The borders of the Polish language only partially agree with those of the Polish state. The eastern part of the Polish republic is linguistically mixed territory, often with a prevalence of alloglot elements; on the other hand, there are not a few speakers of the Polish language who live beyond state borders: in territories immediately adjacent (in Czechoslovakia, Germany, Lithuania, USSR) and far from them, in Western Europe and in America.
The compact area of the Polish language, including the Kasciubi speakers, is limited to the following line: proceeding from Jabłonków and Cieszyn (Teschen), one crosses a strip of Czechoslovakian territory and near Ratibor, beyond the Oder, one enters Germany. From here, at a distance of a few kilometers from the Oder, continue towards the NE., Cross the river again between Oppeln and Brieg and turning more directly to the North., you will reach the state border again near Kępno. From this point, and as far as the sea, the linguistic border, except for slight divergences (German wedges near Zbąszyń and Schneidemühl-Pila in Posnania; Chojnice. In Pomerania, see also kasciubi), agrees with the state one. After passing the short coastal stretch at S. di Gdynia, the Polish language resumes contact with the German one, first following the boundaries of the free city of Gdansk and then, along the Vistula, those of East Prussia which it abandons after a short stretch to wedge into Polish territory. up to Grudziądz. At this point the linguistic border bends sharply to E., enters East Prussia (the Masurian lakes area) and crosses it along a line that joins Osterode with the corner where the borders of East Prussia, Lithuania and Poland converge. The eastern limit of the compact linguistic zone can only be traced very roughly with a line which, starting from the angle now marked, goes directly to the S. up to the vicinity of Hrubieszów, bends here to the West. to reach the San River at Sieniawa and follow it to the Sanok. Here the linguistic border resumes its western direction and near Szczawnica it finds contact with the state border from which it no longer departs as far as Jabłonków.
The Polish language is part, together with Czechoslovakian, Sorbian and the extinct Elban (Polabian) dialects, of the Western group of Slavic languages and therefore has with it the following main characteristics compared to the Eastern and Southern Slavic languages: conservation of kv links, gv (Polish kwiat, Czech kv ě t “flower” opposite Russian and Serbocr. cvet ; pol. gwiazda, cèco hv ě zda “star”, Russian and Serbocr. zvezda) and tl, dl (pol. modlitwa, ckco modlitba”prayer”, opposite Russian and Serbocr. molitva), passage of tj, kt to c (Polish ś wieca, Czech svíce “candle”, versus Serbian sve ć a, Russian sve è a ; Polish and cèco noc “night” from * nokt -, versus Serbian no ć, Russian no it’s). Compared to other Western-Slavic dialects, Polaeco shows slightly greater affinities with the Sorbian (Lusatian) dialects than with the Czechoslovakian ones: this affinity is especially sensitive in the resolution of the * tort * tolt groups which, with some exceptions, give in Polish and Sorbian trot, tlot, while the Czech and Slovak have in this case trat, tlat: Proto * borna “harrow”, pol. brona, Low-Sorbian brona, High-Sorbian bróna, Cèco brány ; protosl. * bolto “swamp”, pol. b ł oto, bassosorabo b ł oto, altosorabo b ł óto, Czech and Slovak bláto.
Based on a certain number of phonetic concordances, some scholars distinguish a “lechic” or “lechitic” group within the Western-Slavic group that would embrace Polish, Pomerano-Kasciubo and Polish. However, these concordances are few in number and not very characteristic., being more of preservations (e.g., the continuation of the ancient pronunciation in the nasal groups) than of innovations; and on the other hand the kasciubo for a complex of reasons (see kasciubi) can be considered an integral part of the Polish language, while the same affirmation cannot be made with regard to the Pomeranian speakers – whose affinity, undeniable, but not close, with Polish, has only just been highlighted in recent years – and even less with regard to the Elban Slav. It therefore seems more appropriate not to insert other linguistic units between Polish (Polish-Kasciubo) and the great Western-Slavic group.
Apart from Kasciubo, which has several archaic features, the dialectal differentiation on the Polish territory is not very pronounced. The many centuries of political unity, the almost uninterrupted cultural unity and the configuration of the terrain have prevented a decisive linguistic fragmentation, facilitating instead continuous exchanges between region and region. Nevertheless, the following Polish dialects are used to distinguish: dialects of Greater Poland, dialects of Kuyavian and of the lands of Chełmno-Dobrzyń, dialects of Lesser Poland (with some variants: Cracow and Podhale parlors, Kielce and Sandomierz parlors, speak of Lublin and the speakers of the neighboring areas and not Ukrainian), Silesian dialects (a part of the territory they occupy is in Czechoslovakia and Germany),kresowy, on the Russian-Lithuanian border). Faced with the literary language, these dialects show some more or less common peculiarities: tendency to narrow vowels (not only nó ż, Bóg, etc., where ó is worth u, but also Kó ń, dóm ; and also rzéka, kobiéta ; právda, znám, where é almost stands for i and á for å), differences in the pronunciation of nasal vowels (e.g., g ą sty for gę sty, w ą ch for w ę ch, etc.); Dental ruling s, z, c, dz in place of sz, ż, cz, d ż: Zyto for ż yto, Čarný for czarny, etc. (this pronunciation is found throughout the central part of the Polish territory: in Masovia, whence the denomination of mazurzenie”Masovian pronunciation”, and in Lesser Poland); a more decisive indentation of the consonants in front of an i, therefore in place of piwo, wino we find pronounces such as: pjiwo, Wjino, ñ ś iwo, w ??? ź ino, etc. Less numerous, less characteristic and less widespread are the morphological particularities, among which we only mention the generalization, in several dialects, of the ancient forms of the dual: chod ź wa for chod ź my “let’s go”, etc.
The question of the origin of the literary language has been the subject of lively discussions in recent years. The absence of the mazurzeniein the literary language it leads some scholars to consider Greater Poland (Gniezno and Poznań) as the cradle of Polish; others, on the other hand, believe that only in Krakow, the residence of the Polish grand dukes and kings since the century. XI, the boast of having given Poland its managerial speech can be expected. Given the small difference between the dialects of Krakow and Poznań it is difficult to reach an agreement on this controversial point. What is certain is that the subsequent evolution of the Polish language can be better explained, if we take into account that, except for short periods (for example, Krakow at the time of Casimir the Great and the last Jagiellonids, Warsaw at the time of Stanislaus Augustus) Poland it did not have strong political or cultural centers. For Poland religion and languages, please check ezinereligion.com.
This lack, also connected with the low importance that the bourgeois element had in Poland (in the Middle Ages mainly German) is perhaps reflected in some particularities of the Polish morphology (great irregularity of the declensions) and has left undoubted traces in the lexicon. Apart from the infiltration of Czech elements (in the primordia of literature), Latin and Italian (especially in the Renaissance) and French (in the eighteenth century), one cannot help but notice the strong influence that on the Polish language practiced the German lexicon. It is particularly sensitive in the terminology of the city and military state organization, and in that of the arts and crafts, but it also extends to the verb (szacowa ć “schätzen” szanowa ć”schonen” kierowa æ “kehren”) and has also given a very productive to the Polish suffix (- unek from – ung: gatunek “Gattung” little ³ unek “kiss” dall’indigeno little ³ owa æ “kiss”).
