They often enjoy a written form, a certain degree of standardisation and are used in a variety of circumstances typical of codified idioms—albeit in a limited fashion and always alongside a national standard language.
[1][2] In terms of classification, each literary microlanguage is traced back to one of the major Slavic languages or is closely related to it.
[4] Silesian and Goral (standard based on the Podhale dialect) may also be considered newly formed Slavic microlanguages.
As literary microlanguages are, in terms of functionality, more expansive than their corresponding dialects, they display a tendency toward standardised norms, which entails a significant enlargement of the lexicon and a more systematised, codified grammar, often by way of foreign borrowings, and recourse to a previous literary and linguistic tradition alien to vernacular dialects.
Pannonian Rusyn can be considered an independent Slavic language instead of a literary microlanguage, since it is used by an ethnic group, recognised by some to be a distinct nationality.
Historical factors stimulating the emergence of a number of Slavic microlanguages has been Protestantism (in the 16th century), the Slavic national revival movements (19th century), and subjective factors such as prominent enlightenment figures giving an impetus to the development of the emerging literary standard based on their dialect, mainly by the power of their literary works.
Written languages such as Podlachian, used by Jan Maksymiuk [pl], Masurian in Poland or the already defunct Lachian [ru], used by Czech poet Óndra Łysohorsky, and West Polesian promoted by Nikolai Shelyagovich in Belarus, can be classified as "literary idiolects" and "literary dialects".
[7] Czech researcher Vladislav Knoll points out to “the lack of a strict definition of the key terms in the literary microlanguage theory".
[8] Most of the linguistic varieties that Aleksandr Dulichenko groups as "microlanguages", are classified as "literary dialects" by Vladislav Knoll.