Lesser Poland dialect group explained

Lesser Poland dialect group
Nativename:	dialekt małopolski
States:	Poland
Region:	Lesser Poland Voivodeship Subcarpathian Voivodeship Holy Cross Voivodeship Lublin Voivodeship Łódź Voivodeship Silesian Voivodeship Masovian Voivodeship
Familycolor:	Indo-European
Fam2:	Balto-Slavic
Fam3:	Slavic
Fam4:	West Slavic
Fam5:	Lechitic
Fam6:	Polish
Script:	Latin (Polish alphabet)
Isoexception:	dialect group
Glotto:	none
Map:	Polska-dialekty wg Urbańczyka.PNG
Mapcaption:	Map of the dialects of Polish, including the Lesser Poland dialect marked in yellow.

The Lesser Polish dialect group (Polish: dialekt małopolski) is a of dialect group of the Polish language used in Lesser Poland. The exact area is difficult to delineate due to the expansion of its features and the existence of transitional subdialects.^[1]

The common traits of the Lesser Polish dialect include:

• mazurzenie^[2]
• regressive voicing of obstruents, including across word boundaries; e.g.: kot leci [kɔd ˈlɛt͡ɕi] (standard Polish: [kɔt ˈlɛt͡ɕi])^[2]
• differentiated nasalisation (or lack thereof) of /ɔ̃/ and /ɛ̃/ in different parts of the area^[2]
• merger of stop+fricative consonant clusters into affricates; e.g.: trzysta [ˈt͡ʂɨsta] (standard Polish: [ˈtʂɨsta] or [ˈt͡ʂʂɨsta])
• frequent usage of initial syllable stress, also oxytonic stress in vocative case (as opposed to paroxytonic stress common in other varieties of Polish)^[2]
• frequent usage of grammatical particle "że" in imperative mood ("weźże" vs. "weź" – take)

List of dialects

Descended from the language of the Vistulans, is the most numerous dialectal group in modern Poland.^[3] the dialects are:^[4]

• Łęczyca dialect

• Sieradz dialect

• Masovian Borderland dialect

• Kielce dialect

• Krakow dialect

• Western Lublin dialect

• Eastern Lublin dialect

• Przemyśl dialect

• Lwów dialect

The Goral ethnolect (the name for the many dialects spoken by Gorals in the Western Carpathians bordering Poland and Slovakia), which include:

• Sącz dialect (which is divided into Goral Sącz and Lach Sącz)

• Żywiec dialect

• Orawa dialect

• Podhale dialect

• Spisz dialect

• Biecz dialect

Features of the region

Features that can be found in various intensities and distributions in the region include:^[5]

