Processes of Spread for Syntactic Constructions in the Balkans

Although scholarly attention concerning the spread of linguistic features in the Balkans has generally been focused on their spread from one language into another, there is another important dimension to consider, namely how innovative features spread within speech communities. In fact, such internal spread is crucial to understanding the general processes by which Sprachbünde arise, for if a feature of external origin finds no extension within a potential receiving language, there really is no innovation to speak of. Thus, three examples are discussed here which illustrate different dimensions of the spread of syntactic constructions within one Balkan speech community, that of the Greek-speaking world. The “parachuting” type of spread is illustrated by the loss of the infinitive in Greek, with special attention to the realization of that feature in Constantinople Jewish Greek, and internal spread is exemplified by two cases, in Bulgarian and in Greek, of analogical generalization of a pattern that may have originated through language