Dialect Words of the Croatian Coastal Region

Dialectical words of the Croatian coast are studied without regard to the dominant Serbo-Croatian dialects (Cakavian or Stokavian). It is shown that such dialectical words do not belong to a particular dialect or speech community, but rather to a given area. This argument is framed in terms of overarching "semantemes" that can be expressed as individual lexemes. Examples of such areal dialect words (eg, galerija 'tunnel' & finetak 'end') are provided. It is asserted that the dialect word & its specific prosodic & phonological features should be associated first & foremost with the idiom in a lexicon. Adapted from the source document