In this thesis, I examine phonetic and phonological changes in Slovenian through the case of the Pivka local dialect among emigrants and their descendants in Australia. The analysis is based on a comparison of three varieties: (i) the baseline variety, i.e. the speech of a first generation emigrant; (ii) the homeland variety, i.e. the dialect spoken in Petelinje near Pivka at the time of her emigration; and (iii) the heritage variety, i.e. the version developed by her descendants, members of the second generation of Slovenian emigrants. The material of the homeland variety is organised into a phonological description, which serves as the basis for identifying language changes in both emigrant varieties. In the baseline variety, I find a high degree of preservation of the dialectal state, including the sound inventory and variability documented at the time of emigration, although some rarely attested sounds have been lost. The heritage variety preserves the most distinctive dialectal features, but it is already strongly influenced by English, which transfers into it both on the phonetic and phonological level. Transfers from English are not always consistent, but in some cases, they indicate systemic patterns in the heritage varieties; differences between the two informants are also evident. The findings are placed in the context of comparable research on other heritage languages, and the results highlight structural features of heritage Slovenian that will require more in-depth future study.
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