Masovian dialect group

The Masovian dialect group (Polish: dialekt mazowiecki), also Mazovian, is a dialect group of the Polish language spoken in Mazovia and historically related regions, in northeastern Poland.^[1] It is the most distinct of the Polish dialects and the most expansive.^[1]

Mazovian dialects may exhibit such features as mazurzenie, sandhi (intervocalic voicing of obstruents on word boundaries), and asynchronous palatal pronunciation of labial consonants (so-called softening). Characteristics include:

• Depalatalization of velars before /ɛ/ and palatalization of velars before historical /ɛ̃/; e.g. standard Polish rękę, nogę ('arm', 'leg', in the accusative case) is rendered [ˈrɛŋkʲɛ], [ˈnɔɡʲɛ] respectively instead of [ˈrɛŋkɛ], [ˈnɔɡɛ];
• /li/ sequences realized [lɪ] instead of [lʲi];
• merger of the retroflex series sz, ż, cz, dż into the alveolar s, z, c, dz;
• /ɨ/ > /i/ before certain consonants;
• the Old Polish dual number marker -wa continues to be attached to verbs;
• Standard Polish /ɔ̃/ and /ɛ̃/ merged with /u/ and /a/ respectively, in most situations;
• certain instances of a > e;
• [mʲ] > [ɲ]

Masovian dialects also contain certain vocabulary that is distinct from the standard Polish language and shares common characteristics with the Kashubian language.^[2]

Descended from the language of the Mazovians,^[3][4] the dialects are:^[5]

• Lubawa dialect
• Ostróda dialect
• Warmia dialect
• Masurian dialects
• Suwałki dialect
• Łowicz dialect
• Near Mazovian dialect
• Far Mazovian dialect
• Kurpie dialect
• Podlachia dialect
• Białystok dialect
• Warsaw dialect

Features that can be found in various intensities and distributions in the region include:^[6]

