engleski

The status and the corpus of urban dialects. Are urban dialects threatened with extinction by unurban dialects?

„Residents who settled in towns as grown-up people endeavoured to adapt to urban dialects.“(Šojat, A., 1979) „It will not take too long before the impolite form becomes the language norm.“ (Opačić, N. 2013). The above two quotes clearly describe the problems that both Croatian language norm and urban dialects are confronted with. While in the past settlers would make a great effort to adapt to the urban way of life, this including the existing urban dialect(s), today`s situation differs considerably. Current urban dialects have been „attacked“ by unurban dialects, which could be the theme of further sociolinguistic researches. Croatian urban dialects had been for a long time recognizable by their lexical and grammatical constructions. However, a large number of people who have moved from unurbanised areas to towns in the last two decades influenced the structure of urban dialects. Therefore, the first quote could now be read the other way. What is the present position of the Croatian language norm? On the one hand, it has come under a strong influence of some foreign languages, English in particular, with unurban dialects trying to find their place within the Croatian norm on the other hand. While the media should reflect the language norm at the state level, preserving at the same time urban dialects at a local level, they have started promoting, quite uncritically, anything „new“. The Dubrovnik dialect, which had been recognizable for centuries both by its vocabulary and accent, boasting prolific literature works, is one of the most visible examples of decline. This conclusion is the result of the author`s teaching a great number of students from unurbanised areas, and of everyday contacts with different sociolects „settled“ in Dubrovnik.

urban and unurban dialects ; croatian language norm ; the Dubrovnik dialect ; examples of decline

nije evidentirano