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Original scientific paper

The morphology of the Kajkavian dialect of Podravina

Jela Maresić ; Zavod za lingvistička istraživanja Hrvatske akademije znanosti i umjetnosti


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Abstract

This article contains a description of the morphological system of the varieties
of the Podravina Kajkavian dialect, whose main characteristic is that the place of
stress is limited to the last two syllables of a word or accentual unit. It analyses
dialectological data from a total of 22 Kajkavian local varieties geographically
located in the north of Croatia. Local varieties of the Podravina Kajkavian dialect
have preserved a number of archaic characteristics in the morphological system:
the supine; special forms of the dative, locative, and instrumental plural (in most
varieties); the zero ending in the genitive plural of e-type nouns (for the most
part); and the old form of the genitive pronoun for non-living things česa (except
in the eastern part of the region). In most varieties of the dialect, the present verb
ending -jo / -j is limited to type V (with some minor deviations).
On the other hand, these varieties have also undergone numerous changes in
their morphological systems, as have most varieties of the Kajkavian dialect group.
These include the loss of the dual (except for a few surviving forms accompanying
the numbers dva ‘two’, tri ‘three’, and četiri ‘four’); a reduction in the
number of declinations; the simplification of verb and noun base forms by a reduction
in the number of alternations; the loss of distinction between living and
non-living in the accusative singular of a-type masculine nouns; the loss of the
aorist, the imperfect, and the past participle ending in -v, -vši; and the reduction
to one future tense.
In addition to those innovative features which have become common to a great
majority of Kajkavian varieties and dialects, the Podravina Kajkavian dialect also
features some innovations that have arisen either from internal development or
under the influence of the Štokavian systems with which it borders. The influence
of Štokavian is most prominent in the easternmost local varieties of the Podravina
Kajkavian dialect, which is to be expected due to their direct contact.
In the eastern region of the Podravina Kajkavian dialect, the following innovations
have occurred: the leveling of plural forms for dative, locative, and instrumental
in noun and adjective-pronoun declension (e.g., in DLI pl. of e-type nouns,
the endings -ama / -amā; in DLI pl. of a-type nouns, the ending - prevails); the ending
-ā in the nominative and accusative plural of a-type neuter nouns (also occurring
in some western local varieties of the dialect); the L and I plural pronoun
forms nȁma / namȃ, vȁma / vamȃ; in the extreme eastern varieties, (t)ko appears
as a pronoun for living things (as opposed to most varieties, in which štȍ has the
meaning of ‘who’); in some varieties, the new form for the genitive pronoun for
non-living (čega) has prevailed.
More western varieties of the Podravina Kajkavian dialect (those to the west
of Đurđevec) are more conservative in terms of preserving the older state both in
phonology and in morphology, although they feature innovations, as well: the ending
- in the genitive plural of e-type nouns that can appear with all base forms, as
opposed to the zero ending, which can appear only with nouns that do not end in
a consonant cluster; in some varieties, in 3 pl. present, the ending -jo / -j appears
in all types of verbs, not only in type V; in some local varieties, in the declension
of adjectives, a levelling of the endings for the nominative plural of feminine
and neuter nouns has occurred.
In spite of all the observed morphological and phonological distinctions according
to which we can divide Podravina Kajkavian varieties into smaller subgroups,
they do form a whole, and as a group we can categorize them as a separate dialect
of Kajkavian. This is not only because of their unique and special accentuation,
but also because of an important morphological feature that is of primary significance
in the determination of the membership of a specific variety to the common
dialect – namely, the ending of the instrumental singular in e-type nouns, which
in all varieties of the Podravina Kajkavian dialect is -ōm (ženȏm, rōkȏm / r̄kȏm).

Keywords

Croatian language; Kajkavian dialect group; dialect of Podravina; morphological system

Hrčak ID:

209634

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/209634

Publication date:

27.11.2018.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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