On the syntax of the Istro-Romanian dialect. A microcomparative view on Eastern Romance and Balkan Slavic

The project follows the trend of comparative studies that have received growing interest in recent linguistic research. The target language is the Istro-Romanian (IR) dialect, a severely endangered Easter Romance variety spoken in Istria (Croatia) by ca. 200 people. It is thus imperative to document and analyse this dialect, in this way raising awareness on a linguistic variety that has never been standardised, does not have an ortographic system, and does not have an official status in Croatia. Language documentation and subsequent creation of corpora following modern data-collecting techniques, and theoretical analysis of the IR dialect in line with current frameworks (Minimalism, Cartographic approaches) are the two main goals of the present research p roject. The research will benefit from the expertise of the international team of graduate students and senior researchers at CASTL (UiT). The Norwegian research centre is running various projects on the syntax, phonology and acquisition of natural langu ages, based on detailed empirical studies. In particular, the current project will become part of the microcomparative studies on closely related languages and dialects. The expected results listed below: - Enrichment of the IR corpora as a result of f ieldwork activity, transcribed and glossed; - Providing a formal analysis of the syntax of IR following current linguistic theories (Minimalism, Cartography); - Laying the groundwork for further microcomparative analyses of the four Daco-Romanian dialect s and for more global comparative work on natural languages; - Documenting the features which are present in IR and are common to the Balkan Sprachbund (Balkan Linguistic Area), as possible contribution to new insights on typological classifications; - C ontributing to the theoretical discussion on the contact phenomena which influence language evolution by documenting features associated to language attrition.