Kinship and identity

Language family

Genetic typology of the language

Genetic typology is as follows, depending on whether the Spiš dialect is treated as Polish or Slovak dialect:

Indo-European family → Balto-Slavic →Slavic → West Slavic → Lechitic → Polish Language → Mountain Dialects → Tatry Mountain dialects → Spiš Dialect

Indo-European family → Balto-Slavic →Slavic → West Slavic → Czech-Slovak → Slovak → Spiš Dialect

Linguistic similarity

Polish Spiš dialects are closely related to Slovak Spiš dialects as they have been constantly influencing each other; however, currently to a lower degree – mostly in schools attended by students with Slovak ancestry, during liturgy at church and when people read Život newspaper of Slovaks Society in Poland. The influence of literary Slovak is even weaker.

Currently, the strongest influence on the Polish Spiš dialects has the standard form of Polish language that is used mainly on media. The following adjectives are in accordance with literary language: ćy̨sḱi, dłuǵi, głuṕi, móndry, ^xoi̯ny, radosny, spokoi̯ny, v́eĺǵi , etc. However, there are many adjectives that differ from literary Polish. They may be classified into three groups:

• lexical,
• phonetic,
• derivational.

The first group consists of adjectives that are not present in modern Polish language, but they were used previously and were created on the basis of rules used in literary derivation, e.g. bratóf ‘brothers’’, śosṭř̦in ‘sisters’’, řiśy//v́artḱi ‘fast’, dómaśny ‘domestic, familiar’, ḱisły ‘sour’, atuśńi ‘summer’, źimuśni//ž́imuśny ‘winter’, łacny ‘hungry, cheap’, ḿescḱi ‘municipal, urban’, opaterny ‘careful’, śkamravy ‘having bleary eyes; murmuring with dissatisfaction’, vałuśny ‘gifted, talented’. These differences are seldom the result of phonetic factors that are a manifestation of lexical community with the region of west Slovakia, e.g. redetelny ‘reliable’. Endings such as –any instead of –owy; -aty instead of –asty; -owy instead of –ski; -ński/-nski instead of –ski. In this dialect, there also derivations that do not exist in Polish language, e.g.: byrci ‘ovine’, hyrny ‘famous’, pukĺaty ‘humpbacked’ (puḱeĺ ‘hump’), krawaty ‘patchy’, pazravy//paźravy ‘greedy, gourmand’ etc. Some Spiš adjectives are of foreign origin, e.g. fai̯ny, ńeṕiĺi ‘foreign’, śumny ‘shapely, beautiful’ etc.
The second group comprises adjectives identical with literary forms when it comes to structure, etymology and meaning but they are different in terms of phonetic form, e.g. ałamuńii̯ovy ‘aluminum’, gĺei̯duvany ‘enamel’, i̯edbovny ‘silk’, i̯aŋgv́ yntovy ‘advent’, besowy ‘meringue’, xłodny ‘cool’, ṕykny ‘beautiful’, ułymny ‘disabled’ etc. The dialect has also productive Spiš formants like: aćaty – krapćaty; -aty – murcaty; -ejszy – i̯ rańy si; -ański – b́ gru ii̯ański; -ny – obyrtny//obrotny; -owy – i̯aśyńovy. Productiveness of respective formants is different. The living forms are –aty, -awy, -ny, and the dead ones include –ły, -ański, -y. The third and most abundant group of Spiš adjectives is identical with the ones existing in literary language with regards to derivational bases and the functions of productive formants: aty – boi̯caty, cyrńaty, ʒ́ urcaty, gałęźaty, głovaty, kv́ i̯aćaty, mroźaty, pĺecaty, popańaty, poźeĺyńaty // źeĺyńaty; -ny/-ni – xrobacny, fałecny ‘false’, honorny, śḿizny ‘slender’, vyzyrny; -any–guḿany, b́ i̯ iz any // i̯ i zbovy,v́ i̯eśńany; -ejszy/-ajszy – i̯ połedńy sy, ńeʒeĺńyi̯ sy // ńeʒelńai̯sy; -owy – břegovy, fśovy; -ki–gorḱi, vartḱi; -obliwy – sanobĺivy; -eczny – strasecny; -liwy – spolegĺivy, ńeśĺivy; -ski – doĺsḱi; -i – koźi, koc’i. Some of the examples enlisted above have its bases in Polish literary language, but with different formants. However, they have their equivalents in the Slovak language. The alternation of ny/-ni formants is visible, e.g.: ĺatuśńi // ĺatuśny ‘summer’, źimuśńi // źimuśny ‘winter’, niźńi // niźny ‘lowland’, vyśńi // vyśny ‘highland’, ĺetni // ĺetny ‘summer’, z’itńi // zytny ‘rye’ (Sowa 2002: 132f). Budz (2011Budz 2011 / komentarz/comment/r /
Budz, Jan 2011. Gwara spiska – Jynzik gibki jak pryńć. URL: http://serwis21.blogspot.com/2011/01/gwara-spiska-jynzik-gibki-jak-prync.html [dostęp: 06.10.2012 r.]
) claims that from lexical point of view, the Highlander language contains many simplifications or lexical-mental abbreviations:

