Papers by Siniša Habijanec
Dialektologie a geolingvistika v současné střední Evropě, 2018
Declension systems of West Slavic languages, as well as Ukrainian, are characterised by the funct... more Declension systems of West Slavic languages, as well as Ukrainian, are characterised by the functional broadening of scope of the dative singular -ovi ending, which in Proto-Slavic had been restricted to the few u-declension nouns. In Slovak this ending has been generalised in virile and animate nouns (as in Czech and Old Polish), where it also functions as the locative singular. In Slovak dialects the ending sometimes also appears in non-virile and inanimate nouns, and is attested in East Slovak dialects (primarily Šariš) and in transitional Central Slovak-East Slovak dialects (primarily in the Topoľčany area).
Slovenská reč, 2023
The paper critically examines the web application “Ludevít,” which is intended to enable the tran... more The paper critically examines the web application “Ludevít,” which is intended to enable the translation of contemporary Standard Slovak into the Slovak language of Ľudovít Štúr as it was standardized in his foundational work Nauka reči slovenskej (1846). The application is based on relatively simple rules of transformation of graphemic clusters that are, as I demonstrate, insufficient to bridge the two major differences between Štúr’s language and Modern Standard Slovak. The first is the difference between the writing systems – in Štúr’s language the relationship between a grapheme and a phoneme was unambiguous, whereas in Modern Standard Slovak such is not the case. The second difference is related to a few, but, nevertheless, frequent endings that are not isomorphic in the two language systems. For these reasons “Ludevít” produces too many incorrect results to be considered a reliable language tool.
In: Kvantita v spisovnej slovenčine a v slovenských nárečiach. Ed. Matej Považaj. Bratislava: VEDA, Vydavateľstvo Slovenskej akadémie vied, 2005. ISBN 80-224-0858-1, pp. 116-123, 2005
Govor, 2003
The article looks at some current questions of Slovakian orthoepy. The causes of orthoepical dile... more The article looks at some current questions of Slovakian orthoepy. The causes of orthoepical dilemmas in Slovak are of two kinds: changes in the phonological system or lexical borrowing. The former concern /ä/ and /ľ/, but since /ä/ has disappeared from the phonological system
and persists only in the orthography, it has also ceased to be an issue in the orthoepy. The author considers the realisation of /ľ/ to be the central problem of Slovakian orthoepy: this phoneme is commonly realised as [l] before front vowels, with direct consequences on the phonological and morphological levels. The other large group of orthoepical problems concerns recent loanwords. These are often taken over in their source-language written form, sometimes causing their pronunciation in Slovak to differ considerably from the
original. Conversely, the prescribed correct pronunciation of other loanwords, notably French, follows the source language pronunciation. This frequently requires sounds that are foreign to the Slovakian phonological system, and therefore those words are adapted to the phonology of Slovak, resulting in pronunciation doublets.
![Research paper thumbnail of Prečo slovo dcéra obsahuje dlhé é? [Why does the word dcéra contain a long é?]. Jazykovedný časopis, 72 (2021), pp. 298-307](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/68916551/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Jazykovedný časopis, 2021
The paper aims to explain the origin of the long é in the Slovak word dcéra ‘daughter‘, which is ... more The paper aims to explain the origin of the long é in the Slovak word dcéra ‘daughter‘, which is the only word of the original lexical layer that has a long é in its root. Its length is difficult to explain by comparative Slavic accentology since relevant languages generally show a short vowel in this position. Another peculiarity of this word is the fact that é did not undergo the Central Slovak diphthongization that otherwise regularly occurs after c. The author offers a solution in the cultural influence of Czech, which Slovaks had been using as a written language for centuries. It is argued that the original Common Slavic word *dъťi had been lost in Slovak and replaced by a word *děvъka, while dcera was introduced into the Slovak vernacular through Czech religious texts. The initial Czech graphic cluster dc- had been realized as a geminated [cː] by Slovak priests, the pronunciation of which was interpreted as compensatory lengthening of the following vowel, and this length was subsequently phonologized. The lengthening of e and consequent phonologization could be linked to the spread of Czech printed books, so it must be posterior to the Central Slovak diphthongization.
