Language / A word about a dialect. [20]

I remember the pictures, shadows and warm light of these old times when I was little. Me and other children played with toys until the late evening. The twilight had come and I smelled the bonfires and I heard the the sound of a train passing us, far beyond the fields where no one was allowed to play. There were no attractions at all where I lived. There was no merry-go-round, no swing or not even a bench. We only heard about the computers and only several families from my neighbourhood had a black-and-white television. My father would finish cleaning the pigsheds and call my name so I knew I had to go home for a supper. My mother would give me a plate full of Polish potatoes while my dad's nails were still black after gathering these potatoes. My parents speak a rural dialect although if the situation requires it, they know how to use the standard Polish. It came naturally to me and my brother to speak this dialect too but our education somehow made us neglect it. Everyone does speak some dialect (which, in the linguistic sense, means 'a variety shared by a group of speakers). Some of the dialects are somehow criticised by the society and considered low standard Polish which is, from the linguistic point of view, wrong. Everything that people speak and is a communication tool for them, is correct with all it's varieties.

There are numerous differences between what's considered an official Polish and what's spoken all over the country. I quite like some of the things my parents say. They tend to follow many verbs with 'se' (instead of sobie) which doesn't mean anything at all itself. It kind of emphasises that the given action will be done by oneself. For example: ' Zrobię' simply means 'I'll do' but if we say 'Zrobię se' it suggests the person will do it without help or company of other people. Villagers seem to overuse this word anyway and even if the action is to be taken by two or more people they still manage to fit the word 'se' in there.

My mother has her very own sayings and some of her favourite catchphrases are: 'Trzymajcie mnie w dziesięciu bo zabiję pięćdziesięciu' ('Tell the ten people to hold me or I will kill fifty people otherwise' - She uses it when she's angry or frustrated with something. My personal favourite, it's absolutely hilarious), 'Chuje muje, dzikie węże' ('Chuje' is a swear word and stands for 'cocks', 'muje' means nothing at all as far as I'm concerned, 'dzikie węże' means 'wild snakes'. I find it ridiculous because the literal meaning of this sequence of words makes no sense. She uses this when she finds something confusing or doesn't understand something - when she hears me speaking English for example).

You are free to add more examples. I'm also planning to update this thread soon. I hope you like the idea!