Diatopy and frequency as indicators of spread
Accentuation in Bulgarian dialects
Diatopy (the geographical distribution of linguistic differentiation) gives important clues about diachrony (the direction and spread of language change). Here I apply these concepts to the study of accentual phenomena in Bulgarian dialects, focusing on the accentuation of phrases including clitic forms. Methodologically, my study is innovative because it does not work with isoglosses of the normal, binary type (which mark the presence vs. absence of a feature). Rather, I utilize a database consisting of large stretches of conversation, recorded in the field by myself and my colleagues over a 27-year period, to construct indices of relative frequency of occurrence of the pattern in question. The resulting isoglosses allow new conclusions to be drawn about accentual patterns in Bulgarian dialects.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.The data
- 2.1Sources
- 2.2.Description
- 2.3Preparation for analysis
- 2.4Geographical distribution
- 2.5A second data set: “Additional accentuation”
- 2.6Historical commentary: Double accent
- 3.Conclusion
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Notes
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References