Kurpie dialect

The Kurpie dialect () belongs to the Masovian dialect group and is located in the northeastern part of Poland. It borders the Masurian dialects to the north and the Far Mazovian dialect to the south. The Kurpie dialect is generally well preserved, and a strong cultural connection to the dialect can be felt amongst speakers. Standard Polish is used by most people in the region, often alongside Kurpian, and code-switching between the two frequently happens.

Phonology

Typical of Masovian dialects, devoicing of word-final consonants before vowels and liquids is present here, including before clitics. Also typical of Masovian dialects is the presence of mazuration, however, due to influence from Standard Polish, this is disappearing.

Vowels

y phonemically merges with i (approaching it phonetically to ɪ), leaving the hardness of the previous consonant as the main phonemic determining factor: potraw·i (potrawy). Often the group er shifts to ir: dopsiro. Ablaut is often levelled: ziedro (wiadro), bzierzo (biorą). The shift of initial ja-, ra- > je-, re- is present: jek, (jak), redził (radzil). This was more common in the past, but often Standard Polish forms can be seen now. The shift of medial -ar- > -er- is also present: terło (tarło). This was more common in the past, but often Standard Polish forms can be seen now.

Slanted vowels

Slanted á is generally retained as á, or may sometimes raise and merge with o, or uncommonly merge with a. Slanted é is generally retained as é, with much phonetic variation, or may also be merged with e due to influence from Standard Polish. Slanted ó is generally retained as ó, with much phonetic variation, and may also appear in places different than in Standard Polish.

Nasal vowels

Typically medial ę as well as the group eN are lowered, and ę generally decomposes: bańdzie. However, much variety depends on the village, non-lowered or raised variants (to éN, yN/iN) also exist: bendzie, as well as non-decomposed forms. Lowering of ę is becoming less popular, and can mostly be seen in final position (with denasalization): na ziosna (na wiosnę), and either eN or yN/iN are more dominant. Word finally, -ę denalasaizes to -e. The lowering of eN is still relatively common: przed progam (przed progiem). Hypercorrections also occurs: peniętam (pamiętam). Medial ą tends to decompose to oN, or sometimes raises to uN: ciungnik (ciągnik). Word finally, -ą denasalizes to -o in the east; in the west nasality is retained. The group oN tends to raise to óN and sometimes further to uN: stróny (strony), but the standard realization oN also can be heard. iN, yN, and uN often lowers, particularly iN: jenacej (inaczej). o before a liquid often raises: kórole (korale), and e before a liquid often lowers to a: sztalmach (sztelmach). ył/ił often shifts to uł: pozwoluł (pozwolił). The groups ęł, ęl, ął tend to replace l, ł with n: wzieno (wzięło).

Prothesis

Initial o- often labializes to ô-, and to a lesser extend u- to û-. However, non-labialized forms are also present. Initial i- and e- can rarely gain a prothetic j-.

Consonants

Soft labials are decomposed, most often to a labial and a palatal sibilant; rarely the palatalizing element is instead strengthened to j, or sometimes h, ch is the second element: robzio (robią), ustąpsiuł (ustąpił), wzino (wino). Sometimes the resulting cluster simplifies, particularly wź, fś, mń to ź, ś, ń: ziecora (wieczora). This decomposition can vary somewhat village to village. ki, gi, kie, gie are often hardened, but soft pronunciations are more common: kedyś (kiedyś). kt shifts to cht: chto (kto). chrz shifts to krz: krzesny (chrzestny). Geminated kk dissimilates to tk: letko (lekko).

Contraction

Verbs may appear in both contracted and uncontracted forms here: stojała, stała (stała).

Inflection

Typical Masovian features of inflection are present here.

