DIALECTAL FEATURES OF YOUTH SPEECH IN THE PRIZREN-TIMOK LINGUISTIC AREA – DEGREE OF EXAMINATION

Abstract

The paper presents dialectological and teaching methodology research that explores the dialectal characteristics of the speech of young individuals in the Prizren-Timok (P-T) linguistic region. In an attempt to depict speech in its original, authentic, and unaltered form, traditional dialectology tends to exclude the speech of the youth, labelling it as "unreliable" and lacking authenticity. This judgment is rooted in the belief that many dialectal features are diminished in the speech of young individuals due to their heightened exposure to the standard language. Conversely, conventional grammar teaching is grounded in the mechanical adoption of standard language rules, actively discouraging the expression of dialectal features and deeming them irregular and undesirable. An examination of contemporary literature in dialectology and Serbian language teaching methodology reveals a growing interest among researchers in the speech patterns of young individuals from the P-T linguistic region. Dialectologists have investigated different aspects of the speech of young people, covering various linguistic levels such as prosody, phonetics, morphology, syntax,semantic and lexicon. Applying various methodologies, researchers have observed the coexistence of forms from the standard language and dialects, the fading of specific dialectal features, and the persistence of others on all linguistic levels. In teaching methodology research authors highlight the need to update teaching methods, show consideration for students' language preferences, integrate instruction with personal experiences, and, foremost, establish a link between dialectal and standard language systems. Given that the speech of young individuals reflects the emerging tendencies of a particular dialect and serves as the foundation for grammar instruction in acquiring the standard language, the description of youth speech provided by the presented research is of significant importance. This holds relevance not only for further investigations into the P-T speech but also for the more effective implementation of grammar instruction within the P-T linguistic area.