect Speakers: The Method Presented on the Idiolect from Berčinovac, Eastern Serbia]. Vestnik Tomskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Filologiya [Tomsk State University Journal of Philology], 58: 17–33. (in Russian)
Kuzmina I.B. (1993) Sintaksis russkikh govorov v lingvogeograficheskom aspekte [Syntax of Russian dialects in the linguo-geographical aspect]. Mosсow: Nauka. (in Russian)
Nikolayev S.L. (1988) Sledy osobennostey vostochnoslavyanskikh plemennykh dialektov v sovremennykh velikorusskikh govorakh. I. Krivichi [Traces of features of East Slavic tribal dialects in modern Great Russian dialects. I. Krivichi]. Balto-slavyanskiye issledovaniya. 1986 [Balto-Slavic studies. 1986]. Mosсow: Nauka: 115–154. (in Russian)
Ryko A.I. (2016) O lingvisticheskoy samoidentifikatsii zhiteley russko-belorusskogo pogranich'ya (Nevel'skiy rayon Pskovskoy oblasti) [On linguistic self-identification of the inhabitants of the Russian-Belarusian borderland (Nevels district of Pskov region)]. Severnorusskiye govory [Northern Russian Dialects], 15: 71–88. (in Russian)
Ryko A.I. (2017) Pogranichnyye govory Nevel'skogo rayona Pskovskoy oblasti: raznoobraziye i stepen' sokhrannosti [Border dialects of Nevelsky district of Pskov region: diversity and degree of preservation]. In: Leksicheskiy atlas russkikh narodnykh govorov-2017. Materialy i issledovaniya [Lexical atlas of Russian folk dialects-2017. Materials and research.]. St Petersburg: Nestor-Istoriya: 453–497. (in Russian)
Ryko A.I. (2018) Mezhdu russkim i belorusskim: govory Nevel'skogo rayona Pskovskoy oblasti [Between Russian and Belarusian: dialects of Nevelsky district of Pskov region]. Slověne = Slovѣne. International Journal of Slavic Studies, 7(2): 303–320. (in Russian)
Ryko A.I. (2019a) Na kakom yazyke govoryat zhiteli russko-belorusskogo pogranich'ya (govory Khislavichskogo rayona Smolenskoy oblasti)? [What language do the inhabitants of the Russian-Belarusian borderlands speak (dialects of the Khislavichi district of the Smolensk region)?] In: Rusistika v XXI veke: tendentsii i napravleniya razvitiya [Russian Studies in the XXI Century: Trends and Directions of Development]. International scientific conference. Collection of scientific articles. Yerevan: Izdatel’stvo YEGU: 362–366. (in Russian)
Ryko A.I. (2019b) O yazykovom profilirovanii nositeley pogranichnykh russko-belorusskikh govorov [On the language profiling of speakers of border Russian-Belarusian dialects]. Idiolekt russkoy yazykovoy lichnosti kak otrazheniye lingvokul'turnoy situatsii v slavyanskom pogranich'ye. [Idiolect of the Russian language personality as a reflection of the linguocultural situation in the Slavic borderland]. International Science Forum. Bryansk: OOO “Avers”: 146–153. (in Russian)
Vasilyeva A. K. (1975) Fonemy <f>, <f’> i ikh zameny v russkikh govorakh [Phonemes <f>, <f’> and their replacements in Russian dialects]. In: Russkiye govory [Russian dialects]. Mosсow: Nauka: 91–104. (in Russian)
Zakharova K. F., Orlova V. G. (2004) Dialektnoye chleneniye russkogo yazyka [Dialect division of the Russian language]. Mosсow: Yeditorial URSS. (in Russian)