Nouns

The instrumental plural ending is generally -ani (from -ami). The typical Masovian ending is -amy, via hardening, which is exceptional here. The masculine dative singular ending for nouns is -oziu (rarely -owju or -oju) (from earlier -owiu) from contamination of -owi and -u: konioziu (koniowi). Masculine and neuter nouns ending in sz, ż, as a result of mazuration, sometimes take -e instead of -u in the locative singular: o kosie (o koszu). The nominative plural of masculine personal nouns is formed with -e more commonly than in Standard Polish: ojce byli (ojcowie byli). Alternatively, masculine personal nouns are often converted to masculine animal nouns: te majstry (ci majstrowie/majstrzy). There is a preference for -ów as the genitive plural ending regardless of gender or the softness of the stem. Feminine nouns ending in -ew are often declined differently: za krokwe (za krokiew), as if from the nominative singular krokwa. A few nouns have a gender different than in Standard Polish. Often neuter nouns ending in -ę do not take -n- in declensions: dwa wynia (dwa wymiona).

Adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, and numerals

Adjectives, pronouns, and numerals take -em in the masculine instrumental/locative singular instead of standard -ym/-im: po tem wszystkiem (po tym wszystkim). The plural is often -eni (from earlier -emi): całeni dniani (całymi dniami). Similarly, the genitive/locative plural is -ech: tech (tych).

Verbs

The first person plural present tense of verbs is formed with the archaic -m: idziem (idziemy). In the past tense, -m is also present in place of standard -śmy: robilim (robiliśmy). The second person plural past tense and imperative of verbs is sporadically formed with -ta in place of -cie: daliśta (daliście). The third person plural past tense if often formed with -eli in place of standard -ali: sieli (siali). Forms and derivatives often appear without j: przyde (przyjdę).

Vocabulary

Word-Formation

Typical Masovian features of word-formation are present here.

Nouns

Nouns denoting young animals and people are formed with -ak: dziewcoki (dziewczęta).

Verbs

Frequentatives may be formed with -ać where in Standard Polish is often -ywać/-ować: kupać (kupować).

Syntax

Dwa may be used for feminine nouns instead of dwie: dwa krowy (dwie krowy).

Standardization

From 2009 to 2019, Professor Jerzy Rubach, with the help of , published a series of monographs proposing a literary standard for the dialect. This orthography has been well received by Związek Kurpiów and numerous publications in that time have used it, including a dictionary. Siatkowska opines that this process did not fully take regional variation into consideration. Gadomski in his dictionary provides some information in regional variation.

In the north-west, near Gmina Jednorożec, slanted å does not occur; this variation is recommended to be spelled, but pronounced as if ⟨a⟩; furthermore soft ḿ has only partially decomposed to mń, elsewhere ń. In the south-east, slanted å is realized as o, but it is recommended to also spell this as ⟨a⟩. Near Myszyniec, ⟨ë⟩ approaches or meges with a, but spellings with ⟨ë⟩ are prescribed as with pronunciation variations of ⟨å⟩; also here prothetic ł before a is more common, but is rarer in other places. Gadomski uses central dialects for the basis of his dictionary, but does not proscribe spellings with ⟨mń⟩ instead of ⟨ń⟩, e.g. instead of .

Orthography and pronunciation

Rubach proposes the following rules for writing Kurpian, based on his analysis of pronunciation and grammar of the region:

