Puneet Varma (Editor)

Masurian dialect

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Masurian Ethnolect (Masurian: Mazurská Gádka/Mazurská Gádkia; Polish: Mazurski; German: Masurisch) According to some linguists is a dialect group of the Polish language, others consider masurian as a separate language, spoken by Masurians in a part of East Prussia that belongs to today's Poland.

Contents

History

Since the 14th century, some settlers from Masovia started to settle in southern Prussia, which had been devastated by the crusades of the Teutonic Knights against the native Old Prussians. According to other sources, people from Masovia did not move to southern Prussia until the time of the Protestant Reformation, Prussia having become Lutheran in 1525. The Masurians were mostly of the Protestant faith, in contrast to the neighboring Roman Catholic people of the Duchy of Masovia, which was incorporated into the Polish kingdom in 1526. A new dialect developed in Prussia, isolated from the remaining Polish language area. The Masurian dialect group has many Low Saxon, German and Old Prussian words mixed in with Polish-language endings.

Beginning in the 1870s, Imperial German officials restricted the usage of languages other than German in Prussia's eastern provinces. While in 1880 Masurians were still treated as Poles by the German Empire, at the turn of century the German authorities undertook several measures to Germanise and separate them from the Polish nation by creating a separate identity. After World War I the East Prussian plebiscite was held on July 11, 1920 according to the Treaty of Versailles, in which the Masurians had to decide whether they wanted to be part of the Second Polish Republic or remain in German East Prussia; about 98% voted for Germany.

By the early 20th century, most Masurians were at least bilingual and could speak Low Saxon and German; in some areas about half of them still spoke Masurian, at least at home. In 1900, according to the German census there were 142.049 Masurians speaking Masurian. In 1925, only 40,869 people gave Masurian as their native language, many considering German their first language, considering Masurian merely as their domestic dialect, By the early 1920s there were also some Masurians who had their separate identity, claiming that Masurians are a nation. Most of them were members of Masurenbund. Their main goal was to grant Masurians some minority laws inside Germany, but there were also some separatists. In the early 1930s, support for the Nazi Party was high in Masuria, especially in elections in 1932 and 1933. Nazi political rallies were organized in the Masurian dialect during the campaigning.

After 1933 the usage of the Masurian dialect was prohibited by the National Socialist authorities. By 1938 most Masurian place and personal names had been changed to "pure" German substitutes. From 1939 on it was forbidden to hold church services in Masurian.

The replacement of Masurian in favor of German was not completed by the time the Soviet Red Army conquered Masurian East Prussia in January 1945, in World War II. The territory was transferred to Poland according to the postwar Potsdam Conference. During the wartime fighting and post-war deportations in the subsequent decades, most Masurian-speakers left Masuria for western Germany, especially to post-war West Germany, where they were quickly assimilated into the German mainstream.

Situation in XXI century

According to some scientists like Andrzej Sakson, there are about 5.000 - 10.000 ethnic Masurians left in Poland. According to the Polish census from 2011 there are only 1.376 of them who identify themselves as Masurians. Most Masurians live in Germany now, but due to the German law the ethnicity and nationality are not determined in their census.

There is a lack of surveys on the knowledge of the ethnolect both in Poland and Germany, but there are mostly elders who can communicate in Masurian with some fluency. The sole group who speak Masurian on a daily basis are so called Russian Masurians, who are the descendants of colonists who arrived to Siberia at the end of the 19th century. They have lived in isolation from the other groups, thus they were neither Germanised, nor Polonised. Their speech acquired many Russian loanwords, though.

Situation start to get better. Since 2015 Sorkwity Masurian Culture Festival started to promote Masurian dialect, people start to create a folk music, some schools organize competitions of Masurian speech, and in the Internet people started to promote ethnolect using social media. In 2016 was founded The Masurian Union promoting culture and Masurian ethnolect. Meanwhile, some activists have also started a process of linguistical normalization to promote and save the ethnolect.

In 2016 online dictionary Glosbe.com introduced masurian to their data.

Books in masurian

The oldest book written in masurian probably is "Ta Swenta Woyna", wroten by Jakub Szczepan in 1900.

Dialect or Language

There are several scientists considering masurian as a language or calling masurian as a language, others call masurian as a dialect or even subdialect.

