Warsaw dialect
| Warsaw dialect | ||
|---|---|---|
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Spoken in |
Warsaw , Poland , Polonia (Polish Diaspora ) | |
| speaker | not known (almost extinct) | |
| Linguistic classification |
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The Warsaw dialect (in standard Polish language : Gwara warszawska ) is a regional dialect of the Polish language in Warsaw . The dialect emerged primarily from the Mazovian dialect in the 18th century . Various languages spoken in Warsaw had a considerable influence on this Polish dialect . After the destruction of Warsaw in the aftermath of the Warsaw Uprising of 1944, the dialect faded. It is estimated that it is almost extinct as a mother tongue at the present time; yet it is preserved in literary works.
Classification
The Warsaw dialect is mainly composed of a Polish base, with significant (mostly lexical) influences from the Mazovian dialect as well as from Russian , German , Yiddish and other languages.
The dialect developed from a variety of different dialects from different classes. The language of the suburbs was different from the language of central Warsaw, and each professional group used its own version of the dialect. Since each version was a little different, it is difficult to classify the dialect exactly.
Geographical distribution
The dialect was originally spoken in and around Warsaw. After the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 it was separated from its geographical origin because most of the surviving residents were relocated to other parts of Poland or to the diaspora as a result of the destruction . It is currently almost completely extinct as a first language. It is still mainly used by writers and artists who use it to express themselves in literature, poetry and songwriting .
history
The Warsaw dialect separated from the other Polish dialects in the 18th century when the Polish substratum was enriched with many loan words from Masovian. Above all, the languages used by the bourgeoisie and at the royal court influenced the dialect. These included Italian , Yiddish, French , Latin and English . During the partitions of Poland in the 19th century, the dialect integrated a large number of German and Russian loan words.
Up until World War II , the dialect was spoken by different classes and professions in Warsaw, and the versions evolved independently, even if they were intertwined. Nevertheless, as is so often the case with urban dialects, the influence of the rogue language is noticeable. In the years before 1939 and in the 1950s , Stefan Wiechecki wrote numerous stories about the Warsaw milieu and the dialect was codified, so to speak, in his feature pages . Figures such as the cab driver Walery Wątróbka , his wife Genia and her brother Piekutowski were created into typical Warsaw characters, from which the graphic artist Jerzy Zaruba created caricatures that are very similar to the Berlin characters of Heinrich Zille .
During the Second World War, a large part of the population of Warsaw was killed and the remaining speakers dispersed. Immediately after the war, only a small part of the pre-war Warsaw population returned to the destroyed city. Because of this, the Warsaw dialect was heavily influenced by other Polish dialects. The only places where the Warsaw dialect was preserved to some extent were in the Wola boroughs and the far less destroyed Praga .
Since the 1960s, the unification of the Polish language, driven by the influence of mass media such as television and radio, has resulted in a rapid decline in speakers of all Polish dialects. The same thing happened to the Warsaw dialect.
Among the most important artists who belong to the Warsaw dialect in their books, poems and songs USER (ed) in addition to Stefan Wiechecki also Hanka Bielicka , Irena Kwiatkowska , Viktor Gomulicki , Stanisław Grzesiuk , Alina Janowska , Zygmunt Staszczyk , Stanisław Staszewski , Jarema Stępowski and Stasiek Wielanek .
Bronisław Wieczorkiewicz carried out the most comprehensive studies of the dialect in his book Gwara warszawska wczoraj i dziś (German: The Warsaw dialect yesterday and today).
Subspecies of the dialect
The Warsaw dialect contained several subspecies:
- Sub dialects from different districts - for example the languages of Praga, Wola and Powiśle (in the inner city district of Śródmieście )
- Subdialects of certain professional groups - for example the language of truckers, business people, printers or police officers
- Subdialects of criminals - a separate version of the Kassiber (crooks language for secret writing between prisoners)
- Jewish subdialect - a regional version of Yiddish which was largely influenced by Polish
All of the above sub-dialects constantly mingled with each other, with most of them showing similarities in the lexical base.
Preserved dialect form
Given the large number of prisons in Warsaw, the cashiers' influence on the development of the dialect was immense. To a certain extent, the form of today's language is only remotely comparable to the earlier language.
pronunciation
The pronunciation of the Warsaw dialect corresponds largely to the Polish language, but there are some significant differences. The most important differences (here: with the vowels ) between the standard Polish pronunciation and the Warsaw dialect are as follows:
| difference | Pronunciation ( IPA ) | Polish example | Warsaw dialect | German translation | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vowels | |||||||||||||
| Disappearance of the nasal vowel , especially with the last syllables | [ɔ̃] , [ɛ̃] | ||||||||||||
| Palatalization of the velar before [ɛ] and [ɛ̃] , especially with final syllables | [k] , [ɡ] | rękę ( [ˈrɛŋkɛ̃] or [ˈrɛŋkɛ] ) | rękie ( [ˈrɛŋkʲe] ) | Hand ( accusative ) | |||||||||
| Replacement of the vowel group [ɔa] by [ua] or [uwa] | [ɔa] , | zawoalowany ( [ˌzavɔaloˈvanɨ] ) | zawualowany ( [ˌzavualoˈvani] ) | hidden | |||||||||
| Replacement of the vowel [ɨ] with [i] or [ɪ] | [ɨ] | kochany ( [kɔˈxanɨ] ) |
kochany ( [kɔˈxani] or [kɔˈxanɪ] ) |
dear | |||||||||
Grammar and vocabulary
The grammar of the Warsaw dialect is basically the same as the grammar of the Polish literary language, but with a few simplifications. In addition, the Warsaw dialect contains a number of loan words from a variety of languages.
Writing system
The Warsaw dialect did not develop its own written form. The dialect that some authors used in literature was written using the Polish alphabet .
See also
literature
- Bronisław Wieczorkiewicz: Gwara warszawska dawniej i dziś . Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, Warsaw 1968, p. 516.
- Bronisław Wieczorkiewicz: Characterystyka gwary warszawskiej XIX wieku . In: Przegląd Humanistyczny . No. 6, 1960, pp. 61-82.
- Bronisław Wieczorkiewicz: Z badań nad gwarą warszawską XIX wieku . Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, Warsaw 1963, p. 371.
- Bronisław Wieczorkiewicz: Słownik gwary warszawskiej XIX wieku . Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, Warsaw 1966, p. 487.
- Stanisław Dubisz, Halina Karaś, Nijola Kolis: Dialekty i gwary polskie . Wiedza Powszechna, Warsaw 1995, p. 175.
- Marian Kucała: Twoja mowa cię zdradza; regionalizmy i dialektyzmy języka polskiego . Towarzystwo Miłośników Języka Polskiego, Krakau 1994, p. 120.
- Various authors: Małgorzata Święcicka (ed.): Miasto; przestrzeń zróżnicowana językowo, kulturowo i społecznie . Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Kazimierza Wielkiego , Bydgoszcz 2006, ISBN 83-7096-607-1 , p. 434.
- Ewa Geller: Warsaw Yiddish . Tübingen: Niemeyer, 2001 ISBN 3-484-23146-7