Torlak^[1] (Serbian: Торлачки говор or Torlački govor) is the name used for the Slavic dialects spoken in southern and eastern Serbia, northeast Republic of Macedonia (Kratovo-Kumanovo), northwest Bulgaria (Vidin-Bregovo), and further afield in the Caraş-Severin County in Romania. Some linguists classified it as the fourth dialect of Serbo-Croatian language (with Shtokavian, Chakavian and Kaykavian) and today as the second Serbian language macro-dialect (with Shtokavian). In Bulgaria, these dialects are considered western Bulgarian dialects, and there is a tendency to refer to them as Shop (Shopski). The Shop dialect is the second of two transitional dialects separating the eastern and western branches of South Slavic languages. More correctly, the two dialect regions are adjacent to one another however they be called in different parts. Torlakian is not standardized, and its subdialects significantly vary in some features. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... Serbo-Croatian (srpskohrvatski or hrvatskosrpski) is a name for a language of the Western group of the South Slavic languages. ... Bunjevac language or Bunjevac dialect (Bunjevački jezik or Bunjevački dijalekat) is a language/dialect spoken by Bunjevac ethnic group in Vojvodina province of Serbia and Montenegro. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... Shtokavian (Å tokavian, Å¡tokavski/штокавски) is the primary dialect of the Central South Slavic languages system, Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian language. ... Kajkavian (kajkavski) dialect is one of the three dialects of Croatian language. ... Chakavian (Čakavian, čakavski) dialect is one of the three dialects of Croatian language. ... The Romano-Serbian language is a language in the Western group of South Slavic languages. ... The Slavoserbian language (славяносербскій [slavjanoserbskij], словенскій [slovenskij]; in Serbian славеносрпски/slavenosrpski) is a form of the Serbian language which was predominantly used at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century by educated Serbian citizens in Vojvodina, and the Serbian diaspora in other parts of the Habsburg Monarchy. ... Å atrovački is a feature of permuting syllables of words used in Serbo-Croat (Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian) and Macedonian. ... Burgenland Croatian language or dialect (gradišćanskohrvatski jezik) belongs to the South Slavic branch of the Slavic languages. ... Molise Croatian dialect (also: Molise Slavic, Slavisano, na-naÅ¡o) is spoken in the Campobasso Province in the Molise Region of Italy, in three villages — Montemitro (Mundimitar), Aquaviva Collercroce (Živavoda Kruč) and San Felice del Molise (Å tifilić). These have approximately 3,000 speakers. ... The standard Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian languages differ in various aspects as outlined below. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... Anthem: Bože pravde (English: God of Justice) Capital (and largest city) Belgrade Official languages Serbian written with the Cyrillic alphabet1 Government Republic  - President Boris Tadić  - Prime Minister Vojislav KoÅ¡tunica Establishment    - Formation 8th century   - Independence c. ... For an explanation of terms related to Macedonia, see Macedonia (terminology). ... Vidin (Bulgarian: Видин; Romanian: Vidin, Diiu) is a town on the southern bank of the Danube in northwestern Bulgaria. ... Bregovo (Bulgarian: Брегово) is a town in the very northwest of Bulgaria, situated on the east bank of the Timok river close to its mouth. ... CaraÅŸ-Severin (IPA: ; Serbian and Croatian: KaraÅ¡-Severin/Караш Северин, Hungarian: Krassó-Szörény) is a county (judet) of Romania, in historical region Banat, with the capital city at ReÅŸiÅ£a. ... Serbo-Croatian or Croato-Serbian (also Croatian or Serbian, Serbian or Croatian) (srpskohrvatski or cрпскохрватски or hrvatskosrpski or hrvatski ili srpski or srpski ili hrvatski), earlier also Serbo-Croat, was an official language of Yugoslavia (along with Slovenian, Macedonian). ... Shtokavian (Å tokavian, Å¡tokavski/штокавски) is the primary dialect of the Central South Slavic languages system, Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian language. ... Chakavian (Čakavian, čakavski) dialect is one of the three dialects of Croatian language. ... Kajkavian (kajkavski) dialect is one of the three dialects of Croatian language. ... Shtokavian (Å tokavian, Å¡tokavski/штокавски) is the primary dialect of the Central South Slavic languages system, Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian language. ... The Shopi (шопи, scientific transliteration Å¡opi; singular шоп, Å¡op, with various regional names also existing) are are an ethnic subgroup of the Bulgarian people that inhabits the region of the Shopluk (Шоплук, Å opluk) in central western Bulgaria, around the towns of Botevgrad, Svoge, Elin Pelin, Kostinbrod, Slivnitsa, Dragoman, Samokov, Ihtiman, Dupnitsa, Kyustendil, Tran... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ...

