Lower Silesian dialect group
The Lower Silesian dialect group is a dialect group of the Silesian language historically spoken in Lower Silesia and historically related regions, in southwestern Poland. It is difficult to establish if there are still speakers of this dialect group. A dialect of the region includes the Chwalim dialect.
This article normalizes to Ślabikŏrzowy szrajbōnek where possible, and sometimes examples are supplemented with IPA.
Phonology
Lower Silesian generally shows voicing of word-final consonants before vowels and liquids, but devoicing may sometimes occur. It also has Mazuration with sporadic exceptions.Vowels
Clear a is generally kept as a: matka, zima, ziyima, and a few instances of older a are kept: rzazać, jachać. Tautosyllabic aj often changes to ej, especially in the imperative of verbs: cekejcie, dej; in other words this change happens more rarely or even exceptionally: dzisiej. A few surnames show -e instead of -a under German influence: Dude. The cluster ja- often changes to je-, something once more common in all of Silesia: jermark; it is uncertain if ra- similarly changes to re-. ar may change to er: cwiérć, trefić, presować. a can shift to e sporadically, but exceptionally: hesłe; the form kazelnica arose from contamination of kazalnica and Czech kazatelnica.Clear o is generally kept as o: pole, but can raise to slanted ō for various reasons. One source of this is when o is when it is with tautosyllabic r l ł, or in monosyllabic words or in singular accentual units: dō Francyje, fōrt, fōlwark. There are also cases of sporadic raising: bō bōła, dō skōły, w kōpy, dō lasa abō, dōpaś, kōza||kōża /koʒa/, dō siecyniŏ, dō ŏdry, dō dōmu ; such cases can also occur in Southern Silesia, e.g. Rybnik and Pszczyna. Medial o can sporadically diphthongize to ŏ, realized as either /ɔ͡u/ or /o͡u/: kŏpetek /ko͡upɛtɛk or kŏpytek /kɔ͡upɪtɛk/~/kɔpɪtɛk/. Similarly, o can decompose into several segments, especially in the coda. One such realization is to , but this is often weakly realized, and can differ somewhat in its exact realization village to village: lato, prziso, wojsko, drzewo /dʐɛvɔ͡ɛ/ ; this diphthongization made the adaption of Silesian surnames into German easier, where this diphthong was perceived as ö > e. Next, this diphthong can very rarely raise further to : , . More frequently it is realized as , most frequently after coronal consonants and dorsal consonants, least often after palatal consonants: , , , ; the development of this realization could have been > > > > , with realizations like attesting the second stage. Also supporting this is the development of ło, which is very often realized as , as in the past tense: next to . In some villages this can be realized as . All of these diphthongs can occur medially, but less often, and the least often initially, where labial prothesis is more common. o can exceptionally change to a seemingly before r in loanwords: jarganki, jargany, jarganka or also exceptionally to u: || .
u is generally remains unchanged, but before n it can lower to ō, e.g. pierōn, and before r also to ō, but the phonetic realization here can be , e.g. fōr or . The cluster -łu- often simplifies to just -u-: chałpa, dziochy
Clear e is generally kept as e and also may occur in places different than Silesian or Polish: na całyj wieście, na wiesce. German loanwords may be diphthongized: , except after r: zech nie trefiōł. Other German loanwords containing ei show alternations of ~||, which is the result of being borrowed at different times: nie wyrychnie next to nie rajchłe, fejfy, faifka . A few cases of native ej show a similar change to y: podyma. In contrast to Standard Silesian, the group er rarely changes to yr.
