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, leaving the hardness of the previous consonant as the main phonemic determining factor: potraw·i. Often the group er shifts to ir: dopsiro. Ablaut is often levelled: ziedro, bzierzo. The shift of initial ja-, ra- > je-, re- is present: jek,, redził. 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. 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 also exist: bendzie, as well as non-decomposed forms. Lowering of ę is becoming less popular, and can mostly be seen in final position : na ziosna, 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. Hypercorrections also occurs: peniętam. Medial ą tends to decompose to oN, or sometimes raises to uN: ciungnik. 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, but the standard realization oN also can be heard. iN, yN, and uN often lowers, particularly iN: jenacej. o before a liquid often raises: kórole, and e before a liquid often lowers to a: sztalmach. ył/ił often shifts to uł: pozwoluł. The groups ęł, ęl, ął tend to replace l, ł with n: wzieno.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, ustąpsiuł, wzino. Sometimes the resulting cluster simplifies, particularly wź, fś, mń to ź, ś, ń: ziecora. This decomposition can vary somewhat village to village. ki, gi, kie, gie are often hardened, but soft pronunciations are more common: kedyś. kt shifts to cht: chto. chrz shifts to krz: krzesny. Geminated kk dissimilates to tk: letko.Contraction
Verbs may appear in both contracted and uncontracted forms here: stojała, stała.Inflection
Typical Masovian features of inflection are present here.Nouns
The instrumental plural ending is generally -ani. The typical Masovian ending is -amy, via hardening, which is exceptional here. The masculine dative singular ending for nouns is -oziu from contamination of -owi and -u: konioziu. 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. The nominative plural of masculine personal nouns is formed with -e more commonly than in Standard Polish: ojce byli. Alternatively, masculine personal nouns are often converted to masculine animal nouns: te majstry. 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, 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.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. The plural is often -eni : całeni dniani. Similarly, the genitive/locative plural is -ech: tech.Verbs
The first person plural present tense of verbs is formed with the archaic -m: idziem. In the past tense, -m is also present in place of standard -śmy: robilim. The second person plural past tense and imperative of verbs is sporadically formed with -ta in place of -cie: daliśta. The third person plural past tense if often formed with -eli in place of standard -ali: sieli. Forms and derivatives often appear without j: przyde.Vocabulary
Word-Formation
Typical Masovian features of word-formation are present here.Nouns
Nouns denoting young animals and people are formed with -ak: dziewcoki.Verbs
Frequentatives may be formed with -ać where in Standard Polish is often -ywać/-ować: kupać.Syntax
Dwa may be used for feminine nouns instead of dwie: dwa krowy.Standardization
From 2009 to 2019, Professor Jerzy Rubach, with the help of Związek Kurpiów, 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. mńasto instead of ńasto.
Orthography and pronunciation
Rubach proposes the following rules for writing Kurpian, based on his analysis of pronunciation and grammar of the region:- Word-final voiced consonants ⟨b w d z dz rz ź dź g⟩ are pronounced as if voiceless ⟨p f t s c rz ś ć k⟩, but written voiced for morphological reasons.
- ⟨u⟩ is pronounced as in Standard Polish.
- ⟨e⟩ is pronounced as in Standard Polish.
- ⟨ï⟩ is pronounced as /ɪ/.
- ⟨ï⟩ occurs after ⟨ś ź ć dź ń j⟩.
- ⟨y⟩ is pronounced as /ɘ/.
- ⟨y⟩ occurs in the same position as in Standard Polish as well as after ⟨l k g ch h⟩.
- ⟨a⟩ is pronounced as /æ~ä/.
- ⟨å⟩ is pronounced as /ɑ~ɒ/.
- ⟨ó⟩ is pronounced as /o/.
- ⟨ó⟩ occurs before ⟨m n ń⟩ instead of ⟨o⟩.
- ⟨é⟩ is pronounced as /e/.
- ⟨ë⟩ is pronounced as /ə/.
- ⟨ë⟩ occurs before ⟨m n ń⟩ instead of ⟨e⟩.
- ⟨ę̈⟩ is pronounced as /ə̃/ and ⟨ą⟩ is pronounced as /o/.
