The talk examines a conundrum inherent to the study of Polish-Ukrainian language contact: From a linguistic point of view, it strives towards clear attributions of items as ‘Polonisms in Ukrainian’ and ‘Ukrainianisms in Polish’. However, the extralinguistic reality led to loan relations between the two languages that often defy straightforward attributions of this kind.

We shall focus on two case studies in particular: the possible role of Polish influence on the development of relative-clause markers in Ukrainian, and mutual influences in the treatment of ‘virile’ gender in ‘boderland’ Polish and western Ukrainian dialects. In both instances, the linguistic outcomes of Polish-Ukrainian language contact are contingent on extralinguistic, i.e. historically specific configurations of individual and societal Ukrainian-Polish bilingualism.

Jan Fellerer is Associate Professor in non-Russian Slavonic Languages at the University of Oxford and Fellow of Wolfson College. He graduated in Slavonic languages from the University of Vienna and completed his doctorate at the University of Basel. His main scholarly interests are in the history and structure of West and East Slavonic languages, in particular Polish, Czech and Ukrainian.

When: Tuesday, 18.06.2024, 10:15
Where: Ernst-Abbe-Platz 8, Raum 214, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena