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Language interference is common in today’s multilingual societies where more languages are in contact, and as a global result leads to the creation of hybrid languages. These, together with doubts on their right to be officially recognised, emerged the problem of their automatic identification and further elaboration in the area of computational linguistics. In this paper, we propose a first attempt to identify the elements of a Ukrainian-Russian hybrid language, Surzhyk, through the adoption of the example-based rules created with the instruments of programming language R. Our example-based study consists of: 1) analysis of spoken samples of Surzhyk registered by Del Gaudio (2010) in Kyiv area and creation of the written corpus; 2) production of specific rules on the identification of Surzhyk patterns and their implementation; 3) testing the code and analysing the effectiveness of the hybrid language classifier.

This study of Media Lengua examines production differences between mid and high vowels in order to identify the major correlates that distinguish these vowel types. The Media Lengua vowel system is unusual in that it incorporates lexical items originating in Spanish’s five-vowel system into a three-vowel system inherited from Quichua, resulting in high degrees of overlap between the front versus back, mid and high vowel pairs /e, i/ and /o, u/ in F1xF2 space. As Media Lengua speakers utilize and differentiate between all five vowels despite the large degree of acoustic overlap between mid and high vowels, this raises the question of what other correlates beyond F1 and F2 might be involved. To address this, our study looks at a range of variables, both acoustic and qualitative, in a multi-method approach using both factor analysis for mixed data and linear mixed effects regression modelling. Each method provides a unique view on the correlates of vowel differentiation in Media Lengua. Taken together, our results indicate that Media Lengua speakers rely on both social and linguistic contextual cues to distinguish mid from high vowels, which overlap in acoustic space (F1 and F2).

Ponašymu – the mixed language code of Těšín Silesia This article describes the development of the linguistic situation in the border region of Těšín Silesia throughout its history, with particular emphasis on the so-called ponašymu – a mixed language code used in the Czech part of the region. It is based on a random combination of forms of the traditional Těšín dialect with the standard Czech language and, to a lesser extent, elements borrowed from the Polish and Slovak languages and from neighbouring Moravian dialects. An important element of the study is the analysis of selected material collected by the author during fieldwork in August 2018. Ponašymu – mieszany kod językowy czeskiego Śląska Cieszyńskiego Artykuł opisuje rozwój sytuacji językowej w pogranicznym regionie Śląska Cieszyńskiego na przestrzeni dziejów, ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem tzw. ponašymu – mieszanego kodu językowego używanego w czeskiej części regionu. Oparty jest on na dowolnym łączeniu form tradycyjnego śląskiego dialektu cieszyńskiego ze standardowym językiem czeskim i w mniejszym stopniu elementami zapożyczonymi z języka polskiego, słowackiego i sąsiednich gwar morawskich. Ważnym elementem pracy jest analiza wybranych materiałów zebranych przeze mnie w trakcie badań terenowych w sierpniu 2018 r.