Bałak (; often mistakenly called ''bałach'') is a

jargon Jargon, or technical language, is the specialized terminology associated with a particular field or area of activity. Jargon is normally employed in a particular Context (language use), communicative context and may not be well understood outside ...

or a

sociolect In sociolinguistics, a sociolect is a form of language ( non-standard dialect, restricted register) or a set of lexical items used by a socioeconomic class, profession, age group, or other social group. Sociolects involve both passive acquisit ...

spoken by the commoners of the city of Lwów (modern Lviv, Ukraine). A distinct part of the Lwów dialect of the

Polish language Polish (, , or simply , ) is a West Slavic languages, West Slavic language of the Lechitic languages, Lechitic subgroup, within the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family, and is written in the Latin script. It is primarily spo ...

, it consists of a

Lesser Poland Lesser Poland, often known by its Polish name ''Małopolska'' (; ), is a historical region situated in southern and south-eastern Poland. Its capital and largest city is Kraków. Throughout centuries, Lesser Poland developed a separate cult ...

Polish language substratum with a variety of borrowings from German, Yiddish, Ukrainian and other languages. Following the post–

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

expulsion of Poles from Lwów, ''bałak'' was gradually replaced with standard Polish among both the Polish minority still living in Lwów and the descendants of the expelees. The name for the sociolect was coined after the verb ''bałakać'' (to speak) or ''balakaty'' (to speak in Ukrainian), a local counterpart of the standard Polish verb ''mówić''.

References

Polish dialects Ukrainian-based pidgins and creoles Culture in Lviv City colloquials History of Lviv {{Slavic-lang-stub

See also

References