Ablaut is often leveled before hard coronals: Pietruske, biedra, sie wygnietły, zabierã, bierã, niesã, niesõ, pierōn, ôbierã, niesã, zaniesã, pierōny. el can exceptionally raise to yl: mylŏk. On the other hand, eł often changes to oł or ōł: połny||pōłny; this can also effect epenthetic e: bydōłecko. Similarly, łe can change to ło: łoktać. German loanwords containing eu are realized as aj: bajtlik. Word final -e often diphthongizes to .
y remains generally unchanged being realized as ; future forms of być show denasalization as in Standard Silesian. Initial or medial ły often changes to łō or ō, uː zech susōł. Original -yjá nouns remain uncontracted as in Standard Silesian: procesyjŏ.
i may sometimes be realized as under influence of German. i may also appear after sz and ż in loanwords, possibly as the result of code-switching: na masziny, siby ; this can happen in a few native words: lupszi , kruszina, posziwać, sicko, wszycko. rzi under influence of Standard Polish. The cluster ir can become either er: siercy or yr: ściyrlica. il lowers to yl: robiyli.
Slanted vowels
Slanted á shows much diversity; sometimes clear a can be seen under influence of Polish: piasek; á can rarely labialize to /ɔ͡a/, the most often in Lubsza: /dɔbrɔ͡a/ ; most often however old á is realized as represented by Silesian ŏ, as either /a͡u/ /ɔ͡u~o͡u/ or with de-diphthongization /ɔ/ - /ɔ͡u~o͡u/ is the most frequent realization: tŏcka.Slanted ó is generally kept as ō as in Standard Silesian in all villages, or is often diphthongized to . Sometimes this diphthong changes to with a process of > with raising from and then weakening > with loss of the second element: . There are a number of words where clear o is seen where typically slanted ō is seen: pōmoc, skora . Slanted ō can raise to or in pōł and before r.
Slanted é is most often changed to y, and much less often after palatal consonants to i, but é can still rarely be heard; clear -e can be heard the least often under influence of Standard Polish.
Nasal vowels
Old short ę, historically pronounced , is sometimes realized as after hard consonants and after soft consonants , ; however can rarely be seen after soft consonants as well: wsańdzie, wsandy, wsańdzie, cãściyj, wsãdy, wsãdzie, cãsto. More often old ę is realized as or yn: rynka. Nasality is sporadically lost in a few words. Final -ę continues as -ã: na drōgã, ziymiã and exceptionally as . Sometimes final -ã can decompose to -an, especially before a following word: nie wiam, nie chcan zgubić ; this likely occurred in the middle of the 20th century under German influence. Finally, word-final -ã can denasalize to . After World War I under Ruthenian or Russian influence final -ã can denasalize to -u.Old long -ą, historically pronounced as , is generally realized as õ, powõchać ; word finally it decomposes to -ōm, however this final -m varies in strength, and -õ can also be seen: w niewolõ||sōmōm .
The distribution of ã and õ may differ than in Standard Silesian. Nasality is lost before ł. Nasal vowels decompose to have a nasal consonant assimilating to the following consonant, including before sibilants, albeit to a lesser degree. Similarly, the vowel component has a tendency to diphthongize to include j, especially before a palatal consonant.
a can rarely change to e before nasal consonants, which can further raise to y like eN: wiōzynka, z Polakiymi - this -'ymi likely arose under influence of the instrumental singular form Polakiym. More often, old á, both old and new, changes to ō before a nasal consonant, merging with oN: sōm /som/, pamiyntōm /pamjɪntom/, pōn /pon/. This resulting ō can phonetically sometimes sound as : or even : . Finally, aN is sometimes kept as aN or not raised entirely to just oN as the result of influence from Standard Polish from settlers coming from the Eastern Borderlands: geszpon /ɡɛʂpɔn/ , pan /pan/.
o near nasal consonants generally raises to ōN, which can diphthongize or raise as described above, especially in a closed syllable, however sometimes clear oN can be seen.
The group eN raises to yN or sometimes to iN after palatal consonants.
iN lowers, approaching a sound between e and y: ś niymi .
Other vowels may nasalize when before m, especially when m is followed by a sibilant.
Prothesis
Initial a- exceptionally sees prothetic j- Jantka ; this can also happen near secondary a-: jargany, jarganka; otherwise prothetic h- occurs more often: hantaba.Initial, medial and final o can labialize and in all positions to a similar degree of intensity: môtycka, môtycka, kôkôt, na pôlu, sôli, zytô, wôjna, kôkôt, kôtka, pokôwiec, sôchy, bôciōn, bôciōny, môc, tô, cô, kokôt, kôt, dô, zytô, tô ; this feature is not very frequent. This can sometimes be realized as : , but most often as : ôdra, ôwiec. However unlabialized initial o sometimes occurs: ojciec||ôjciec.
