A characteristic of contemporary Slavonic languages is the increasing influence of non-standard language elements. This brings the issue of the ‘substandard’ and its exploration back to the centre of attention. During the socialist era, the ‘substandard’ was seen as a very negative phenomenon and as something that corrupts language culture and restricts the mental faculties of its speakers. As a result, there was insufficient research on ‘substandard’ Slavonic language varieties during the socialist period. This situation has changed completely with the transforming world since the 1990s. The present article contains information about the latest developments in research on non-standard language elements in Slavonic languages.