Abstract This interview with Jadwiga Maurer was conducted by Justine Pas in Lawrence, Kansas, in July 2006. It was translated and edited by the interviewer who intentionally preserved its conversational style, including repetitions, hesitations, inconsistencies, and even awkward turns of phrase, to retain its potential as an archival source for further studies of Maurer's extensive oeuvre. The interview was conducted over three days at Maurer's home near the University of Kansas, where she had taught as a professor of Slavic languages and literature until her retirement in 2001. Topics included the similarities of the protagonist and plot of Maurer's short stories to her biography, Maurer's long career as a contributor to Wiadomości, the London-based Polish-language émigré literary magazine, where her short stories were first published, as well as Maurer's views on language, literature, and translation.

The article presents the results of linguatextual observations on several Church Slavonic copies of the Gospel from the 11th–12th centuries. Not all the copies documenting the early translation of the Greek manuscript are directly related; they represent different editions of the text and testify to the use of different Greek copies. The analysis of correlative grammatical forms shows certain changes in the language system of the Church Slavonic language. The subject of the study in this case is the participial forms, some of the most “bookish” ones in the grammatical system of the Russian language, a definitive heritage of the Church Slavonic tradition in our language. The instability of these forms in Church Slavonic and Russian texts, usually associated with a considerably late period in the development of Russian writing, turns out to be motivated by the most ancient manuscripts. Of particular interest are manuscripts that represent translations from Greek, especially those that, on Slavic-Russian ground, provide evidence of repeated references to the Greek text. Church Slavonic texts are of exceptional interest to the history of the Russian literary language. Church Slavonic manuscripts of the Old Russian period (from the end of the 14th to the beginning of the 15th century) deserve unconditional attention, since this was the time of transition from Old Russian bookishness to the literature of the new time, which subsequently formed a national language as a result of convergence with business writing. And, perhaps, the main thing that this century (if we designate this period of time as a century) did with the Russian language is that it provided the verbal culture with the transition from the language-text (which the Church Slavonic language was and remains) to the literary language and prepared the further perception of spoken speech as an object worthy of special attention. The fate of participles, a vivid manifestation of bookish speech culture, in literary and colloquial language is of exceptional interest, but their written history begins with the first (early Church Slavonic) manuscripts, and this must be taken into account. Initial provisions of this study: firstly, the exceptional importance of translated manuscripts for the history of Russian literature. Church Slavonic, which arose as a calque-language from Greek, continued to expand its book (and therefore language) collection largely through written sources of Byzantine origin; secondly, the presumption of a Greek text (since most translations were made from Greek originals). The concept and the term presumption (an assumption that is considered true until the falsity of such an assumption is indisputably proven) are widely used not only in jurisprudence, but also in natural sciences. In this case, we address the Greek copies as a possible source of discrepancies in Church Slavonic copies of the Gospel. The most important source of the development of the Russian literary language was and still is text of the Gospel; it underwent several editions on Slavic basis. For Church Slavonic literature (and later for Russian literature) this was at first a life-organizing, and then a life-forming factor of existence and development. It is in the “lexical environment” of the Church Slavonic Gospel that one should look for the sources of the richest synonymic system of the Russian literary language, and not so much, perhaps, as the fact of the very presence of different lexemes (different Greek translated words or presented by different regional language environments), but as the fact of the very possibility of a diverse verbal presentation of a clear and unambiguous in its definition content. It is obvious that the “grammatical environment” of the Gospel also determined the grammar of the Church Slavonic language as a whole, and the “movements” that occurred in this grammar throughout its entire length were motivated by its original state already in the most ancient manuscripts.

The naming of professions and job titles reflects not only linguistic norms but also social structure, cultural values, historical development, and gender ideology of a society. This article examines the specific features of professional and occupational naming systems in the Russian and Uzbek languages. Special attention is paid to morphological, semantic, grammatical, and sociolinguistic aspects of profession names, including gender marking, borrowing processes, word-formation models, and modernization trends. A comparative analysis reveals both shared characteristics and significant differences conditioned by typological distinctions between the Slavic and Turkic language families. The study demonstrates that professional nomenclature functions as a dynamic linguistic subsystem closely connected with societal changes.

