Our Farewell

The essay describes the founding and first period of operation of the journal Slovenski jezik / Slovene Linguistic Studies as the founding editors hand the journal to a new editorial team.ZRC SAZU, Ljubljana and Hall Center for the Humanities, University of Kansas

On the Language of the Medieval Slavic Population in the Area between the Danube and the Adriatic (from a Linguistic Perspective)

The essay responds to historians and archaeologists using linguistic data to enrich or justify their explanations about populations in the past, focusing on the language of the Slavic population between the Danube and the Adriatic Sea at the turn of the first millennium AD and its differentiation from the languages of other groups of Slavs for the purpose of clarifying both the precepts and practice of historical and comparative linguistics as well as demonstrating the intricate argumentation needed to draw conclusions from the linguistic data. As such, the article attempts to contribute to a better understanding of linguistic reconstruction, relying not just on the comparative method, but on the application of other methods, including the insights of geo- and sociolinguistics. The authors take a post-modernist perspective, meaning that as scholars they are and should be aware of their own historical viewpoint; thus, following Benedict Anderson’s view of the nation as an imagined community, historical linguists (and others) must avoid the pitfall of blithely projecting the imagined communities of the nineteenth, twentieth, or twenty-first centuries onto the past. While this means that a speech community and an ethnicity (the latter being a mental construct) are matters of a different order, it does not mean that they are unrelated. Rather, linguistic innovation, reflected in the rise of isoglosses, is an index of group formation. It remains for linguists, anthropologists, historians, and archaeologists to interpret this complex relationship. Part of the confusion in using the results of historical linguistic interpretation comes from traditional professional jargon, which is used with heterogeneous meanings even inside the linguistic field, leaving open the possibility of (understandable, if regrettable) misapprehension outside of it. Thus, terms like “Proto-Slavic” and “Common Slavic,” which can refer variously to periodization with or without regard to internal dialect differentiation, might lead an external observer to assume that the language was uniform before the appearance of “national” languages. The view from within the linguistic field has become more sophisticated with time. While the use of the comparative method of the nineteenth century is still a valid and central tool for linguistic reconstruction, additional tools add much more subtlety to linguistic reconstruction. In particular, advances in sociolinguistics help us to consider not just language change as a process, but one in which speakers shape language in relation to their group identity. An illustration of this is the example of “rhotacism” in South Slavic languages. The comparative method indicates a uniform conditioned change of ž > r throughout the South Slavic area by the 11th c. AD. By the 14th century, however, in most lexical categories in which the change occurred, it was reversed in South Slavic speech communities associated with the Byzantine confessional style and reinforced in those associated with the Roman rite. Such para-comparative techniques can also help linguists dig further into the past. So, for example, an early phono-semantic innovation *gъlčěti : *mъlčěti ‘make noise’ : ‘be silent’ > ‘speak’ : ‘be silent’ was carried from an emergent dialect of (pre-migration) Proto-Slavic and is now distributed in three disparate regions—central Russia, central Bulgaria, and north-eastern Slovenia. Philology, too, has its contribution to make to understanding speech communities as communities of practice as oral traditions yield to written ones. We note, for example, a promising trend in the literature which investigates the process of written traditions that require the intervention of individuals and groups that over time negotiate the features of emergent literary languages, e.g., Trubars awareness of a coherent reading public for his liturgical translations and“Illyrianism” before the Illyrian movement, which precede the appearance of modern European national languages of the nineteenth century. The second half covers the primarily phonological linguistic innovations in the relevant geographical space up to the end of the first millennium AD. From the Freising Folia and contemporary onomastic data we learn that this language had by then carried through these innovations: (1) liquid metathesis, (2) the change d’ > j (3) the change t’ > k’ (or even ć), (4) contraction, (5) fronting of y > i (except after labials) and that the following processes were underway: (6) assimilation of tv > t, (7) rhotacism, as well as, possibly, (8) the forward shift of the Proto-Slavic circumflex; moreover, we find in this language an important archaism, i.e., (9) the retention of the consonant cluster dl. Though the majority of these processes are common to at least the Kajkavian and Čakavian dialect continuum, innovations (6), (8), as well as the archaism (9) are exclusive to Slovene. The differential features between Slavic idioms around the year 1000, which must be understood as parts of systems, were few in number – as one would expect—yet they were irreversible and thus decisive in that they determine a speech territory from which Slovene dialects, and not others, were to develop, as further philological evidence also affirms. From this evidence the conclusion follows that the Freising Folia and contemporary onomastic evidence belong to the Slovene linguistic continuum, for which reason the term Old Slovene is warranted. The terminology is based on (1) the general practice of naming the oldest evidence of a particular idiom with the name of the present-day language that continues it, adding the qualifier “Old”; (2) the linguistically determined fact that only today’s Slovene dialects could develop from the idiom in question; and (3) the consensus of linguists that crystallized through debates in the second half of the 20th century, the principal ones being adduced in the article. Our knowledge of a past idiom in time and space is founded on a comparative linguistic analysis of extant texts and other linguist material, enriched by the results of geo and sociolinguistics, which permit a more nuanced interpretation of the facts. Since the appearance of linguistic innovations require a community in which such innovations carry prestige value, it follows from our analysis the synthesis that in the relevant time and space there was a community with its own identity that as such had differentiated itself from other, neighboring Slavic communities, i.e., Štokavian and Czech-Moravian-Slovak as well as, to a lesser extent, Kajkavian and Čakavian. At the frontiers of these communities of identity in the following centuries isoglosses continued to bundle, representing ever more palpable disjunctures in the dialect continuum; these may be innovations of a progressive nature, static archaisms, or even regressive phenomena, such as the reversal of rhotacism. At the time of the cultivation of standard languages, the borders of these communities of identity were recognized as the linguistic borders