- ⟨ë⟩ is used instead of ⟨ę⟩ and ⟨ó⟩ is used instead of ⟨ą⟩ word-finally.
- ⟨ś ź ć dź ń⟩ are used instead of ⟨si zi ci dzi ni⟩ and otherwise occur as in Standard Polish.
- ⟨pi bi fi wi mi⟩ are written and pronounced as ⟨pś bź ś ź ń⟩.
- ⟨y⟩ is used instead of ⟨i ï⟩ after ⟨k g ch h⟩.
- ⟨c dz s z⟩ and less frequently ⟨ć dź ś ź⟩ used instead of ⟨cz dż sz ż⟩.
- ⟨ćï dźï śï źï⟩ used instead of ⟨czi dżi szi żi⟩.
- ⟨rz⟩ is pronounced and used as in Standard Polish.
- Standard Polish ⟨ni⟩ pronounced as /ɲj/ such as Dania are spelled ⟨ńj⟩ and ⟨VV⟩ such as wyboisty is spelled ⟨VjV⟩. Otherwise ⟨j⟩ is as in Standard Polish.
- 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⟩.
- 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.
- Pre-existing loanwords are pronounced according to their historic realizations.
- Loanwords containing ⟨pi bi⟩ should be adopted as ⟨pśï bźï⟩.
- Loanwords containing ⟨fi wi mi⟩ should be adopted as ⟨fy wy my⟩.
- Loanwords containing ⟨fiV wiV miV⟩ should be adopted as ⟨fjV wjV mjV⟩.
- ⟨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 - rok takes the suppletive genetive plural låt, 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 Niemcy, Węgry, Włochy ; these are regularized to hardening -ach: Ńëmcy||Ńëmcach.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.
| Case | Singular | Plural |
| Nominative | kos-a | kos-y |
| Genitive | kos-y | kos-ów |
| Dative | koś-e | kos-óm |
| Accusative | kos-ë | kos-y |
| Instrumental | kos-ó | kos-ańï |
| Locative | koś-e | kos-ach |
| Vocative | kos-o | kos-y |
| Case | Singular | Plural |
| Nominative | sop-a bab-a saf-a tråw-a jam-a | sop-y bab-y saf-y tråw-y jam-y |
| Genitive | sop-y bab-y saf-y tråw-y jam-y | sop-ów bab-ów saf-ów tråw-ów jam-ów |
| Dative | sopś-e babź-e saś-e tråź-e jań-e | sop-óm bab-óm saf-óm tråw-óm jam-óm |
| Accusative | sop-ë bab-ë saf-ë tråw-ë jam-ë | sop-y bab-y saf-y tråw-y jam-y |
| Instrumental | sop-ó bab-ó saf-ó tråw-ó jam-ó | sop-ańï bab-ańï saf-ańï tråw-ańï jam-ańï |
| Locative | sopś-e babź-e saś-e tråź-e jań-e | sop-ach bab-ach saf-ach tråw-ach jam-ach |
| Vocative | sop-o bab-o saf-o tråw-o jam-o | sop-y bab-y saf-y tråw-y jam-y |
- Soft-stem feminine nouns stems' end in a soft consonant and in the nominative in -∅, -a or -å ; 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:
| Case | Singular | Plural |
| Nominative | noc-∅ postać-∅ | noc-e postać-e |
| Genitive | noc-y postać-ï | noc-ów postać-ów |
| Dative | noc-y postać-ï | noc-óm postać-óm |
| Accusative | noc-∅ postać-∅ | noc-e postać-e |
| Instrumental | noc-ó postać-ó | noc-ańï postać-ańï |
| Locative | noc-y postać-ï | noc-ach postać-ach |
| Vocative | noc-y postać-ï | noc-e postać-e |
| Case | Singular | Plural |
| Nominative | rzec-∅ chę̈ć-∅ kość-∅ | rzec-y chę̈ć-ï kość-ï or kość-e |
| Genitive | rzec-y chę̈ć-ï kość-ï | rzec-ów chę̈ć-ów kość-ów |
| Dative | rzec-y chę̈ć-ï kość-ï | rzec-óm chę̈ć-óm kość-óm |