![Research paper thumbnail of Генетическая принадлежность загорских говоров с точки зрения фонологического развития [The genetic affiliation of the Záhorie dialects from the point of view of phonological development]. In: Исследования по славянской диалектологии. 21–22. Москва: Институт славяноведения РАН 2020. с. 78–90](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/65568816/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Исследования по славянской диалектологии, 2020
The paper looks at the phonological development of the Záhorie dialects in the context of histori... more The paper looks at the phonological development of the Záhorie dialects in the context of historical phonological processes in Slovak and Czech. The Záhorie dialect group is the westernmost dialect of Slovak and many of its traits show a similarity with Czech. Old residual traits are either shared by Czech and West Slovak dialects (*ort, *olt > rot-, lot; *s’ > š; *dl, *tl) or correspond to Czech dialects (*jь- > je-; length for the acute). On the subject of innovations, which are also important in determining genetic affiliation, the Záhorie dialect shows a similarity with the Czech development as well. It was affected by probably the oldest Czech innovation (*dj > z), which was later neutralised by the restructuring of the morphonological system of alternations in assibilation conditions, i.e. the ď > dz change. The Záhorie dialect was also affected by the Proto-Czech depalatalisations, diphthongisations, and in part by the Old Czech umlaut ä > ě, which is, however, the most consistent for in internal syllables. Some phonological indicators suggest that the *r’ assibilation might have taken place in the Záhorie dialect as well. The most recent change connecting the Záhorie dialect to Czech dialects was the monophthongisation, after which the development of the Záhorie dialect group approaches the Slovak diasystem. The Záhorie dialect therefore started its development as a dialect of Czech, subsequently gravitating toward the Slovak development, and hence it can with complete justification be considered as a transitional Czech-Slovak dialect.
Brill Encyclopedia of Slavic Languages and Linguistics, 2020
The Pannonian Rusyn language (also Bačka Rusyn, Bačka-Syrmia Rusyn, Vojvodinian Rusyn, Yugoslavia... more The Pannonian Rusyn language (also Bačka Rusyn, Bačka-Syrmia Rusyn, Vojvodinian Rusyn, Yugoslavian Rusyn, and South Rusyn language) is a Slavic microlanguage of most probably an East Slovak origin spoken by ca. 13,000 people in the Province of Vojvodina in Serbia and in adjacent parts of Croatia as well. Pannonian Rusyn is the language of Greek Catholic settlers – Rusnaks – who had come from the northeastern parts of the Kingdom of Hungary to the Bačka region of Vojvodina in the middle of 18th century and in later waves. The language is called ruski jazik or ruska bešeda by its speakers.
Király Péter 100. Tanulmánykötet Király Péter tiszteletére I. Eds. Császári Éva & Mária Imrichová. Budapest: ELTE BTK, Szláv Filológiai Tanszék 2019. ISBN 978-963-489-066-9, 2019
Five Calvinist religious books published between 1750 and 1758 are the most extensive as well as ... more Five Calvinist religious books published between 1750 and 1758 are the most extensive as well as the most important documents in East Slovak dialects. The language of these texts was subjected to detailed philological analysis by the renowned Hungarian Slavicist Péter Király in 1953. The most significant problem for the analysis is the writing of long vowels, which some scholars have considered to be the last remnants of quantity in East Slovak dialects, while others have explained them by reference to the cultural influence of Biblical Czech. In the present work the latter viewpoint, which had also been advocated by P. Király, is defended, and a number of arguments offered to support it.
Varia 16. Zborník materiálov zo XVI. kolokvia mladých jazykovedcov (Častá-Papiernička 8. – 10. 11. 2006). Zost. G. Múcsková. Bratislava: Slovenská jazykovedná spoločnosť pri SAV – Jazykovedný ústav Ľ. Štúra SAV 2009. ISBN 80-89037-04-6, 2009
V príspevku sme sa pokúsili navrhnúť spôsob skloňovania tých miestnych názvov, ktoré kolíšu pri v... more V príspevku sme sa pokúsili navrhnúť spôsob skloňovania tých miestnych názvov, ktoré kolíšu pri výbere skloňovacieho vzoru alebo zostávajú nesklonnými. Toto svedčí o ich nezačlenenosti do morfologickej štruktúry slovenského jazyka. Opierali sme sa o ich fungovanie vo východiskovom jazyku, ktoré považujeme za najrelevantnejšie kritérium pri preberaní slov z príbuzného slovanského
jazyka.
Slovenská reč, 2008
The article describes Eugen Pauliny’s theory of the origin of the Central Slovak rhythmic law. Pa... more The article describes Eugen Pauliny’s theory of the origin of the Central Slovak rhythmic law. Pauliny’s views on the rise of the rhythmic law involve the hypothesis that in Central Slovak, in contrast to Western and Eastern Slovak, the jers fell out or became vocalised before the vowel contraction occurred. A detailed historical linguistic analysis shows that this hypothesis has no basis in documented linguistic facts, and therefore neither has Pauliny’s theory, which consequently cannot be considered plausible.
