Glasoslovni opis treh prekmurskih govorov in komentar k zgodovinskemu glasoslovju in oblikoglasju prekmurskega narečja

Abstract

The paper revises and summarizes the author’s 1990 UCLA dissertation, based on fieldwork and archival work conducted under the auspices of a Fulbright-Hays Dissertation Fellowship for 1988-89, in the Prekmurje region of Slovenia, then Yugoslavia. The revision was conducted with the aid of the University of Kansas General Research Fund, grant # 3686-0038. The paper presents a phonological sketch of three village dialects of Prekmurje (located in northeastern Slovenia and southwestern Hungary), representing the three traditional subdivisions of the diaIect: goričko, ravensko and dolinsko. Martinje (goričko, northern Prekmurje), Cankova (ravensko, southwestern Prekmurje) and Polana (dolinsko, southeastern Prekmurje) differ from each other phonologica11y in terms of relatively recent Prekmurje-internal innovations: (1) rounding of short and unstressed a (Martinje, Cankova) vs. rounding of long stressed a (Polana); (2) lenition of word-final -l > -o (Martinje, Cankova) vs. lenition of -l > -u (Polana); (3) the change j > d' before a stressed vowel or following a consonant (Martinje, Cankova); (4) complete rephonologization of quantitative with qualitative oppositions (Martinje); (5) the change t > k before *l (Cankova, Polana). - The second part of the paper treats some details of the phono!ogical and morphonological development of Prekmurje with respect to Common Slavic and Common Slovene, focusing on issues that are not discussed fully in the dialectological literature. A new proposal for the advancement of the circumflex is discussed as well as a phonological hierarchy given for the retraction of stress from internal syllables. A contrastive analysis of the relatively conservative vowel system of Cankova with the innovative system of Martinje attempts to elucidate the processes by which distinctive quality replaces quantity as a structural1y motivated set of changes.