Short typological description

The classification of Oravian dialect is problematic mainly because according to the Polish philologists, it is a dialect of Polish language, and according to the Slovak philologists – it is a Slovak dialect. They are seldom called Polish and Slovak Oravian dialect (because of numerous differences, like the influence of Polish literary language on the Polish part of Orava) and sometimes Oravian dialect is treated as transitional dialect. Historically, this dialect originated from Polish language, in the past it was influenced by Hungarian, and currently by Slovak. However, it is certain that it belongs to the group of Highland dialects.
In Polish dialectology Oravian dialect is classified as Polish dialect of Małopolska region. In Slovak dialectology, Orava dialect belongs to the northern group of Central Slovak dialects and it its further divided into upper, central and lower dialects (marked as 2a-c on the map). Sometimes the fourth group of dialects is distinguished, namely the lowland group (sk. Dolnozemské). It is a subgroup of both central and western dialects (Štolc 1968Štolc 1968 / komentarz/comment/r /
Štolc, J. & F. Buffa & A. Habovštiak 1968–1984. Atlas slovenskéhojazyka. T. I–IV. Bratysława: VEDA.
) and was highly influenced by Serbian, Romanian and Hungarian as a result of long lasting separation from Slovakia (Dudok D. 1993Dudok D. 1993 / komentarz/comment/r /
Dudok, Daniel 1993. „Vznik a charakter slovenských nárečí v juhoslovanskej Vojvodine”, Zborník Spolku vojvodinských slovakistov 15: 19–29.

; Dudok M. 1993Dudok M. 1993 / komentarz/comment/r /
Dudok, Miroslav 1993. „Prostriedky mikrokompozície textu v slovenčine a v srbčine”, Zborník Spolku vojvodinských slovakistov 15: 41–51.

). The group of western dialects is so similar to the Czech language that their users are able to communicate with each other.
According to Marek Skawiński it is clear that Oravian dialect belongs to the group of Polish dialects and he writes:

Even though locally mixed, Polish-Slovak nature of Polish Highlander dialects in the region of ethnic islands, in some villages of Poprad Valley and western part of Czadca district, determines Polish ethnic character. It is important that the basis of these dialects are Polish and Polish traits have autochthonic character whereas Slovak are derivative (usually lexical traits). Additionally, Polish-Slovak linguistic interference in Slovakia takes place only in one direction, i.e. Polish dialects are influenced by Slovak, but there is no influence from Polish or Zaolzie. It means that mixed dialects or Polish-Slovak temporary dialects are of Polish origin and that they preserved the continuity of ethnic origin (in close-knit societies or with numerous endogamous marriages in a given ethnic group) it is an indication of Polish ethnicity even though Polish language is gradually influenced by Slovak. In Slovakia, the term ”Goral” (‘Highlander’) refers to this phenomenon (Skawiński 2009Skawiński 2009 / komentarz/comment/r /
Skawiński, Marek 2009. Polacy na Słowacji. URL: http://www.polskiekresy.info/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=161:polacy-na-slowacji2&catid=109:etnografia&Itemid=509 [dostęp:26.09.2012 r.]
).

Linguistic knowledge on the structure of the Slovak language started developing as late as the 19th century and underwent gradual changes until it was divided into three main dialects: central, western and eastern (when Czechoslovakia existed, the Slovak language was treated as a dialect of Czechoslovakian) (Maxwell 2006: 147Maxwell 2006 / komentarz/comment/r /
Maxwell, Alexander 2006. „Why the Slovak Language Has Three Dialects: A Case Study in Historical Perceptual Dialectology”, Austrian History Yearbook 37: 141–162. URL: http://researcharchive.vuw.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10063/479/article.pdf?sequence=3 [dostęp: 26.09.2012 r.]
).


Drawn by Joe Armata from: Atlas slovenskeho jazyka, Jozef Stolc, red. Bratislava, Slovak Academy of Sciences, 1968. Lack of information about copy rights means that it is subject to standard principles of protection. #tego zdania brak w polskim#The template was copied from the website on Slovak dialects: http://slovake.eu/en/intro/language/dialects

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

Indo-European family → Balto-Slavic →Slavic → West Slavic → Lechitic → Polish Language → Oravian Dialect

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

The Oravian dialect is divided into numerous sub dialects, usually related to specific villages. Each sub dialect has its own unique traits – usually phonological, but also morphological and lexical. For example, the dialect from Orawskie Wesele village (słow. Oravské Veselé) is phonetically different not only from Slovak (or Polish) but also from other Oravian dialects:

