Mazurzenie () or mazuration is the replacement or
merger
Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of companies, other business organizations, or their operating units are transferred to or consolidated with another company or business organization. As an aspect ...
of
Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent
* Polish chicken
*Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...
's series of
postalveolar
Postalveolar or post-alveolar consonants are consonants articulated with the tongue near or touching the ''back'' of the alveolar ridge. Articulation is farther back in the mouth than the alveolar consonants, which are at the ridge itself, but no ...
fricative
A fricative is a consonant produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate in t ...
s and
affricate
An affricate is a consonant that begins as a stop and releases as a fricative, generally with the same place of articulation (most often coronal). It is often difficult to decide if a stop and fricative form a single phoneme or a consonant pair. ...
s (
written
Writing is a medium of human communication which involves the representation of a language through a system of physically inscribed, mechanically transferred, or digitally represented symbols.
Writing systems do not themselves constitute h ...
) into the
dentialveolar series (written ). This merger is present in many dialects, but is named for the
Masovian dialect
The Masovian dialect ( pl, dialekt mazowiecki), also written Mazovian, is the dialect of Polish spoken in Mazovia and historically related regions, in northeastern Poland. It is the most distinct of the Polish dialects and the most expansive.
M ...
.
[Stanislaw Gogolewski, "Dialectology in Poland, 1873-1997", In: ''Towards a History of Linguistics in Poland'', by E. F. K. Koerner, A. J. Szwedek (eds.) (2001) ]
p. 128
/ref>
This phonological
Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...
feature is observed in dialects of Masuria and Masovia (Masovian dialect), as well as in most of Lesser Poland
Lesser Poland, often known by its Polish name Małopolska ( la, Polonia Minor), is a historical region situated in southern and south-eastern Poland. Its capital and largest city is Kraków. Throughout centuries, Lesser Poland developed a s ...
and parts of Silesia
Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. Silesia is split ...
. There are also some peripheral mazurating islands
An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...
in Greater Poland
Greater Poland, often known by its Polish name Wielkopolska (; german: Großpolen, sv, Storpolen, la, Polonia Maior), is a Polish historical regions, historical region of west-central Poland. Its chief and largest city is Poznań followed ...
. The boundary of runs from north-east to south-west.[ It may have originated between the 14th and 16th centuries in the Masovian dialect.
The feature is linked to the process of depalatalization (reducing of the number of palatalized consonants) similar to the phenomena of and ' in other dialects.
A rarer term for mazuration is sakanie.
In this article terms such as "non-mazurating", "without mazuration" are taken to refer to dialects which have a three way distinction among sibilants, as does Standard Polish. Technically dialects with e.g. jabłonkowanie also do not mazurate, but for the sake of simplicity this will not be discussed in the article.
]
Distribution
Mazuration is a widespread phenomenon. It is present in Masovia
Mazovia or Masovia ( pl, Mazowsze) is a historical region in mid-north-eastern Poland. It spans the North European Plain, roughly between Łódź and Białystok, with Warsaw being the unofficial capital and largest city. Throughout the centurie ...
including Masuria
Masuria (, german: Masuren, Masurian: ''Mazurÿ'') is a ethnographic and geographic region in northern and northeastern Poland, known for its 2,000 lakes. Masuria occupies much of the Masurian Lake District. Administratively, it is part of the ...
(former Ducal Prussia
The Duchy of Prussia (german: Herzogtum Preußen, pl, Księstwo Pruskie, lt, Prūsijos kunigaikštystė) or Ducal Prussia (german: Herzogliches Preußen, link=no; pl, Prusy Książęce, link=no) was a duchy in the region of Prussia establish ...
), all of Lesser Poland
Lesser Poland, often known by its Polish name Małopolska ( la, Polonia Minor), is a historical region situated in southern and south-eastern Poland. Its capital and largest city is Kraków. Throughout centuries, Lesser Poland developed a s ...
except the southeast areas bordering on Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
, eastern and northern Upper Silesia
Upper Silesia ( pl, Górny Śląsk; szl, Gůrny Ślůnsk, Gōrny Ślōnsk; cs, Horní Slezsko; german: Oberschlesien; Silesian German: ; la, Silesia Superior) is the southeastern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia, located ...
including Opole
Opole (; german: Oppeln ; szl, Ôpole) ;
* Silesian:
** Silesian PLS alphabet: ''Ôpole''
** Steuer's Silesian alphabet: ''Uopole''
* Silesian German: ''Uppeln''
* Czech: ''Opolí''
* Latin: ''Oppelia'', ''Oppolia'', ''Opulia'' is a city loc ...
and Katowice
Katowice ( , , ; szl, Katowicy; german: Kattowitz, yi, קאַטעוויץ, Kattevitz) is the capital city of the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland and the central city of the Upper Silesian metropolitan area. It is the 11th most popul ...
