Victor A. Friedman

This project yields new knowledge in Balkan linguistics; contributes to interdisciplinary conversations on language contact and identity issues in the humanities and social sciences by filling a gap in the existing literature; and brings the results to speakers of the languages as well as to academic and policy communities. The main research is on language and identity in the Balkans, with a focus on Macedonia as macrocosm, Skopje as microcosm, and the towns of the western periphery as mesocosm linking the two. Dissemination will also be achieved by academic and popular lectures and articles. The work builds on previous research with the crucial addition of the significance of peripheral towns in the linguistic shaping of the metropole.