ASPECTS OF THE DERIVATION WITH THE SUFFIX -IȘTE Abstract In this paper, I aimed to make a very rigorous inventory of derivatives with the suffix -iște from the Romanian language, thus recording over 160 lexemes. The suffix -iște in Romanian has Slavic origins. Derivatives with this suffix were created according to the Slavic model, following the structure of borrowings from Old Slavic, Old Bulgarian, or modern Slavic languages. The affix -iște is a substantive suffix, participating exclusively in the creation of feminine nouns. The first derivatives with the suffix -iște in Romanian date back to the 16th century, the suffix being unproductive at this stage and relatively active in the language in the 17th – 18th centuries. The most productive period of the suffix -iște is the 19th – 20th centuries. In the current Romanian language, the affix is totally unproductive. Moreover, it has become inactive in the lexemes already existing in the language, its value being replaced by synonymous suffixes such as: -iș, -ărie, -et, etc. Most derivatives with the suffix -iște are today old or regional.

This article explores the classification of motion verbs in Russian and Uzbek, focusing on semantic, aspectual, and morphological criteria. Motion verbs are central in expressing direction, manner, and the temporal structure of movement. In Russian, motion verbs are traditionally classified as unidirectional vs multidirectional, perfective vs imperfective, and single vs iterative. In Uzbek, classification relies on directional suffixes, serial verb constructions, and aspectual markers, reflecting the agglutinative nature of the language. Comparative analysis highlights both typological differences and functional similarities in how motion is represented across Slavic and Turkic languages.

Much of the research in simultaneous interpretation ('SI'), from its inception to this day, has been inspired by a fierce debate between two schools. One claims that SI is not affected by the structural asymmetries of the two languages, since what is transferred is meaning and not structures. The other claims that language‐specific differences lead to additional processing difficulties and a larger cognitive load in SI. Numerous experiments in support of the latter mostly involve a number of Germanic and Romance languages. This pilot study sets out to explore the impact of morpho‐syntactic asymmetries between English – a Germanic language – and three Slavic languages – Montenegrin, Russian and Bosnian – on the overall cognitive load in SI. The asymmetries selected for this experiment have to do primarily with aspect, but also a number of additional problem triggers, such as composite nominal phrases, names and numbers, are addressed. Input speeches and output audio recordings made by professional interpreters are analysed using two‐track recording in Audacity, a digital audio editor and recording software application. The insights are further refined by the authors' direct observation using audio recordings and their transcripts. The results point to a positive correlation between morpho‐syntactic asymmetries and the cognitive load in SI between English and the three Slavic languages. The pilot offers ideas for future, more extensive studies and shares observations on the processing difficulties and control of attentional resources in SI, with the potential pedagogical implications.

The paper discusses the first results of a linguistic expedition to Slavic communities made in the spring of 2025. The study seeks to to document the Slavic languages of migrants, establish the dialectal basis of the Slavic speech under study, and analyze the preservation and reflection in narratives of dialectal features typical for the region that the first Slavic migrants came from. The fieldwork was done using semi-structured interviews among Polish speakers in São Paulo, Bosnian speakers in Santos (Brazil), Croatian speakers in Santiago, Iquique, and Antofagasta (Chile), Russian, Belarusian, Polish, and Ukrainian speakers in Encarnación, Fram, and Coronel Bogado (Paraguay). All respondents are representatives of economic migration who settled in South America. The degree of influence of foreign language items, their level of adaptation, as well as cases of code-switching were analyzed using the comparative method based on oral interviews and the most representative statements that the respondents made in Slavic languages. The narratives discussed a variety of topics, including the language situation in the past and present, as well as cultural adaptation mechanisms within both spiritual and material aspects of culture. On the one hand, when Spanish and Portuguese words are adapted, phonetic features that are atypical for a specific Slavic language are eliminated. Morphological adaptation occurs by integrating into existing declension paradigms and by eliminating the unusual endings of words in the nominative case. On the other hand, there is interference from other languages. The linguistic competence of respondents varies; still, all of them use Spanish or Portuguese elements. The linguistic situation shows a similar trend everywhere: early on Slavic languages were used for communication within families, whereas today there has been a linguistic shift in favor of Spanish and Portuguese, which calls for preservation of the existing Slavic languages in the region.

