VOL. 59, BOOK 1, PART А, 2021, pp. 53-63 Full text (En)
Author:
Grace Fielder
Affiliation: University of Arizona
Abstract
Letters from Yordanka Filaretova, a native of Sofia, to Maria Burmova
are analysed for linguistic variants before the official codification of Bulgarian
orthography in 1899. Filaretova’s mobility, specifically her long-term residence
in Istanbul, suggests loose (i.e. more dispersed rather than dense) social
networks that correlate with innovations in linguistic norms and the diffusion
of linguistic change. The paper thus contributes to the study of the linguistic
history of norms listed below, that is, the value of language variants by
speakers who were not centrally involved in debates about what language
variants should eventually be chosen for the Bulgarian literary language.
Key words: historical sociolinguistics, linguistic variants, social
network theory, orthography, language standardization