• the labialization of the [o] vowel changes pronunciation to [ŭo], e.g. vŭorač ‘orać’ (‘to plow’), kŭosыk ‘koszyk (‘basket), cŭosnok ‘czosnek’ (‘garlic’);
• in contrast to other dialects, the presence of a phoneme marked by dialectologists as [ы], which in linguistics is also called closed [ẹ] – in Slovak it is written down as and appears after soft and hard consonants, e.g. vыrek ‘sowa’ (colloquially ‘owl’), sыpula ‘strzała’ (‘arrow’, mыs ‘mysz’ (‘mouse’), rыňok ‘rynek’ (‘market square’);
• unique among Slovak dialects development of nasal vowels that are pronounced as a combination of a consonant and a vowel gonšenica ‘gąsienica’(‘caterpillar’), konsek ‘kąsek’ (‘bite’), švjыnčič ‘święcić’ (‘to consecrate’);
• depalatalization of [e] into [o/ŭo/ọ] before consonants [r, l, n], np. kršon ‘złamany, pogwałcony’ (‘broken’, ‘violated’) fcŭora ‘wczoraj’ (‘yesterday’), vjecọr ‘evening’;
• phone [ọ] is in the same position as proto-Slavonic [14] [o] (in Cental Slovak dialects it appears as [15] [ŭo] diphthong or more often simply as [o]) despite the influences of the literary language, for example in words such as: nọs, vọs, thọrš, stọl;
• [ŭo] takes place of [a], e.g. hlŭop ‘chłop’ (‘peasant’), glŭodnы ‘głodny’ (‘hungry’), prŭox ‘proch’ (‘gunpowder’);
• the presence of the [ọ]vowel in long initial syllables, e.g. mrọs ‘mróz’(‘frost’), brọzda ‘bruzda’ (‘rut’), dlọtkŭo ‘dłutko’ (‘little chisel’), plọkač ‘płakać’ (‘to cry’) (it is a result of transpormation of proto-Slavic *tort, *tolt into trot-, tlot-) [16];
• characteristic [ja], in words such as: hovjadŭo, vjater ‘wiatr’ (‘wind’), stavjač‘stawiać’ (‘to place’), zarobjač ‘zarabiać’ (‘to earn’);
• the preservation of jers [ы] and [e], np. mech ‘mech’ (‘moss’), ftŭorek ‘wtorek’ (‘Tuesday’), deska ‘deska’ (‘plank’), vjonek ‘wianek’ (‘garland’), dыsc, ľыnŭovы;
• the phoneme [ř] pronounced as two consonants: [rž] (after voiced consonants and at the beginning of a syllable) and [rš] (after voiceless consonants and at the end of a word), e.g. guari ‘gwarzyć’ (‘to chat’), drževŭo ‘drzewo’ (‘tree’), kršыžvy ‘krzywy’(‘curved’), tršešňe ‘kara’ (‘punishment), pastыrš ‘pasterz’ (‘shepherd’);
• proto-Slavic pronunciation of [g] instead of [h] maintained, e.g. gvjozdы ‘gwiazdy’ (‘stars’), gыnš ‘gęś’ (sk. hus, en. goose), gorcki ‘górski’ (‘mountanous’) (sk. hura ‘góra’, en. ‘mountain’), jego (sk. Jeho, en. ‘his’);
• The pronunciation characteristic of Mazuria is maintained – pronouncing [c, s, z] instead of [č, š, ž], e.g. cuč ‘czuć’ (‘to feel’), cыstы ‘czysty’ (‘clean’), sыrŭoki ‘nogi’ (‘legs’), sыtkŭo ‘wszystko’ (‘everything’), zuč ‘żuć’ (‘to chew’), zыč ‘żyć’ (‘to live’), zыvы ‘żywy’ (‘alive’), zolondek ‘żołądek’ (‘stomach).

The Orawskie Wesele dialect has many other characteristic traits, like differences in noun and verb morphology and also in word-formation. Many of these traits are common for other Oravian dialects that also have their own unique traits – like Oravska Leśna (hist. Herdućka, sk. Oravská Lesná) or Mutne (słow. Mútne).
The word ‘ziemniak’ (‘potato’) is a good example of lexical diversity among Slovak dialects. In literary Slovak it is similar to the Polish word and is pronounced ‘zemiak’. In Lower Orava, as far as to the surroundings of Považská Bystrica, the name for potato is ‘švábka’ and in the Upper Orava it is ‘repa’ (similar to Polish ‘rzepa’, en. ‘turnip’) and in the standard derivations means a kind of beetroot that is called burgyňa or bumburdia in Orava region). Apart from inter-regional colloquial names (zemky or zemáky) there are many other similar examples.
Numerals are also worth mentioning as they are short or alternant forms in reference to numerals from the standard form of language. Spiš and Orava dialect are also characterised by different usage of collective numerals. Moreover, archaic forms of cardinal numbers are maintained in accordance with peripheral archaism, e.g. siedm, ośm, piyńci, seści, siedmi, and even trze, śtyrze (Sikora 2006: 51ffSikora 2006 / 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.]
). One of the characteristic traits of this archaism is the lack of so called epenthetic (or disappearing) [e] ((por. siedm : siedem ‘seven’, but : siedmiu ‘seven people’).