A Study of Russian-Belarusian Border Dialects: The Use of the Genitive Case Ending -u in the Khislavichi Dialect

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Summary This article explores the features of noun declension in the Khislavichi dialect, focusing on the use of the genitive case ending -u. The study is based on data from the Khislavichi Corpus, which consists of texts recorded from native speakers in the western part of the Khislavichi district of the Smolensk Region during field trips in 2018–2019. The linguistic situation in this area is characterized by the Russification of genetically Belarusian dialects. The analysis examines the preservation of dialect features, the historical and contemporary usage of the genitive case in Russian and Belarusian, and the specificities of the genitive ending -u in the Khislavichi dialect. The findings indicate that the Khislavichi dialect employs the -u ending in the genitive case for a larger number of lexemes compared to standard Russian. This raises the question of whether these "extra" -u forms can be linked to the previous Belarusian system. The study explores the variability found in the usage of both the -u and -a endings, suggesting that their selection may be contingent upon the intended meaning and the age of the speaker. Additionally, the article contributes to the development of a broader theoretical problem: the transition from one idiom to another, and ultimately the theory of language change. This research adds to our understanding of dialectal variation and the mechanisms of language change, particularly in regions experiencing language contact and assimilation processes.