Plant names (phytonyms) constitute a culturally dense and structurally diverse layer of the lexicon, where nomination strategies reflect both everyday experience with flora and the morphological resources of a language. This article explores how derivation participates in creating and expanding plant-name inventories in Uzbek, Turkish, and Russian. Building on a comparative-typological perspective, the study focuses on productive word-formation mechanisms that are especially visible in phytonyms: suffixation, compounding, multiword naming patterns, and hybrid formations where borrowed stems combine with native derivational formatives. The analysis demonstrates that Uzbek and Turkish, as agglutinative Turkic languages, tend to privilege transparent concatenation and regular suffixal models, while Russian, as a fusional Slavic language, shows high diversity of suffixal types and a strong role of evaluative and collective derivation. Across all three languages, semantic motivation (color, form, habitat, use) interacts with derivational formants, shaping stable naming templates that support lexicography, translation, and professional communication. The findings highlight the need to treat phytonyms not as isolated lexical items but as outcomes of patterned derivational choices constrained by typology and strengthened by cultural salience.

The article is devoted to Slavic adjectives which belong to the semantic field of low temperature. The first part presents names from this field with definitions contained in monolingual dictionaries of Slavic languages. Special attention is paid to explanations that describe the defined lexeme by referring it to another lexeme from the same field. Based on the relationships between the names of temperatures in modern languages, an attempt is made to determine the relationships in the Proto-Slavic language. The second part of the article attempts to compare the Slavic adjectives under study with their equivalents in other groups of Indo-European languages.

Research objectives: This case study aims to describe different modalities of inclusive language, i.e., gender-balanced, gender-sensitive, or gender-neutral language, which are used in the official communication of Comenius University Bratislava. We link these modalities with the results of an online survey carried out in August 2024, which showed how native Slovak speakers perceive inclusive alternatives for generic masculine nouns. Research method: A critical text analysis was performed on online statements of the faculty members of Comenius University Bratislava and the online survey on inclusive language. Process of argumentation: In the past decade, gender-sensitive or inclusive language has permeated the communication of many actors in civil society, be it the media, public institutions, or various associations. It reflects the post-structuralist idea that language is a tool of power and makes women invisible, especially in professional life and various other roles. In Romance and Slavic languages, the “invisibilization” is caused by generic masculine nouns. The implementation of forms other than the generic masculine is based on psycholinguistic research (mainly in the German language). According to these researchers, this leads to women becoming invisible in the language. Comenius University Bratislava adopted a gender equality plan, financed by EU-funded programs. The use of inclusive or gender-sensitive language is a part of this action plan. Research findings and their impact on the development of educational sciences: The critical analysis of online statements of Comenius University Bratislava and its faculty members shows that only in the Faculty of Arts and the Faculty of Pedagogy is gender-sensitive language systematically used (doublets or neuter nouns). The main information channel of the University and the profile of the Faculty of Law almost never apply inclusive language. The online survey which was carried out in August 2024 shows that the majority of Slovak native speakers consider the variants of gender-sensitive language (both lexical and graphical) to be strange and redundant. Conclusions and/or recommendations: According to the survey, the generic masculine form is perceived by the majority of Slovak native speakers as a neutral form which denotes both genders. These findings could be correlated with the use of inclusive language (especially split forms) in statements on the social networks of different faculties of Comenius University Bratislava. The reasons for this situation could be the fact that the administrators who author the content are not informed about the action plan adopted at the university level (about the use of inclusive or gender-balanced language) and continue to use the classical generic masculine forms of nouns because the split form bears the characteristics of non-conventionality. A major shift in the use of gender-sensitive language could be enacted by a top-down approach in academia, but this will not solve the practical questions related to its functionality in the stylistics of the Slovak language.

This study examines O. Suleimenov’s book “AZ i IA” (Me and Myself) in the context of key categories of comparative literary studies, which explore the dialogical relationships between different languages, literatures and cultures. The focus is on such fundamental concepts as the ‘principle of complementarity’ and the ‘equality of literatures,’ which make it possible to overcome the Eurocentrism of traditional comparative studies and establish the equality of all participants in interliterary interaction. The methodological basis of the study consists of hermeneutic text analysis, conceptual analysis of the main categories of comparative literary studies, and the historical-genetic method used to reconstruct the formation of scientific ideas. The novelty of the work lies in the fact that it establishes for the first time points of resonance between the ideas of the Kazakh thinker and the developments of Tatar scholars. The article proves that, despite the controversial nature of a number of etymologies, “AZ i IA” actualises the deep connections between Turkic and Slavic languages and cultures, acting as an intellectual alternative to dichotomous typologies and opening up new perspectives for interdisciplinary research. It has been established that the hermeneutics of The Tale of Igor’s Campaign, proposed by O.O. Suleimenov, reveals the epistemological potential of the ‘principle of complementarity’ of meanings, which is in demand in the study of interliterary dialogues. In his speeches and articles, O. Suleimenov, without denying the influence of Russian literature on other literatures of the peoples of the USSR, emphasised their equality. This resonates with the idea of the equality of literatures, according to which they begin to project a joint creative-receptive meaning that reveals, on the one hand, the universals of verbal art, and on the other, the potential of their ethnocultural identity.

This article discusses the most widespread types of hybrid texts in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The study analyses both original and translated texts produced by Slavs and ethnic minorities, namely Armenians, Tatars and Jews. Among the texts authored by Slavs, those written in prosta mova using the Latin alphabet hold a special place. As observed, one of the reasons for the shift of ethnic minorities to Slavic languages was to overcome dialectal differences. The prevalence of hybrid texts is the best confirmation of the multiethnicity and multilingualism of the Grand Duchy.

This article attempts to investigate comparatively the vowel systems of Russian, Polish, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Czech and Slovak through vowel dispersion theory (DT). The results show that only Belarusian does not violate DT, but the other languages violate this theory in two ways: Russian and Polish have the vowel /ɨ/, and Ukrainian has the vowel /ɪ/; Czech and Slovak formed short and long vowels in the same vowel space. The vowel prioritisation of these languages is not in line with Maddieson (1984) and Lindblom (1990).

Charlton Laird’s assertion that “dialectal peculiarities [...] can be used to describe how languages became what they are and which peoples went on to build what communities” suggests a deeper significance than the mere linguist’s fascination with the revelations of a semantic study. Indeed, he sug- gests that an archeology of language can prove extremely useful in conveying certain testimonies about a community that historical sources may have omit- ted. This aspect becomes even more evident when religious writings and com- munities are under discussion. Although the official establishment of the Archdiocese of Bucharest occurred at the late 19th century, in 1883, it is appropriate to consider that this process had its origins in the early years of that century, when Bishop Francisco Ferreri, in collaboration with a substantial number of Bulgarian Pavlichean Catholics, founded the village of Cioplea. Despite its modest size, the locality soon became the episcopal seat of the Diocese of Nicopole, thereby paving the way for juris- dictional autonomy. One of the pastoral urgencies of the clergy of foreign origin who served this community was to familiarise themselves with the dialect spoken by these believ- ers and to fix it in written form. Consequently, this dialect became a prevalent medium for religious texts, including prayer books, catechisms, and brochures disseminated within the community. The Pavlichean dialect – associated with what were considered Illyrian language – was distinguished by its affiliation to the Slavic language, yet it is written using the Latin alphabet. Beyond the mys- tery that still surrounds, in some cases, their authors or the degree of accuracy with which the written forms reflected the spoken language, their analysis will reveal that the Pavlichean dialect constituted a lexical infrastructure capable of supporting a substantial Catholic theology. If we consider the phenomenon of inculturation – of which Catholic missionary work during the Counter-Ref- ormation made use and proposed as a means of evangelisation – which some- times raised questions about the orthodoxy of the teaching transmitted within new cultures and through new languages, the present study will attempt to demonstrate that the Pavlichean dialect – part of a minor culture – did not encounter such a problem. Finally, the legacy of religious written sources in circulation at the time of the establishment of the Archdiocese of Bucharest, which has hitherto been over- looked by researchers, constitutes a veritable antitypos of the universal charac- ter of Catholicism, as will be explored in depth in the future Second Vatican Council.