, as well as the central Polish lands around Sieradz
Sieradz ( la, Siradia, yi, שעראַדז, שערעדז, שעריץ, german: 1941-45 Schieratz) is a city on the Warta river in central Poland with 40,891 inhabitants (2021). It is the seat of the Sieradz County, situated in the Łódź Voivodes ...
, Łęczyca
Łęczyca (; in full the Royal Town of Łęczyca, pl, Królewskie Miasto Łęczyca; german: Lentschitza; he, לונטשיץ) is a town of 13,786 inhabitants () in central Poland. Situated in the Łódź Voivodeship, it is the county seat of the ...
and Łowicz
Łowicz is a town in central Poland with 27,896 inhabitants (2020). It is situated in the Łódź Voivodeship (since 1999); previously, it was in Skierniewice Voivodeship (1975–1998). Together with a nearby station of Bednary, Łowicz is a ma ...
. A peculiarity are three mazurating islands
An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...
on the periphery of Greater Poland
Greater Poland, often known by its Polish name Wielkopolska (; german: Großpolen, sv, Storpolen, la, Polonia Maior), is a Polish historical regions, historical region of west-central Poland. Its chief and largest city is Poznań followed ...
: several towns around Wieleń
Wieleń (german: Filehne) is a town in Czarnków-Trzcianka County, Greater Poland Voivodeship, Poland. It is situated on the river Noteć.
History
Part of Poland since the Middle Ages, Duke Władysław Odonic of Greater Poland brought the Ci ...
, several more near Rawicz
Rawicz (; german: Rawitsch) is a town in west-central Poland with 21,398 inhabitants as of 2004. It is situated in the Greater Poland Voivodeship (since 1999); previously it was in Leszno Voivodeship (1975–1998). It is the capital of Rawicz C ...
and Chwalim – a single village near Wolsztyn
Wolsztyn (german: Wollstein) is a town in western Poland, on the western edge of Greater Poland Voivodeship. It is the seat of Wolsztyn County, and of the smaller administrative district of Gmina Wolsztyn.
Geography
The town is situated within ...
.
Non-mazurating territories in the west include Greater Poland, Kuyavia
Kuyavia ( pl, Kujawy; german: Kujawien; la, Cuiavia), also referred to as Cuyavia, is a historical region in north-central Poland, situated on the left bank of Vistula, as well as east from Noteć River and Lake Gopło. It is divided into three t ...
and the Lands of Chełmno
Chełmno (; older en, Culm; formerly ) is a town in northern Poland near the Vistula river with 18,915 inhabitants as of December 2021. It is the seat of the Chełmno County in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship.
Due to its regional importan ...
and Dobrzyń, southwestern Upper Silesia, Pomeralia
Pomerelia,, la, Pomerellia, Pomerania, pl, Pomerelia (rarely used) also known as Eastern Pomerania,, csb, Pòrénkòwô Pòmòrskô Vistula Pomerania, prior to World War II also known as Polish Pomerania, is a List of historical regions of ...
and former Royal Prussia
Royal Prussia ( pl, Prusy Królewskie; german: Königlich-Preußen or , csb, Królewsczé Prësë) or Polish PrussiaAnton Friedrich Büsching, Patrick Murdoch. ''A New System of Geography'', London 1762p. 588/ref> (Polish: ; German: ) was a ...
(Warmia
Warmia ( pl, Warmia; Latin: ''Varmia'', ''Warmia''; ; Warmian: ''Warńija''; lt, Varmė; Old Prussian: ''Wārmi'') is both a historical and an ethnographic region in northern Poland, forming part of historical Prussia. Its historic capitals ...
, areas around Ostróda
Ostróda (; Old Prussian: ''Austrāti'') is a town in northern Poland, in the historic region of Masuria. It is the seat of the Ostróda County within the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship and has approximately 33,191 inhabitants (2009).
Ostróda is ...
and Lubawa
Lubawa (german: Löbau in Westpreußen, Old Prussian: ''Lūbawa'') is a town in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, Poland. It is located in Iława County on the Sandela River, some southeast of Iława.
Geographical location
Lubawa is located i ...
). Eastern Polish dialects which border on Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
, Belarus
Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...
and Lithuania
Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...
also do not mazurate. These include the eastern reaches of Lesser Poland around the rivers San and Wisłok
Wisłok is a river in south-eastern Poland, a tributary of the San River, with a length of 220 kilometres and a basin area of 3,538 km2 (all in Poland). The root of the name ''Vis-lok'' is Indo-European or pre-Indo-European.
