Dialects of Polish

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Subdivision of Polish dialects according to Karol Dejna
Subdivision of Polish dialects according to Stanisław Urbańczyk
Translations:

Polish dialects are regional vernacular varieties of the Polish language.

Four major dialect groups are typically recognized, each primarily associated with a particular geographical region, and often further subdivided into subdialectal groups (termed gwara in Polish).[1][2] They are:

The regional differences correspond mainly to old ethnic or tribal divisions from around a thousand years ago. As a result of 19th century measures taken by occupying powers, of expulsions plus other displacements of Poles during and after World War II, as well as language policy in the Polish People's Republic, supplemented by broadcast media, the Polish language became more homogeneous than ever before in the second half of the 20th century.

Traditionally two additional dialect groups were treated alongside the aforementioned, adding to a total of six.[5] These varieties have been put at risk of extinction due to historic geopolitical population movements. They are:

Dialect and language distinctions[edit]

Although traditional linguistic divisions continue to be cited, especially in Polish sources, the current linguistic consensus tends to consider Kashubian a separate language, or at least as a distinct lect that cannot be grouped at the same level as the four major modern Polish dialects.[6][7][8][9] Prior to World War II, Kashubian speakers were mainly surrounded by German speakers, with only a narrow border to the south with Polish speakers. Kashubian contains a number of features not found in other Polish dialects, e.g. nine distinct oral vowels (vs. the six of standard Polish), evolution of the Proto-Slavic TorT group to TarT (a feature not found in any other Slavic language) and (in the northern dialects) phonemic word stress, an archaic feature preserved from Common Slavic times and not found anywhere else among the West Slavic languages.

The two Kresy dialects are spoken in Kresy, the former eastern Polish territories annexed by the Soviet Union in 1945 and currently absorbed into Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine.[citation needed] Both dialect groups have been in decline since World War II as a result of expulsions of millions of Poles from Kresy.[citation needed] Poles living in Lithuania (particularly in the Vilnius region), in Belarus (particularly in the northwest), and in northeast Poland continue to speak the Northern Kresy dialect, which sounds (in Polish described as zaciąganie z ruska) as if speaking with a Russian drawl, and is quite distinctive.[citation needed]

The majority of Poles expelled from Kresy were settled in newly annexed regions in northern and western Poland, and thereby their manner of speech evolved into so-called new mixed dialects. However, among the declining older generation there are still traces of Kresy dialect with its characteristic Ukrainian or Rusyn sounds, especially in the use of the East Slavic velarised L where standard Polish has it already vocalised (/w/) and of elongated vowels.

List of dialects[edit]

Pronunciation of sibilants in Polish dialects.
  Standard pronunciation (/s.../–/ʂ.../–/ɕ.../ distinction)
  Mazurzenie (/s.../–/ʂ.../ merger)
  Jabłonkowanie (/ʂ.../–/ɕ.../ merger)
  Kaszubienie [pl] (/s.../–/ɕ.../ merger)

Greater Polish dialect[edit]

Main article: Greater Poland dialect

Descended from the Western Slavic language spoken by the Polans, the subdialects are:

Mazovian dialect[edit]

Main article: Masovian dialect

Descended from the language of the Mazovians,[10][11] the sub dialects are:

  • Białystok dialect (Polish: gwara białostocka)
  • Suwałki dialect (Polish: gwara suwalska)
  • Warmia dialect (Polish: gwara warmińska)
  • Kurpie dialect (Polish: gwara kurpiowska)
  • Masurian dialects (Polish: gwara mazurska)
  • Malbork-Lubawa dialect (Polish: gwara malborsko-lubawska)
  • Ostróda dialect (Polish: gwara ostródzka)
  • Near Mazovian dialect (Polish: gwara mazowsze bliższe)
  • Far Mazovian dialect (Polish: gwara mazowsze dalsze)

Lesser Polish dialect[edit]

Main article: Lesser Polish dialect

Descended from the language of the Vistulans, is the most numerous dialectal group in modern Poland.[12] It includes the following sub-groups:

The Goral dialects (the colloquial name for the many dialects spoken by Gorals), which include mainly:

Northern Borderlands dialect[edit]

Main article: Northern Borderlands dialect

In modern times the dialect is still spoken mainly by the Polish minorities in Lithuania and in northwestern Belarus.[13][14]

Southern Borderlands dialect[edit]

Main article: Southern Borderlands dialect

Often considered a derivative of a mixture of Old Polish and Old Ruthenian, as was spoken in Red Ruthenia in the Middle Ages.[13][15] See especially, the Lwów dialect, Polish: gwara lwowska.[15]

New mixed dialects[edit]

Main article: New mixed dialects
  • Northern new mixed dialect
  • Northwestern new mixed dialect
  • Southern new mixed dialect

Silesian[edit]

Main article: Silesian language

Silesian (Silesian: ślōnskŏ gŏdka, Polish: język śląski, dialekt śląski) is a lect spoken in the regions of Upper Silesia. Some regard it as one of the four major dialects of Polish,[16][17][18][19] while others classify it as a separate regional language, distinct from Polish.[20][21][22] Many Silesians consider themselves a separate ethnicity and have been advocating the recognition of Silesian as a distinct language. In the 2021 Polish census, about 460 thousand people declared that they speak Silesian.[23]

Language organizations such as SIL International and various linguistic resources such as Ethnologue recognize Silesian as a distinct language.[24][25] In 2007, Silesian was assigned its language code szl within the ISO 639-3 standard.