| Accusative | rzec-∅ chę̈ć-∅ kość-∅ | rzec-y chę̈ć-ï kość-ï or kość-e |
| Instrumental | rzec-ó chę̈ć-ó kość-ó | rzec-ańï chę̈ć-ańï kość-ańï |
| Locative | rzec-y chę̈ć-ï kość-ï | rzec-ach chę̈ć-ach kość-ach |
| Vocative | rzec-y chę̈ć-ï kość-ï | rzec-y chę̈ć-ï kość-ï or kość-e |
| Case | Singular | Plural |
| Nominative | sukń-å ńedz-a | sukń-e ńedz-e |
| Genitive | sukń-ï ńedz-y | sukń-ów ńedz-ów |
| Dative | sukń-ï ńedz-y | sukń-óm ńedz-óm |
| Accusative | sukń-ë ńedz-ë | sukń-e ńedz-e |
| Instrumental | sukń-ó ńedz-ó | sukń-ańï ńedz-ańï |
| Locative | sukń-ï ńedz-y | sukń-ach ńedz-ach |
| Vocative | sukń-o ńedz-o | sukń-e ńedz-e |
The term pańï has an irregular declension, but other terms ending in standard -yni/-ini, e.g. gospodyńå, are regularized to match the paradigm of sukńå:
| Case | Singular | Plural |
| Nominative | pań-ï | pań-e |
| Genitive | pań-ï | pań-ów |
| Dative | pań-ï | pań-óm |
| Accusative | pań-ó | pań-e |
| Instrumental | pań-ó | pań-ańï |
| Locative | pań-ï | pań-ach |
| Vocative | pań-ï | pań-e |
The term mysz has been morphologically reshaped to mysa 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 pieśń to pśeśńå following the declension of sukńå and standard maź and wesz takes clear -a in the nominative as opposed to -å, thus måźa and wsa, despite being after a soft consonant, but otherwise declines like sukńå; wsa may otherwise fully regularize and decline according to the hard-stem paradigm. The term sansa shows -e in the nominative plural despite being a hard-stem noun under standard influence.
The term rę̈ka in the meaning "arm, hand", like standard Polish ręka,
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.| Case | Singular | Plural |
| Nominative | kopyt-o | kopyt-a |
| Genitive | kopyt-a | kopyt-ów |
| Dative | kopyt-oźu | kopyt-óm |
| Accusative | kopyt-o | kopyt-a |
| Instrumental | kopyt-ëm | kopyt-ańï |
| Locative | kopyć-e | kopyt-ach |
| Vocative | kopyt-o | kopyt-a |
- The locative singular -e can cause regular alternations of labials via sound laws, e.g. ńebo > ńebźe or dynamo > dynańe.
- Due to sound changes, Kurpian can show vowel alternations different than in standard Polish.
| Case | Singular | Plural |
| Nominative | łózk-o | łózk-a |
| Genitive | łózk-a | łózk-ów |
| Dative | łózk-oźu | łózk-óm |
| Accusative | łózk-o | łózk-a |
| Instrumental | łózk-ëm | łózk-ańï |
| Locative | łózk-u | łózk-ach |
| Vocative | łózk-o | łózk-a |
Soft stems may end in ś, ź, ć, dź, ń, j, c, dz, s, z, rz, and l; j-stems take -o in the nominative/accusative/vocative singular instead of -e
| Case | Singular | Plural |
| Nominative | dań-e | dań-a |
| Genitive | dań-å | dań-ów |
| Dative | dań-u | dań-óm |
| Accusative | dań-e | dań-a |
| Instrumental | dań-ëm | dań-ańï |
| Locative | dań-u | dań-ach |
| Vocative | dań-e | dań-a |
Some nouns whose stems end in -c may show some differences to the above paradigm:
jajo, radjo) take -o in the nominative/accusative/vocative singular instead of -e.