1. Word-final voiced consonants ⟨b w d z dz rz (as /ʐ/) ź dź g⟩ are pronounced as if voiceless ⟨p f t s c rz (as /ʂ/) ś ć k⟩, but written voiced for morphological reasons.
2. ⟨u⟩ is pronounced as in Standard Polish.
3. ⟨e⟩ is pronounced as in Standard Polish.
4. ⟨ï⟩ is pronounced as /ɪ/.
5. ⟨ï⟩ occurs after ⟨ś ź ć dź ń j⟩.
6. ⟨y⟩ is pronounced as /ɘ/.
7. ⟨y⟩ occurs in the same position as in Standard Polish as well as after ⟨l k g ch h⟩.
8. ⟨a⟩ is pronounced as /æ~ä/.
9. ⟨å⟩ is pronounced as /ɑ~ɒ/.
10. ⟨ó⟩ is pronounced as /o/.
11. ⟨ó⟩ occurs before ⟨m n ń⟩ instead of ⟨o⟩.
12. ⟨é⟩ is pronounced as /e/.
13. ⟨ë⟩ is pronounced as /ə/.
14. ⟨ë⟩ occurs before ⟨m n ń⟩ instead of ⟨e⟩.
15. ⟨ę̈⟩ is pronounced as /ə̃/ and ⟨ą⟩ is pronounced as /o/.
16. ⟨ë⟩ is used instead of ⟨ę⟩ and ⟨ó⟩ is used instead of ⟨ą⟩ word-finally.
17. ⟨ś ź ć dź ń⟩ are used instead of ⟨si zi ci dzi ni⟩ and otherwise occur as in Standard Polish.
18. ⟨pi bi fi wi mi⟩ (from soft bilabials) are written and pronounced as ⟨pś bź ś ź ń⟩.
19. ⟨y⟩ is used instead of ⟨i ï⟩ after ⟨k g ch h⟩.
20. ⟨c dz s z⟩ and less frequently ⟨ć dź ś ź⟩ used instead of ⟨cz dż sz ż⟩.
21. ⟨ćï dźï śï źï⟩ used instead of ⟨czi dżi szi żi⟩.
22. ⟨rz⟩ is pronounced and used as in Standard Polish.
23. Standard Polish ⟨ni⟩ pronounced as /ɲj/ such as Dania are spelled ⟨ńj⟩ (Dańjå) and ⟨VV⟩ such as wyboisty is spelled ⟨VjV⟩ (wybojïsty). Otherwise ⟨j⟩ is as in Standard Polish.
24. Initial ⟨i u o⟩ in Standard Polish are pronounced and spelled as ⟨jï łu ło⟩ respectively; in Myszyniec initial ⟨a⟩ is spelled and pronounced as ⟨ła⟩.
25. The past tense of verbs whose stems end in consonants are spelled and pronounced with voiceless consonants, including those proceeded by personal clitics: mók, mókëm, mókeś.
26. Pre-existing loanwords are pronounced according to their historic realizations.
27. Loanwords containing ⟨pi bi⟩ should be adopted as ⟨pśï bźï⟩.
28. Loanwords containing ⟨fi wi mi⟩ should be adopted as ⟨fy wy my⟩.
29. Loanwords containing ⟨fiV wiV miV⟩ should be adopted as ⟨fjV wjV mjV⟩.
30. ⟨f w m⟩ when proceeded by an affix beginning with ⟨i⟩ in Standard polish should be changed to ⟨ś ź ń⟩.

Declension

Standardized Kurpian declension shows much levelling and regularization with regard to standard Polish declension.

Nouns

The genitive plural is formed with -ów in all genders, and replaces many standard masculine genitive plural endings as well with one exception - takes the suppletive genetive plural , but regular plural forms with the stem rok- can occur, and Rubach proscribes such forms. Similarly, all words taking -mi in the instrumental plural in standard Polish are regularized to -ańï. A few words in standard Polish take softening -ech in the locative plural, namely (), (), (); these are regularized to hardening -ach: ||.

Feminine declension

Rubach identifies a hard-stem feminine declension, a vocalic soft-stem declension, and a consonantal soft-stem declension as well as some irregular paradigms. The pressence of final -ë and -ó in the accusative and instrumental singular instead of -ę and -ą are the result of phonetic processes, as is the pressence of -óm instead of -om via prenasal raising in the dative plural and -ańï in the instrumental plural; -ów is seen instead of standard -∅ as the ending -ów sees much wider use in Kurpian in general.

• Hard-stem feminine nouns' stems end in the following consonants: p b f w m, s, z, t, d, n, r, ł, ch, k, and g.

