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Title:
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What is Nas?: Toward a theory of ethnolect in the south Slavic dialect continuum
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Author:
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Viktoria Herson Finn
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Email:
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click here to access email
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Degree Awarded:
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Ohio State University
, Dept of Slavic & East European Languages & Literatures
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Degree Date:
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1996
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Linguistic Subfield(s):
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Sociolinguistics
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Subject Language(s):
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Macedonian
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Director(s):
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Victor Friedman
Brian D. Joseph
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Abstract:
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This dissertation investigates the theoretical problems and practical considerations inherent in the definition of a dialect and a language in the South Slavic linguistic region. Specifically, it focuses upon the place of the Macedonian language in what is generally recognized as the South Slavic dialect continuum--both from the perspective of the linguist and the perspective of the speaker. A concern of this study is a reconciliation of three apparent paradoxes in previous approaches to defining a language in a continuum situation: 1) from the linguist's perspective, languages exist in a continuum, but an ethno- linguistic group has discrete boundaries from the speaker's perspect- ive; 2) a language is defined either by formal linguistic features or by its perceived sociopolitical status; and 3) linguistic boundaries are positied on either the basis of objective features or subjective features.
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