Prof. Andrey N. Sobolev (Staatliche Universität St. Petersburg)
The paper is dealing with genetic and geolinguistic (areal-typological) analysis of Slavic languages in the Balkan context. The divergent and convergent developments are presented and discussed against the background of general language contact and modern Sprachbund theory, showing how general mechanisms of genetic split and typological merger, borrowing and calquing, language shift or language and ethnic separation interplayed in the area, making it extremely special in Europe and Eurasia.