Uvodna beseda / From the Editors

Programmatic essay by the founding editors, Marko Snoj (Ljubljana, Slovenia) and Marc L. Greenberg (Lawrence, KS, USA), for the inaugural issue of the periodical Slovenski jezik / Slovene Linguistic Studies

A Word from the Editors

Introductory essay on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of publication of the journal Slovenski jezik/Slovene Linguistic Studies

Open Access 101: Access to Your Work and the Works You Need to Build on

This event is an RSVP pizza lunch for graduate student to learn more about the benefits of open access for them and for academe in general. Presenters: Lorraine Haricombe, Dean of KU Libraries; A. Townsend Peterson, Distinguished Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology; Marc L. Greenberg, chair of KU's Slavic Languages & Literatures department; Marko Snoj, director of the Fran Ramovš Institute for Slovene Language of the Scientific Research Center of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Ljubljana, Slovenia; and Ada Emmett, Scholarly Communications program head, KU Libraries

PFAS levels and determinants of variability in exposure in European teenagers - Results from the HBM4EU aligned studies (2014-2021)

Background: Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are man-made fluorinated chemicals, widely used in various types of consumer products, resulting in their omnipresence in human populations. The aim of this study was to describe current PFAS levels in European teenagers and to investigate the determinants of serum/plasma concentrations in this specific age group. Methods: PFAS concentrations were determined in serum or plasma samples from 1957 teenagers (12-18 years) from 9 European countries as part of the HBM4EU aligned studies (2014-2021). Questionnaire data were post-harmonized by each study and quality checked centrally. Only PFAS with an overall quantification frequency of at least 60% (PFOS, PFOA, PFHxS and PFNA) were included in the analyses. Sociodemographic and lifestyle factors were analysed together with food consumption frequencies to identify determinants of PFAS exposure. The variables study, sex and the highest educational level of household were included as fixed factors in the multivariable linear regression models for all PFAS and each dietary variable was added to the fixed model one by one and for each PFAS separately. Results: The European exposure values for PFAS were reported as geometric means with 95% confidence intervals (CI): PFOS [2.13 μg/L (1.63-2.78)], PFOA ([0.97 μg/L (0.75-1.26)]), PFNA [0.30 μg/L (0.19-0.45)] and PFHxS [0.41 μg/L (0.33-0.52)]. The estimated geometric mean exposure levels were significantly higher in the North and West versus the South and East of Europe. Boys had significantly higher concentrations of the four PFAS compared to girls and significantly higher PFASs concentrations were found in teenagers from households with a higher education level. Consumption of seafood and fish at least 2 times per week was significantly associated with 21% (95% CI: 12-31%) increase in PFOS concentrations and 20% (95% CI: 10-31%) increase in PFNA concentrations as compared to less frequent consumption of seafood and fish. The same trend was observed for PFOA and PFHxS but not statistically significant. Consumption of eggs at least 2 times per week was associated with 11% (95% CI: 2-22%) and 14% (95% CI: 2-27%) increase in PFOS and PFNA concentrations, respectively, as compared to less frequent consumption of eggs. Significantly higher PFOS concentrations were observed for participants consuming offal (14% (95% CI: 3-26%)), the same trend was observed for the other PFAS but not statistically significant. Local food consumption at least 2 times per week was associated with 40% (95% CI: 19-64%) increase in PFOS levels as compared to those consuming local food less frequently. Conclusion: This work provides information about current levels of PFAS in European teenagers and potential dietary sources of exposure to PFAS in European teenagers. These results can be of use for targeted monitoring of PFAS in food.This work was supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant agreement No 733032 HBM4EU (www.HBM4EU.eu), and received co-funding from the authors’ organizations: Riksmaten Adolescents: Riksmaten Adolescents was performed by the Swedish Food Agency with financial support from the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency and the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency. NEB II: The Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH) has contributed to funding of the Norwegian Environmental Biobank (NEB). The laboratory measurements have partly been funded by the Research Council of Norway through research projects (275903 and 268465) PCB cohort follow-up: PCB cohort follow-up received additional funding from the Ministry of Health of the Slovak Republic, program 07B0103. BEA: BEA study was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (SEG 1321/15) SLO-CRP: The Slovenian SLO-CRP study was co-financed by the Jozef Stefan Institute program P1- 0143, and a national project “Exposure of children and adolescents to selected chemicals through their habitat environment” (grant agreement No. C2715-16-634802). CROME: CROME study was co-funded by the European Commission research funds of Horizon 2020. ESTEBAN: ESTEBAN study was funded by Santé Publique France and the French ministries of Health and the Environment. GerES V-sub: The funding of the German Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection is gratefully acknowledged. FLEHS IV: The Flemish Center of Expertise on Environment and Health is funded by the Government of Flanders, Department of Environment & Spatial Development.S

Approaches to mixture risk assessment of PFASs in the European population based on human hazard and biomonitoring data

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are a highly persistent, mobile, and bioaccumulative class of chemicals, of which emissions into the environment result in long-lasting contamination with high probability for causing adverse effects to human health and the environment. Within the European Biomonitoring Initiative HBM4EU, samples and data were collected in a harmonized way from human biomonitoring (HBM) studies in Europe to derive current exposure data across a geographic spread. We performed mixture risk assessments based on recent internal exposure data of PFASs in European teenagers generated in the HBM4EU Aligned Studies (dataset with N = 1957, sampling years 2014-2021). Mixture risk assessments were performed based on three hazard-based approaches: the Hazard Index (HI) approach, the sum value approach as used by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the Relative Potency Factor (RPF) approach. The HI approach resulted in the highest risk estimates, followed by the RPF approach and the sum value approach. The assessments indicate that PFAS exposure may result in a health risk in a considerable fraction of individuals in the HBM4EU teenager study sample, thereby confirming the conclusion drawn in the recent EFSA scientific opinion. This study underlines that HBM data are of added value in assessing the health risks of aggregate and cumulative exposure to PFASs, as such data are able to reflect exposure from different sources and via different routes.This work was supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant agreement No 733032 HBM4EU (www.HBM4EU.eu), and received co-funding from the au thors’ organizations. The Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH) has contributed to funding of the Norwegian Environmental Biobank (NEB), and the laboratory measurements have partly been funded by the Research Council of Norway through research projects (275903 and 268465). The PCB cohort (follow-up) received additional funding from the Ministry of Health of the Slovak Republic (program 07B0103).S

Subchondral Bone Trabecular Integrity Predicts and Changes Concurrently with Radiographic and MRI Determined Knee Osteoarthritis Progression

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate subchondral bone trabecular integrity (BTI) on radiographs as a predictor of knee osteoarthritis (OA) progression. METHODS: Longitudinal (baseline, 12-month, and 24-month) knee radiographs were available for 60 female subjects with knee OA. OA progression was defined by 12- and 24-month changes in radiographic medial compartment minimal joint space width (JSW) and medial joint space area (JSA), and by medial tibial and femoral cartilage volume on magnetic resonance imaging. BTI of the medial tibial plateau was analyzed by fractal signature analysis using commercially available software. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves for BTI were used to predict a 5% change in OA progression parameters. RESULTS: Individual terms (linear and quadratic) of baseline BTI of vertical trabeculae predicted knee OA progression based on 12- and 24-month changes in JSA (P < 0.01 for 24 months), 24-month change in tibial (P < 0.05), but not femoral, cartilage volume, and 24-month change in JSW (P = 0.05). ROC curves using both terms of baseline BTI predicted a 5% change in the following OA progression parameters over 24 months with high accuracy, as reflected by the area under the curve measures: JSW 81%, JSA 85%, tibial cartilage volume 75%, and femoral cartilage volume 85%. Change in BTI was also significantly associated (P < 0.05) with concurrent change in JSA over 12 and 24 months and with change in tibial cartilage volume over 24 months. CONCLUSION: BTI predicts structural OA progression as determined by radiographic and MRI outcomes. BTI may therefore be worthy of study as an outcome measure for OA studies and clinical trials. Copyright 2013 by the American College of Rheumatology