Geographical distribution of the Torlakian dialect in former Yugoslav republics: (Bulgaria and the Western Outlands excluded here but Torlakian is spoken across the border)

Image File history File links Download high resolution version (881x935, 60 KB)This is the historical map of Soc. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (881x935, 60 KB)This is the historical map of Soc. ... Flag of Bulgarian national minority in Serbia A map of the Western Outlands The Western Outlands (Bulgarian: Западни покрайнини, Zapadni pokraynini; Serbian Cyrillic: Западне покрајине; Zapadne pokrajine) or the Western Bulgarian Outlands is a term used in Bulgaria which depicts a region in southeastern Serbia. ...

Classification

Most Croatian linguists (like Milan Rešetar and Dalibor Brozović) and Serbian linguists (like Pavle Ivić, Asim Peco) classify Torlakian as a Shtokavian dialect, referring to it as "Prizren-Timok dialect"^[2]. Milan ReÅ¡etar (February 1, 1860, Dubrovnik – January 14, 1942, Florence) was а Serbian slavist, linguist and historian. ... Dalibor Brozović (July 28, 1927) is a Croatian linguist. ... Professor Pavle Ivić (December 1, 1924 - September 19, 1999) was a leading South Slavic and general dialectologist and phonologist. ... Shtokavian (Štokavian, štokavski) is the primary dialect of the Central South Slavic languages system, Serbian, Bosnian and Croatian. ...

Some Bulgarian linguists (Stoyko Stoykov, Rangel Bozhkov) classify Torlakian as a "Belogradchik-Trn" dialect of Bulgarian language, and claim that it should be classified outside the shtokavian area. But Ivić argues that some Bulgarian dialects have similarities to Serbian rather than vice versa.^[3] He says that Serbian vernaculars including those of Prizren-Timok dialect have typical West-Southslavic elements, not East-Southslavic as Bulgarian and Macedonian: Prof. ... Belograchik (Bulgarian Белоградчик) is a town in Northwestern Bulgaria. ... Tran (Трън) is a small town in Pernik Province, western Bulgaria. ...

• The two Proto-Slavic semivowels (ъ, ь) gave only one phoneme in Serbian and Slovenian
• ǫ gave labials u and o in S.-C. and Slovenian, it gave unlabilaized ъ in Bulgarian, a in Macedonian)
• vь- gave u in West, v- in East
• Proto-Slavic *tj gave č/ć in west, št in East
• *čr gave cr in West, but was preserved in East
• Epenthetic l is preserved only in west (S.-C. zemlja, Bulgarian zemja)
• Distinction between Proto-Slavic /ɲ/ and /n/ is lost in East (S.-C. njega, Bulgarian nego).
• Consonants in final position preserve their leniency (S.-C. grad, Bulgarian/Macedonian grat)
• *vs stays preserved without metathesis in East (S.-C. sve, Bulgarian vse)
• Genitive njega in West, and old genitive on O in East (nego)
• Nominative plural of nomina on -a is on -e in West, -i in East
• Ja 'I, ego' in West, jas in East
• Mi 'we' in West, nie in East
• Distinction between the plural of masculine, feminine and neutrum adjectives is preserved only in West (S.C. beli, bele, bela), not in East (beli for masc., fem. and neutr.)
• First person singular of verbs is in West -m, and old reflex of *ǫ in East
• suffixes *-itjь (-ić) and *-atja (-ača) are common in West, not known in East

... In poetry and phonetics, epenthesis (Greek epi on + en in + thesis putting) is the insertion of a consonant, a vowel, or a whole syllable into a word, usually to facilitate pronunciation. ... Metathesis is a sound change that alters the order of phonemes in a word. ...

Notes on speech

In most regions (the Slavic countries) local speech was much influenced by the standardized national language, particularly when a new word or concept was introduced. The only exception is a form of Torlakian spoken in Romania, which escaped the influence of a standardized language which has existed in Serbia since a state was created after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire. The Slavs indigenous to the region are called Krašovani (Krashovans), and are a mixture of original settler Slavs and later settlers from Timočka Krajina (eastern Serbia). CaraÅŸova (Romanian: CaraÅŸova, Serbian and Croatian: KraÅ¡ova, Hungarian: Krassóvár) is a commune in Romania, known especially for its geographical placement and for the origin of its inhabitants, the Krashovani. ... Map of the Timočka Krajina within Central Serbia Timočka Krajina (Serbian: Timočka Krajina or Тимочка Крајина, Vlach/Romanian: Valea Timocului or Timoc, Bulgarian: Тимошко) is a geographical region located in Serbia. ...