The full-scale invasion, despite its devastating impact, has sparked a global surge of interest in Ukraine’s history, culture, traditions, language. Since 2022, over a million people worldwide have begun learning Ukrainian. This trend compels educators to adopt modern approaches and best practices to ensure effective language acquisition. There is now a pressing need for research into instructional materials that meet the educational demans of Ukrainian as a foreign language learners and optimize learning outcomes. Drawing on both theoretical frameworks for textbook development and personal teaching experience—including Crash Courses held in spring 2022 and 2023, as well as regular instruction at the University of Innsbruck— we developed an online manual titled “Discover Ukraine in the Ukrainian language” (“Відкрий Україну українською”) for German-speaking beginners at A1 level.The textbook is structured into into two main components : (1) a phonetic introduction with explanations and exercisers, and (2) a core course comprising nine lessons, along with a glossary. The textbook was piloted during the summer semester of 2023 at the University of Innsbruck, receiving positive feedback from both students and Slavonic language lecturers. The results of this implementation suggest that the manual effectively supports UFL instruction by fostering an engaging, content-rich learning environment.

This article seeks to answer two puzzling questions regarding the lexical domain of pride in the Polish lan-guage. First, how the words duma and dumny came to mean ‘pride’ and ‘proud’, while equivalent words in other Slavic languages have meanings related to thinking and speaking. Second, how the words pycha and pyszny, whose original meanings were ‘excessive pride’, ‘vainglory’, and ‘haughty’, conceited, came to mean something delicious and delicious. Using data from linguistic corpora from different epochs in the history of Polish, I argue that at the beginning of the 16th century, a valorization of pride took place. Increased self-awareness made it possible for people to take pride in their achievements, previously seen as signs of God’s favor.Thus, pride was both linguistically (it is impossible to use pyszny or hardy with a cause, as pycha is deeply linked with ‘magnificence’ and hardość with ‘indomitability’), and morally incompatible with the Polish language of the time (pycha being a deadly sin) and thus a new word was needed to express it. I show that the meaning of pycha and pyszny appears quite stable until the 19th century. During that time, its usage shifts slightly from primarily human-centered (‘haughty’, ‘conceited’) to non-human centered (‘magnifi-cent’). During the 19th century, the meaning further extends to ‘very good’ or ‘excellent’, and the adjective is used with a wider set of nouns, including abstract concepts. Then, in the 20th century the meaning narrows down further to just ‘excellent in taste’. This might have been motivated by the shift of the derived noun pyszność/pyszności, as there is evidence that the noun was used in the sense of ‘delicious goods’ before the adjective, and by the ambiguity of sentences where pyszny modifies meals as it is uncertain if the intended meaning corresponds to ‘opulent’, ‘magnificent’, or to delicious.

