Western Greater Polish dialect

Western Greater Polish dialect
Native to	Poland
Region	Western Greater Poland
Language family	Indo-European Balto-Slavic Slavic West Slavic Lechitic Polish Greater Polish Western Greater Polish dialect
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–

The Western Greater Polish dialect (Polish: gwary zachodniowielkopolskie) belongs to the Greater Poland dialect group and is located in the part of Poland. It borders the new mixed dialects to the west, the Northern Greater Polish dialect to the far northeast, the Central Greater Polish dialect to the east, and the Southern Greater Polish dialect to the far southeast.

Phonology

Typical of Greater Polish dialects, voicing of word-final consonants before vowels and liquids is present in all the region. Also typical of Greater Polish dialects, masuration is not present, except in Wieleń, where the so-called “Wieleń Masurs” are, who have masuration. In reality, they are not true Masurians, but are just called this due to their dialect.

Vowels

Common here, as to many other dialects of Greater Polish, is diphthongization of monopthongs, e.g. /ɔ/ > /wɛ/. There is a strong tendency here to add -j after final -y, as in much of Greater Poland. Often -ył, -ił shift to -uł. Final -ej frequently shift to i (after soft consonants)/y (after hard consonants): liepi (lepiej).

Slanted vowels

Slanted á raises to o, slanted ó raises to u (as in Standard Polish), and there are a few cases where standard o raises ó. Slanted é raises to y after hard consonants and to i after soft consonants.

Nasal vowels

Medial ą and ę decompose except before sibilants (as in Standard Polish). ą decompses to óN ę decomposes to yN after hard consonants and iN after soft. Word final -ą decomposes to -om, -óm and word final -ę denasalizes to -e. Common here is the dyphthongization of nasal vowels, especially final -ą to -óᵐ, or the decomposition of nasal vowels, as in Standard Polish. Liquids, especially nasals, frequently cause raising, so oN to óN and eN to yN after hard consonants and to iN after soft.

Prothesis

Labizalization of o to ô both initially and sometimes medially can be found here.

Consonants

Often ł is intervocalically, or sometimes ło, resulting in forms such as bya (była), or kowrotek (kołowortek). Reduction of doubled consonants is present: leki (lekki). l is sometimes softer: liekarz (lekarz). The group -stn- reduces to -sn-. kt- shifts to cht-, and chrz shifts to krz-.

Inflection

A few changes to Standard Polish infection can be see.

Nouns

Gerunds formed with -enie take -u for the genitive instead of -a, z wejrzyniu (z wejrzenia).

Adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, and numerals

The comparative of adverbs is often -y due to sound changes.

Verbs

Past tense forms can be -uł as a result of sound changes: bułoᵉ (było).

Vocabulary

Most of the vocabulary is typical for a Greater Polish dialect. Some of the vocabulary has been influenced by the Sorbian languages, as this was an old point of contact between the two lects.

Word-Formation

Western Greater Polish shows features typical of other Greater Polish dialects.

Nouns

-yszek is the common diminuative noun forming suffix. Nominalization of adjectives is common here, listowy (instead of listonosz, ‘mailman’) and listowo (wife of a mailman).

Adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, and numerals

A common way to form diminuative adjectives is with -itki. -yty/-ity are often used where -ysty/-ity might occur in Standard Polish.

Verbs

Verbs are sometimes prefixed with o- (ô-) where in Standard Polish is often wy-.

See also

• Dialects of the Polish language
• Languages of Europe
• Polish language