| Case | Singular | Plural |
| Nominative | sérc-e płóc-o słóńc-e | sérc-a płóc-a słóńc-a |
| Genitive | sérc-a płóc-a słóńc-a | sérc-ów płóc-ów słóńc-ów |
| Dative | sérc-oźu płóc-oźu słóńc-oźu | sérc-óm płóc-óm słóńc-óm |
| Accusative | sérc-e płóc-o słóńc-e | sérc-a płóc-a słóńc-a |
| Instrumental | sérc-ëm płóc-ëm słóńc-ëm | sérc-ańï płóc-ańï słóńc-ańï |
| Locative | sérc-u płóc-u słóńc-u | sérc-ach płóc-ach słóńc-ach |
| Vocative | sérc-e płóc-o słóńc-e | sérc-a płóc-a słóńc-a |
- These terms unexpectedly take -a instead of -å 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. poboce.
| Case | Singular | Plural |
| Nominative | wyńë rëńë jïńë strzëńë | wyńón-a rëńón-a jïńón-a strzëńón-a |
| Genitive | wyńëń-å rëńëń-å jïńëń-å strzëńëń-å | wyńón-ów rëńón-ów jïńón-ów strzëńón-ów |
| Dative | wyńëń-u rëńëń-u jïńëń-u strzëńëń-u | wyńón-óm rëńón-óm jïńón-óm strzëńón-óm |
| Accusative | wyńë rëńë jïńë strzëńë | wyńón-a rëńón-a jïńón-a strzëńón-a |
| Instrumental | wyńëń-ëm rëńëń-ëm jïńëń-ëm strzëńëń-ëm | wyńón-ańï rëńón-ańï jïńón-ańï strzëńón-ańï |
| Locative | wyńëń-u rëńëń-u jïńëń-u strzëńëń-u | wyńón-ach rëńón-ach jïńón-ach strzëńón-ach |
| Vocative | wyńë rëńë jïńë strzëńë | wyńón-a rëńón-a jïńón-a strzëńón-a |
Latinate words ending in -um in the nominative singular behave very similar to standard Polish:
| Case | Singular | Plural |
| Nominative | gymnazj-um | gymnazj-a |
| Genitive | gymnazj-um | gymnazj-ów |
| Dative | gymnazj-um | gymnazj-óm |
| Accusative | gymnazj-um | gymnazj-a |
| Instrumental | gymnazj-um | gymnazj-ańï |
| Locative | gymnazj-um | gymnazj-ach |
| Vocative | gymnazj-um | gymnazj-a |
The words łoko and łucho, much like rę̈ka, show irregular plural forms fossilized from old dual forms when in the meanings "eye" and "ear" respectively; in other contexts they are regular:
| Case | Singular | Plural |
| Nominative | łok-o łuch-o | łoc-y łus-y |
| Genitive | łok-a łuch-a | łoc-ów łus-ów |
| Dative | łok-u łuch-u | łoc-óm łus-óm |
| Accusative | łok-o łuch-o | łoc-y łus-y |
| Instrumental | łok-ëm łuch-ëm | łoc-ańï łus-ańï |
| Locative | łok-u łuch-u | łoc-ach łus-ach |
| Vocative | łok-o łuch-o | łoc-y łus-y |
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 szeryf || szeryfowie but Kurpian seryf || seryfy, 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. 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 Bóg, which like standard Polish takes the dative singular form Bogu due to its religious semantics. Bóg also constitutes an exception in the vocative singular for similar reasons and is formed as Boże; 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.
| Case | Singular | Plural |
| Nominative | płot-∅ | płot-y |
| Genitive | płot-a | płot-ów |
| Dative | płot-oźu | płot-óm |
| Accusative | płot-∅ | płot-y |
| Instrumental | płot-ëm | płot-ańï |
| Locative | płoć-e | płot-ach |
| Vocative | płoć-e | płot-y |
- Velar stems take -u in the locative and vocative singular.
