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Masurian
mazurská gádkä
Native to	Poland
Region	Masuria
Ethnicity	Masurians
Native speakers	(undated figure of 5,000–15,000[citation needed])
Language family	Indo-European Balto-Slavic Slavic West Slavic Lechitic Polish Masovian[1][2] Masurian
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Historical Prussia – Masuria is captioned asMazury

TheMasurian ethnolect (Masurian:mazurská gádkä;Polish:mazurski;German:Masurisch), according to somelinguists, is adialect group of thePolish language; others consider Masurian to be a separate language, spoken by theMasurian people in northeasternPoland.

The dialect belongs to theMasovian dialect group and is located in the part ofPoland as well as parts ofSiberia. It borders theLubawa dialect to the far southwest, theOstróda dialect andWarmia dialect to the west, thenew mixed dialects to the north, theSuwałki dialect to the east, marginally thePodlachia dialect to the far east, and theKurpie dialect andFar Mazovian dialect to the south.^[3]

From the 14th century, some settlers fromMasovia started to settle in southernPrussia, which had been devastated by the crusades of theTeutonic Knights against the nativeOld Prussians. According to other sources, people from Masovia did not move to southern Prussia until the time of theProtestant Reformation, Prussia having becomeLutheran in 1525. The Masurians were mostly of the Protestant faith, in contrast to the neighboringRoman Catholic people of theDuchy of Masovia, which was incorporated into thePolish kingdom in 1526. A new dialect developed in Prussia, isolated from the remaining Polish language area. The Masurian dialect group has manyLow Saxon,German andOld Prussian words mixed in with Polish-language endings.^[4]

Beginning in the 1870s,Imperial German officials restricted the usage of languages other than German in Prussia's eastern provinces.^[5]While in 1880 Masurians were still treated as Poles by the German Empire, at the turn of century the German authorities undertook several measures to Germanise and separate them from the Polish nation by creating a separate identity.^[6] AfterWorld War I theEast Prussian plebiscite was held on July 11, 1920, according to theTreaty of Versailles, in which the Masurians had to decide whether they wanted to be part of theSecond Polish Republic or remain in German East Prussia; about 98% voted for Germany.

By the early 20th century, most Masurians were at least bilingual and could speak Low Saxon and German; in some areas about half of them still spoke Masurian, at least at home. In 1900, according to the German census there were 142,049 Masurians speaking Masurian.^[7] In 1925, only 40,869 people gave Masurian as their native language, many consideringGerman their first language, considering Masurian merely as their domesticdialect, By the early 1920s there were also some Masurians who had their separate identity, claiming that Masurians are a nation. Most of them were members ofMasurenbund. Their main goal was to grant Masurians some minority laws inside Germany, but there were also some separatists. In the early 1930s, support for theNazi Party was high in Masuria, especially in elections in 1932 and 1933. Nazi political rallies were organized in the Masurian dialect during the campaigning.^[5]

After 1933 the usage of the Masurian dialect was prohibited by the National Socialist authorities. By 1938 most Masurian place and personal names had been changed to "pure" German substitutes. From 1939 on it was forbidden to hold church services in Masurian.

The replacement of Masurian in favor of German was not completed by the time theSovietRed Army conquered MasurianEast Prussia in January 1945, inWorld War II. The territory was transferred to Poland according to the postwarPotsdam Conference. During the wartime fighting and post-war deportations in the subsequent decades, most Masurian-speakers left Masuria for western Germany, especially to post-warWest Germany, where they were quickly assimilated into the German mainstream.

According to some scientists such as Andrzej Sakson, there are about 5,000–10,000 ethnic Masurians left in Poland. According to the Polish census from 2011, there are only 1,376 of them who identify themselves as Masurians. Most Masurians live in Germany now, but due to the German law the ethnicity and nationality are not determined in their census.

There is a lack of surveys on the knowledge of the ethnolect both in Poland and Germany. However, the elderly can communicate in Masurian with some fluency. The sole group who speak Masurian on a daily basis are the so-called Russian Masurians, who are the descendants of colonists who arrived inSiberia at the end of the 19th century. They have lived in isolation from the other groups, thus they were neither Germanized nor Polonized, although their speech acquired many Russian loanwords.^[8]

Nowadays, there are several organizations promoting the dialect. Since 2015, the Sorkwity Masurian Culture Festival started to promote Masurian,^[9] locals are starting to create folk music,^[10] and some schools are organizing competitions in speaking Masurian.^[11][12] People are also starting to promote the ethnolect viasocial media.^[13][14] In 2016, theMasurian Union [pl] was founded to promote the Masurian ethnolect and culture.^[15][16] Meanwhile, some activists have also started a process of linguistical normalization to promote and save the ethnolect.^[17]

In 2016, the online dictionary Glosbe introduced Masurian to their data.^[18]

The oldest book written in Masurian probably isTa Swenta Woyna, written by Jakub Szczepan in 1900.^[19]

In 2018,The Little Prince byAntoine de Saint Exupéry was translated to Masurian.^[20]

Several scientists consider Masurian to be a separate language in its own right;^[21][22][23] others argue that Masurian is a dialect ofPolish, or even just a subdialect.^[24]

Typical of Masovian dialects, devoicing of word-final consonants before vowels and liquids is present here, including before clitics. Also typical of Masovian dialects is the presence ofmazuration, however, younger people tend to use a pronunciation that of Standard Polish, and as such, mazuration is quickly fading. The degree of mazuration can also depend on the given phoneme.^[25]

The shift of initial ja-, ra- > je-, re- is present but limited to particular words: jek (jak), reno (rano).^[25]

Medial -ar- shifts to -er-: rozwer: (rozwarł), w mercu (w marcu), łosiera (ofiara).^[25]

Ablaut is often levelled: wietrak (wiatrak).^[25]

Often y merges with i: pisk (pysk).^[25]

Slanted á may be retained as á (more common in the central part), or sometimes merge with a (more common in the east), where historic short a often fronts to [æ] and can cause softening of the preceding consonant: matk’æ. Slanted é may sometimes be retained as é, or may either lower and merge with e or raise and merge with y. Slanted ó is usually retained as ó, but may also either lower and merge with o (in the east) or raise and merge with u (elsewhere).^[25]

Medial -ę- decomposes to -én- and -ą- to -óN- in the east, and nasality is often lost medially in the west. Finally, nasality is loss, giving -e and -o.^[25]

Initial i- often has a prothetic j-, and can then sometimes lower: jimię (imię), jenaczyj (inaczej). This happens most commonly in the north east of Szczytno and Mrągowo.^[25]

Initial o- typically labializes, as does u- to a lesser extent.^[25]

Soft labials decompose: b’jałi, b’źałi (biały), b’h’ijak (bijak) h and ch appear more commonly in the east and ś and ź in the west, j being rare; m’ shifts to mń: ramńona (ramiona); sometimes ᵐń: ᵐniasto; as well as ń: ńód (miód). Hardening of m also occurs, particularly in German loanwords and the instrumental plural ending -ami: ńemeck’i (niemiecki), nasto (miasto), myck’i (czapki), cepamy (cepami).^[25]

św’, ćw’ i dźw’ typically harden: śfat (świat). Soft forms occur more often before front vowels, but not only: śf’at (świat), śf’eće (świecie).^[25]

Fricative rz is retained by some speakers; however by the early 20th century it was already rare and present mostly among older speakers, and today is nearly non-existent, with rz generally being pronounced as in Standard Polish.^[25]

ń sometimes hardens, typically in the north, as a result of German influence: drewnana studna (drewniana studnia).^[25]

kie, gie, ki, and gi generally remain soft, but most people often harden k and g before one of the vowels while keeping them soft before the other, and generally k and g are soft before e more than i: k’edy (kiedy), taky (taki). Hard pronunciations are becoming rarer. A few instances of further palatalization can be heard: flakt’i (flaki), okt’eć (łokieć), mat’era (makiera). k and g may also sometimes palatalize before ę, especially in the east: matk’e (matkę), g’enśi (gęsi). k and g may also soften before a in the east, particularly the northeast; in the west it remains hard: k’apa (kapa). This softening mostly concerns jasne a, and is rare for ká, gá. Most residents had this pronunciation through the 20th century. Also in the east, ch may soften before i, e, ę, and a to chś, ś, or szi: ožeśi (orzechy), štaśety (sztachety), l’iśa (licha), ch’ata (chata). In the west, a hard pronunciation is most common.^[25]

cz is most commonly merged with c, but words related to education often have cz, spread through schools. Rarely it may soften to czi or ć. dż is generally realized az dz, but is not a common enough phone to establish statistics. ż and sz show much more fluctuation, due to influence from both Standard Polish as well as German, but also the common presence of the phonemes s, z and ż sz from rz. This confusion with rz can sometimes result in mazuration of rz as well as hypercorrections, which contributes to the loss of mazuration of ż and sz. sz shows more fluctuation than ż. However, mazuration still predominates, with żi being less common and ź being rare.^[25]

Fricative rz was very common at the beginning 20th century; by the middle of the 20th century it was still used by some speakers, generally being replaced with ż/sz or rarely r: rec-i (rzeczy).^[25]

