The Slavic 'da' and its Balkan Peculiarities

Abstract

The aim of this article is the analysis of the Slavic 'da', its derivates and distribution, from Proto-Slavic to modern Slavic languages, with particular emphasis on the Serbo-Croatian diasystem. The main assumption made by the author is the optativity of the South Slavic 'da', which constitutes a so-called syntactic Balkanism. The present study offers a concise presentation of the Slavic 'da', including both the dictionary data and the author's own interpretation of the role of this grammatical particle in the South Slavic languages.