| Case | Singular | Plural |
| Nominative | krzåk-∅ dług-∅ mech-∅ | krzåk-y dług-y mech-y |
| Genitive | krzåk-a dług-u mech-u | krzåk-ów dług-ów mech-ów |
| Dative | krzåk-oźu dług-oźu mech-oźu | krzåk-óm dług-óm mech-óm |
| Accusative | krzåk-∅ dług-∅ mech-∅ | krzåk-y dług-y mech-y |
| Instrumental | krzåk-ëm dług-ëm mech-ëm | krzåk-ańï dług-ańï mech-ańï |
| Locative | krzåk-u dług-u mech-u | krzåk-ach dług-ach mech-ach |
| Vocative | krzåk-u dług-u mech-u | krzåk-y dług-y mech-y |
- 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.
| Case | Singular | Plural |
| Nominative | korzëń-∅ kyj-∅ korål-∅ påćérz-∅ ńeśądz-∅ | korzëń-e kyj-e korål-e påćérz-e ńeśądz-e |
| Genitive | korzëń-a kyj-a korål-a påćérz-a ńeśądz-a | korzëń-ów kyj-ów korål-ów påćérz-ów ńeśądz-ów |
| Dative | korzëń-oźu kyj-oźu korål-oźu påćérz-oźu ńeśądz-oźu | korzëń-óm kyj-óm korål-óm påćérz-óm ńeśądz-óm |
| Accusative | korzëń-∅ kyj-∅ korål-∅ påćérz-∅ ńeśądz-∅ | korzëń-e kyj-e korål-e påćérz-e ńeśądz-e |
| Instrumental | korzëń-ëm kyj-ëm korål-ëm påćérz-ëm ńeśądz-ëm | korzëń-ańï kyj-ańï korål-ańï påćérz-ańï ńeśądz-ańï |
| Locative | korzëń-u kyj-u korål-u påćérz-u ńeśądz-u | korzëń-ach kyj-ach korål-ach påćérz-ach ńeśądz-ach |
| Vocative | korzëń-u kyj-u korål-u påćérz-u ńeśądz-u | korzëń-e kyj-e korål-e påćérz-e ńeśądz-e |
- Standard Polish nouns ending in -anin, e.g. poganin 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 brat shows suppletion in its plural forms; in Kurpian it declines according to hard-stem personal declension. Similarly, kśądz is regularized to a soft-stem declension with an oblique stem kśę̈dz-. Standard książę are levelled in Kurpian to soft-stem declension with the stem kśę̈ć and no oblique stem.
- The term bóg, however, undergoes regular hard-stem declension.
- The terms pan and syn 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. sołtys; if they are the result of masuration, e.g. lystonos < listonosz, they take soft-stem declension; however such nouns are sometimes reanalyzed to be hard-stem, e.g. wę̈zu||wę̈źe and kamas, which regularly take hard-stem declension. An example of a word undergoing this transition from soft-stem to hard-stem declension is źérs, 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. gros||grose||grośelang\|pl|grosusfn|Rubach|2017|pp=99-100lang\|pl|starostalang\|pl|wojewodalang\|pl|sę̈dźålang\|pl|sędzialang\|pl|hrabźålang\|pl|hrabiasfn|Rubach|2017|pp=100-106
Morphophonological alternations
In terms of oral vowels, Kurpian has three slanted vowels, ó, é, å which may or may not alternate with their clear 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, and o becomes ó, e becomes ë, and å becomes ó via o always before nasal consonants; the distribution of morphophonologically slanted vowels also differs from standard Polish., 124
Adjectives
Kurpian does not have a special adjectival form for masculine personal nouns: dobre Francuzy. 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-. Short adjectives occur quite often in the form of possessive adjectives formed with -ów and -ïn/-yn. 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, 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 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 łóny as a personal feminine plural pronoun; standard Polish differentiates between virile oni and non-virile one; in Kurpian łóńï is the masculine personal plural pronoun, łóny is the feminine plural pronoun and łóne is for a group of non-human referents; animal referents that are grammatically feminine do not use łóny. Rubach states that the distribution of dative nóm/nóma and wóm/wóma versus naju and waju is unclear.The possessive pronouns mój, twój, swój, nas, was, and cyj 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 -å. Other determinative pronouns, e.g. łów take adjectival declension; the indeterminate endings -ś and -kolźek, as in standard Polish, are not declined, and instead the root they are attatched to declines.
