6. The grammaticalization of an indefinite article in Slavic micro-languages

Language history on fast forward: Innovations in heritage languages and diachronic change

“…The following example from Molise Slavic illustrates accelerated language change in a situation of absolute language contactthat is, the situation of a minority language whose speakers are all bi-or trilingual. Molise Slavic, which has evolved as an isolated minority language over a few hundred years, is a variety of Serbo-Croatian traditionally spoken mostly in three villages in Molise, a region in South-Central Italy (Breu, 2012). Today, there are about 1,700 speakers, whose ancestors came from Dalmatia about 500 years ago.…”

“…Serbo-Croatian, an article-less language. In most Slavic languages, including Serbo-Croatian, article functions can be expressed by demonstratives and numerals, and the rare instances of true articles are explained by language contact (Breu, 2012). Interestingly, Breu (2012, p. 301) mentions the possibility of using a numeral in Serbo-Croatian in order to oppose an indefinite referential reading from a referential reading, e.g., I am looking for a vs. the [=my] boyfriend.…”

12. Morphosyntactic changes in Slavic micro-languages: The case of Molise Slavic in total language contact

“…38 UNO and JENA symbolize the whole paradigm of their forms, including the short forms na and nu. For the whole range of functions of the Molise Slavic indefinite article compared with Colloquial Upper Sorbian and Macedonian see Breu (2012), presenting also the full paradigm of JENA (Breu 2012: 279). See also Heine (this volume) for their interpretation of the development of the Molise Slavic indefinite article.…”

Mehrheiten – Minderheiten

“…Zu erwähnen sind hier etwa die Entwicklung eines Artikelsystems über die Herausbildung eines obligatorisch gebrauchten indefiniten Artikels (Breu 2012), die Nachbildung der analytischen Komparation des Italienischen (Breu 2009), der Umbau der Genuskategorie durch Restrukturierung des Genus der Substantive der femininen i-Deklination, der Paradigmenwechsel der Substantive der maskulinen a-Deklination und Verlust des Neutrums bei den Substantiven (Breu 2013) und die Bildung eines haben-Futurs mit modaler Differenzierung innerhalb der Futurkategorie aufgrund seiner Opposition zum traditionellen wollen-Futur (Breu 2011, 156-158)…”