The Pieniny dialect belongs to the

Lesser Poland dialect group The Lesser Polish dialect group () is a of dialect group of the Polish language used in Lesser Poland. The exact area is difficult to delineate due to the expansion of its features and the existence of transitional subdialects. The common tra ...

and is located in the part of

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. It is in part one of the dialects that belongs to the

Goral ethnolect Goral, less frequently called Highlander or Highland Polish, is an ethnolect An ethnolect is generally defined as a language variety that marks speakers as members of ethnic groups who originally used another language or distinctive variety. A ...

Phonology

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 present here.

Vowels

The Lechitic ablaut is often absent before hard dental consonants. -e- may be inserted between some consonant clusters. The so-called “Podhalanian archaism” is absent here.

Slanted vowels

Slanted á is retained as á or more frequently raises to o. Slanted é raises to y after both hard and soft consonants. Slanted ó is retained as ó.

Nasal vowels

Nasal vowels show much variety between generations and location. Most commonly today, medial ę become oN, medial ą becomes óN, except when they are before a sibilant, in which case they shift to u with no nasal consonant. Final ę and -em becomes o, and final ą becomes ó, including in inflectional endings. Other instances of eN, yN, and aN often shift to oN.

Prothesis

Initial o- usually labializes to ô-. Initial a- may sporadically gain a prothetic h- or j-.

Consonants

As in the Spisz dialect, final -ch shifts to -f in inflectional endings and some grammatical particles. ch may also shift to k in many cluster: kwila (chwila), and the cluster kt- shifts to ft-: fto (kto). Infintives ending in -ść, -źć are usually simplified to -ś, -ź. s may geminate in certain words: do lassa (do lasu).

Inflection

Typical Goral inflectional tendencies are present here.

Nouns

The masculine/neuter instrumental singular ending -em shifts to -o. The archaic -e of feminine genitive singular of soft stems is preserved. -owi is used for the dative for all masculine nouns and also in the masculine locative singular. -a is preferred for the masculine genitive singular over -u.

Adjectives and adverbs

-ej often changes to -y in adjectival-pronominal inflections.

Prepositions and prefixes

The prefix roz- is usually realized as ôz-.

Vocabulary

Word-Formation

Typical word-formation tendencies of southern Poland can be found here.

Verbs

Iteratives are often formed with -uwać instead of -ywać/-iwać.

Syntax

Masculine personal nouns and masculine animal nouns are often levelled. Plural forms may be used as a form of respect.

References

Polish dialects {{improve categories, date=November 2024