The determinative pronouns tën and sóm take adjectival declension, except that the nominative-vocative feminine singular is formed with -a, the nominative-vocative neuter singular is levelled to -e, and the accusative feminine singular is levelled to -ó ; the masculine nominative plural is te and same regardless of animacy and ci and sami does not occur, and due to adjectival levelling, -i occurs nowhere.
| Nominative | chto | ńïcht | cóś | ńïc |
| Genitive | kogo | ńïkogo, ńïkogój | cegóś | ńïcégo |
| Dative | kómu | ńïkómu | cëmu | ńïcëmu |
| Accusative | kogo | ńïkogo | cóś | ńïcégo |
| Instrumental | këm | ńïkëm | cëm | ńïcëm |
| Locative | këm | ńïkëm | cëm | ńïcëm |
Numerals
Ordinal numerals take adjectival declension with no differences. The numeral jedën and łoba decline according to this paradigm.| Nominative/Vocative | dwa |
| Genitive | dwu |
| Dative | dwu/dwóm |
| Accusative | = or = |
| Instrumental | dwóma |
| Locative | dwu |
The numerals trzy and śtéry also do not show different forms for gender; masculine personal nouns may facultatively use genitive trzech, śtéréch and the genitive plural form of the noun in the nominative, similar to standard Polish, however, unlike standard Polish, the personal forms trzech and czterej do not occur.
| Nominative/Vocative | trzy, śtéry |
| Genitive | trzech, śtéréch |
| Dative | trzóm, śtéróm |
| Accusative | = or = |
| Instrumental | trzóma, śtéróma |
| Locative | trzech, śtéréch |
The numerals pśę̈ć, ̈seść, ̈śedëm, ̈łośëm, ̈dźeźę̈ć, and ̈dześę̈ć decline like dwa 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.
Conjunction
Forms not mentioned are the same as in standard Polish. The anterior adverbial participle is generally formed from perfective verbs. Like standard Polish, Kurpian does not require the usage of pronouns for corresponding verb forms.The second person plural ending -eće as an ending of formality and may be used to a singular listener, despite being grammatically plural; -eta is the neutral second person plural ending. The pressence of å in past tense masculine singular forms is the result of slanting a before a tautosyllabic liquid; its lack in personal forms is the result of the fact -m and -ś are clitics and attach to other words more often in standard Polish and is even more natural than attaching the clitics to the verb; in some regions -ëm and -eś can appear as separate words: ëm robźół, eś robźół.
The ending -źwa in the first person plural past tense is used for a repeating or distant past. The second person plural past tense endings -śta and -śće show a similar distribution to -eće and -eta in the present tense, that is -śće is used for forms of respect.
Passive adjectival participles take adjectival declension; the active adjectival participle may also be formed, e.g. losujący and also takes adjectival declension.
The verbs brać and prać are levelled, first person singular present tense bźerzë, pźerzë and pśół, pełł in the masculine singular and ńołł, pśołł elsewhere. However, they may also be levelled to class II conjugation and take the infinitive forms neléć and pśeléć (standard mielić, pielić.
The imperfectivizing suffix -ać, which takes class class VI conjugation, causes slanting of e, a, and o to é, å, and å respectively, e.g. strzeléć > strzélać, kłaść > przekłådać, and wyprośéc > wypråsać, and this slanted vowel remains throughout the paradigm.
Class I
The distribution of the stems -owa and -uj is similar to that in standard Polish. The anterior adverbial participle always shows slanted å before -wsy.Class II
Rubach sets -ï stems as class II, and distinguishes four subclasses:- IIa - roots ending in the alveolar and dental consonants s, z, t, and d; these consonants may alternate with consonants other than the alternations found in standard Polish due to historic sound changes;
- IIb - roots ending in the labial and labiodental consonants p, b, m, f, and w, alternating respectively with pś, bź, ń, ś, and ź due to historic sound changes;
- IIc - roots ending in the sonorants n, ł, l, r, and j; alternations include n||ń, ł||l, and r||rz;
- IId - roots ending in the velar consonants k, g, and ch; alternations include k||c, g||dz, and ch||s, each being the result of historic sound changes.
