K podobám a funkcii dialektu na východnom Slovensku v ére globalizácie
On dialect forms and their current function in Eastern Slovakia in the era of globalisation

Summary/Abstract: The paper examines new ways of employing dialect in public domains in Eastern Slovakia, both on the internet (in terms of digital diglossia) and in small businesses off-line. It challenges the opinion that globalisation and digitalization have a negative impact on the use of small languages and dialects and gives numerous examples of eastern Slovakia dialects used in less traditional discourse, calling into play the theory of long tail languages and the principles of localization. The author also points out the tendency of people to abandon dialect in everyday private communication in favour of Standard Slovak and the weakening of traditional diglossia in the area. Referring to the concepts of language shift, code-switching, crossing and passing, it analyses the reasons as well as consequences of such language behaviour with dialect being often replaced by interdialect (koiné) or standard forms. It addresses the motivation behind using either dialect or koiné in such (con)texts, discussing whether it is the appeal to regional identity, both cultural and linguistic, or rather the means of adding higher expressivity and originality to the utterances. The author concludes that new public domains and written forms of usage might give dialect a fresh start and the hope that in Eastern Slovakia it will not disappear any time soon.

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