1. Labiovelarization of *telt > tëłt > tołt > tłot *pelti > płoc (Compare Polish pleć) (perhaps with the exception of słoʒona, sledziona)
2. *TorT > TroT
3. *ľ̥ > l̥ except in Pľ̥T́PK (po wargowych, a przed palatalnymi, wargowymi, i tylkojęzykowymi)
4. remaining *ľ̥ in Pľ̥T́PK > ‘el: ḿelli, hard *l̥ > oł (Stolpsko), Pľ̥T (after a labial, before a hard postalveolar > ṔołT: v́ołna
5. hardening of consonants before *ŕ̥t> ar: tfardi except źarno and śarno
6. interword devoicing of consonants before voiceless consonants, liquids, or vowels: sat rośnie, sat urós, ukratem, zav́eśmi (zawieźmy)
7. w > v/f trój, kfiat, *χw > χv > χf > f fała (chwała)
8. mazurzenie: š ž č ǯ > s z c ʒ: scekać (szczekać, or a merger of the retroflexes and palatal sibilants into postalveolar: szcziekać, sziano
9. Old Polish ḷ > ł > u̯, especially in West Masovia
10. Hardening of Old Polish ľ > l even before i: lis
11. Decomposition of soft labials: ṕ, b́, f́, v́, ḿ > pš/pχ́, bž/bɣ́, vź, fś, mń: kurpχ́/karpś, pafχ́/ołófš́, mniasto, also śfat (świat), niedźwiedź (earlier mniedźwiedź)
12. Simplification of resulting clusters containing labials: ołóš́, źara (wiara), niasto
13. śř, źř > śr, źr, środa, źrėbåk
14. penultimate stress
15. Loss aje> ā, grai̯e > grā
16. preference for pochylone ȯ (kłȯtka, skȯlni)
17. ir > ėr, sėrce
18. *y > i, sin, dim, dwa ribi (compare decomposition of bilabials)
19. Fronting of Old Polish short ă, even softening velars, pråvdä, ḱäńå täg vołå, sometimes merging with e
    1. a > ä > e in some Old Polish texts
    2. i̯a- > i̯ä- > i̯e-: i̯epko
    3. ra- > rä- > re-: reno
    4. -ar- > -är- > -er-: umer, derń (compare also umárł)
    5. frequent and common *ěT > ä > e: osierze (ofiara)
    6. ăN > äN > śäno
20. á > a: dobra trawä
21. loss of the phonemically short nasal in short syllables into a front, middle noasal between a and e, indifferent to the width of the opening of ą̈: zą̈bi, sometimes going to ą (ćąsko) or ę (ćęsko), or sometimes denazalisation in unstressed codas or before sibilants (i̯azik, i̯ėnzik)
22. lost of the phonemically long nasal vowel ą̄ > ǫ and in regions touching Małopolska > ų, with frequent denasalization as above (kśůska)
23. -išče > -isko
24. spread of -isty, -asty
25. replacement of -’ev in soft stems with -’ov in the 16th century, and occasional hypercorrection to adding -’ev after hard stems: synev́i
26. establishment of od(-) (<*otъ) before vowels and liquids, od okna, odnaleźć in the 15th century
27. loss via analogy of mobile e: do Suvȧłk
28. spread of -ywać
29. replacement of neuter nouns ending in -ę with -ak: ćelȧk
30. replacement of -eć infinitives with -ić/-yć: lezyć
31. replacement of the superlative nȧ- with nai̯-
32. establishment of voiced z(-) before vowels and liquids: zleźć, z ńim
33. replacement of the locative plural -’eχ with -aχ in the middle of the 16th century
34. mixing of the dative endings -ov́i with -u > -ov́u: bratoźu, χłopakoɣ́u, wołoju
35. replacement of the genitive singular soft-stem ending -’e (<*-ě₃) with -i: z źä(m)ńi
36. replacement of the nominative/accusative neuter ending -ē < *-ьje with -ĕ with declensions from *-jo-: zboze
37. replacement of the genitive/locative adjective/pronoun plural ending -iχ with -ėχ
38. sporadic use of adjective/pronoun endings for some nouns
39. replacement of neuter/feminine dv́e with dva: dva krovi, dva okna
40. replacement of the ending -i for numerals from 5-10 with -u: z dvu, seśću, or ṕę̇ćuχ
41. replacement of ā < *ěja in preterite forms with the reflex of *ě by analogy: mńāł, mńăłă, mńeli
42. loss of -ui̯e, -ovać (-ivać) in some verbs: kupać, zlatać
43. loss of the dual with the dual form -ta replacing the second person plural: ńeśeta, ńeśta with -će being used for formal forms: ńeśeće
44. in some subdialects spread of the first person dual -va in the present: ńeśeva
45. in some subdialects replacement of the first person imperative -m with -my: ńeśmi or more often with -va: ńeźva, and occasional contamination of the two with -ma: neśma
46. in the first person compound past (nosił(a) + jeśḿ) > -eśḿ > -(e)m: nosiłem/uśatem
47. first person past: ńeśli(je)sm > neśliśmy, and also replacement with the dual: bẏliźva or -śma: nośiliśma
48. merger of masculine personal with masculine animal endings by spread of -y and -e
    1. regional replacement of -li with -ły: spałi (for m.pr and m.an)
    2. regional replacement of -ły with -li: spali (for m.pr and m.an)

• Barbara Bartnicka (red.): Polszczyzna Mazowsza i Podlasia. Łomża-Warszawa 1993.
• Anna Basara: Studia nad wokalizmem w gwarach Mazowsza. Wrocław-Warszawa-Kraków 1965.
• Anna Cegieła: Polski Słownik terminologii i gwary teatralnej. Wrocław 1992.
• Jadwiga Chludzińska-Świątecka: Ze studiów nad słowotwórstwem gwar mazowieckich. Poradnik Językowy, z. 6, 1961, s. 253–258.
• Karol Dejna: Dialekty polskie. Ossolineum 1993.
• Barbara Falińska (red.): Gwary Mazowsza, Podlasia i Suwalszczyzny.ɴ I. Filipów, pow. Suwałki, Białystok, 2004.
• Województwo płockie. Uniwersytet Łódzki, Łódź-Płock 1984.