Cognateness and identity

Linguistic family

Linguistic Similarity

Oravian dialect The Oravian dialect has still many different names for measurements like volume, length, area units or even for units concerning working with flax. It is surprising that many units names refer to monetary system, e.g grajcarz (from “grajcar” lub “krajcar”, Austro-Hungarian currency that is equal 1/3 Polish grosz or 8 pfennings), koruna (Czech currency), rzimski, papiyrek, dynar or dudek (19th century coin with an eagle minted on it), etc. Because the land was divided into fields and historical division of rural areas among successive inhabitants of the land, some units may denote different lengths even in one village (Kąś 2002: 195Kąś 2002 / komentarz/comment/r /
Kąś, Józef 2002. „Nazwy miar powierzchni pola w gwarze orawskiej”, w: Joanna Okoniowa & Bogusław Dunaj (red.) Studia Dialektologiczne II: 193–200.
).
Both Oravian and Spiš dialect are characterized, like other Highland dialects, by the use of “ta” particle which is an equivalent of “tam” in standard Polish, but it fulfils different functions. Sikora writes about the meaning of this particle: “this word helps to soften the categorical character of expressed judgments, assumptions, orders, etc. and signalizes the speaker’s distance towards the contents of his speech, unwillingness to take a stand on the matter, lack of sufficient knowledge on the topic or lack of self-confidence” (Sikora 2008: 171Sikora 2008 / komentarz/comment/r /
Sikora, Kazimierz 2008. „O gwarowej partykule ta na przykładzie gwar góralskich”, LingVaria 1. URL: http://www2.polonistyka.uj.edu.pl/LingVaria/archiwa/LV_1_2008_pdf/12-Kazimierz%20Sikora.pdf [dostęp: 26.09.2012 r.]
).
In contrast to the Polish language which has only two locative adverbs tu (‘here’) and tam (‘there’), in Oravian dialect there are four adverbs of this type: tu, haf, han, tam and it is possible to express three different locations with these adverbs: (a) position of a speaker, (b) position of a recipient, (c) position visible or mentioned during the conversation (Kryk-Kastovsky 1996: 332Kryk-Kastovsky 1996 / komentarz/comment/r /
Kryk-Kastovsky, Barbara 1996. „Linguistic, cognitive and cultural variables of the conceptualization of space”, w: Martin Pützi René Dirvan (red.) The Construal of Space in Language and Thought. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
; Sikora 1989a: 67ffSikora 1989a / komentarz/comment/r /
Sikora, Kazimierz 1989a. „O niektórych przysłówkach przestrzennych w gwarze orawskiej”, Polonica 14: 67–76.
; Sikora 1989b: 67ffSikora 1989b / komentarz/comment /
Sikora, Kazimierz 1989b. „Orawskie przysłówki zaimkowe miejsca”, Polonica 14: 67–76.
).

Language or dialect?

The Oravian dialect is considered to be a dialect of Polish, to a large extent also by its speakers, mainly the youngest ones (Gawlasová 2012: 32ffGawlasová 2012 / komentarz/comment/r /
Gawlasová, Petra 2012. Goralský dialekt jako specifický kulturní znak Oravy. Praca magisterska. Olomuc: Univerzita Palackého v Olomouci. URL: http://theses.cz/id/k18aqb/Petra_Gawlasova_bakalarska_prace3.pdf [dostęp: 26.09.2012 r.]
). However, many inhabitants of the region have a positive attitude towards speaking the dialect.

National identity

The Polish part, similarly as the Slovak one (Namiestów and Twardoszyn districts) is inhabited mainly by Poles and Slovaks, but people of other nationalities also live there, for example the Czechs. In most cases there are more Czechs on the Slovak side of the border than Poles. Polish Orava used to be ethnically homogenous as in the past it was inhabited by the settlers from lowland Małopolska and Żywiecczyzna; there were also some Wallachian settlers. Until the end of the 19th century the inhabitants of Orava did not have any national or ethnic consciousness. According to the census of 1910, the region was inhabited by 72 125 people: 59 096 Slovaks, 16 131 Poles, 2000 Hungarian people and 1518 Germans (Kantor 1997: 149fKantor 1997 / komentarz/comment/r /
Kantor, Ryszard 1997. „Między identyfikacją narodową a regionalną. Przypadek Polskiej Orawy”, Studia Etnologiczne i Antropologiczne 1. Katowice: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego.
).
In (Czecho)Slovakia it was claimed in the 1970s and 1980s that these people were Slovak, but diversity of the inhabitants of this region is visible in the census. Currently the inhabitants of Orava consider the region to be their small homeland; Polish or Slovak citizenship is of secondary importance and there are no visible ethnic conflicts. Ethnic divisions are usually not visible during elections, even for the Sejm, as there are no tendencies for voting for a Slovak candidate by Slovaks and for a Polish candidate by Poles. However, there were some situations in which nationality played an important role. People from the Orava region also use European Union donations to develop their common cultural heritage.