Creating a Questionnaire for a Field Study of Divergence and Convergence of Traditions in the Central Balkans: Methodological Issues and First Outcomes

This article analyses the methodological aspect of creating and using a linguistic and anthropological questionnaire, which is to serve as an effective tool for the parallel solution of several multidirectional tasks in the framework of the international research project "(Dis-)entangling Traditions on the Central Balkans: Performance and Perception" (TraCeBa). The introduction describes the main objectives of this project, which are: (1) creation of an electronic corpus of dialect speech containing the narratives written down in the Torlak (East Serbian and West Bulgarian) dialects separated by the state border; (2) analysis and prediction of cultural and linguistic divergence in the region, taking into account the influence of natural, political and cultural borders on genetically unified Western Bulgarian and Eastern Serbian dialects, as well as on the native speakers' perception of their language; (3) creation of tools for quantitative processing (morphological analysis, annotation) of the Southern Slavic dialect speech. In the main part of the article, the questionnaire is presented in several versions, including or excluding such modules as: a test for identifying dialect competencies of a speaker; thematic blocks (main questionnaire); an extended (ethnolinguistic) version of the questionnaire. Substantially, thematic blocks overlap with the latter, but only in the part that correlates with the formal theoretical framework of the TraCeBa project. Unlike the extended version, the main questionnaire does not cover the entire spectrum of the studied communities' anthropological reality. There are also structural differences: in the thematic blocks, the way of presenting information differs from a simple list of questions and matches more precisely the format of a semi-structured interview, during which sensitive (or even problematic) topics can be discussed. In conclusion, the advantages and disadvantages of the created fieldwork tool are described, taking into account the experience of applying it during expeditions to Western Bulgaria in 2018-2019. Among the advantages, there are: high applicability in the modern-day situation, as it does not necessarily require deep and detailed knowledge in the field of traditional culture from interviewees (in comparison with classical ethnolinguistic questionnaires), as well as the ability to effectively work with a limited amount of informants who still actively speak the dialect. On the other hand, a certain detachment of the local history part of the questionnaire from the real people's knowledge should be mentioned. Even the oldest community members' memory interrupts on the 1920s-1930s, without getting closer to an important aspect of the project, i.e. the Serbian-Bulgarian armed conflicts and the establishment of a new border between the two Balkan states. All considered, the experience of using the questionnaire showed that multiple tasks can be successfully fulfilled with the help of the created fieldwork tool.

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