The first meta ...
(around Rzeszów
Rzeszów ( , ; la, Resovia; yi, ריישא ''Raisha'')) is the largest city in southeastern Poland. It is located on both sides of the Wisłok River in the heartland of the Sandomierz Basin. Rzeszów has been the capital of the Subcarpathian Vo ...
and Przemyśl
Przemyśl (; yi, פשעמישל, Pshemishl; uk, Перемишль, Peremyshl; german: Premissel) is a city in southeastern Poland with 58,721 inhabitants, as of December 2021. In 1999, it became part of the Subcarpathian Voivodeship; it was pr ...
; historically part of Red Ruthenia
Red Ruthenia or Red Rus' ( la, Ruthenia Rubra; '; uk, Червона Русь, Chervona Rus'; pl, Ruś Czerwona, Ruś Halicka; russian: Червонная Русь, Chervonnaya Rus'; ro, Rutenia Roșie), is a term used since the Middle Ages fo ...
), areas east of Wieprz
The Wieprz (, ; ua, Вепр, Vepr) is a river in central-eastern Poland, a tributary of the Vistula. It is the country's ninth longest river, with a total length of 349 km and a catchment area of 10,497 km2, all within Poland. Its cour ...
( Lublin Land), Podlachia
Podlachia, or Podlasie, ( pl, Podlasie, , be, Падляшша, translit=Padliašša, uk, Підляшшя, translit=Pidliashshia) is a historical region in the north-eastern part of Poland. Between 1513 and 1795 it was a voivodeship with the c ...
and some areas in the Suwałki Region
Suwałki Region ( pl, Suwalszczyzna ; lt, Suvalkų kraštas, Suvalkija, russian: cувалкщина, german: Sudauen) is a small region around the city of Suwałki (known in Lithuanian as ''Suvalkai'') in northeastern Poland near the border wit ...
(Sejny
Sejny ( lt, Seinai) is a town in north-eastern Poland and the capital of Sejny County, in Podlaskie Voivodeship, close to the northern border with Lithuania and Belarus. It is located in the eastern part of the Suwałki Lake Area ( pl, Pojezier ...
, Puńsk
Puńsk ( lt, Punskas) is a village in the Podlaskie Voivodeship in northeastern Poland, seat of the Gmina Puńsk in the Sejny County. It is located only from the border with Lithuania.
History
Early history
The oldest traces of humans in P ...
).
Description
Standard (or literary) Polish has three symmetrical series of sibilants
Sibilants are fricative consonants of higher amplitude and pitch, made by directing a stream of air with the tongue towards the teeth. Examples of sibilants are the consonants at the beginning of the English words ''sip'', ''zip'', ''ship'', and ...
– fricative
A fricative is a consonant produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate in t ...
s and affricate
An affricate is a consonant that begins as a stop and releases as a fricative, generally with the same place of articulation (most often coronal). It is often difficult to decide if a stop and fricative form a single phoneme or a consonant pair. ...
s articulated by directing the airstream through the teeth. These are the dentialveolar, alveolo-palatal
In phonetics, alveolo-palatal (or alveopalatal) consonants, sometimes synonymous with pre-palatal consonants, are intermediate in articulation between the coronal and dorsal consonants, or which have simultaneous alveolar and palatal articul ...
, and postalveolar
Postalveolar or post-alveolar consonants are consonants articulated with the tongue near or touching the ''back'' of the alveolar ridge. Articulation is farther back in the mouth than the alveolar consonants, which are at the ridge itself, but no ...
(usually called retroflex
A retroflex ( /ˈɹɛtʃɹoːflɛks/), apico-domal ( /əpɪkoːˈdɔmɪnəl/), or cacuminal () consonant is a coronal consonant where the tongue has a flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is articulated between the alveolar ridge and the ha ...
by Western scholars, but they are not subapical
A subapical consonant is a consonant made by contact with the underside of the tip of the tongue. The only common subapical articulations are in the postalveolar to palatal region, which are called "retroflex".
Most so-called retroflex consonants ...
). These are presented in the table below.
