 The article is an attempt at presenting the context of the linguistic situation in rural areas. New findings offered by sociology, geography of the country and other disciplines dealing with rural areas indicate clearly that contemporary dialectology requires methodological re-orientation. As a consequence, there is a growing need of referring to a language spoken by inhabitants of rural areas rather than a traditional dialect. There is also growing awareness of the value of local culture and an imperative to cultivate it, accompanied by an urgent need of compiling own dictionaries of dialects.