Torlak^[1] (Cyrillic: Торлачки говор; Торлашки говор Latinic: Torlački govor), or simply Torlakian, is the name used for the Slavic dialects spoken in southern and eastern Serbia, southern Kosovo (Prizren), northeast Republic of Macedonia (Kratovo-Kumanovo), western Bulgaria (Vidin-Bregovo-Belogradchik-Godech-Tran), and further afield in the Caraş-Severin County in Romania. The Cyrillic alphabet (səˈrɪlɪk also called azbuka, from the old name of the first two letters is actually a family of Alphabets, subsets of which are used by Serbia (Србија Srbija) officially the Republic of Serbia (Република Србија Republika Srbija) is a Landlocked Country Prizren ( Albanian: Prizren or Prizreni, Serbian Cyrillic: Призрен is a historical city located in southern Kosovo. The Republic of Macedonia (Република Kratovo may refer to Kratovo Republic of Macedonia, a town in the Republic of Macedonia Kratovo Russia, an urban-type settlement in Moscow Kumanovo (Куманово is thе third largest city in the Republic of Macedonia after Skopje and Bitola, and is the seat of the The state of Bulgaria (България transliterated bg-Latn ''Balgaria'' The country preserves the traditions (in ethnic name language and alphabet of the First Bulgarian Vidin (Видин is a town on the southern bank of the Danube in northwestern Bulgaria. Bregovo (Брегово is a Town in the very northwest of Bulgaria, situated on the east bank of the Timok River close to its mouth Belograchik (Белоградчик) is a town in northwestern Bulgaria in the Vidin Province. Godech ( Bulgaria: Годеч is a small town located in the Sofia Province, of Bulgaria. Tran (Трън, meaning " thorn " is a small town in Pernik Province, western Bulgaria. Caraş-Severin ('karaʃ seve'rin Serbian: Караш Северин Karaš Severin, Croatian: Karaš-Severin; Hungarian: Romania ( dated: Rumania, Roumania Some linguists classify it as the fourth dialect of Serbo-Croatian language (with Shtokavian, Chakavian and Kaykavian) or as the second Serbian language macro-dialect (with Shtokavian). The Serbo-Croatian language or Croato-Serbian language (cрпскохрватски језик srpskohrvatski jezik) is a South Slavic Diasystem Shtokavian or Štokavian (štokavski is the main dialect of the Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian languages Chakavian dialect ( Čakavian; Croatian: čakavski, proper name čakavica or čakavština) is a dialect of the Croatian language Croatian Kajkavian dialect ( Croatian: kajkavski, proper name kajkavica or kajkavština) is one of the three main dialects of the Croatian Shtokavian or Štokavian (štokavski is the main dialect of the Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian languages According to other linguists, these dialects are considered western Bulgarian dialects, and there is a tendency to refer to them as Shop (Shopski). Bulgarian (български език IPA: ɛzˈik is an Indo-European language, a member of the Slavic linguistic group Shopi (шопи Scientific transliteration šopi singular шоп šop with various regional names also existing is a regional term referring to the inhabitants of the The Shop dialect is the second of two transitional dialects separating the eastern and western branches of South Slavic languages. South Slavic languages comprise one of the three geographical groups of Slavic languages (besides West and East Slavic) 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.

Geographical distribution of the Torlakian dialect (red) in Serbo-Croat speaking republics (black): (Republic of Macedonia, Bulgaria and the Western Outlands excluded here but Torlakian is spoken across the border)

The area where Torlak was spoken (Timok and Prizrend dialects) according to Serbian linguist Alexandar Belić, 1914. The Western (Bulgarian Outlands (Западни (български покрайнини Zapadni (balgarski pokraynini) is a term used by Bulgarians to describe

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 Rešetar ( February 1 1860, Dubrovnik &ndash January 14 1942, Florence) was a Croatian slavist Dalibor Brozović ( July 28, 1927) is a Croatian linguist. He has worked in the areas of general Linguistics, Slavic studies Professor Pavle Ivić ( Serbian Cyrillic: Павле Ивић ( December 1, 1924 - September 19, 1999) was a leading Shtokavian or Štokavian (štokavski is the main dialect of the Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian languages

Some Bulgarian linguists (Stoyko Stoykov, Rangel Bozhkov) classify Torlakian as a "Belogradchik-Tran" dialect of Bulgarian language, and claim that it should be classified outside the shtokavian area. Stoyko Ivanov Stoykov (Стойко Иванов Стойков ( 26 October 1912 - 09 December 1969) was a Bulgarian linguist Belograchik (Белоградчик) is a town in northwestern Bulgaria in the Vidin Province. Tran (Трън, meaning " thorn " is a small town in Pernik Province, western Bulgaria. They noted the manner of the articles, the lack of the most of the cases etc. Serbian linguist 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:

