Original scientific paper
Linguistic oppositions: north ~ south and east ~ west among the Slavic languages
Dalibor Brozović
Dunja Brozović Rončević
Abstract
Among the three traditional Slavic language groups (West or Northwest, East or Northeast, and the South Slavic language group) one can observe some basic linguistic oppositions in three possible combinations: West vs. East/South, East vs. West / South, and South vs. North. To these three could be added a fourth opposition: the center versus the periphery, in the sense of traditional linguistic geography. This fourth opposition does not however, always get due attention. Although it does not “follow” the “standard” division of Slavic languages into three basic groups, it might be no less important for their mutual comparison. Finally, according to many linguistic features it can be concluded that the opposition of North vs. South is the most prominent one. However, it should be noted that the opposition of East versus West in the North is repeated: East and West stand in a similar relationship in the South.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
168640
URI
Publication date:
14.11.1999.
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