The dentialveolar and postalveolar series are considered hard ( unpalatalized) and can be followed by , and never by (except very recent borrowings). On the contrary, the alveolo-palatal series is considered soft (palatal or palatalized) and can be followed by but never by . These two sounds are nowadays usually analyzed as separate phonemes, but until recently they were considered allophone
In phonology, an allophone (; from the Greek , , 'other' and , , 'voice, sound') is a set of multiple possible spoken soundsor ''phones''or signs used to pronounce a single phoneme in a particular language. For example, in English, (as in ''s ...
s and they are still largely in complementary distribution
In linguistics, complementary distribution, as distinct from contrastive distribution and free variation, is the relationship between two different elements of the same kind in which one element is found in one set of environments and the other ele ...
, contrasting mostly in positions after labials (unless palatalized labials are considered separate phonemes) and recent loanwords (see also: Polish phonology – a relevant section). For earlier (pre-modern) stages of Polish and must be considered allophones of a single phoneme .
To fully understand not only the phenomenon itself, but to be able to discuss its origins and chronology it is necessary to look at the phonological history of these sounds in Polish. Below is the system as it looked like from around the 13th century until the 16th century (see also: Old Polish – section on phonology).
The principal difference from the modern system is that the postalveolar series was soft ( palato-alveolar): , , , . In contrast to Modern Polish these sounds were followed by rather than . The two affricates and were similarly soft: , .
Another important fact was that from around the 13th century there existed the // phoneme, which descended from earlier softened . Its pronunciation could be described as between and , being both a trill
TRILL (Transparent Interconnection of Lots of Links) is an Internet Standard implemented by devices called TRILL switches. TRILL combines techniques from bridging and routing, and is the application of link-state routing to the VLAN-aware custom ...
and a fricative
A fricative is a consonant produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate in t ...
(the Czech language
Czech (; Czech ), historically also Bohemian (; ''lingua Bohemica'' in Latin), is a West Slavic language of the Czech–Slovak group, written in Latin script. Spoken by over 10 million people, it serves as the official language of the Czech Re ...
still has this sound).
The hardening (depalatalization) of the postalveolar series and the affricates and happened around the 16th century. In non-mazurating dialects the resultant system was as described at the beginning of this section. In mazurating dialects the system was instead simplified, and the postalveolar sibilants merged completely with the dentialveolars:
leaving only two series of sibilants. The two earlier soft affricates depalatalized as in the other dialects. Significantly, the new dentialveolars, continuing earlier postalveolars, are now also hard, as in the non-masurating dialects, so always follows them, not (but see below).
Also important is the fate of : in most dialects, both mazurating and not, this sound shifted to around the 18th century. In dialects without mazuration this caused its merger with former original . Since Polish spelling follows etymology
Etymology ()The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p. 633 "Etymology /ˌɛtɪˈmɒlədʒi/ the study of the class in words and the way their meanings have changed throughout time". is the study of the history of the Phonological chan ...
, this sound is spelled ⟨rz⟩, while the original is spelled ⟨ż⟩. But in mazurating dialects there was already no to begin with, so that phoneme only changed its articulation. In these dialects also is an allophone of in devoicing positions (at the end of the utterance, adjacent to voiceless sounds and in some dialects always at word end). The changing of every modern to , regardless of etymology is a staple of inaptly imitating mazuration.
Below are some examples, which showcase the differences between mazurating and non-mazurating pronunciation:
Causes
Several hypotheses have been put forth to explain the origin of mazuration. Very heated discussions on this subject took place in Polish academic circles from 1947 into the 1950s. Naturally the question of dating, which was discussed even more, is very closely connected.
Foreign influence
was the first to suggest Old Prussian
Old Prussian was a Western Baltic language belonging to the Baltic branch of the Indo-European languages, which was once spoken by the Old Prussians, the Baltic peoples of the Prussian region. The language is called Old Prussian to avoid con ...
substrate influence as the origin of mazuration. This hypothesis was later expanded by Selishchev[ and ] and Milewski. It has been shown that in Polish loanword
A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because th ...
s in Old Prussian the Polish postalveolar fricatives are regularly substituted by the dentialveolar fricatives , eg. from Polish , from Polish (Old Prussian is spelled ). According to this theory mazuration was a feature of speech of Polonized
Polonization (or Polonisation; pl, polonizacja)In Polish historiography, particularly pre-WWII (e.g., L. Wasilewski. As noted in Смалянчук А. Ф. (Smalyanchuk 2001) Паміж краёвасцю і нацыянальнай ідэя ...
Prussians in Mazuria (see Masurian dialect
The Masurian ethnolect (Masurian: ''mazurská gádkä''; pl, mazurski; german: Masurisch), according to some linguists, is a dialect group of the Polish language; others consider Masurian to be a separate language, spoken by the Masurian people ...
