Dialectology

My foundational training in linguistics at the University of Belgrade was profoundly shaped by the rich tradition of South Slavic dialectology. I drew inspiration from the works of distinguished South Slavic dialectologists such as Aleksandar Belić, Stjepan Ivšić, and especially Pavle Ivić, whose pioneering contributions to the field influenced my journey in linguistics in substantial ways.

As a theoretically informed dialectologist, I examine the complex patterns of prosodic microvariation across South Slavic dialects, many of which are severely understudied. My research bridges dialectology and linguistic theory: I aim to shed new light on long-standing issues in the phonology of South Slavic dialects using the analytical tools of generative linguistics, and to inform phonological theory drawing on new insights from dialectal data, to the mutual benefit of these two fields.

The study of dialects connects naturally with my interests in variation, diachrony, and the acoustic realization of prosodic structure. I examine the phonetics and phonology of the Neoštokavian stress retraction, a major prosodic change that divided the Bosnian/Croatian/Montenegrin/Serbian (BCMS) dialect continuum into two large groups: archaic Old Štokavian and innovative Neoštokavian. My goal is to discover the phonological factors underlying the various stress retraction processes attested in BCMS dialects and to establish a typological framework for their classification.