| Goral | |
| Also Known As: | Highlander Polish, Highland Polish |
| Nativename: | Polish: górolsko gwara Polish: góralsko gwara |
| Pronunciation: | pronounced as /sla/ |
| Ethnicity: | Gorals |
| States: | Poland (Lesser Poland Voivodeship, Silesian Voivodeship) Slovakia (Žilina Region, Prešov Region), Hungary, Ukraine, Romania |
| Region: | Goral Lands |
| Familycolor: | Indo-European |
| Fam2: | Balto-Slavic |
| Fam3: | Slavic |
| Fam4: | West Slavic |
| Fam5: | Lechitic |
| Fam6: | Polish |
| Fam7: | Lesser Polish |
| Speakers: | 50,307 in Slovakia |
| Ref: | [1] |
| Date: | 2023 study |
Goral, rarely called Highlander or Highland Polish, is an ethnolect of the Lechitic group, more specifically of the Lesser Poland dialect group spoken by the Gorals. Its vocabulary was significantly influenced by many languages like Slovak, Rusyn, Hungarian, Romanian and German, being common vocabulary of the Carpathian region. Some consider Goral to be a microlanguage,[2] alongside Silesian and to a lesser extent Masurian.[3]
The term Goral was first used in reference to the ethnolect by Pavol Jozef Šafárik in his book Slowanské starožitnosti,[4] and the term derives from the Slavic word for mountain (Polish: góra, Slovak: hora) and the noun-forming suffix denoting people -al.[5]
Due to their isolation, Goral dialects have many influences from Slovak, diverging significantly from the Polish literary standard and other dialects. The resulting system is also quite resilient to effects from Standard Polish, showing a more stable, unique system when compared to other Polish dialects. It is often equated to the Podhale dialect; however, this is only one of the many Goral dialects.[6]
Goral orthography is fairly unstandardized and may vary significantly dialect-to-dialect, most notably in the writing of the slanted vowels.
| Majuscule forms (also called uppercase or capital letters) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| A | Á | B | C | Ć | D | E | É | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | Ł | M | N | Ń | O | Ó | P | R | S | Ś | T | U | W | Y | Ý | Z | Ź | Ż | ||
| Minuscule forms (also called lowercase or small letters) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| a | á | b | c | ć | d | e | é | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | ł | m | n | ń | o | ó | p | r | s | ś | t | u | w | y | ý | z | ź | ż | ||
| Phonetic realizations in IPA | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| a | ɒ | b | t͡s | t͡ɕ | d | ɛ | e | f | g | x~ɦ | i | j | k | l | w | m | n | ɲ | ɔ | o | p | r | s | ɕ | t | u | v | ɨ | i | z | ʑ | ʐ | ||
| Majuscule forms (also called uppercase or capital letters) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| AU | CH | CZ | DZ | DŹ | DŻ | EU | RZ | SZ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Minuscule forms (also called lowercase or small letters) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| au | ch | cz | dz | dź | dż | eu | rz | sz | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Phonetic realizations in IPA | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| au | x | t͡ʂ | d͡z | d͡ʑ | d͡ʐ | eu | r̝~ʐ~ʂ | ʂ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
There is a tendency to reduce the number of phonemes in the phonological system of Goral, usually by raised the historic slanted vowels, by merging certain consonants, and by simplifying many consonant clusters.
A few vowel systems may occur throughout Goral, with one being the most dominant.
| Close | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close-mid | (pronounced as /link/) | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Open-mid | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Open | pronounced as /link/ | (pronounced as /link/) |
| Nasal | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| Affricate | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| Fricative | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| Trill | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| Approximant | (pronounced as /link/) | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
There is a strong tendency to level the multiple inherited declension patterns in Goral.
The first person present/future singular of verbs is most commonly formed across the whole region with -m as a result of Slovak influence: Polish: bedem/bedym, idem/idym (Standard Polish Polish: będę, idę). These forms can also be reinforced via levelling of paradigms such as Polish: móc > mozym, however, this is not a uniform process, and forms such as Polish: mogymy without the g||z alternation are also present. Forms such as Polish: bede in some regions, but often -m is preferred by the younger generation. Most dialects form the first person present/future plural of verbs with -me, also the result of Slovak influence.
Many dialects, namely Kysuce, Spisz, and parts of Orawa, level both mobile-e declensions as well as ablaut: Polish: zymb > zymba (Standard Polish Polish: ząb > zęba); Polish: lyn > lynu (Standard Polish Polish: len > lnu).
The comparative is generally formed with -sy instead of -ejszy.
The complex gender system of Polish distinguishing masculine personal, masculine animal, and masculine inanimate nouns is also levelled, whereby the plurals of masculine personal nouns are replaced with the plurals of masculine animal nouns, but the masculine virile plural forms of past tense verbs replace non-virile forms: Polish: hlopi robili, baby robili. Similarly, the feminine form of Polish: dwie is replaced with Polish: dwa: Polish: dwa baby. A similar process of levelling occurs in eastern Slovak dialects, as well as most Polish dialects.
In southern Spiš, many feminine nouns ending in -w are extended with mobile e: Polish: kerwi (Standard Polish Polish: krwi).
Goral has a rich literary tradition reaching back to the 19th century with notable authors such as Władysław Orkan, Andrzej Stopka Nazimek or Kazimierz Przerwa Tetmajer.[9] Other sites exist, such as hawok.pl, a news site written in Goral and about Goral affairs.
The history of Goral stretches back to the XIII century. The area was initially fully part of Vistulia and later Poland in the Middle Ages but was at the time very sparsely populated, with the possible exceptions of the Dunajec and Poprad valleys where the locals spoke a Lechitic dialect related to the Muszyna dialect and similar to Eastern Slovak explaining the many similarities in lexicon and partially phonology.[10] This promoted settlement from the 13th to 17th century by Lesser Polish peasants, Germans and notably for the region migrating Vlachs (Rusyns and Slovaks) motivated by the lack of serfdom (similarly to Ukraine). The mix of these languages and a unique history compared to the rest of Poland gave rise to Goral.[11] [12]
Northern Slovak dialects have deeply influenced Goral dialects, but the direction of influence is one-way, as Goral has not affected Slovak dialects. This effect has become stronger in recent years, with many Goral dialects borrowing even more from Slovak. Soft labials and soft velars depalatalize in some villages due to Slovak influence: Polish: ciebe, slodke (Polish: ciebie, slodkie).
Many features indicate a Lechitic origin for Goral:
Dialects of Goral 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.[15] Silesian Gorals in Zaolzie usually consider themselves more Silesian and are more likely to call it Silesian.[16] [17] The Łącko and northern Piwniczna dialects have been under very heavy Lach influence, with some even claiming that there are only a few traits of Goral left in the dialects.[18]