Features

Some features of Torlakian clearly show how Macedonian changes to Bulgarian, and they both blend into Serbian, respectively in the north-west and the west.

Vocabulary

Basic Torlakian vocabulary shares most of its Slavic roots with Serbian, Bulgarian and Macedonian, but also over time borrowed a number of words from Aromanian, Greek, Turkish, and Albanian in the Gora region of the Šar mountain. Also, it preserved many words which in the "major" languages became archaisms or changed meaning. Like other features, vocabulary is inconsistent across subdialects: for example, a Krashovan need not necessarily understand a Goranac. A loanword (or loan word) is a word directly taken into one language from another with little or no translation. ... Aromanian (also known as Macedo-Romanian, Arumanian or Vlach in most other countries; in Aromanian: limba aromână, limba armânească, armâneashti or armãneshce) is an Eastern Romance language spoken in Southeastern Europe. ... Former Gora municipality in Kosovo, marked in blue Gora (Гора) is a geographical region in southern Kosovo, inhabited by the Gorani people. ... The Sharr mountains Albanian Malet e Sharrit, Sharr) Å ar mountain (Serbian and Macedonian Шар Планина, Å ar Planina; is a mountain located on the southern border of Serbia and Montenegro (in Kosovo) and the northwest part of Republic of Macedonia. ... In language, an archaism is the deliberate use of an older form that has fallen out of current use. ... The Krashovani (Croatian and Serbian: KraÅ¡ovani, Крашовани, KaraÅ¡ovani or KraÅ¡ovanje, KaraÅ¡evci and KoroÅ¡evci; Romanian: CaraÅŸoveni, CârÅŸoveni, CotcoreÅ£i or CocoÅŸi; also known as Krashovans) are a South Slavic people indigenous to CaraÅŸova and other nearby locations in CaraÅŸ-Severin County within... Gorani or Gorançe or Goranska are a Slavic ethnic group living in Gora region, just south of Prizren in the territory of Kosovo, Serbia and Montenegro, north-western Macedonia in the Å ar-planina region near Tetovo, as well as in north-eastern Albania, most notably in the village os...

Cases lacking inflections

Macedonian and Bulgarian the only two modern Slavic languages that lost virtually the entire noun case system, with nearly all nouns spoken in the surviving nominative case. This is also true of the Torlakian dialect. In the north-west, the instrumental case merges into the genitive case, and the locative and genitive cases merge into the nominative case. Further south, all inflections disappear and meaning is determined solely by prepositions. The nominative case is a grammatical case for a noun. ... In linguistics, the instrumental case (also called the eighth case) indicates that a noun is the instrument or means by which the subject achieves or accomplishes an action. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Possessive case. ... Locative is a case which indicates a location. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Possessive case. ... The nominative case is a grammatical case for a noun, which generally marks the subject of a verb, as opposed to its object or other verb arguments. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with adposition. ...

Lack of phoneme /h/

Macedonian, Torlakian and a number of Serbian and Bulgarian dialects, unlike all other Slavic languages, technically have no /h/. The appearance of the letter h in the alphabet is reserved mostly for loanwords, and toponyms within Macedonia but outside of the standard language region. In Macedonian, this is the case with eastern towns such as Pehčevo. In fact, the Macedonian language is based in Prilep, Pelagonia and words such as thousand and urgent are iljada and itno in standard Macedonian but hiljada and hitno in Serbian. This is actually a part of an isogloss, a dividing line separating Prilep from Pehčevo in Macedonia at the southern extreme, and reaching central Serbia, (Šumadija) at a northern extreme. In Šumadija, local folk songs may still use the traditional form of I want being oću compared with hoću as spoken in Vojvodina. A loanword (or a borrowing) is a word taken in by one language from another. ... In geography and cartography, a toponym is a place name, a geographical name, a proper name of locality, region, or some other part of Earths surface or its natural or artificial feature. ... Pelagonia was an ancient region of Europe later incorporated into Macedon. ... Isoglosses on the Faroe Islands An isogloss is the geographical boundary of a certain linguistic feature, e. ... Å umadija District in Central Serbia proposed Å umadija Region Kalenić village in Å umadija Å umadija is a geographical region in Central Serbia, Serbia and Montenegro. ... Republic of Serbia   â€“Vojvodina   â€“Kosovo (UN admin. ...

Syllabic /l/

Torlakian has preserved much of the ancient syllabic /l/ which, like /r/, can serve the nucleus of a syllable. This is still the case in the Czech and the Slovak languages. In standard Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian, the syllabic /l/ eventually became /u/ or /o/. In Bulgarian, it became preceded by the vowel represented by ъ (/ɤ/ or /ə/), to separate consonant clusters. Not all Torlak subdialects preserved syllabic /l/ to the full extent, but it is reflected either as full syllabic or in various combinations with [ə], [u], [ɔ] or [a]. Naturally, the /l/ becomes velarized in most such positions, giving /ɫ/.^[4] Vowels Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a rounded vowel. ... Vowels Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a rounded vowel. ... Velarization is a secondary articulation of consonants by which the back of the tongue is raised toward the velum during the articulation of the consonant. ... The velarized alveolar lateral approximant (also known as dark l) is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. ...

Cultural marginalization and ethnic affiliation

The regional names once used by many people in the Torlakian-speaking region was Torlaci (Torlaks) and Šopi (Shops). However, except for mutual understanding, Torlakian speakers seldom had other common ethnic or national consciousness, apart from being Slavs and, mostly, Christians. The borders in the region frequently shifted before the Ottoman conquest among Byzantine, Serbian and Bulgarian rulers. With Ottoman influence ever weakening, the increase of nationalist sentiment in the Balkans in late 19th and early 20th century, and the redrawing of national boundaries after Balkan wars and World War II, the traditional Torlakian-speaking region was split. As a result, Torlakian has become a minority in three countries. Area where Torlakian dialect is spoken Torlaks (Torlaci, Торлаци) is a name for inhabitants of south-eastern Serbia who speak the Torlakian dialect of the Serbian language. ... The Shopi (шопи, scientific transliteration Å¡opi; singular шоп, Å¡op, with various regional names also existing) are are an ethnic subgroup of the Bulgarian people that inhabits the region of the Shopluk (Шоплук, Å opluk) in central western Bulgaria, around the towns of Botevgrad, Svoge, Elin Pelin, Kostinbrod, Slivnitsa, Dragoman, Samokov, Ihtiman, Dupnitsa, Kyustendil, Tran... Motto: دولت ابد مدت Devlet-i Ebed-müddet (The Eternal State) Anthem: Ottoman imperial anthem Borders in 1680, see: list of territories Capital Söğüt (1299-1326) Bursa (1326-1365) Edirne (1365-1453) Constantinople (Istanbul) (1453-1922) Language(s) Ottoman Turkish Government Monarchy Sultans  - 1281–1326 Osman I  - 1918–1922 Mehmed VI... Byzantine Empire at its greatest extent c. ... The Serbs entered their present territory early in the 7th century AD, settling in six distinct tribal delimitations: Rascia/RaÅ¡ka (present-day western Serbia and northern Montenegro), Bosnia/Bosna (present-day south-central and southeastern Bosnia), Zachumlie/Zahumlje (western Herzegovina), Trebounia/Travunija (eastern Herzegovina), Pagania/Paganija (middle Dalmatia) and... Combatants Ottoman Empire Balkan League Bulgaria Commanders Nizam Pasha, Zekki Pasha, Esat Pasha, Abdullah Pasha, Ali Rizah Pasha Bulgaria: Vladimir Vazov, Vasil Kutinchev, Nikola Ivanov, Radko Dimitriev Serbia: Radomir Putnik, Petar Bojović, Stepa Stepanović Greece:Crown Prince Constantine, Panagiotis Danglis, Pavlos Kountouriotis Nikola Ivanov, Vasil Kutinchev, Radko Dimitriev The outcome... Combatants Allied Powers: United Kingdom France Soviet Union United States Republic of China and others Axis Powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Winston Churchill Charles de Gaulle Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Chiang Kai-Shek Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tojo Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33...