Similarly, the palatal sibilants ś, ź, ć, dź may be realized in many ways. Sometimes they are the same as in Standard Polish. They may also harden to szi, żi, czi, and dżi, or as sz, ż, cz, dż. Most rarely, they may completely depatalize. ś ź show more fluctuation than ć dź. Palatal pronunciations of ś ź are the most common, except in the north-east where szi, żi are more common. ć and dź more commonly harden in the north due to German influence. Elsewhere, soft realizations are more common.^[25]

A few cases of kaszubienie can be found.^[25]

Masurian has three to five dialects:^[26]

• Ostróda dialect (Ostróda, Olsztynek) – Denasalization of thenasal vowelsą andę aso ande – No mazuration – Commoná (ɒ, a result from historic long vowels. SeeOld Polish phonology andMiddle Polish phonology for more. –Labialization (ô, û – uo, uu) – Beforeł vowelsi andy pronounced likeu, e.g.buł,zuł (był,żył).
• West-Masurian dialect (Działdowo, Nidzica, Szczytno) – Irregularly occurringá and labialization –Mni where Polishmi (mniasto, kamnień) – As in Ostróda district appear and have dominant positionpsi, bzi, (w)zi, f(si) topchi, bhI etc. – Denasalization of thenasal vowelsą andę aso ande.
• Center-Masurian dialect (Giżycko, Mrągowo, Pisz, Biała Piska) – The most common intermediateá – The most common archaicř (in Polish sound asrż) – Frequent labialization – Appear and have dominant positionpchi, bhI topsi, bzi etc. – Dominate pronunciationni instead ofmni –niasto, kanień etc. - Softk, g, ch when is beforea for examplekia, gia, chia – Polishą ię likeón,on,én,en.
• East-Masurian dialect (Łek, Ôleck) – Polishś, ć, ź pronounced likesz,cz,ż (for examplespacz,bÿcz) –Á almost does not exist –a is frequently pronounced as a vowel intermediate betweena ande (ä – mätkiä[ˈmætkʲæ], as in American Englishtrap) – Synchronous pronunciation of soft labialsb', p', f', w' change tobj,pj,fj,wj –Ch change toś (kosianÿ, siätä) – Less frequenté andó.
• North-Masurian dialect (Węgorzewo, Gołdap) – in the early 20th century almost disappeared, in the area Węgorzewa known for up to a few percent of the population (in the nineteenth century, more than half), in district of Gołdap 1% (in the nineteenth century, approx. 20%). – Very archaic sound forr – A relatively frequentá.

In the singular it is possible to replaceu withÿ for example: (Já) buł/bÿł, tÿsź buł/bÿł, (Ón) buł/bÿł. It is also possible to create the future perfect tense with the structurebe.fut +inf, for example:(Já) Bénde koménderowač.

The conjugation of regular verbs usually ending in-ač, for exampleznač (to know).

á will shorten toa if the word has more than one syllable. For example:

• dumač – to think (dumam, dumas, dumá, dumawa, dumata, dumajó)
• kupač – to buy (kupam, kupas, kupá, kupawa, kupata, kupajó)

The conjugation of regular verbs usually ending in-eč, for examplemÿšléč (to think).

The conjugation of regular verbs usually endingin -owač ", for example "koménderowač" (to give an order to someone).

To create the conditional, as in the majority of Slavic languages, the verb root is taken (i.e. verb endings likeač, eč are not considered and the respective ending is added for the conditional mode. For example,znač (to know)→znabÿ (he/she would know).

bÿ in Masurian has also one more function, where it can be placed at the beginning of a sentence to make questions, or also to mean "whether"/"or"/"if". For example,Lejduje ni niénso/niéso, bÿ sźwÿnina, bÿ réntozina (I like meat, whether it [is] pork or beef), which in standard Polish:Lubię mięso, czy to wieprzowinę, czy wołowinę.

^[31][32]

Here, the structure issense verb +object +verb.

^[17][33]

Look upCategory:Masuria Polish in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

^[34][35][36]

^[38][39]

A short Masurian song.^[40]

Réjza^[41]

siodám ná koło

kiej féin pogodá

dumám tédÿ

nád zÿciem Mazurá

ajw násu ziamiá

ôddÿcha w dáli

ány rÿchtÿk pozwalá

mniá do dumániá

nád mójá réjzá

přéd siébie chućko jidé

ná drogách zÿciá

chtóré ûmÿká

chtórégo nie zabácé

po śmiérci, chtóra z latámi

přéniká ...

wsÿtko je féin

ajw ji téraz

jék budzié po tym co přÿjdzié

nié ziém...?

jédno jé péwné zé ajw jé féin

ná mójéj réjzié ..

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