The article analyses the dynamics of multilingualism in Senegal in a postcolonial context, with particular emphasis on the teaching of Slavic languages, especially Russian and Polish. It highlights that language policy in Senegal is shaped not only by local communicative needs but also by global power relations, diplomacy, and political strategies. The text underscores the growing role of the Russian language in Senegal’s educational system, supported by institutions and scholarships. Russian is taught at Cheikh Anta Diop University (UCAD) and in many secondary schools, where it is gaining popularity and is often associated with narratives of Russia’s strength and independence. Against this background, the text examines the place of Polish as a foreign language, which is taught as a supplementary subject with limited institutional support, maintained mainly by individual lecturers, informal networks, and the small Polish diaspora. Methodologically, the study is based on ethnographic fieldwork, participant observation, and interviews with students, teachers, and members of the diaspora in Dakar. The asymmetric position of Russian and Polish in Senegal’s educational system demonstrates that languages function as resources of power and as spaces for the development of various forms of politicality.

This paper presents the phonetic and phonological features of Bosanska Ljekaruša (Pomoča od svake bolesti koi ima) from 18th century. Ljekaruša is a term that refers to folk remedy books which usually contain plant-based medical recipes and verbal healing practices such as prayers, incantations and amulets. This manuscript is preserved in the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Belgrade. Bosanska Ljekaruša was found in Bosnia, from which it derives its geographically motivated name. The manuscript consists of 30 pages and it includes recipes for the treatment of 47 human ailments and one ailment affecting domestic animals. Research demonstrates that the phonetic features of the Bosnian ljekaruša primarily correspond to the Serbian vernacular, and that, in addition, certain phonetic features are characteristics of the Russian Church Slavonic language. This is best illustrated by the fact that the preposition *vъ- and the prefixes *vъ- и *vъz- have the reflex /u/; vocalic /r/ exhibits Serbian phonetic features; final /l/ shifts to /o/; the consonant /h/ is lost in some instances; the results of Old iotation show the dental /t/ as /ć/. The reflex of the long yat is predominantly ijekavian, although ikavian and (possibly) ekavian reflexes are also attested. The short yat most frequently shows a jekavian reflex, except in the group /re/ and in the prefix /ne-/ in indefinite pronominal forms. Russian Church Slavonic features are less frequent and primarily concern the Russian Church Slavonic vocalization of semi-vowels and the reflex of vocalic /r/. In conclusion, the structure of the excerpted material does not provide reliable isoglosses on the basis of which the speech type present here could be precisely determined.

This paper is devoted to the analysis of diachronic changes in meanings and argument structure of seven mental verbs in the history of the Croatian language. The frequency of coding patterns of mental verbs in the Old Croatian and Contemporary Croatian corpora is compared to detect these changes. Detected changes in coding patterns and verb meanings are contrasted with other old and contemporary Slavic languages 1) to determine common features in argument coding of examined mental verbs in other old Slavic languages and 2) to identify contemporary Slavic languages that share properties of argument coding and verb meaning with the Contemporary Croatian. The same grammaticalization processes of verb znati ‘to know’ and loss of reflexive marking in coding patterns of verbs of learning took place not only in the history of the Croatian language but also in most other South Slavic languages.

The goal is translation strategies used in authoritative translations of A.S. Pushkin’s works into Italian. Using three translations of Pushkin’s works - the poems The Prophet , I Loved you ..., and an excerpt from The Bronze Horseman - included in the bilingual Anthology of Russian Poetry (Antologia della Poesia Russa) edited by S. Garzonio and G. Carpi (2004), three translation strategies are analyzed. It is argued that while Pushkin’s contemporary and his first Italian translator M. Ricci strives for precision and stylistic fidelity to the original, his younger contemporary A. Canini significantly reworks the text, bringing it closer to the song tradition and, in fact, creating a variation on the theme; M. Colucci’s translation reflects an approach based on a philological study of the text and illustrates the principles adhered to by most modern Italian translators from Slavic languages. The article touches upon the problems of conveying poetic form, language and style, the appropriateness of archaization and its methods, taking into account the potential readership and the need to provide the text with commentary. A comparison of the three translations allows us to conclude that this anthology is a valuable source of information not only about the history of Russian poetry, but also about the history of its translation in Italy, about the practice of poetic translation in general and about the most talented translators; it can be used within the framework of a course in the history and theory of literary translation.