The Masovian dialect (Polish: dialekt mazowiecki), also written Mazovian, is the dialect of Polish spoken in Mazovia and historically related regions, in northeastern Poland.[1] It is the most distinct of the Polish dialects and the most expansive.[1]

Mazovian dialects may exhibit such features as mazurzenie, sandhi (intervocalic voicing of obstruents on word boundaries), and asynchronous palatal pronunciation of labial consonants (so-called softening). The Kurpie region has some of the most distinctive phonetic features due to isolation. Characteristics include:

• Depalatalization of velars before /ɛ/ and palatalization of velars before historical /ɛ̃/; e.g. standard Polish rękę, nogę ('arm', 'leg', in the accusative case) is rendered [ˈrɛŋkʲɛ], [ˈnɔɡʲɛ] respectively instead of [ˈrɛŋkɛ], [ˈnɔɡɛ];
• /li/ sequences realized [lɪ] instead of [lʲi];
• merger of the retroflex series sz, ż, cz, dż into the alveolar s, z, c, dz;
• /ɨ/ > /i/ before certain consonants;
• the Old Polish dual number marker -wa continues to be attached to verbs;
• Standard Polish /ɔ̃/ and /ɛ̃/ merged with /u/ and /a/ respectively, in most situations;
• certain instances of a > e;
• [mʲ] > [ɲ]

Masovian dialects also contain certain vocabulary that is distinct from the standard Polish language and shares common characteristics with the Kashubian language.[2]

Subdialects

Mazovian dialects include but are not limited to subdialects[3] of:

• Białystok dialect (Polish: gwara białostocka)
• Suwałki dialect (Polish: gwara suwalska)
• Warmia dialect (Polish: gwara warmińska)
• Kurpie dialect (Polish: gwara kurpiowska)
• Masurian dialect (Polish: gwara mazurska)
• Malbork-Lubawa dialect (Polish: gwara malborsko-lubawska)
• Ostróda dialect (Polish: gwara ostródzka)
• Near Mazovian dialect (Polish: gwara mazowsza bliższego)
• Far Mazovian dialect (Polish: gwara mazowsza dalszego)
• Warsaw dialect (Polish: gwara warszawska)

References

Bibliography

• Barbara Bartnicka (red.): Polszczyzna Mazowsza i Podlasia. Łomża-Warszawa 1993.
• Anna Basara: Studia nad wokalizmem w gwarach Mazowsza. Wrocław-Warszawa-Kraków 1965.
• Anna Cegieła: Polski Słownik terminologii i gwary teatralnej. Wrocław 1992.
• Jadwiga Chludzińska-Świątecka: Ze studiów nad słowotwórstwem gwar mazowieckich. Poradnik Językowy, z. 6, 1961, s. 253–258.
• Karol Dejna: Dialekty polskie. Ossolineum 1993.
• Barbara Falińska (red.): Gwary Mazowsza, Podlasia i Suwalszczyzny.ɴ I. Filipów, pow. Suwałki, Białystok, 2004.
• Województwo płockie. Uniwersytet Łódzki, Łódź-Płock 1984.