The Orawa dialect () belongs to the Lesser Poland dialect group and is located in part of Poland and Slovakia. It is in part one of the dialects that belongs to the Goral ethnolect. It borders the à »ywiec dialect to the far northwest, the Babia Góra dialect to the north, and the Podhale dialect to the east. The Orawa dialect is partially found in Poland with 14 settlements, and partially found in Slovakia with 11. The use of dialect here is strong, and the effects of Standard Polish are weaker than in other regions.
While many Polish linguists describe the Orawa dialect as a variety of Lesser Poland Polish, some Slovak linguists argue that the Orawa speech forms constitute a PolishâÂÂSlovak transitional dialect. According to this view, the dialect has a Lesser Poland (Polish) origin, but through long-term and intensive contact with Slovak-speaking populations, especially within the historical context of the Kingdom of Hungary, it has developed numerous Slovak phonological, morphological, and syntactic features, resulting in a transitional character between Polish and Slovak.
Typical of Lesser Polish dialects (as well as Greater Polish dialects), voicing of word-final consonants before vowels and liquids is present here. Also typical of Lesser Polish dialects is the presence of mazuration. Initial accent is common here.
Ablaut is often levelled: mietà Âa (miotà Âa).
Slanted vowels are generally retained: tráwa (trawa), wóz (in Stan. Pol. pronounced as wuz, here as wóz), and é has merged with y after both hard and soft consonants: à Âniyg (à Ânieg).
Nasals decompose from é > yN and à> oN medially before non-sibilants, but retain nasality before sibilants. Verbs ending in -ààend in -yn-, -on in the past tense: wzion (wziàà Â), wziyna (wziÃÂà Âa). -àword-finally changes to -ym in the first-person present/future of verbs: sà Âysym (sà ÂyszÃÂ), as -e in the feminine accusative singular of nouns ending in historic jasne -a studnie (studniÃÂ); however feminine nouns ending in historic -á take -á/-o in the accusative singular: na msá (na mszÃÂ), where -á is a facultative variant. Final -àis realized as -o (or optionally as -á) in the third person plural present/future forms of verbs: widzo (widzà), wà Âozá (woà ¼Ã ) and in the accusative singular of feminine adjectives, numerals, and pronouns: staro babe (staràbabÃÂ), na drugá dziedzine (na drugàdziedzinà(wieà Â), but as -om in the instrumental singular of feminine nouns, adjectives, numerals, and pronouns z mojom drugom babom (z mojàdrugàbabà) as the result of morphologization.
o is very often labialized to ô, not only initially or after velars and labials, but after other consonants as well. In the Slovakian area prothetic w (/v/) is common instead of /w/. Less commonly prothetic j, or even more rarely h, may also occur before initial a.
Final -ch shifts to -k in the locative plural of nouns: w ôbà Âok (<oboch) kóà Âcak w obu koà Âcach, the genitive/locative plural of adjectives, numerals, and pronouns: staryk ludzi (starych ludzi); the first person past (aorist) singular: byà Âek (byà Âem), pytaà Âak (pytaà Âam), the hortative particle niek (niech), and initially in certain words in clusters: krzest (chrzest). This does not typically occur in stems, where ch is either more weakly pronounced or lost: na wiyr przichodziyà Âo) (na wierzch przychodzi), daá¶Âð (but: dachu), me (mech). -à ÂÃÂ/-à ºÃÂ, -rzàusually reduce to -à Â: niyà  (nieà ÂÃÂ) sierz (genitive sierzci) (sierà ÂÃÂ). Dark à  can be heard here, and soft lâ is retained before not only i: lâÂÂas (las). ià Â, il shifts to yà Â, yl heterosyllabically: rà Âobiyli (robili) and to óà Â, ól tautosyllabically: strzelóà Â.. Similarly, raised rz can also be heard here amongst the older speakers: drà ¼ewo (normally d-à ¼ewo). i after rz is retained here: trà ¼i grà ¼iby (trzy grzyby). Bilabial w is retained amongst the older speakers.
Typical Goral inflectional tendencies are found here.
Soft feminine nouns retain -e in the genitive singular: dà Âo smyreka cy do jedle (do smreka czy do jodà Ây).
Numerals often use -ik, -uk insteach of -u in declensions: do piyncik roków, po à Âterdzierdziestuk rà Âokak.
Verbs containing -á- create the passive participle with -t-: siáty (siany).