* If the stem ends in a labial consonant (p, b, f, w, m), then regular phonetic processes, i.e. decomposition, occur in the dative and locative singular:

• Soft-stem feminine nouns stems' end in a soft consonant and in the nominative in -∅ (consonantal soft-stem), -a or -Ã¥ (vocalic soft-stem); the main difference is that -y is in the genitive, dative, locative, and vocative singular and -ï in those same positions due to phonetic processes:

* Some soft-stem feminine nouns stems' show -y and -ï in the nominative plural; most that do this show an alternative and much more common nominative/accusative/vocative plural according to the above paradigm (that is taking -e), but rzec and chę̈ć obligatorily take this ending:

* The main difference in vocalic declension is the presence of either -a or -å in the nominative singular; -å tends to appear after l, ń, ś, ź, ć, dź, c, dz, s (< sz but not < s), z (<ż but not < z), rz, and j:

The term has an irregular declension, but other terms ending in standard -yni/-ini, e.g. (standard ), are regularized to match the paradigm of :

The term has been morphologically reshaped to in the nominative singular and follows a hard declension () as opposed to a soft declension in the standard. Many other terms have undergone regularization, including to following the declension of and standard and takes clear -a in the nominative as opposed to -Ã¥, thus and , despite being after a soft consonant, but otherwise declines like ; may otherwise fully regularize and decline according to the hard-stem paradigm. The term (standard ) shows -e in the nominative plural despite being a hard-stem noun under standard influence.

The term in the meaning "arm, hand", like standard Polish , (as well as neuter (standard and (standard )) is irregular due to fossilizing dual forms in the plural; in other meanings it is regular. In the singular, it declines according to hard-stem declension, but the plural shows many irregularities; the instrumental form is the result of combining the old ending with with reglar sound changes applied; furthermore the plural stem appears in all cases due to morphological levelling.

Neuter declension

There are six neuter paradigms and no exceptions. As with feminine nouns, the hard-stem declension serves as the basic paradigm; hard stems may end in p, b, m, f, w, s, z, t, d, r, ł, and n; the velar consonants k, g, and ch belong to a different paradigm.

• The locative singular -e can cause regular alternations of labials via sound laws, e.g. > (standard ) or > (standard ).
• Due to sound changes, Kurpian can show vowel alternations different than in standard Polish.

Neuter velar stems decline similarly to other hard-stem nouns, with a difference in the locative singular. See below for some -c stems that decline according to this paradigm.

Soft stems may end in ś, ź, ć, dź, ń, j, c, dz, s (< sz but not < s), z (< ż but not < z), rz, and l; j-stems (e.g. , ) take -o in the nominative/accusative/vocative singular instead of -e

Some nouns whose stems end in -c (< -c, not < -cz) may show some differences to the above paradigm: , ) take -o in the nominative/accusative/vocative singular instead of -e.

• These terms unexpectedly take -a instead of -Ã¥ in the genitive singular and -oźu instead of -u in the dative singular, thus declining like velar stems and belonging to that paradigm; such -c stems usually end in -e in the nominative singular. This does not apply to c-stems deriving from -cz-, e.g. (< ).

Nasal stem nouns constitute a closed class and no new terms enter this paradigm. Other standard Polish nasal stems taking -ć- in the singular and -t- in the plural (cielę, genitive singular cielęcia, genitive plural cieląt) do not occur and instead the suffix -åk in the nominative singular is used, see below for more.

Latinate words ending in -um in the nominative singular behave very similar to standard Polish:

The words (standard ) and (standard ), much like (see above), show irregular plural forms fossilized from old dual forms when in the meanings "eye" and "ear" respectively; in other contexts they are regular:

Masculine declension

Standard Kurpian may retain the three-way animacy distinction found in standard Polish, whereby the accusative singular and/or plural shows syncretism with the genitive, but differs from standard Polish in the nominative plural, as only non-softening -y occurs, never standard -owie or softening -i-/y, e.g. standard || but Kurpian || , and non-softening -y can even occur after the velar consonants k/g due to historic sound laws; softening -i/-y can sporadically be heard, but Rubach proscribes these forms. In the nominative plural of masculine nouns ending in -c, inanimate nouns take -e and animate nouns take -y; in Kurpian only -e occurs; -e also replaces standard Polish -owie or for nouns ending in -ć (e.g. ). In standard Polish, the dative singular may be formed with -owi or less frequently -u; in standard Kurpian these two forms are combined into -oźu which is the only ending for the dative singular, except , which like standard Polish takes the dative singular form due to its religious semantics. also constitutes an exception in the vocative singular for similar reasons and is formed as ; all other velar stem nouns take -u due to levelling and regularization.