Medial u can also labializize to û when it occurs after another vowel: naûcyć, naûcyciyl, wyûcōny, my sie naûcyli, poûgryzajõ, naûcyciele, jŏ sie naûcōła ; initially this may occur, but less frequently, and sometimes instead of labialization prothetic h may appear: , .
As a result of labialization, hypercorrection can occur and initial ł- may be removed: ōnka .
Initial i- rarely gains prothetic j-: to jidã.
Contraction
Verbs may appear in contracted forms: stŏć /stɔ͡ut͡ɕ/, jŏ sie bŏł /jɔ͡u ʃɛ bow/.Consonants
Word final -m tends to weaken and either partially or fully nasalize the preceding consonant; this weakened element may then assimilate in the place of articulation to the following consonant; then final -m can sometimes entirely disappear: nie wiã . Labial consonants tend to weaken and assimilate in consonant clusters and soft labials often harden. Similarly, the cluster in+sibilant can lose -n- and nasalize -i-.Medial t and d after a vowel and before s, ś, c, ć often weaken and disappear. If rz is realized as /ʒ/ or /ʃ/, then trz and drz can affricatize and become cz, dż.
ł is pronounced as in Standard Silesian, that is /w/. Word- or syllable-final and sometimes intervocalic ł often weakens and can disappear. Similarly CłuC and to a lesser extent CłoC often lose ł, as in Standard Silesian: dugŏ. Word-final ł disappears most often when following another consonant: ûmar.
Raised rz was kept, but only vestigially, and was often realized as /ʒ/ or /ʃ/. The clusters rs, rz, and sometimes rż can be realized as /ʃ/, /ʒ/, or even /r̝/.
Word final -ć is generally lost if it is preceded by a consonant, as in Standard Silesian. ć and dź can sometimes be realized as and . ć before a hard consonant changes to c: piyncset.
Palatal ń before a consonant or word-finally may gain before it or even change into .
Word final -ej usually raises to -yj, and occasionally -j is lost giving -y.
The cluster kt- usually weakens to cht-, as in Standard Silesian, less often to ft-. g can appear as ch or h, or sometimes disappear.
Initial ch- may be realized as h- ; this may also occur before l, but chl- may also change to l-. Medial -ch- often weakens to -h-. Word final -ch rarely changes to -f, mostly in the locative plural ending -ōf. Sporadically cht can change to kt: łoktać. ch after a sibilant and before a vowel or semivowel may change to ł: słody. The clusters chc, chć may change to sc, ść: scã. Similarly chs can change to ss: lisse pole. Finally, ch can sometimes sporadically be lost.
h as /h/ can appear as a loaneme.
Inflection
Nouns
The nominative singular continues old á as ŏ of some feminine nouns: braciŏ /brat͡ɕɔ͡u/.Feminine nouns originally ending in slanted -á can take old -e in the genitive singular: do Rusyje, dō Francyje, ziymie, groble, do prace, z kuźnice, do kuźnice, wele gole, do studnie, zimie. -e can also occur in the nominative plural of these nouns, and can even occur in clear -a nouns: kose, koze, ôse.
Neuter nouns originally ending in *-ьje may continue as -o under influence of -o neuter nouns or -y in the nominative and accusative singular: , , , , .
Neuter nouns ending in -ã in Standard Silesian most often end in -y under influence of -y < *-ьje: ciely.
The feminine accusative singular sometimes takes -ŏ, -o in place of -õ < -ã: ta wielkŏ maszina, heblowniŏ, na biblijŏ, chomŏto, cielnŏ krowa instead of cielõ krowã.
The genitive plural continues old á as ŏ in gerunds and collective nouns: zbozŏ /zbɔzɔ͡u/, biciŏ /bit͡ɕɔ͡u/, do mōcyniŏ /dɔ mocɪɲɔ͡u/, do wybijaniŏ /dɔ vɪbijaɲɔ͡u/.
