The impact of the standard language on dialects and other language varieties has long been one of the key issues in dialectological and sociolinguistic research. Already in classical dialectological studies, attention was paid to the relationship between the “pure” dialect and the standard language, while the development of sociolinguistic dialectology brought growing interest in the internal variation of dialects, social differentiation, and processes of convergence and loss of dialectal features (Trudgill 1974, 1986). In the Polish research tradition, attempts to provide quantitative descriptions of dialect phenomena have also played an important role. For example, Józef Kąś pointed to the usefulness of statistical methods in studying the mutual influence of the standard language and dialects, emphasizing that a quantitative representation of variation makes it possible to capture the directions and intensity of ongoing changes (Kąś 1986). The development of dialectometry, in turn, has created opportunities for quantitative comparison of language varieties and for investigating their similarities and differences (Nerbonne, Heeringa 2010).
Contemporary research shows that the influence of the standard language does not necessarily lead to a simple and uniform disappearance of dialectal features. The pace and character of change may differ depending on the linguistic feature, social group, age, and linguistic biography of speakers, as well as on the type and intensity of contact with the standard language (Trudgill 1982). Individual features may undergo change at different rates, and the dynamics of their decline can be modeled using statistical methods. Particularly useful in this regard are both corpus-based methods for measuring dialect-standard variation and quantitative profiling of the idiolect of an individual speaker (Makarova et al. 2020; Vuković 2022).
In this issue, we propose focusing on material from Slavic languages and examining various forms and mechanisms through which standard languages influence contemporary language varieties. We would particularly like to devote attention to the sociolinguistic parameters of this process, such as age, education, mobility, social environment, linguistic biography, and frequency of contact with the standard language. We are also interested in studies employing quantitative methods that allow the measurement of the frequency of linguistic features, the degree of preservation of traditional features, the intensity of standard-language influence, and the internal variation of particular language varieties.
At the same time, we would like to explicitly broaden the perspective beyond traditionally understood dialects. Other language varieties in which the influence of the standard language can be observed may also be the object of interest. This includes, among others, minority and regional languages (e.g., Kashubian). From this perspective, processes occurring in such language varieties may be analyzed analogously to changes occurring in traditional dialects, although their social and functional context differs.
We therefore encourage submissions addressing, among others, the following topics:
- the influence of the standard language on the phonetic, phonological, morphological, syntactic, and lexical features of dialects and other language varieties;
- linguistic variation as a result of contact between a dialect or regional variety and the standard language;
- sociolinguistic determinants of change, including age, education, mobility, linguistic biography, social networks, and communication style;
- dialectometry and other methods for measuring similarities and differences between language varieties.
Particularly welcome are contributions that combine linguistic analysis with a sociolinguistic perspective and employ corpora, statistical methods, quantitative modeling, dialectometry, or other tools that make it possible to capture the scale and dynamics of language change.
You may submit articles in any Slavic language, in English, or in other congress languages until 30 April 2027, using the Pressto platform (https://pressto.amu.edu.pl/index.php/pss/about/submissions). Submissions should be prepared in accordance with the guidelines available on the Pressto platform. The recommended length of manuscripts is 35,000 characters (maximum text length is 40,000 characters). Each submission should include the author’s ORCID number, affiliation, email address, an abstract in English (approximately 1,000 characters), keywords in English and a short biographical note in English (maximum 700 characters).