• Hard-stem masculine nouns show -a in the genitive singular more often than in standard Polish, but the usage of -a or -u in Kurpian remains somewhat unpredictable. Like standard Polish, masculine animal and masculine personal nouns take -a.

• Velar stems take -u in the locative and vocative singular.

• Soft-stem masculine declension takes -e in the nominative plural as opposed to -y in hard declension and -u in the locative sinuglar as opposed to hard-stem -e.

• Standard Polish nouns ending in -anin, e.g. are morphologically levelled to -an and take hard-stem declension in Kurpian.
• Nouns ending in -ans in standard Polish may take either non-softening -e or -y or both in the nominative plural; in Kurpian these are regularized to hard-stem declensions.
• In standard Polish, the word shows suppletion in its plural forms; in Kurpian it declines according to hard-stem personal declension. Similarly, (standard ) is regularized to a soft-stem declension with an oblique stem kśę̈dz-. Standard (oblique singular stem księci- andp plural książ-) are levelled in Kurpian to soft-stem declension with the stem and no oblique stem.
• The term , however, undergoes regular hard-stem declension.
• The terms and are regularized to personal hard-stem declension; their nominative plural may be formed with -oźe under influence of standard Polish, but -y also occurs.
• Nouns ending in -s, -z, -c, and -dz take hard-stem declension if they are not the result of masuration, e.g. ; if they are the result of masuration, e.g. < , they take soft-stem declension; however such nouns are sometimes reanalyzed to be hard-stem, e.g. || (standard ; these forms are usually alternative to soft-stem declension, except () and (standard ), which regularly take hard-stem declension. An example of a word undergoing this transition from soft-stem to hard-stem declension is (standard ), which is inflected by some with soft declension and by others with hard. Rubach proscribes mixed declension for nouns ending in -s, -z, -c, and -dz, particularly the mixing of the nominative plural endings and locative singular, e.g. ||||grośe (instead of prescribed ).
• Animate masculine nouns ending in -a in the nominative singular, e.g. , take their corresponding hard-stem or soft-stem feminine declension, except in the accusative plural, which shows syncretism with the genitive plural and takes -ów, whereas feminine nouns in the accusative plural show syncretism with the nominative plural and take -y (hard-stem) or -e (soft-stem); this includes the nouns (standard and (standard ).

Morphophonological alternations

The nasal vowel ą alternates with ę̈ in most of the same positions and words as it ą alternates with ę in standard Polish.

In terms of oral vowels, Kurpian has three slanted vowels, ó, é, å which may or may not alternate with their clear (non-slanted) varaiants o, e, a, depending on the etymological origins of these vowels, see History of the Polish language#Vowel length and clear vs slanted vowels. In general, clear vowels become slanted tautosyllabically before non-voiceless consonants (b, d, g, w, z, ź, dz, dź, rz, m, n, ń, l, r, ł, j), and o becomes ó, e becomes ë, and å (but not a) becomes ó via o (thus giving alternations of ó||a) always before nasal consonants; the distribution of morphophonologically slanted vowels also differs from standard Polish., 124} This alternation occurs primarily in masculine declension, which is the only declension to take -∅ (in the nominative singular); historically in Polish this could also occur in the feminine and neuter which take -∅ in the genitive plural, but these positions take -ów in Kurpian; however soft-stem feminine declension may show these alternations as the nominative singular may end in -∅. These alternations are akin to standard Polish vocalic alternations of ó and o, but affecting also é||e and å||a. Slanted é does not appear before a syllable-final voiced consonant if it originates from mobile e arising from the loss of yers. These morphophonological process may also occur in loanwords.

