The All-Slavic Linguistic Atlas – a New Level in the Study of the Slavic Languages

By Materials of Scientific Report at the Session of Presidium of NAS of Ukraine 9 April 2014

Abstract

For the first time in the history of Slavonic studies, the maps of Slavic Linguistic Atlas display complicated differentiation of Slavonic dialects as well as their interrelations within the Slavonic linguistic areal seen as a whole. It brings a crucial change in the knowledge about Slavia as a linguistic phenomenon, archaic and innovative features in modern Slavonic dialects, intensity and directions of inter-Slavonic language interaction, and non-Slavonic influence upon the Slavonic linguistic continuum. The Atlas introduces a vast amount of essentially new linguistic data which were previously unknown to scholars. Being a synthesis of ideas and insights of a big international set of Slavonic dialectologists, generalizing and further developing achievements of national linguistic schools, the Atlas opens new vistas for advanced study of common and specific features within each Slavonic languages as well as their evolution.