For example the word mushroom stands mainly for “penny bun”, fish usually means “trout” and ‘god’ (reptile) is usually a “viper”. The word “drzewo” (tree) is a synonym for spruce, as other tree species are called by their names: wiyrzba, skorusa (skorusina), olsina, brzezina, lipa, jasiyń, jawor, jabłonka, śliwcorka, torka etc. Similarly, the word “goj-goje” means all kinds of bushes. It is worth mentioning that the dialect of Spiš Highlanders is not uniform and has individual differences present in only one village, differences common for a group of villages and traits that distinguish it from other Polish dialects.

The quotation above does not wholly present the image of lexical phenomena of Spiš dialects. Additionally, the elements of lexicon may differ in various locations. However, it does not change the fact that abbreviated forms are used frequently – Spiš numerals are worth mentioning here, for example: dwanaś, piytnaś, ośminaś, dwaść, etc. Apart from abbreviated and alternant forms of standard inflection of numerals, Spiš and Orava dialects are also characterized by different usage of collective numerals, usually in accordance with the rule of peripheral archaism, they use archaic forms of cardinal numbers e.g.: siedm, ośm, piyńci, seści, siedmi, and even trze, śtyrze (Sikora 2006: 51ffSikora 2006: 51ff / komentarz/comment/r /
Sikora, Kazimierz 2006. „Liczebniki w gwarach Podtatrza (Podhale, Spisz, Orawa)”, LingVaria 2: 49–64. URL: http://www2.polonistyka.uj.edu.pl/LingVaria/archiwa/LV_2_2006_pdf/04_Sikora.pdf [dostęp: 06.10.2012 r.]
) for 7, 8, 5, 6, 7 and 3, 4 respectively.

Language or dialect?

The Spiš dialect is a dialect (it is disputable whether it is a dialect of Polish or Slovak language) and it is a basis for Spiš cultural-language community. There is no direct or explicit data about attitude of the inhabitants of Spiš region towards “language or dialect” issue.

National identity

The Slovak national movement developed in the region of Spiš, although it was quite different than in Western and Central Slovakia. The Polish tried to raise the national identity awareness as late as after 1895. In the region of Polish Spiš the national structure is rather uniform. During the last census, 90% inhabitants declared Polish nationality and about 10% Slovak, most of whom ethnically belong to so called Spiš Highlanders, whose culture and language are more similar to those of the inhabitants of Polish mountains. About 3.5% constitute Roma people who mostly claim to be Polish.
In the region of Slovak Spiš as many as 91.5 % of the inhabitants (326 000) in 2001 claimed they are Slovak, but according to ethnic estimation, Slovaks constitute maximum 60% of this number. Polish nationality was declared by 314 people – mainly mixed marriages, but when it comes to language and ethnicity, there are more Poles (even 40-48 thousand) who do not feel Polish in any way. Elements of Polish culture prevail in the region of Jaworzyna Tatrzańska, Lendak, Mały Sławków and Kieżmark (refugees from Zamagurze which belonged to Poland again after the year 1945), Górny Spisz or Bukowinka in Dolny Spisz (descendants of the settlers from the 19th century).
Language community of Polish Spiš Highlanders is uniform when it comes to culture and ethnography, but there are some internal differences. Frequently, the diversity of the region’s tradition and cultural heritage blends with the culture of adjacent geographic regions, but folk-peasant’s elements prevail. Thus cultural uniformity of Polish Spiš is real and visible in many different areas, for example in the outlook, religion, and the construction of the world. It provides indigenous people with a specific perception of time and space, provides beliefs common for them and the concept of honour and hospitality. It may be assumed that the resistance against Magyars united Slovak people inhabiting this region which caused the incorporation of the speakers of Polish into developing national identity. Additionally, the factors that influenced the distinctiveness of these regions are historic separation of Spiš from Poland and economy – commuting to work in Slovakia (Biały 1986: 10fBiały 1986: 10f / komentarz/comment/r /
Biały, Zbigniew 1986. „Polski Spisz. Historyczne uwarunkowania kultury ludowej tego regiony i sposoby jej badania po II wojnie światowej”, w: Zbigniew Biały (red.)Polski Spisz. Jedność kultury i jej historyczne uwarunkowania. Środowisko naturalne – warunki gospodarowania. Antropologia. Gwary, Zeszyty Naukowe Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego DCCCXI, Prace Etnograficzne, Zeszyt 22, Studia Spiskie nr 1. Kraków: Nakładem Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego.
). Spiš Roma use Roma dialects among themselves, but they use Spiš dialect when speaking with Highlanders and the Polish language in contact with Poles.