• The two Proto-Slavic semivowels (ъ, ь) gave only one phoneme in Serbian and Slovenian
• ǫ gave labials u and o in S. Macedonian () is the official Language of the Republic of Macedonia and is a part of the Eastern group of South Slavic languages. -C. and Slovenian, it gave unlabialized 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. In Phonology, epenthesis (/əˈpɛnθəsɪs/ Ancient Greek ἐπένθεσις - epenthesis from epi "on" + en "in" -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

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. Romania ( dated: Rumania, Roumania 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). Caraşova (Caraşova Croatian and Serbian: Krašova / Крашова or Karaševo / Карашево Krassóvár is a commune Timočka Krajina (Тимочка Крајина is a geographical region located in Serbia.

Notes on geography

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. Many of the Torlakian features from these parts also blend into the Shop dialects which are transitional speech forms spoken down the centre and south of the Republic of Macedonia's border with Bulgaria, and so far into each country. Shopi (шопи Scientific transliteration šopi singular шоп šop with various regional names also existing is a regional term referring to the inhabitants of the

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. A loanword (or loan word) is a word directly taken into one Language from another with little or no translation Aromanian ( limba armãneascã, armãneshce or armãneashti) also known as Macedo-Romanian, Arumanian or Vlach in most Greek (el ελληνική γλώσσα or simply el ελληνικά — "Hellenic" is an Indo-European language, spoken today by 15-22 million people mainly Turkish ( tr Türkçe IPA) is a language spoken by over 63 million people worldwide making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Albanian (sq ''Gjuha shqipe'' ˈɟuha ˈʃcipɛ is an Indo-European language spoken by nearly 6 million peoplewhile others claim that it derives from Daco - Gora ( Гора) is a geographical region in southern Kosovo, mostly inhabited by the Gorani people. The Šar Mountains (Malet e Sharrit, Шар Планина Šar planina) is a Mountain range that extends from southern Kosovo and the northwest Also, it preserved many words which in the "major" languages became archaisms or changed meaning. In Language, an archaism is the use of a form of speech or writing that is no longer current Like other features, vocabulary is inconsistent across subdialects: for example, a Krashovan need not necessarily understand a Goranac. The Krashovani ( Croatian and Serbian: Krašovani (Крашовани Karašovani or Krašovanje, Karaševci and

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. 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 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. The instrumental case (also called the eighth case) is a Grammatical case used to indicate that a noun is the instrument or means by or with which the In Grammar, the genitive case or possessive case (also called the second case) is the case that marks a Noun as modifying another Locative (also called the seventh case) is a Grammatical case which indicates a location In Grammar, the genitive case or possessive case (also called the second case) is the case that marks a Noun as modifying another 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 Further south, all inflections disappear and meaning is determined solely by prepositions. In Grammar, a preposition is a Part of speech that introduces a prepositional phrase.

Lack of phoneme /x/

Macedonian, Torlakian and a number of Serbian and Bulgarian dialects, unlike all other Slavic languages, technically have no phoneme like /x/, /ɦ/ or /h/. The voiceless velar fricative, informally known as the hard ch, is a type of Consonantal sound used in some spoken Languages The symbol in the The breathy-voiced glottal transition, commonly called a voiced glottal fricative, is a type of sound used in some spoken Languages which often behaves like The voiceless glottal transition, commonly called a " fricative " is a type of sound used in some spoken Languages which often behaves like a In other Slavic languages, /x/ or /ɦ/ (from Proto-Slavic *g in "H-Slavic languages") is common. The voiceless velar fricative, informally known as the hard ch, is a type of Consonantal sound used in some spoken Languages The symbol in the The breathy-voiced glottal transition, commonly called a voiced glottal fricative, is a type of sound used in some spoken Languages which often behaves like

The appearance of the letter h in the alphabet is reserved mostly for loanwords, and toponyms within the Republic of Macedonia but outside of the standard language region. A loanword (or loan word) is a word directly taken into one Language from another with little or no translation Toponymy refers to the scientific study of place-names ( toponyms) their origins meanings use and Typology. 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. Pelagonia ( Greek: Πελαγονíα Pelagonía, Macedonian: Пелагонија Pelagonija, Albanian: Pellgania, or This is actually a part of an isogloss, a dividing line separating Prilep from Pehčevo in the Republic of Macedonia at the southern extreme, and reaching central Serbia, (Šumadija) at a northern extreme. An isogloss is the geographical boundary or delineation of a certain linguistic feature e Šumadija (Шумадија is a geographical region in Serbia. In Šumadija, local folk songs may still use the traditional form of I want being oću (оћу) compared with hoću (хоћу) as spoken in standard Serbian.