Those who regard Silesian as a separate language tend to include the Lach dialects (Polish: gwary laskie) of the Czech Republic as part of this language. However, other linguistic sources on Slavic languages normally describe them as dialects of the Czech language,[26][27] or sometimes as transitional Polish–Czech dialects.

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Also considered a separate language

References[edit]

  1. ^ Roland Sussex and Paul Cubberley (2006). The Slavic Languages. Cambridge University Press. P. 530.
  2. ^ Robert A. Rothstein (1994). "Polish". The Slavonic Languages, edited by Bernard Comrie and Greville G. Corbett. Routledge. Pp. 754–756.
  3. ^ Dillingham, William Paul; Folkmar, Daniel; Folkmar, Elnora (1911). Dictionary of Races or Peoples. United States. Immigration Commission (1907–1910). Washington, D.C.: Washington, Government Printing Office. p. 105.
  4. ^ Dillingham, William Paul; Folkmar, Daniel; Folkmar, Elnora (1911). Dictionary of Races or Peoples. Washington, D.C.: Washington, Government Printing Office. p. 128.
  5. ^ Zofia Kurzowa (2007). Szpiczakowska Monika, Skarżyński Mirosław (ed.). Z przeszłości i teraźniejszości języka polskiego (in Polish). Kraków: Universitas. p. 726. ISBN 978-83-242-0691-9.
  6. ^ Jadwiga Wronicz (March–April 2007). "Pozycja dialektu wobec innych odmian polszczyzny". Język polski (in Polish). LXXXVII (2): 91–96.
  7. ^ Roland Sussex and Paul Cubberley (2006). The Slavic Languages. Cambridge University Press. Pp. 531–532.
  8. ^ Gerald Stone (1994). "Cassubian". The Slavonic Languages, edited by Bernard Comrie and Greville G. Corbett. Routledge. Pp. 759–794.
  9. ^ Bronisław Jakubowski (1999). "Język czy dialekt?". Wiedza i Życie (in Polish) (4).
  10. ^ Bronisław Wieczorkiewicz (1968). Gwara warszawska dawniej i dziś (in Polish). Warsaw: Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy. p. 516.
  11. ^ Halina Karas, Gwary Polskie, Dialects and gwary in Poland Archived 2011-04-14 at the Wayback Machine
  12. ^ Stanisław Urbańczyk, ed. (1992). "Dialekt małopolski". Encyklopedia języka polskiego (in Polish) (II ed.). Wrocław-Warszawa-Kraków: Ossolineum. p. 60.
  13. ^ a b Zofia Kurzowa (2007). Szpiczakowska Monika, Skarżyński Mirosław (ed.). Ze studiów nad polszczyzną kresową (in Polish). Kraków: Universitas. p. 518. ISBN 978-83-242-0683-4.
  14. ^ Zofia Kurzowa (2006). Szpiczakowska Monika, Skarżyński Mirosław (ed.). Język polski Wileńszczyzny i kresów północno-wschodnich (in Polish). Kraków: Universitas. ISBN 83-242-0738-4.
  15. ^ a b Zofia Kurzowa (2006). Szpiczakowska Monika, Skarżyński Mirosław (ed.). Polszczyzna Lwowa i kresów południowo-wschodnich do 1939 (in Polish). Kraków: UNIVERSITAS. p. 439. ISBN 83-242-0656-6.
  16. ^ Gwara Śląska – świadectwo kultury, narzędzie komunikacji. Jolanta Tambor (eds.); Aldona Skudrzykowa. Katowice: „Śląsk". 2002. ISBN 83-7164-314-4. OCLC 830518005.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  17. ^ „Słownik gwar Śląskich". Opole, Bogusław Wyderka (eds.)
  18. ^ „Dialekt śląski" author: Feliks Pluta, publication: Wczoraj, Dzisiaj, Jutro. – 1996, no 1/4, pp 5–19
  19. ^ „Fenomen śląskiej gwary" author: Jan Miodek publication: Śląsk. – 1996, no 5, pp 52
  20. ^ Ptak, Alicja (2022-12-28). "Supermarket introduces bilingual Polish-Silesian signs". Kraków: Notes from Poland. Retrieved 2023-04-14.
  21. ^ Norman Davies, Europe: A History, Oxford 1996 pp 1233
  22. ^ Jolanta Tambor. Opinia merytoryczna na temat poselskiego projektu ustawy o zmianie Ustawy o mniejszościach narodowych i etnicznych oraz o języku regionalnym, a także niektórych innych ustaw, Warszawa 3 maja 2011 r. (English: Substantive opinion on the parliamentary bill amending the Act on national and ethnic minorities and on the regional language, as well as some other acts, Warsaw, May 3, 2011.)
  23. ^ "585,7 tys. osób deklaruje się jako Ślązacy. "Je to blank dobry wynik"". oko.press (in Polish). Retrieved 2024-05-08.
  24. ^ "ISO documentation of Silesian language". SIL International. Archived from the original on 2012-10-03.
  25. ^ "List of languages with ISO codes". Ethnologue. SIL International.
  26. ^ Roland Sussex and Paul Cubberley (2006). The Slavic Languages. Cambridge University Press. P. 533.
  27. ^ David Short (1994). "Czech". The Slavonic Languages, edited by Bernard Comrie and Greville G. Corbett. Routledge. P. 530.
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