DIALECTS IN POLAND?

To what extent are you native speakers of Polish aware of dialects or dialectic pronunciation and/or vocabulary in today's Poland? For instance:
-- pyrki, grule, ziemniaki and kartofle for potato
-- the jezdem, widzieliźmy and czy (instead of trzy) in the Kraków area
-- the śledziowanie of Podlasie (very soft almost Russian-like pronunciation of ś, ć and ź
-- the Silesian dialect
-- the Góral dialect
-- Others...
Not to mention Kashubian which some regard as a separate language in its own right.
Do you hear people speaking this way? Is it considered socially acceptable? How do speakers of standard Polish react to it: with interest, amusement, disgust or indifference?

Am still searching for a good on-line comparative vocabulary list Góral-Standard Polish, side by side-:)

Any help would be appreciated!

I'm a Silesian with Polish roots :) I can speak with Silesian dialect (from Opole area) and accent as well. Of course is acceptable, although some people may react in different way - some with curiosity, some with some reserve (in some parts Silesians are considered 'Germans', thus they may be not liked).

it's acceptable and respected, but we still like to make fun of each other.... like i probably would of Bartolome if i heared him ;)

;)

Hehe, Polonius, i wanted to create a 'Dialects/languages of Poland' thread today ^^ I may write sth soon here ;)

Most of polish dialects are rural dialects, and are a little bit stigmatized. I know that it is a little different in the UK, where the rural dialects are perceived as picturesque, worm and homely. In Poland people that use those dialects are usually perceived as uneducated peasants. Things are a little different with Silesian, Kashub and Gooral dialects and with accents on the whole though.

I would also like to add that I do see a slight change in those attitudes. My uncle started to ask for “pyry” when buying potatoes recently even though he used to consider it a peasant talk.

-edit- Ok, when I wrote accent in this sentence: " Things are a little different with Silesian, Kashub and Gooral dialects and with accents on the whole though. I actually meant intonation.

So cities don't have distinct dialects? In Britain, the strongest dialects (in terms of numbers and people's pride in their accents) are urban ones.. Quite often, you can tell which city someone in Britain comes from. Is this possible in Poland or are you all boring and heterogeneous?

According to my knowledge Kashubian officially don't have a status of a seperated language but practically It definately is a different language. In practice I haven't had much contact with this language but when I heard It spoken several times, I hardly could understand anything. I think that Slovakian or Lusatian are more similar to Polish. Silesian or Podhalan are in my opinion regional dialects and others aren't even dialects, just single different words and sometimes some accent.


Not all but vast majority...

Not boring at all! In most cases I can tell which area of Poland a person comes from - listening to the melody, pronunciation, specific words. And many people would recognize where I come from (Wielkopolska), though I am educated and not using dialect. It is the melody that gives me (and other people) away.

educated more or less, every region in Poland has its dialect...and yes, it is interesting and brings smiles... every Pole should recognize where the other Pole is from by a simple conversation... it's the same like in the uk...

Although a foreigner I could grasp some different melodies in polish dialekts.There is a difference between city and urban dialekts or not?

Kashubian language is really intersting. i wonder if it's understandable for non-native polish speakers:

My tongue was in my cheek when I made that comment. But was that just my accent?

Ąłły wann gyjn bocy Godstroon.

Połn hoot skarba fy hohym waat.

:)

ahem....
i beg your pardon?
;)

I don't have a dictionary, 'cept for perhaps 50 or 60 words. A lot of differences are fairly constant changes in pronunciation and stress (mostly first syllable) . I used to speak it pretty well since I was a kid, but time took some of that away.

I posted a tiny sample a few days ago.

What? You don't understand Wymysörys?!... Oh...
;)

You mean "śledzikowanie" :)
I am from Mazury and live now in Poznań.
There are words I just can't stand here and we often have "word fights" at work, where half is native Poznańska Pyra and half from "worse part of Poland" (as they say). For example: szneka z glancem, naramki for ramiączka, ramiączko for wieszak, skibka for kromka and many many more.

I also hate when people from some parts of Poland (mostly western) don't say "ą" at the end of words, so you hear "som" instead of "są". grrrr ;/

Hmm... I heard some more "hardcore" version...

I think the only linguists who have any doubts whether Kashubian is a separate language, are the Polish ones. It's got different vocabulary, different spelling and even different alphabet.

One of the criteria used to decide if something is a dialect or a language is mutual intelligibilty: if two native speakers use two different dialects of their language, they understand each other. If the level of understanding Kashubian by an average Pole is enough to say that Kashubian is intelligible to him/her, then Slovakian is a dialect of Polish, too...

Another definition of the distinction between language and dialect is that a language has its own army.

Do Masurians masurianise (mazurzą) any more than speakers of other peasant dialects? How many (what percentage of) Masuriann are natives and how many are influx popualtion from the east?

Thanks, Darius!- -:)

I think that is the criteria that poloniści use. What a pity...

"Mazurzenie" is not actually specific for Mazury, but also for Mazowsze, Śląsk and Małopolska, but I don't hear it a lot. Mostly older people use it. There are very little native Mazurians in Mazury. I know berely few. They usually have German sounding name or last name. Warmińsko-mazurskie voivodeship hase the highest percentage of ethnic minorities in Poland. Mostly people who came from Lithuania and Ukraine after II ww, but also others.

So is Lithuanian a dialect of Sanskrit, or the other way around?

I think this criterion is easily discredited as subjective. I can easilly communicate with Polish Gorale when I am among a dozen of them. Most Poles wouldn't have a clue what is being discussed. Now, Gorale speaking to Poles is a quite different matter. Their language changes a lot then.

In general, the distinction between language and dialects is not, in many cases, science but a view.


That is a plausible approach :)

Cornwall has it's own language, but they don't have an actual army (just a terrorist movement who threatened to blow up Jamie Oliver and Rick Stein).

I think stuffing him forcibly with several deep-fried Mars bars should suffice.