ON COMPARATIVE STUDY OF LINGUISTIC COMPLEXITY OF ALBANIAN AND SOUTH SLAVIC DIALECTS

Abstract

The article discusses approaches to the measurement and comparative study of linguistic complexity of the Balkan dialects, genetically related to different languages. At this stage Albanian and South Slavic dialects were considered. Based on dialect descriptions and atlases, 948 South Slavic and 131 Albanian locations in the Balkan Peninsula were surveyed. Significant differences between the tentative “common Albanian” and “common Slavic” states, taken as reference points for measuring complexity, and differences between dialectal phenomena relevant for modern Albanian and South Slavic varieties, make the creation of a single list of features a non-trivial task. Thus the paper attempts a comparative study of complexity using two lists compiled independently for Albanian and for South Slavic and including 27 unmatching binary features each. All features reflect the “grammatical” complexity of language system (inventory of phonemes and grammemes, number of inflectional classes, etc.). Relative complexity or simplicity is seen as not only a static characteristic of modern dialects, but also a result of simplifying and complexifying innovations that developed in different historical periods, and preservation of the “inherited” complexity from “common Albanian” and “common Slavic”. This approach allows us to confirm the assumption that language contact can lead to both simplification and complexification and to postulate different paths of contact development for Albanian and South Slavic dialect zones. Contacts in the Albanian-speaking area are always associated with simplification, while South Slavic demonstrates a trend towards simplification, with the exception of Western Macedonian, where high complexity results from many contact-induced complexifying innovations. Refs 10.