1. *telt > tlet
2. * tórt’ > trot
3. *ľ̥ > l̥ except *Pľ̥T́PK (after labials, before palatals/labials, and velars)
4. *Pľ̥T́PK > PilT́PK: wilk, milczeć or > łu after dentals: słup, długi, or oł after cz, ż, sz: mołwa, czółno, żółty, or eł after labials: chełm, chełpić się, wełna, pełny
5. *ŕ̥T > ‘ar: twardy, tarł, ziarno
6. voicing of coda stops and sibilants if the next word begins with a vowel or liquid
7. bilabial w > v, which can be f, f́ after voiceless consonant, tfůj, kf́at. This also affect f < chw
8. Mazuration
9. ḷ > ł > u̯
10. depalatalization of word final palatal labials
11. phonemization of ḱ, ǵ from retaining them when they occursed before *y, ъ̥, e as well as denasalization of ę (kę/gę > ke/ge)
12. -ch > -k, or in Spisz > -f (only word finally), or in clusters: kfała, kćáł
13. Tendency for assimilation and simplification:
    1. velarization of n before k (phonemic?)
    2. -ść, -śń > -ś: zleś, gryź, pleś, maś (maść)
    3. weakening loss of -ł- at the end of an inlaut (śródgłos): gᵘ̭ova
    4. strz, zdrz, trz, drz > szcz, żdż, cz, dż
    5. rs, r-z > rz
    6. kk > k
14. Doubling of s, ś in bᵘ̯ossᵘ̯o, leśśe, viśśi, viessá, and sometimes ss śś > sc, ść bᵘ̯osco v leśće, viscá
15. Breaking of the groups ss, zz, źź, vv, v́v́, ff, f́f́ by placing a mobile e after the prepositions/prefixes z(-), v(-)
16. śrz, źrz > śr, źr or in the north > rś, rź
17. placement of stress on the penultimate syllable except in Podhale, which has initial stress
18. loss of intervocalic j and contraction
19. preference for jasne o: skolny (szkolny)
20. ir > er in serce, śmierć, piersi, otherwise > ér
21. In the north yl, ył, il, ił > el, eł, beł, beli, uN > oN, font, gront, lack of eN, oN > éN, óN
22. i > y after sz, ż, cz, dż, c, dz, rz (including Mazurized pronunciations of sibilants) except in Podhale, which still has i
23. Fronting, flattening, and narrowing of á before tautosyllabic j in the imperative: cekej (except in most subialects, which have -aj?, except dać?)
24. á > o tako trova
25. é > y after hard and soft consonants, except in the north where > y after hard, > i after soft, and in one region (34D in Dejna) > e at least after hard
26. Traces of e > o before tautosyllabic u̯ (ł), can be found in some Standard Polish words (kocioł, kozioł, osioł)
27. diphthongization/labialization of o > ᵘ̯o (not just initially)
28. sometimes fronting of ᵘ̯o > ᵘ̯oᵉ, u̯ë, ᵘ̯ë, which avoids raising of o, which could be confused with the reflex of pochylone ó
29. Loss of the alternation caused by ablaut of ‘o||’e, miotła||mietle by analogy of nonablauted forms, wiesna (via wieśnie), niesę (via nieśli), also influenced by the change above
30. Old Polish ą̆ (in a short syllable) > e ide, wode, along with denasalization of the vowel into an assimilated nasal consonant before a consonant, and total loss before stops and sibilants: deby (dęby) gesi (gęsi). Regionally ą̆ is retained, or mergs with ǫ: zǫp zǫby
31. Old Polish ą̄ (in a long syllable) > ą̊ (and most commonly) > ǫ along with denasalization of the vowel: dåb, dop (dąb), or sometimes in final position -om
32. -iszcze > -isko
33. Spread of -asty, -isty
34. -‘ev- > -‘ov-, also after soft consonants
35. use of od(-) before vowels and semivowels (as opposed to ot(-))
36. loss of r- in the prefix roz-: ᵘ̯ozlác
37. replacement of locative plural -’ech > -’och by analogy of -‘evi > -‘ovi etc., which was later replaced by -ach
38. Levelling of the nominative and accusative singular neuter endings -ē and -ĕ by spreading -e, pole
39. Replacement of the genitive singular masculine/neuter adjective endings -égo with -ego via tego, do niego
40. Tendency to replace some noun declension endings with adjective endings or vice-versa
41. Replacement of the neuter nominative/accusative numeral dwie with the masculine dwa
42. Prefixed iść type verbs with an inserted -ń-
43. Hardening of the first person singular and plural verb endings such as idemy, złapę by analogy of idę and archaic grzebę
44. Spread of hard labial in l-forms of melę/pelę via contamination of ḿel-, ṕel, and the l-forms mełł-, pełl-
45. spread of the first person plural verb ending -my (over -m) under influence of the pronoun my, or with -va, sometimes -ma via contamination of the two; in the souther -me via Slovak.
46. Creation and spread of the preterite ending -ek (or -k after a vowel) < -ech, contaminated with -(ś)ḿ as well as with the aorist form of the auxiliary verb bych in the south-wst: nosiłek, byłak; elsewhere -em (-m after a vowel), which can voice the stem: zaniuzem, zanius. This form could be a reduction of -chm(y)
47. Creation of the first person plural preteriate ending -chmy via contamination -(je)sm + (by)chom and under the influence of the pronoun my: nieślichmy. In some Lesser Poland subdialects, -sm > -śḿ under influence of -ś, -ście
48. Rise of masculine personal nouns, except in a large number of subdialects where the gender disappeared.

Notes and References

1. http://www.dialektologia.uw.edu.pl/index.php?l1=opis-dialektow&l2=dialekt-malopolski "Dialekt małopolski"
2. http://www.dialektologia.uw.edu.pl/index.php?l1=opis-dialektow&l2=dialekt-malopolski&l3=dialekt-malopolski-charakterystyka "Charakterystyka dialektu małopolskiego"
3. Encyclopedia: Stanisław Urbańczyk . Encyklopedia języka polskiego . Dialekt małopolski . II . 1992 . Ossolineum . Wrocław-Warszawa-Kraków . 60 . pl.
4. Web site: Dialekt małopolski. Karaś. Halina. 2010. dialektologia.uw.edu.pl. 16 July 2024.
5. Book: Dialekty polskie. Karol Dejna. 1973. 254–261.