Lexical sustainability in the Boka Kotorska dialects

Abstract This study examines the Romance lexical layer in the coastal dialects of southern Montenegro, approaching the phenomenon from typological, historical, and pragmatic perspectives. Drawing on original dialectological fieldwork, archival sources, and comparative analysis, it establishes a classification of borrowings according to etymological origin (Latin, Venetian, modern Italian), sociolinguistic function (intimate vs. cultural borrowings), and degree of morphophonological and semantic integration. The analysis highlights processes of adaptation, hybridization, and pragmatic reinterpretation, while also documenting ongoing lexical erosion under the pressures of standardization, migration, and intergenerational rupture. The study advances the argument that the sustainability of dialectal lexicon is inseparable from the sustainability of culture: when words disappear, they take with them embedded knowledge, social practices, and affective registers that cannot be restored by archival preservation alone. By framing dialectology as both a descriptive and an ethical practice, the paper calls for an engaged approach to documenting and sustaining fragile linguistic heritage in peripheral multilingual contact zones.