Abstract
The paper focuses on linguistic variation encountered in the contemporary Timok variety in Southeast Serbia. The data collected from speakers across the Timok region reveals rich variation in how linguistic features are used. It Displays overlapping patterns which belong to different registers and varieties, which arises from the contact between West South Slavic varieties and East or Balkan South Slavic varieties. In the analysis, the focus is on the interaction between patterns attributed to standard Serbian (currently major western South Slavic influence and the more typical Balkan manifestations of the dialect. The features analysed are: marking of indirect object and possessor, post-positive demonstratives, dative reflexive si as a particle and auxiliary omission in the perfect tense, all considered to be relative for the distinction analysed. In the first part, the analysis takes into account linguistic factors focusing mainly on the morphosyntactic domain, to reveal what linguistic structures obstruct or facilitate the use of certain forms. In the second part, the four features are correlated with geographic and social parameters. In order to find potential areal patterns of horizontal feature diffusion or study the effect of terrain shape (altitude) or physical distances between locations (the distance from the administrative centre). Regarding social factors, age and gender are correlated with the linguistic information to analyse whether there are differences between men and women, or older and younger speakers in their dialect usage.
Vuković, Teodora