A Taxonomic Description of the Dialects of Serbs and Croats in Hungary [antikvár]

INTRODUCTION The investigation and study of Serbian and Croatian dialects in Hungary has not been paid proper attention to so far. Consequently, results in that field are by far inferior to those of dialect research of other minorities living in Hungary, Slovak and Germán dialects in particular. Apart from a few papers on matters of detail to be mentioned below, neither minute surveys nor studies of a monograph size have been published on the topic, though, as Pavle Ivic points out,1 the lack of knowledge of these dialects makes it impossible to get an overall picture of the Serbo-Croatian language area. What is perhaps even more important, their investigation could, in many respects, complement previous results of Serbo-Croatian, as well as Slavic, historical dialectology, and make a contribution to a more exact approach to, and eventually a clarification of, certain controversial issues. The impact of social and economic development, the changing way of life, and the spread of mass média inevitably shows up in Serbian and Croatian dialects in Hungary, too. The dialects undergo such great changes these days as can by no means be overlooked by dialectologists. The resulting changes are twofold. As a result of the decay of the traditional agricultural system, the emergence of collective farming, as well as the migration from villages and especially the so-called 'commutation', Hungárián has gradually gained ground in minority settlements as the language of generál communication. It penetrates into the families, too, so that even in the oldest generation of minority people there is practically no one who does not speak Hungárián fairly well. The new way of life and the speedy development of farming tools and household appliances have brought into use a large number of expressions that minority people, among 1 Pavle Ivic: Prilog rekonstrukciji predmigracione dijalekatske slike srpskohrvatske jezicke oblasti. Zbornik za filologiju i lingvistiku. IV-V. 1961-1962. Novi Sad.