LEXICAL INTERFERENCE IN THE VOJVODINIAN VARIETY OF HUNGARIAN

Abstract

The concept of interference in linguistics refers to the phenomenon of one of two contact languages having a disturbing effect on the other. It is most common in heterogeneous national and linguistic communities. In the beginning it is the mother tongue which has a negative influence on the acquisition of the foreign or environmental language, whereas later the second language affects the use of the mother tongue. It is of utmost importance to address the issue of interference in Vojvodina and to monitor its tendencies. The paper presents interference phenomena affecting Hungarian as a minority language in Vojvodina, with special regard to lexical influences. This time it does not only tackle the issue of the excessive inflow and adaptation of Serbian words, but rather looks into the calquing of phraseological units and the extension of the meaning of the already existing Hungarian idiomatic expressions under Serbian language influence.