Linguistic features

  • Mazurzenie: the consonants corresponding to Standard Polish cz, sz, dż, ż are pronounced c, s, dz, z
  • Asynchronous pronunciation of soft labials b', p', f', w' – bj/bź, pj/pś, fj/fś, wj/wź
  • Sometimes, intensive palatalization of k, g, ch to ć, dź, ś (a similar process to the Kashubian palatalization)
  • Labialization of the vowel o (sometimes also u) in Anlaut
  • Vowel y approaching i
  • Before ł vowels i and y pronounced like u, e.g. buł, zuł (był, żył)
  • Denasalization of the nasal vowels ą and ę as o and e
  • In some varieties ę becomes ã (nasal a nosowe), which is pronounced after denasalization an, analogical changes for groups eN, like. dzień - dzian

    • Dialects of Masurian

    Masurian has five dialects:

  • Ostróda dialect (Ostróda, Olsztynek) - Denasalization of the nasal vowels ą and ę as o and e - No Mazurzenie (the consonants corresponding to Standard Polish cz, sz, dż, ż are pronounced c, s, dz, z) - Common á - Labialization (ô, û - uo, uu) - Before ł vowels i and y pronounced like u, e.g. buł, zuł (był, żył).
  • West-masurian dialect (Działdowo, Nidzica, Szczytno) - Irregularly occurring á and labialization - Mni where Polish mi ( mniasto, kamnień) - As in Ostróda district appear and have dominant position psi, bzi, (w)zi, f(si) to pchi, bhI etc. - Denasalization of the nasal vowels ą and ę as o and e.
  • Center-masurian dialect (Giżycko, Mrągowo, Pisz, Biała Piska) - The most common intermediate á - The most common archaic ř (in polish sound as rż) - Frecuent labialization - Appear and have dominant position pchi, bhI to psi, bzi etc. - Dominate pronunciation ni instead of mni - niasto, kanień etc. - Soft k, g, ch when is before a for example kia, gia, chia - Polish ą i ę like ón, on, én, en.
  • East-masurian dialect (Łek, Ôleck) - Polish ś, ć, ź pronounced like sz, cz, ż (for example spacz, bÿcz) - Á almost does not exist - Frequently a is something between a and e (ä – mätkiä) - Synchronous pronunciation of soft labials b', p', f', w' change to bj, pj, fj, wj - Ch change to ś (kosianÿ, siätä) - Less frequent é and ó.
  • North-masurian dialect (Węgorzewo, Gołdap) - in the early 20th century almost disappeared, in the area Węgorzewa known for up to a few percent of the population (in the nineteenth century, more than half), in district of Gołdap 1% (in the nineteenth century, approx. 20%). - Very archaic sound for r - A relatively frequent á.

    • The verb "to be"

    In singular it is possible to change u to ÿ for example: (Já) buł/bÿł, tÿsź buł/bÿł, (Ón) buł/bÿł.

    It is possible to create future perfect tense putting verb to be in future + infinitive for example "(Já) Bénde koménderowač"

    The conjugation in present tense

  • AČ

    • The conjugation of regular verbs which usually ends with -ač ", with example "znač" (know).

    "Á" disappear when word has more than one syllable.

    - Other examples:

    dumač - think (dumam, dumas, dumá, dumawa, dumata, dumajó),

    kupač - buy (kupam, kupas, kupá, kupawa, kupata, kupajó)

  • EČ

    • The conjugation of regular verbs which usually ends with -eč ", with example "mÿšléč" (think).

  • OWAČ

    • The conjugation of regular verbs which usually ends with -owač ", with example "koménderowač" (give orden to someone).

    Conditional

    Creating conditional as in majority of slaves languages we take a verb and cut the last part of verb which correspond for infinitive mode (for example verb terminations ač, eč) and then we should add the part that correspond for conditional mode. For example "znač" (know) -> znabÿ.

    "Bÿ" in masurian has also one more function, can be used making questions at the begging of some sentence or also can mean "whether", "or" and "if". For example "Lejduje ni niénso/niéso, bÿ sźwÿnina, bÿ réntozina". Translation to polish: "Lubię mięso, czy to wieprzowinę, czy wołowinę"

    Gramatical construction with verb of senses

    Verb of senses + object + verb

    Masurian phonetics

    ř - Raised alveolar non-sonorant trill

    ó - Close-mid back rounded vowel

    á - Open back unrounded vowel

    é (after i) - Close-mid front unrouended vowel

    ä - Near-open front unrouended vowel

    w - Voiced bilabial fricative

    f - Voiceless bilabial fricative

    š - Voiceless palato-alveolar sibilant

    ž - Voiced palato-alveolar sibilant

    č - Voiceless palato-alveolar affricate

    dž - Voiced palato-alveolar affricate

    ÿ - Near-cloe near-fron unrounded vowel

    Song

    Short masurian song.

    Example of poem

    Réjza

    siodám ná koło

    kiej féin pogodá

    dumám tédÿ

    nád zÿciem Mazurá

    ajw násu ziamiá

    ôddÿcha w dáli

    ány rÿchtÿk pozwalá

    mniá do dumániá

    nád mójá réjzá

    přéd siébie chućko jidé

    ná drogách zÿciá

    chtóré ûmÿká

    chtórégo nie zabácé

    po śmiérci, chtóra z latámi

    přéniká …

    wsÿtko je féin

    ajw ji téraz

    jék budzié po tym co přÿjdzié

    nié ziém…?

    jédno jé péwné zé ajw jé féin

    ná mójéj réjzié ..

    References

    Masurian dialect Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA