Ronelle Alexander, Distinguished Professor Emerita

Email

http://www.bcsgrammarandtextbook.org/Grammar/author.shtml

http://bulgariandialectology.org/

Ph.D. Harvard University (Slavic Languages and Literatures).

Teaching: South Slavic languages (Bulgarian, Macedonian, BCS [Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian]); literatures of the former Yugoslavia; Yugoslav cultural history; South Slavic linguistics; Balkan folkore; East Slavic folklore. Recent graduate seminars include Balkan linguistics, South Slavic sociolinguistics, Slavic folklore theory.

Research interests: Balkan Slavic (especially Bulgarian) dialectology; language and ethnicity in the Balkans; the language of South Slavic oral epic; Balkan linguistics and language contact.

Current projects: (1) “Bulgarian Dialectology as Living Tradition”, a compendium of field recordings made over two decades keyed for analysis both of linguistic features and cultural content; (2) Continuing analysis of recordings made in the 1930s of South Slavic epic singers, with the goal of contrasting spoken language and sung language; (3) Continuing analysis of the language situation in the former Yugoslavia.

Publications:

Books

  • Bulgarian Dialects: Living Village Speech in the Digital Age. Bloomington” Slavica Publishers, 2022 (co-authored with Vladimir Zhobov)
  • Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian: A Textbook with Exercises and Basic Grammar, Second Edition. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2010 (co-authored with Ellen Elias-Bursać)
  • Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian: A Grammar with Sociolinguistic Commentary. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2006
  • Revitalizing Bulgarian Dialectology. Berkeley: GAIA Books: Global, Area, and International Archive, 2004 (co-edited with Vladimir Zhobov)
  • In Honor of Diversity: the Linguistic Riches of the Balkans (The Kenneth E. Naylor Memorial Lecture Series in South Slavic Linguistics, no. 2). Columbus: Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Literatures, Ohio State University, 2000
  • Intensive Bulgarian, A Textbook and Reference Grammar, 2 vols. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2000
  • The Structure of Vasko Popa’s Poetry (UCLA Slavic Studies 14). Columbus: Slavica, 1985. Serbian translation: Struktura poezije Vaska Pope (Studije o Srbama 7). Beograd: Vukova zadužbina, Orfelin; Novi Sad: Matica Srpska, 1996
  • Torlak Accentuation (Slavistische Beiträge 94). Munich: Otto Sagner, 1975
  • Slavistische Beitraege 94. Munich: Otto Sagner, 1975.

Selected Articles

  • “Clitics, Particles, and Phrases in Bulgarian and Balkan Slavic Dialects”, Balkanistica 33 (2020), 213-219
  • “Diatopy and frequency as indicators of spread: Accentuation in Bulgarian dialects”, Perspectives on Language Structure and Language Change, ed. L. Heltoft et al. Amsterdam: John Benjamins (2019), pp. 327-344
  • “Language and Identity: The Fate of Serbo-Croatian”, Entangled Balkans, v. 1, ed. R Daskalov & T. Marinov. Brill Publishers (2013), pp. 341-417. Bulgarian translation: Ezik i identičnost: sŭdbata na sŭrboxŭrvatskija ezik. Prepletenite istorii na Balkanite: Nacionalni ideologii i ezikovi politiki, tom 1. Sofia: Nov bŭlgarski universitet.
  • “What is naš? Conceptions of “the Other” in the prose of Ivo Andrić”, Slavia iaponica 16 (2013): 7-36.
  • “Convergence and Causation in Balkan Slavic”, Balkanismen heute – Balkanisms Today – Балканизмы сегодня, ed. T. Kahl et al [= Balkanologie, Beiträge zur Sprach- und Kulturwissenschaft, Band 3], Vienna – Berlin: LIT Verlag (2012), pp. 39-45.
  • “Vasko Popa and the Stargazer’s Legacy”, Puzzles of Language: Essays in Honor of Karl Zimmer ( = Turcologica 86), ed. E. Erguvanli-Taylan & B. Rona, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag (2011), pp. 235-246.
  • “What Is Second Position, Anyway? BCS Clitics Revisited”, A Linguist’s Linguist: Studies in South Slavic Linguistics in Honor of E. Wayles Browne, ed. S. Franks et al., Bloomington: Slavica (2009), pp. 43-67.
  • “New Conclusions on the Conclusive”, Journal of Slavic Linguistics 17 (2009): 61-85 (co-authored with Vladimir Zhobov)
  • “Rhythmic Structure Constituents and Clitic Placement in Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian”, American Contributions to the Fourteenth International Congress of Slavists v. I, ed. C. Bethin, Bloomington: Slavica (2008), 1-19.
  • “Serbo-Croatian Dialectology Revisited”, Harvard Ukrainian Studies 28 (2006), pp. 45-55
  • “Does Serbo-Croatian Dialectology Still Exist?”, Jazyki i dialekty malyx etničeskix grupp na Balkanax, ed. A. Sobolev & A. Rusakov, St.Petersburg – Marburg (2005), pp. 30-42.
  • “Bridging the Descriptive Chasm, the Bulgarian ‘Generalized Past’” Indiana Slavic Studies 12 (2001), 13-42.
  • “Tracking Sprachbund Boundaries, Word Order in the Balkans”, Studies in Slavic and General Linguistics 28(2000), 9-27.
  • “Narrative Voice and Listener’s Choice in the Prose of Ivo Andrić”, Ivo Andrić Revisited, the Bridge Still Stands, ed. W. Vucinich, Berkeley: International and Area Studies (1996), pp. 200-218. Serbian translation: “Govor pripovedača i izbor slušaocima u prozi Ive Andrić”, Sveske Zadužbine Ive Andrića 15/12 (1996), 231-252
  • “The Balkanization of Wackernagel’s Law”, Indiana Slavic Studies 7 (1995): 1-8
  • “The ‘Tension of Essences’ in South Slavic Epic”, O Rus! Studia litteraria slavica in honorem Hugh McLean. Berkeley Slavic Specialties, ed. S. Karlinsky et al. (1995), pp. 153-165
  • “Remarks on the Evolution of South Slavic Prosodic Systems”, American Contributions to the Eleventh International Congress of Slavists, ed. R. Maguire and A. Timberlake (1993), pp. 181-201
  • “Timeless and Timebound in Serbian History, Vasko Popa’s “Uspravna zemlja”, International Journal of Slavic Linguistics and Poetics 31-32 (1985), pp. 41-58
  • “Directions of Morphophonemic Change in Balkan Slavic, the Accentuation of the Present Tense”, American Contributions to the Ninth International Congress of Slavists, vol. 1, Columbus: Slavica (1983), pp. 9-49.