Славянский мир: язык, литература, культура, 2018
There are several theories about the origin of Bačka Rusyn language that is used in the Serbian p... more There are several theories about the origin of Bačka Rusyn language that is used in the Serbian province of Vojvodina. Among Rusyn linguists the dominant theory is the one of mixed East Slavic – West Slavic origin, later also presupposed for Eastern Slovak dialects. As is well-known, since Bačka Rusyn shows mostly West Slavic (Eastern Slovak) traits, the question of identification and proportion of the East Slavic traits still remains unsolved. The paper analyses those traits of Bačka Rusyn that are usually regarded as East Slavic, though the author demonstrates that some of them might be explained by internal, yet parallel development.
Slovak is not generally thought of as a rich and informative source for the reconstruction of the... more Slovak is not generally thought of as a rich and informative source for the reconstruction of the Proto-Slavic accentual system. In addition to the well-known fact that Slovak, unlike Czech, exhibits no traces of the Proto-Slavic acute, this view is also due to at least two peculiarities of its development: 1. quantity is often neutralised by many later phonological processes, such as the Rhythmic Law and the shortening of front diphthongs after j; 2. Slovak is more prone to analogical levelling and generalisation than any other West Slavic language, affecting, among other things, the development of quantity, whether through the generalisation of length in a particular grammatical category (such as in the genitive plural) or through analogical intrusion of quantitative patterns in derivation. Nevertheless, Slovak does offer some valuable data for the reconstruction of the Proto-Slavic accentual system, such as consistent length in the nominative singular of short root vowel nouns belonging to the b accentual paradigm (bôb, kôl, stôl...). Still more valuable data is contained in the rich Slovak dialectal material, which is neither sufficiently well-known nor sufficiently accessible to international scholarship. This paper offers guidelines for researching quantity in the Slovak dialectal material, as well as shows how the Slovak dialectal material can contribute to the reconstruction of the Proto-Slavic accentual system.
The influence exerted by Czech on Slovak is among the longest, most intense, and most complex one... more The influence exerted by Czech on Slovak is among the longest, most intense, and most complex one-way contacts between a pair of European languages, has persisted since the constituting of both languages to the present day, and is reflected primarily in lexical borrowing. Slovak has borrowed numerous words from Czech in different periods and into several lexical layers, but no uniform criteria exist upon which to identify Bohemisms in Slovak. The present paper concerns itself with those cases where the insights of historical
phonology aid us in identifying a Slovak word’s origin as Czech.
![Research paper thumbnail of Slovenská spoluhláska ľ – kodifikácia verzus úzus [The Slovak consonant ľ – codification vs. usage]. In: Jazyk a jazykoveda v pohybe II. Na počesť Slavomíra Ondrejoviča. Eds. Bronislava Chocholová, Lucia Molnár Satinská & Gabriela Múcsková. Bratislava: VEDA, vydavateľstvo SAV 2017. s. 208 – 218.](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/54346809/thumbnails/1.jpg)
The pronunciation of the Slovak palatal consonant ľ is without doubt a pressing and as yet unsolv... more The pronunciation of the Slovak palatal consonant ľ is without doubt a pressing and as yet unsolved problem of Slovak orthoepy. For decades there has been an observable discrepancy between orthoepic codification prescribing a consistent realisation of the consonant in all positions, and the reality of linguistic usage in standard spoken utterances, characterised by departures from the prescribed pronunciation. These departures are manifested in two ways: a reduction in the degree of palatalisation (the soft ľ becoming the so-called half-soft ľ), and a reduction in the distribution of palatalisation (the consonant being pronounced as [l] before front vowels and diphthongs). The two are likely to be unidirectionally conditioned, the half-soft pronunciation causing the neutralisation of ľ and l before front vowels. The soft pronunciation becoming half-soft is rooted in sociolinguistic reasons and results from the connotations of rural speech, which irreversibly associated with the soft pronunciation of ľ.
Ján Stanislav thought that the oronym Oztro, dating to 1240, was the oldest attestation of the Ce... more Ján Stanislav thought that the oronym Oztro, dating to 1240, was the oldest attestation of the Central Slovak adjectival ending -ō, and this became a locus communis of Slovak historical linguistics. The paper questions this phonological interpretation and proposes an alternative solution: the final -o is likely to render the Old Hungarian short å rather than reflect the old Slovak length, and can therefore not serve as historical evidence of the Central Slovak adjectival ending -ō.
