Dialects of the Polish language
Encyclopedia
In Polish
linguistic tradition there are seven general dialect
al groups of the Polish language
, each primarily associated with a certain geographical region. The dialects (dialekt in Polish) are often further subdivided into subdialectal groups called gwara or region.
The Polish language became far more homogeneous in the second half of the 20th century, in part due to the mass migration of several million Polish citizens from the eastern to the western part of the country after the east was annexed by the Soviet Union
in the aftermath of World War II
.
The regional differences correspond mainly to old ethnic or tribal divisions from around a thousand years ago; the most significant of these in terms of numbers of speakers are Greater Polish (spoken in the west), Lesser Polish (spoken in the south and southeast), Mazovian (Mazur) spoken throughout the central and eastern parts of the country, and Silesian language in the southwest. Mazovian shares some features with the Kashubian language (see below).
, some also argue that it is rather a language.
, is the most numerous dialectal group in modern Poland. It includes the following sub-groups
and the Polish minority in Belarus
,
of the Polish language
and Old Ruthenian language
spoken in Red Ruthenia
in the Middle Ages
,
s are often considered to be independent language
s:
, often by descendants of the ancient tribe of Pomeranians
.
, in modern times spoken in the regions of Upper Silesia
.
tribal groups inhabiting the territory of modern Poland. Among the most notable of them are the urban dialects of some of the larger cities where Polish is (or used to be) commonly spoken. Those include the Warsaw dialect
, the Poznań dialect, the Łódź dialect and the Lwów dialect
. There are also several professional dialects preserved, of which the best known is grypsera
, a language spoken by long-time prison convicts.
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
linguistic tradition there are seven general dialect
Dialect
The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...
al groups of the Polish language
Polish language
Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...
, each primarily associated with a certain geographical region. The dialects (dialekt in Polish) are often further subdivided into subdialectal groups called gwara or region.
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
in the aftermath of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
The regional differences correspond mainly to old ethnic or tribal divisions from around a thousand years ago; the most significant of these in terms of numbers of speakers are Greater Polish (spoken in the west), Lesser Polish (spoken in the south and southeast), Mazovian (Mazur) spoken throughout the central and eastern parts of the country, and Silesian language in the southwest. Mazovian shares some features with the Kashubian language (see below).
Traditional division
Note that the following scheme, while often cited, is also considered outdated in some parts for the reasons stated above. Specifically most modern scholars agree that Kashubian is in fact a separate language. While most Polish linguists regard Silesian as a dialect, some also argue that it is rather a language.
Greater Polish dialect
Descending from the Western Slavic language once spoken by the PolansPolans
Polans may refer to two Slavic tribes:* Polans , in the area of Dnieper river* Polans , in the area of Warta. The tribe unified most of the lands of present-day Poland under the Piast dynasty....
- KrajnaKrajnaKrajna is a forested historical region in Poland, situated in the border area between the Greater Poland, Kuyavian-Pomeranian and Pomeranian Voivodeships...
dialect - TucholaTucholaTuchola is a town in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship in northern Poland. The Pomeranian town, which had a population of 13,976 as of 2004, is located close to the Tuchola Forests about 7t0 km north of Bydgoszcz, and is the seat of Tuchola County...
dialect - KociewieKociewieKociewie is an ethnocultural region in the eastern part of Tuchola Forest, in northern Poland, Pomerania, south of Gdańsk. Its cultural capital is Starogard Gdański, and the biggest town is Tczew. The region has about 250,000 inhabitants. It has well-developed industry and agriculture.Populated...
dialect - Chełmno-DobrzyńDobrzynThe terms Dobrzyń and Dobrin may refer to:* Order of Dobrzyń, military order* Golub-Dobrzyń, town in Poland* Dobrzyń nad Wisłą, town in Poland* Dobrzyń, Masovian Voivodeship...
dialect - Cuyavian dialect
- ChojnoChojnoChojno may refer to the following places:*Chojno, Brodnica County in Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship *Chojno, Kalisz County in Greater Poland Voivodeship...