Today, there is no state-sanctioned education in Torlakian language or culture, and the usage of both the language and the regional name Torlaci is gradually vanishing. Torlakian is now seen in Serbia—and to a degree in Macedonia and Bulgaria—as an uneducated and provincial dialect of the dominant language. Also, among the traditional speakers of Torlakian are the non-Serb Slavs of Kosovo such as the Muslim Gorani and Catholic Janjevci, whose ethnic affiliations are appropriated by neighboring nations. A Muslim is a believer in or follower of Islam. ... Gorani or Gorançe or Goranska are a Slavic ethnic group living in Gora region, just south of Prizren in the territory of Kosovo, Serbia and Montenegro, north-western Macedonia in the Å ar-planina region near Tetovo, as well as in north-eastern Albania, most notably in the village os... Janjevci (Janjevs) are inhabitants of the Kosovo town of Janjevo and surrounding villages, located near Pristina as well as villages centered on Letnica near Vitina (Papare, Vrmez, Vrnavo Kolo). ...

Literature

Literature written in Torlakian is rather sparse, as the dialect has never been an official state language, and for the most part of the history literacy in the region was limited to Eastern Orthodox clergy, which chiefly used Old Church Slavonic in writing. The Eastern Orthodox Church is a Christian body that views itself as the historical continuation of the original Christian community established by Jesus and the Twelve Apostles, preserving the traditions of the early church unchanged, accepting the canonicity of the first seven ecumenical councils held between the 4th and the... Old Church Slavonic (Old Bulgarian, Old Macedonian, and Old Slavic) is the first literary Slavic language, developed from the Slavic dialect of Thessaloniki (Solun) by the 9th century Byzantine missionaries, Saints Cyril and Methodius. ...

One of the earliest literary monuments influenced by Torlakian dialects is Manuscript from Temska from 1762 in which its author Kiril Zhivkovich from Pirot considered his language "Simple Bulgarian". Pirot (Пирот) is a city located in Serbia and Montenegro at 43. ...

Serbian writer Bora Stanković used a lot of Torlakian dialect in his novels, which describe the life of people in Southern Serbia in early 20th century. Comedian writer Stevan Sremac, although born in Vojvodina, spent some of his life in southern Serbia, and his novels Zona Zamfirova and Ivkova slava depict the mentality and language of its inhabitants. Borisav-Bora Stanković (Vranje, March 31, 1875-Belgrade October 22, 1927) was a Serbian writer belonging to school of realism. ... Comedy has a classical meaning (comical theatre) and a popular one (the use of humour with an intent to provoke laughter in general). ... Stevan Sremac (November 11, 1855, Senta – August 13, 1906, Sokobanja) was a Serbian realist and comedian writer. ... Zona Zamfirova (Зона Замфирова) is a 1906 book by Serbian author Stevan Sremac, as well as a 2002 comedy-drama film based on the book and directed by Zdravko Å otra. ... alex (Cyrillic: Слава) is the Orthodox Christian custom of celebrating a family patron saint. ...

The recent screening of the film Zona Zamfirova by director Zdravko Šotra attracted huge popularity in Serbia and Montenegro. However, many spectators, especially from northern Serbia, commented that "the film was good but it really needs subtitles". Film is a term that encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the motion picture industry. ... Zona Zamfirova (Зона Замфирова) is a 1906 book by Serbian author Stevan Sremac, as well as a 2002 comedy-drama film based on the book and directed by Zdravko Å otra. ... The film director, on the right, gives last minute direction to the cast and crew, whilst filming a costume drama on location in London. ... In printed material In printed material, a subtitle is an explanatory or alternate title. ...

References

General references

• Dijalekti istočne i južne Srbije, Aleksandar Belić, Srpski dijalektološki zbornik, 1, 1905.
• Encyclopedia of the Languages of Europe, Glanville Price, Blackwell Publishing, p. 423.
• Language and Conflict: A Neglected Relationship, Dan Smith, Paul A Chilton - Language Arts & Disciplines, 1998, Page 59
• South Slavic and Balkan Linguistics, A. Barentsen, Rodopi, 1982
• Hrvatska dijalektologija 1, Josip Lisac, Golden marketing – Tehnička knjiga, Zagreb, 2003.
• The Slavonic Languages, Bernard Comrie, Greville G Corbett - Foreign Language Study, 2002, pp 382-384.

Footnotes

1. ^ PDF document
2. ^ Pavle Ivić, Dijalektološka karta štokavskog narečja
3. ^ Ivić Pavle, Dijalektologija srpskohtrvatskog jezika, 2001, 25 (also published in German)
4. ^ Josip Lisac, Osnovne značajke torlačkoga narječja

See also

• Balkan linguistic union
• Shtokavian dialect
• Torlaks
• Gorani
• Krashovani