Class III
Class III comprises -e stem verbs and conjugates the same as class II in the present tense; however, past tense forms differ: muśåł, muśała, muśely (standard musiał, musiała, musieli. This class contains verbs whose roots are extended with -e, e.g. myśl-é-ć as opposed to verbs containing -e- in the root, e.g. pléś-ć; this class does not contain -ej stem verbs, which take a different present tense conjugation. Similar to class II, the infinitive is formed with -éć. The distribution of å||a in past tense forms is identical to that found in class I verbs, and the passive adjectival participle and anterior adverbial participle are formed identically to class I verbs.Class IV
Class IV verbs differ from previous classes in the present stem, taking -ej-, and personal endings are formed with -e as opposed to -ï; these are also called -ej- stem verbs. This class of verbs is intransitive and never forms passive adjectival participles, however, forms with -ły may occur as adjectives, e.g. wyłyśały. Forms where -ej- does not appear are analogous to class III conjugation.Class V
Class V comprises -a stem verbs - their infinitive is formed with -ać. This class shares much with class I. Alternations are akin to that of standard Polish, but undergoing sound laws.Class VI
Class VI comprises -aj stem verbs. The present tense differs drastically; the first person singular is formed with -m as opposed to -ë; the first person plural is formed with -my as opposed to -m;, and the second person singular and plural and third person singular are lacking thematic vowels; the third person plural is formed with -ó as with other classes, but in this class is preceded by thematic -aj-. The presence of -my, as opposed to -m in the first person plural is to distinguish it from the first person singular. The distribution of å||a in past tense forms is identical to that found in class I verbs, and the passive adjectival participle and anterior adverbial participle are formed identically to class I verbs.Root verbs
Root verbs are divided into three classes, -j stems, consonantal stems, and nasal vowel stems.-j stem verbs differ from other classes in the passive adjectival participle, which is formed with -t- as opposed to -n-. If the root contains -ï- or -y-, this vowel alternates ó is masculine singular forms or é in other forms as in class II due to sound changes, e.g. pśółëm, pśélym or sółëm, sélym ; regionally this alternation is with u in the masculine past tense and the original vowel elsewhere, e.g. pśuł, pśïła or suł, syła.
Consonantal stems end in a consonant, e.g. pléś, gryź, tłuk. The passive participle is formed differently from -j stem verbs and takes -ón- as opposed to -t-, and the anterior adverbial participle is formed with -sy as opposed to -wsy, similar standard Polish. In the masculine singular past tense, -ł- is absent due to sound changes; in standard Polish, the form tłukł may similarly be pronounced as tłuk in a colloquial context. If the verb's stem ends in -z-, -g-, or -d- they devoice to -s-, -k-, and -t- respectively in the masculine singular past, even before clitics, e.g. gryzë but grysëm, grys-∅. The past anterior adverbial participle is written with voiced -zsy, -gsy, and -dsy. The ablaut of e||o in such verbs, e.g. standard gniotę||gnieciesz. A few -d- stem verbs show -dz- in the passive adjectival participle instead of -dź-, namely źedzóny, kładzóny, and łukradzóny. The verb paść does not show -å- in the masculine singular past. Nasal alternation of ą||ę̈ occurs in a similar distrution to that of ą||ę in standard Polish.
Nasal vowel root verbs may contain a nasal in the root itself, e.g. klą-ć, ćą-ć, or be formed with the suffix -ną-, e.g. śtuk-ną-ć, zamk-ną-ć.
The largest difference lies in the past tense, which is formed with -n- instead of -ł-, and -ó-, -ë- instead of -ą-, -ę- respectively; masculine personal plural forms take -ńï- whereas non-personal forms take -ny.
Nasal stems ending in -m- in standard Polish jąć, żąć, dąć are levelled to take -n-: wźąźć, weznë, weźnies.
Verbs formed with -nąć, as in standard Polish, may form the past tense with or without the morpheme -n-; some verbs always show it, e.g. zamknąć, zamknón, some use either -n- orbut -ł-, e.g. moknąć, moknón or mokła in the present tense but -ł- in the past, e.g. zbladnąć, zbladnë, but zbladła.