The locative plural is most often formed with -ach or -ŏch : w lasŏf/w lasŏch ; compare a similar change in Goral dialects. The genitive plural may be formed with -ōw regardless of gender: za gōrōw.
Adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, and numerals
The nominative/accusative plural of adjectives and pronouns generally has -y, less often -e.The feminine nominative singular continues old á as ŏ: lichŏ /lixɔ͡u/, wielkŏ /vjɛlkɔ͡u/.
The masculine/neuter genitive/accusative animate singular tend to have -ygo after soft consonants and -ego after hard consonants, or also sometimes -ygo, with little fluctuation, somewhat more often in the neuter.
Pronouns tend to have clear -e- in the masculine/neuter genitive/accusative animate singular.
The genitive-dative-locative feminine singular of adjectives and pronouns show -yj.
Adverbs often end in -y instead of -e.
Verbs
Present tense stems also may continue old long á as ŏ: mŏ /mɔ͡u/, mŏcie /mɔ͡ut͡ɕɛ/, wsŏdzŏ /fsɔ͡ud͡zɔ͡u/.The past tense often sees -ŏ- from old slanted á: ukrŏd /ukrɔ͡ut/ chcioł /xt͡ɕɔw/, przepŏd /pʂɛpɔ͡ut/, ôstoł /wɔstɔw/. The past tense of -yć verbs may be formed -ōł-: sie ûcōł, sie skōńcōła. Similarly, the past tense of -ić verbs, except masculine virile forms, can be either -'ył- jŏ mōwiył, -ōł: jŏ chodziōł.
The imperative is formed with -ej, as in standard Silesian.
The passive participle may continue -ŏ- and also be formed with -ty instead of -ny: ôbsiŏty /wɔpɕɔ͡utɪ/.
The infinitive of old -eć verbs may raise, powiedzić ; patrzeć || wrzyć, potrzyć, ôdrzyć ; dozdrzeć || ôjzdrzyć, zawrzyć, psziwrzyć ; zryć, ciyrpiyć, zryć || ôżeć.
Prepositions and prefixes
Common is the extension of the prepositions w and z with mobile e to we and ze.Vocabulary
Lower Silesian seen influence from German and other tendencies common to other Silesian dialects.Word-Formation
Many typical Silesian suffixes can be seen.The non-verbal prefix nŏ- may often be seen as in Standard Silesian, but may also be realized as na-: nŏprzōd but nasiyniy - both examples are from Kurznie. Similarly zŏ- is often present: zŏpôta /zɔ͡upwɔta/, zŏgroda /zɔ͡uɡrɔda/, zŏrobek /zɔ͡urɔbɛk/, zŏgłōwkę /zɔ͡uɡwofkɪ̃/, zŏpōłka /zɔpowka/, zŏrobek /zɔ͡urɔbɛk/, na zorobek /na zɔrɔbɛk/.
Nouns
Some noun suffixes and their phonetic realizations include:- -ŏc: kōłŏc
- -ŏk: bijŏk
- -ŏl
- -ŏrz: handlŏrz, farŏrz
- -ŏsek: chlebŏsek
- -yl: gordziyl, naûcyciyl
Adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, and numerals
The superlative of adjectives and adverbs is most often formed with nŏ-: nŏwiyncyj /nɔ͡uvjɪncɪj/, nŏmłodsy /no͡umwotsɪ/, nŏlepsy /nɔ͡ulɛpsɪ/, nŏbarzyj /nɔ͡ubar̝ɪj/, nôlichsy /na͡ulixsɪ/. Numerals from old -naście continue as -nŏście.Verbs
The verbal prefix nŏ- can be seen: nŏlezoł /nɔ͡ulɛzɔw/, nŏlezałe /nɔ͡ulɛzawɛ/, przinŏlezy /pʂinɔ͡ulɛzɪ/.The prefix s- instead of z- can still be seen, as in Standard Silesian: swalić .