Polish dialects are regionalvernacularvarieties of thePolish language, and often show developments starting from anearlier stage of the language, oftenOld Polish orMiddle Polish, namely the development of the so-called "pitched" or "slanted" vowels (Polishsamogłoski pochylone).
Four majordialect groups (termeddialekt) are typically recognized, each primarily associated with a particular geographical region, and often further subdivided intodialects (termedgwara 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,expulsions plus other displacements of Poles during and afterWorld War II, as well as language policy in thePolish People's Republic, supplemented by broadcast media, the Polish language has become extremely homogeneous. In the modern day, dialectal variation can be found among mostly older generations.
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:
Often the usage of dialects are avoided due to negative associations and low prestige, and as such, there is often a preference for Standard Polish, and many dialects are slowly being abandoned, and instead regionalisms within Standard Polish are more common. However, some dialects are still widely used.[7][8]
In order to accurately notate phonetic differences in dialects, letters outside standardPolish orthography are sometimes used, or some letters have uses different than in Standard Polish. Namely, they are:[9][10][11]
Although traditional linguistic divisions continue to be cited, especially in Polish sources, the current linguistic consensus tends to considerKashubian 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.[12][13][14][15] Prior toWorld War II, Kashubian speakers were mainly surrounded byGerman 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-SlavicTorT group toTarT (a feature not found in any other Slavic language) and (in the northern dialects) phonemic word stress, an archaic feature preserved fromCommon Slavic times and not found anywhere else among theWest Slavic languages.
The twoKresy dialects are spoken inKresy, the former eastern Polish territories annexed by theSoviet Union in 1945 and currently absorbed intoLithuania,Belarus andUkraine.[citation needed] Both dialect groups have been in decline sinceWorld War II as a result ofexpulsions of millions of Poles from Kresy.[citation needed] Poles living inLithuania (particularly in theVilnius region), inBelarus (particularly in the northwest), and in northeast Poland continue to speak the Northern Kresy dialect, which sounds (in Polish described aszaciąganie z ruska) as if speaking with a Ruthenian 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-callednew mixed dialects. However, among the declining older generation there are still traces of Kresy dialect with its characteristic Ukrainian orRusyn sounds, especially in the use of theEast Slavic velarised L where standard Polish has it already vocalised (/w/) and of elongated vowels.
Many dialects on the edges of dialect groups show traits belonging to the groups it borders, and are usually classified as transitional dialects, whose exact classification is often debated.[16]
Descended from the Western Slavic language spoken by thePolans, the dialects are:[17]
Descended from the language of theMasovians,[18][19] the dialects are:[20]
Descended from the language of theVistulans, is the most numerous dialectal group in modern Poland.[21] the dialects are:[22]
TheGoral ethnolect (the name for the many dialects spoken byGorals inWestern Carpathians bordering Poland and Slovakia),[23][24] which include:
The dialects spoken by Silesian Gorals are considered closer Silesian but are referred to as Goral by Silesian Gorals in Poland, due to them feeling more Goral than Silesian.[25] Silesian Gorals inZaolzie usually consider themselves more Silesian and are more likely to call it Silesian.[26][27]
In modern times the dialect is still spoken mainly by thePolish minorities in Lithuania andin northwestern Belarus.[28][29]
Often considered a derivative of a mixture ofOld Polish andOld Ruthenian, as was spoken inRed Ruthenia in theMiddle Ages.[28][30]See especially, theLwów dialect,Polish:gwara lwowska.[30]
Silesian (Silesian:ślōnskŏ gŏdka,Polish:język śląski, dialekt śląski) is a lect spoken in the regions ofUpper Silesia. Some regard it as one of the four major dialects ofPolish,[31][32][33][34] while others classify it as a separate regional language, distinct from Polish.[35][36][37] Many Silesians consider themselves a separate ethnicity and have been advocating the recognition of Silesian as a distinct language. In the2021 Polish census, about 460 thousand people declared that they speak Silesian.[38]
Language organizations such asSIL International and various linguistic resources such asEthnologue recognize Silesian as a distinct language.[39][40] In 2007, Silesian was assigned its language codeszl within theISO 639-3 standard.
Those who regard Silesian as a separate language tend to include theLach dialects (Polish:gwary laskie) of theCzech Republic as part of this language. However, other linguistic sources on Slavic languages normally describe them as dialects of theCzech language,[41][42] or sometimes as transitional Polish–Czech dialects.
For a list of dialects, seedialects of Silesian.
Dialects are often divided based on isoglosses in pronunciation, grammar (namely declension and syntax), and word-formation.
In terms of the most important, dialect groups are usually divided based on the presence ofmasuration (present in Masovian and Lesser Polish dialects) and voicing of word-final consonants before vowels and liquids in the next word or sometimes the personal verb clitics-m, -ś, -śmy, -ście as inbyliśmy (e.g. jak jestem may be realized asPolish pronunciation:[[jaɡjestem]] in Lesser Polish and Greater Polish dialects, but asPolish pronunciation:[[jakjestem]] in Masovia).
Common phonetic isoglosses in terms of vowels include the development of slanted vowels, or their retention;[43] and the treatment of nasal vowels.[44]
Common phonetic isoglosses in terms of consonants includeJabłonkowanie,Siakanie,Szadzenie, and the insertion ofprothetic consonants before initial (and sometimes medial) vowels.[45]
Another important factor is the presence of contracted forms ofbać and similar verbs (regionally and originallybojeć).[46]
A common grammatical isogloss is the formation of first-person plural verb forms, which in Standard Polish is usually with -my in the present/future tense or with -śmy in the past tense. Many dialects show much variation, including ‑m, ‑ma, ‑me, ‑wa.[47][48]
A common lexical or word-formation isogloss is how nouns denoting young animals and people are formed, where in the south and in Standard Polish it is typically formed with -ę, as inźrebię, but in the north it is often -ak, as inźrebiak.[49] Both suffixes are subject sound changes.
A common isogloss in verb formation is the preferred ending for imperfective or frequentative verbs; in Standard Polish and the north they are usually formed with -ywać, but in the south -ować is often preferred.[50] Also important is the formation of adjectives, with many different suffixes being used in different regions that are usually different from the formation in Standard Polish.[51]