Standardisation

So far, there has been no attempt at standardising any of the Bielsko language varieties.
The only existing dictionary of the Bielsko dialect is the Idiotikon. It contains a list of words which appear in the poems collected in the volume: Gedichte in der Mundart der deutschen schlesisch-galizischen Gränzbewohner resp. von Bielitz-Biała.

Other languages and varieties used

It is very likely that that a portion of the speakers of the local dialects of Bielsko, Biała and their surroundings localities were able to speak standard German. As illiteracy declined and readship increased, the numbers of standard German speakers must have increased as well. Bielsko, and Biała since 1772, fell under the political influence of the Hagsburg Monarchy and, soon, became the target of Austrian emmigration. Leaving a trace on the Bielsko and Biała dialects was unavoidable. This can be supported by the belief held by Adam Kleczkowski (1920: 3Kleczkowski 1920 / komentarz/comment /
Kleczkowski, Adam 1920. Dialekt Wilamowic w zachodniej Galicji. Fonetyka i fleksja. Kraków: Polska Akademia Umiejętności.
). While it refered strictly to Wilamowice and Wilamowicean, it can give much insight into what language was used on a daily basis by the inhabitants of the Bielsko-Biała language enclave:

Whether fighting the Polish language or the literary German language (or, better put, Austrian German) it [Wilamowicean] will fall. The one questions that we do not want to answer is when it will it happen and which language will prevail, Polish or German?

A wood engraving form 1801 and carved by Samuel Johanny presents a panorama of Bielsko along with short descriptions of the objects engraved. An almshouse for the poor, or a type of hospice is named in Austrian:  Das Spital (number 11).


A wood engraving presenting Bielsko
see: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bielsko_1801,_drzeworyt.jpg

At present, it is difficult to determine whether the past residents of Bielsko, Biała and their surrounding towns and villages spoke Polish. Jerzy Polek, when writing about the history of Biała, repeats several times that the German-speaking residents of Biała are at the very least able to understand Polish. It is in the 18th century when widespread bilingualism can be observed (2010: 81Polak 2010 / komentarz/comment /
Polak, Jerzy (red.) 2010. Bielsko-Biała. Monografia miasta. Tom II. Biała od zarania do zakończenia I wojny światowej (1918). Bielsko-Biała: Wydział Kultury i Sztuki Urzędu Miejskiego w Bielsku-Białej.
) and in the middle of the 19th century when "a majority speaks both languages" (2011: 311Polak 2010 / komentarz/comment /
Polak, Jerzy (red.) 2010. Bielsko-Biała. Monografia miasta. Tom II. Biała od zarania do zakończenia I wojny światowej (1918). Bielsko-Biała: Wydział Kultury i Sztuki Urzędu Miejskiego w Bielsku-Białej.
). Idzi Panic described the linguistic situation in Bielsko during the modernity period (2011: 410Panic 2010 / komentarz/comment /
Panic, Idzi (red.) 2010. Bielsko-Biała. Monografia miasta. Tom I. Bielsko od zarania do wybuchu wojen śląskich (1740). Bielsko-Biała: Wydział Kultury i Sztuki Urzędu Miejskiego w Bielsku-Białej.
):

While a large number (if not a majority) of German-speaking residents of Biała understood Polish, and even were able to converse in the language given the every day contact they had with the Polish part of the Bielsko populace, and with the ethnically Polish part of those villages that found themselves within the Bielsko dominium, their knowledge of Polish was as advanced as the father Burian's German.

In Jacob Bukowski letter addressed to the local inteligentsia, he advises to pronounce some phonemes as the Polish [rż] (1860: 174Bukowski 1860 / komentarz/comment /
Bukowski, Jacob 1860. Gedichte in der Mundart der deutschen schlesisch-galizischen Gränzbewohner resp. von Bielitz-Biala. Bielitz: Zamarski. [przedruk w: Wagner 1935: 1-190].
- „sch weich gesprochen, wie das poln. rże”). It can, thus, be assumed that his readers knew the written form of the Polish language. Also other materials collected by Jerzy Polak can provide insight into the bilingual nature of Bielsko and Biała.  He gathered diaries and journals of 20th century residents of Biała and Bielsko  which list many interesting examples of Polish-German language contact. It can be concluded that a significant portion of teh German-speaking residents of Bielsko and its surroundings were able to speak Polish, at the very least passively (Polak 2012Polak 2012 / komentarz/comment /
Polak, Jerzy 2012. Bielsko-Biała w zwierciadle czasu. Wspomnienia mieszkańców z lat 1900-1945. Bielsko-Biała: Wydział Kultury i Sztuki Urzędu Miejskiego.
).