In this paper I analyse the metrical structure of the Croatian translation of Old Czech The Praye... more In this paper I analyse the metrical structure of the Croatian translation of Old Czech The Prayer of Lady Kunhuta. The original poem, which dates from the end of the 13th century, comprises 152 octosyllabic lines in monorhymed quatrains. Jakobson’s versification analysis determined that the original followed the metrical pattern of four trochaic feet. Here I aimed to show whether, and to what extent, the Croatian translation succeeded in preserving the metrical structure of the original. I accented the Croatian translated text and isolated the metrical patterns of each line, and then compared their frequencies of occurrence to the Old Czech original. The results show that most lines have the basic metrical pattern of four trochaic feet, and that the frequencies of individual metrical patterns largely match their frequencies in the Old Czech original.
Govor, XXV (2008), 33-42
A PHONOLOGICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE CROATIAN DIPHTHONG AND SLOVAK DIPHTHONGS
The phonological sy... more A PHONOLOGICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE CROATIAN DIPHTHONG AND SLOVAK DIPHTHONGS
The phonological systems of both Croatian and Slovak include
diphthongs. Slovak has four diphthongs in its phonemic inventory: /ia/, /ie/, /iu/, and /uo/. Whether these diphthongs are biphonematic or monophonematic had long been a matter of debate among Slovak phonologists, but the latter view has
prevailed. In contrast to the Slovak diphthongs, the phonemic nature of the Croatian diphthong /ie/ is still disputed, the question being whether the long reflex of the Proto-Slavonic jat is realized as a separate phoneme /ie/ or can be interpreted phonologically as the sequence /jē/. The problem is essentially the same as in the Slovak case: is the diphthong monophonematic or biphonematic?
Slovak and Croatian resolutions of the problem are compared in this article.
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Papers by Siniša Habijanec
and persists only in the orthography, it has also ceased to be an issue in the orthoepy. The author considers the realisation of /ľ/ to be the central problem of Slovakian orthoepy: this phoneme is commonly realised as [l] before front vowels, with direct consequences on the phonological and morphological levels. The other large group of orthoepical problems concerns recent loanwords. These are often taken over in their source-language written form, sometimes causing their pronunciation in Slovak to differ considerably from the
original. Conversely, the prescribed correct pronunciation of other loanwords, notably French, follows the source language pronunciation. This frequently requires sounds that are foreign to the Slovakian phonological system, and therefore those words are adapted to the phonology of Slovak, resulting in pronunciation doublets.
jazyka.
phonology aid us in identifying a Slovak word’s origin as Czech.
The phonological systems of both Croatian and Slovak include
diphthongs. Slovak has four diphthongs in its phonemic inventory: /ia/, /ie/, /iu/, and /uo/. Whether these diphthongs are biphonematic or monophonematic had long been a matter of debate among Slovak phonologists, but the latter view has
prevailed. In contrast to the Slovak diphthongs, the phonemic nature of the Croatian diphthong /ie/ is still disputed, the question being whether the long reflex of the Proto-Slavonic jat is realized as a separate phoneme /ie/ or can be interpreted phonologically as the sequence /jē/. The problem is essentially the same as in the Slovak case: is the diphthong monophonematic or biphonematic?
Slovak and Croatian resolutions of the problem are compared in this article.
and persists only in the orthography, it has also ceased to be an issue in the orthoepy. The author considers the realisation of /ľ/ to be the central problem of Slovakian orthoepy: this phoneme is commonly realised as [l] before front vowels, with direct consequences on the phonological and morphological levels. The other large group of orthoepical problems concerns recent loanwords. These are often taken over in their source-language written form, sometimes causing their pronunciation in Slovak to differ considerably from the
original. Conversely, the prescribed correct pronunciation of other loanwords, notably French, follows the source language pronunciation. This frequently requires sounds that are foreign to the Slovakian phonological system, and therefore those words are adapted to the phonology of Slovak, resulting in pronunciation doublets.
jazyka.
phonology aid us in identifying a Slovak word’s origin as Czech.
The phonological systems of both Croatian and Slovak include
diphthongs. Slovak has four diphthongs in its phonemic inventory: /ia/, /ie/, /iu/, and /uo/. Whether these diphthongs are biphonematic or monophonematic had long been a matter of debate among Slovak phonologists, but the latter view has
prevailed. In contrast to the Slovak diphthongs, the phonemic nature of the Croatian diphthong /ie/ is still disputed, the question being whether the long reflex of the Proto-Slavonic jat is realized as a separate phoneme /ie/ or can be interpreted phonologically as the sequence /jē/. The problem is essentially the same as in the Slovak case: is the diphthong monophonematic or biphonematic?
Slovak and Croatian resolutions of the problem are compared in this article.