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, as well as the southern dialects of Poland (eg. Czech (ˈʧɛk čeština ˈʧɛʃcɪna in Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers it is the majority language in the The Slovak language ( slovenčina, slovenský jazyk, not to be confused with Slovenščina) sometimes referred to as "Slovakian" Poland (Polska officially the Republic of Poland Silesian). Silesian or Upper Silesian (Silesian Ślůnsko godka, Slezsky jazyk Język śląski is a Slavic language or dialect spoken in the region of 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. The close-mid back unrounded vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages Its symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet is ɤ In Linguistics, specifically Phonetics and Phonology, schwa can mean the following An unstressed and toneless neutral 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/. Velarization is a Secondary articulation of Consonants by which the back of the Tongue is raised toward the velum during the articulation of the The Velarized Alveolar lateral approximant, which may actually be Pharyngealized, also known as dark l is a type of Consonantal sound ^[4]

Cultural marginalization and ethnic affiliation

The regional names once used by many people in the Torlakian-speaking region was Torlaci (Torlaks) and Šopi (Shops). Torlaks (Торлаци Torlaci is a name for Slavic inhabitants of south-eastern Serbia and northern Macedonia who speak the Torlakian dialect. Shopi (шопи Scientific transliteration šopi singular шоп šop with various regional names also existing is a regional term referring to the inhabitants of the 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. The Ottoman Empire (1299–1923 ( Old Ottoman Turkish: دولتْ علیّه عثمانیّه Devlet-i Âliye-yi Osmâniyye, Late Ottoman and Modern Turkish Тhe medieval history of Serbia begins in the 5th century AD with the arrival of the Slavs in the Balkans and ends with the occupation of Serbia by the Ottoman Empire in 1459 The History of Bulgaria as a separate country began in 632 AD with the establishment of Old Great Bulgaria, which stretched from east of the Sea 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. The Balkan Wars were two wars in South-eastern Europe in 1912–1913 in the course of which the Balkan League ( Bulgaria, Montenegro, Greece World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including As a result, Torlakian has become a minority in three countries.

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 the Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria—as an uneducated and provincial dialect of the dominant language. Also, among the traditional speakers of Torlakian are Slavs of Kosovo and Metohija such as the Muslim ‎Gorani and Catholic Janjevci, whose ethnic affiliations are appropriated by neighboring nations. A Muslim (مسلم pronounced Muslim, not Muzlim) is an adherent of the Religion The Goran or Gorani are a Balkan Ethnic group characterised by their adherence to Islam and by their dwelling in the border region between Albania Janjevci (ˈjaːɲev͡tsi are Croatian inhabitants of the Kosovo town of Janjevo and surrounding villages located near Priština as well as

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 the second largest single Christian Communion in the world to make sure old Cyrillic letters are displayed properly (For example instead of just Ѣ write Ѣ

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 ( Serbian Cyrillic: Пирот is a town and municipality located in Serbia at.

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. Borisav "Bora" Stanković (Борисав Станковић Бора (born in Vranje, 1875 or 1876 died in Belgrade October 22 1927 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. Comedy (from the Greek κωμωδίαkomodia has a popular meaning (any discourse generally intended to amuse especially in Television, Film, and Stevan Sremac ( November 11, 1855, Senta &ndash August 13, 1906, Sokobanja) was a Serbian realist Zona Zamfirova ( Serbian Cyrillic: Зона Замфирова) is a 2002 Comedy-drama film directed by Zdravko Šotra. Slava ( Cyrillic: Слава is the Orthodox Christian custom of honoring a family Patron saint.

The recent screening of the film Zona Zamfirova by director Zdravko Šotra attracted huge popularity in Serbia and Montenegro. Zona Zamfirova ( Serbian Cyrillic: Зона Замфирова) is a 2002 Comedy-drama film directed by Zdravko Šotra. A film director, or filmmaker, is a person who directs the making of a Film. However, many spectators, especially from northern Serbia, commented that "the film was good but it really needs subtitles". Subtitles are textual versions of the dialog in films and television programs usually displayed at the bottom of the screen

References

General references

• Dijalekti istočne i južne Srbije, Aleksandar Belić, Srpski dijalektološki zbornik, 1, 1905.
• Sprachatlas Ostserbiens und Westbulgariens, Andrej N. Sobolev. Vol. I-III. Biblion Verlag, Marburg, 1998.
• 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