A Review of E. D. Bondarenko, Naivnaya lingvistika i dialektnoe yazykovoe soznanie [“Naive Linguistics”and Dialect Consciousness]. Moscow: Indrik, 2021, 584 pp.

Abstract

The book is based on an analysis of metalinguistic comments by native speakers of different dialects. These remarks concern both self-descriptions and the language of neighbors. The approach is relatively new for Russian dialectology: folk linguists’ perceptions of dialectal variation have not been considered before. The study provides the first systematic description of beliefs about Russian dialects and includes a large volume of new field data. It can provide important insights on speaker opinions and attitudes about language and the constructions of local identity.