Adjectives

Kurpian does not have a special adjectival form for masculine personal nouns: (standard , however, the three animacy distinction is kept as synchronism between the accusative and genitive still occurs in different ways depending on the animacy of the referent. As a result, all genders share a plural paradigm, save differences in animacy. Kurpian has hard and soft declension like standard Polish; Rubach does not consider soft declension a separate paradigm as he considers the appearance of -ï predictable based on sound laws (i.e. appearing after certain soft consonants). Hard declension occurs more often in Kurpian, as do short forms. Notably, considering that velar consonats did not soften, velar declension is absent and velar-stem adjectives decline according to the hard-stem paradigm. Short forms are formed with -∅ and occur in the masculine nominative singular, in other genders the typical endings are used; -∅ may cause slanting as in nominal declension and may also cause the appearance of mobile -e- (written ⟨ë⟩ before nasal consonants). Short adjectives occur quite often in the form of possessive adjectives formed with -ów and -ïn/-yn (, "grandmother's grandson"), , "uncle's hat"). Long masculine forms for these possessive adjectives do not occur. As in standard Polish, some adjectives are nominalized, but these take adjectival declension.

Hard-stem adjectives end in p, b, m, f, w, s (< s), z (< z), t, d, n, r, ł, k, g, and ch. Soft declension occurs after stems ending in ś, ź, ć, dź, ń, and j.

• Kurpian retains more instances of slanted é.
• The dative-instrumental masculine-neuter ending -ëm derives from Old Polish -em, as opposed to standard Polish -ym < Old Polish -ym.
• The instrumental plural ending -ëńï derives from Old Polish -emi, as opposed to standard Polish -ymi < Old Polish < -ymi.

Pronouns

Many Kurpian pronouns and pronoun forms are the result of regular historic sound changes with few innovations. The usage of reduced forms (i.e. dative instead of ) is similar to the usage of standard Polish, i.e. in unaccented positions; forms beginning with ń occur after a preposition, as in standard Polish. One innovation among personal pronouns is the introduction of as a personal feminine plural pronoun; standard Polish differentiates between virile (i.e. personal) and non-virile (non-personal) ; in Kurpian is the masculine personal plural pronoun (for a group containing at least one masculine human referent), is the feminine plural pronoun (for a group of human feminine referents) and is for a group of non-human referents; animal referents that are grammatically feminine do not use . Rubach states that the distribution of dative / and / versus and is unclear.

The possessive pronouns , , , (standard ), (standard ), and (standard ) in Kurpian are similar standard Polish, but with appropriate sound laws and also take adjectival declension with the exception that the feminine nomative-vocative singular is formed with -a as opposed to -Ã¥. Other determinative pronouns, e.g. (standard ) take adjectival declension; the indeterminate endings and (standard ), as in standard Polish, are not declined, and instead the root they are attached to declines.

The determinative pronouns (standard ) and (standard ) take adjectival declension, except that the nominative-vocative feminine singular is formed with -a, the nominative-vocative neuter singular is levelled to -e (standard -o), and the accusative feminine singular is levelled to -ó (<-ą) (standard -ę, colloquially -ą); the masculine nominative plural is and regardless of animacy and and does not occur, and due to adjectival levelling, -i occurs nowhere.

Numerals

Ordinal numerals take adjectival declension with no differences. The numeral (standard declines like a possessive pronoun.

The numeral does not show masculine personal forms in the nominative, i.e. standard ; the genitive form is retained from Old Polish, and the form does not occur; Rubach prescribes the dative form over ; the locative form does not occur; separate feminine forms, e.g. , do not occur. The numerals (standard ) and (standard ) decline according to this paradigm.

The numerals and (standard ) also do not show different forms for gender; masculine personal nouns may facultatively use genitive , and the genitive plural form of the noun in the nominative (e.g. , standard ), similar to standard Polish, however, unlike standard Polish, the personal forms and do not occur.

The numerals (standard ), (standard ), (standard ), (standard ), (standard ), and (standard ) decline like with the only difference being that the dative is formed with -u, and the ending -óm does not occur; furthermore, the instrumental is formed with -u, not -oma.