(Southern Greater Poland) dialect
Mazovian dialect
Descending from the language of the Mazovians- Białystock dialect
- Suwałki dialect
- Warmia dialect
- Kurpie dialect
- Masurian dialect
- Malbork-Lubawa dialect
- Ostróda dialect
- Near Mazovian dialect
- Far Mazovian dialect
Lesser Polish dialect
Descending from the language of the VistulansVistulans
Vistulans were an early medieval West Slavic tribe inhabiting the land of modern Lesser Poland.From the 1st century and possibly earlier, the Vistulans , were part of the Carpian Tribe, which got its name from the area that they lived in, which was beside the Carpathian Mountain Range...
, is the most numerous dialectal group in modern Poland. It includes the following sub-groups
- Łowicz dialect
- SieradzSieradzSieradz is a town on the Warta river in central Poland with 44,326 inhabitants . It is situated in the Łódź Voivodship , but was previously the eponymous capital of the Sieradz Voivodship , and historically one of the minor duchies in Greater Poland.It is one of the oldest towns in Poland,...
-Łęczyca dialect - Holy Cross Mountains dialects , often associated with the ancient tribe of the Lędzianie
- Grębów dialect
- Orawa dialect
- Spisz dialect
- Podhale dialectPodhale dialectThe Podhale dialect refers to the language spoken by the Gorals, or the highlanders living in the Tatra Mountains. The dialect, itself a part of the larger Lesser Polish dialectal group, is characterized as Proto-Slavic from the Eastern Lechitic, Old Polish area, superimposed by Slovak.In other...
Northern Kresy dialect
In modern times spoken mainly by the Polish minority in LithuaniaPolish minority in Lithuania
The Polish minority in Lithuania numbered 234,989 persons, according to the Lithuanian census of 2001, or 6.74% of the total population of Lithuania. It is the largest ethnic minority in the country and the second largest Polish diaspora group among the post-Soviet states...
and the Polish minority in Belarus
Polish minority in Belarus
The Polish minority in Belarus numbers officially about 294,549 according to 2009 census. It forms the second largest ethnic minority in the country after the Russians, at 3,1% of the total population. An estimated 180,905 Polish Belarusians live in large agglomerations and 113,644 in smaller...
,
- Wilno dialect
Southern Kresy dialect
often considered a descendant of a pidginPidgin
A pidgin , or pidgin language, is a simplified language that develops as a means of communication between two or more groups that do not have a language in common. It is most commonly employed in situations such as trade, or where both groups speak languages different from the language of the...
of the Polish language
Polish language
Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...
and Old Ruthenian language
Ruthenian language
Ruthenian, or Old Ruthenian , is a term used for the varieties of Eastern Slavonic spoken in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and later in the East Slavic territories of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth....
spoken in Red Ruthenia
Red Ruthenia
Red Ruthenia is the name used since medieval times to refer to the area known as Eastern Galicia prior to World War I; first mentioned in Polish historic chronicles in the 1321, as Ruthenia Rubra or Ruthenian Voivodeship .Ethnographers explain that the term was applied from the...
in the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
,
- Lwów dialectLwów dialectThe Lwów dialect is a local variety of the Polish language characteristic of the inhabitants of the city of Lviv , now in Ukraine. Based on the substratum of the Malopolonia dialect, it was heavily influenced by borrowings from other languages spoken in Central Europe, notably German and Yiddish,...
Independent dialects or languages
Two of the dialectDialect
The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...
s are often considered to be independent language
Language
Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
s:
Kashubian
Kashubian , refers to the language spoken in the region of Eastern PomeraniaPomerania
Pomerania is a historical region on the south shore of the Baltic Sea. Divided between Germany and Poland, it stretches roughly from the Recknitz River near Stralsund in the West, via the Oder River delta near Szczecin, to the mouth of the Vistula River near Gdańsk in the East...
, often by descendants of the ancient tribe of Pomeranians
Pomeranian Balts
The term Pomerania Balts, or rather Western Balts, refers to Baltic people, who as early as the bronze age inhabited parts of the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, an area now known as Pomerania....
.
- Slovincian dialectSlovincianSlovincian is the language formerly spoken by the Slovincians , a Slavic people living between lakes Gardno and Łebsko near Słupsk in Pomerania....
, which became extinct in early XX century, last speakers lived in the village of KlukiKluki, Pomeranian VoivodeshipKluki is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Smołdzino, within Słupsk County, Pomeranian Voivodeship, in northern Poland...
by the Łeba Lake.
Silesian
Silesian , descending from the language of the Slavic tribe of ŚlężanieSlezanie
Ślężanie were a tribe of West Slavs, specifically of the Lechitic , inhabiting territories of Lower Silesia, near Ślęża mountain and Ślęza river, on the both banks of the Oder, up to the area of modern city of Wrocław...
, in modern times spoken in the regions of Upper Silesia
Upper Silesia
Upper Silesia is the southeastern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia. Since the 9th century, Upper Silesia has been part of Greater Moravia, the Duchy of Bohemia, the Piast Kingdom of Poland, again of the Lands of the Bohemian Crown and the Holy Roman Empire, as well as of...
.
- Cieszyn Silesian dialectCieszyn Silesian dialectCieszyn Silesian dialect is one of the Silesian dialects. It has its roots mainly in Polish and has also strong Czech and German influences and even Vlachs' and Slovak. It is spoken in Cieszyn Silesia, a region on both sides of the Polish-Czech border. It lacks some official codification and...
, dialect of Cieszyn SilesiaCieszyn SilesiaCieszyn Silesia or Těšín Silesia or Teschen Silesia is a historical region in south-eastern Silesia, centered around the towns of Cieszyn and Český Těšín and bisected by the Olza River. Since 1920 it has been divided between Poland and Czechoslovakia, and later the Czech Republic... - Lach dialect , surviving dialect is the Lach speech (Polish: gwary laskie), associated with the Czech languageCzech languageCzech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. The language was known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century...
. - Niemodlin Silesian dialect
- Gliwice Silesian dialect
- Jabłonków Silesian dialect
- Kluczbork Silesian dialect
- Prudnik Silesian dialect
- Opole Silesian dialect
- Sulkovian Silesian dialectSulkovian dialectThe Sulkovian dialect is one of the Silesian dialects, extracted by Feliks Steuer in his work Dialekt sułkowski...
Unrelated dialects
There is also a number of dialects unrelated to the traditional scheme descending from the ancient Western SlavicWest Slavic languages
The West Slavic languages are a subdivision of the Slavic language group that includes Czech, Polish, Slovak, Kashubian and Sorbian.Classification:* Indo-European** Balto-Slavic*** Slavic**** West Slavic***** Czech-Slovak languages****** Czech...
tribal groups inhabiting the territory of modern Poland. Among the most notable of them are the urban dialects of some of the larger cities where Polish is (or used to be) commonly spoken. Those include the Warsaw dialect
Warsaw dialect
The Warsaw dialect is a regional dialect of the Polish language spoken in Warsaw. The dialect evolved as late as 18th century, mainly from the Masovian dialect of the Polish language, under notable influence of several languages spoken in the city of Warsaw...
, the Poznań dialect, the Łódź dialect and the Lwów dialect
Lwów dialect
The Lwów dialect is a local variety of the Polish language characteristic of the inhabitants of the city of Lviv , now in Ukraine. Based on the substratum of the Malopolonia dialect, it was heavily influenced by borrowings from other languages spoken in Central Europe, notably German and Yiddish,...
. There are also several professional dialects preserved, of which the best known is grypsera
Grypsera
Grypsera is a distinct non-standard dialect of the Polish language, used traditionally by recidivist prison inmates...
, a language spoken by long-time prison convicts.