), and spread from there. This is consistent with the accounts that the phenomenon began somewhere in Masovia
Mazovia or Masovia ( pl, Mazowsze) is a historical region in mid-north-eastern Poland. It spans the North European Plain, roughly between Łódź and Białystok, with Warsaw being the unofficial capital and largest city. Throughout the centurie ...
and spread from there. Taszycki agrees that possible Prussian substrate should be taken into account, while Urbańczyk[ and ] is critical of the theory and asserts that Polonizing Prussians caused the emergence of in the dialects of Malbork
Malbork; ;
* la, Mariaeburgum, ''Mariae castrum'', ''Marianopolis'', ''Civitas Beatae Virginis''
* Kashubian: ''Malbórg''
* Old Prussian: ''Algemin'' is a town in the Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland. It is the seat of Malbork County and has a ...
-Lubawa
Lubawa (german: Löbau in Westpreußen, Old Prussian: ''Lūbawa'') is a town in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, Poland. It is located in Iława County on the Sandela River, some southeast of Iława.
Geographical location
Lubawa is located i ...
, not in Masuria.
Other proposals seeking to explain the origin of mazuration in terms of language contact
Language contact occurs when speakers of two or more languages or varieties interact and influence each other. The study of language contact is called contact linguistics. When speakers of different languages interact closely, it is typical for th ...
include the idea of German influence developed by Trautmann using similar arguments as described above for Old Prussian,[ and ] as well as prehistoric Celtic
Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to:
Language and ethnicity
*pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia
**Celts (modern)
*Celtic languages
**Proto-Celtic language
* Celtic music
*Celtic nations
Sports Fo ...
or even Uralic
The Uralic languages (; sometimes called Uralian languages ) form a language family of 38 languages spoken by approximately 25million people, predominantly in Northern Eurasia. The Uralic languages with the most native speakers are Hungarian (w ...
influences. Milewski rejects the latter two outright, as he deems them impossible to either prove or disprove based on historical records.
Internal development
It is often considered (first by linguist Halina Koneczna) that mazuration is directly linked to the abovementioned depalatalizations of the postalveolar series around the 16th century, whereby the palato-alveolar , , , turned into the retroflex
A retroflex ( /ˈɹɛtʃɹoːflɛks/), apico-domal ( /əpɪkoːˈdɔmɪnəl/), or cacuminal () consonant is a coronal consonant where the tongue has a flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is articulated between the alveolar ridge and the ha ...
, , , on the non-mazurating territories, but into , , , in mazurating dialects. In the former case these phonemes merely changed their manner of articulation
In articulatory phonetics, the manner of articulation is the configuration and interaction of the articulators (speech organs such as the tongue, lips, and palate) when making a speech sound. One parameter of manner is ''stricture,'' that is, h ...
to unpalatalized, while in the latter case the loss of such a distinct feature caused them to coalesce together with the dentialveolars. The different treatment in different dialects could then perhaps be explained by an older difference in the pronunciation of that series.
It has also been proposed that this and similar mergers (, ; see below) were caused by the overloading of the Old Polish phonological system by sibilant
Sibilants are fricative consonants of higher amplitude and pitch, made by directing a stream of air with the tongue towards the teeth. Examples of sibilants are the consonants at the beginning of the English words ''sip'', ''zip'', ''ship'', and ...
s. The accustics of the three series , , were not distinct enough from each other, and so the majority of dialects merged two of them. This would put , and as parallel processes, with the same cause, just different result. This hypothesis was first put forth by Rudnicki, and later endorsed and continued by Vaillant and , the latter citing parallel developments in the history of Lower Sorbian
Lower may refer to:
*Lower (surname)
*Lower Township, New Jersey
*Lower Receiver (firearms)
*Lower Wick
Lower Wick is a small hamlet located in the county of Gloucestershire, England. It is situated about five miles south west of Dursley, eight ...
. Milewski adds to this also similar examples in the history of Mongolic languages
The Mongolic languages are a language family spoken by the Mongolic peoples in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, North Asia and East Asia, mostly in Mongolia and surrounding areas and in Kalmykia and Buryatia. The best-known member of this language ...
. Together with Koneczna[ and Kuryłowicz] he opines, however, that this cannot be the main cause of this phenomenon, as it did not affect the entirety of the Polish speaking area, in spite of the conditions being the same everywhere. It must therefore be posited that it was only one of the causes of mazuration, a prerequisite but not a deciding factor.
A unique theory proposed by Kuryłowicz[ also states that the origin of mazuration is connected to the aforementioned depalatalization, but in a different way. Namely, taking into account the fact that the change > did not happen everywhere at the same time, he posits that in areas where dialects which had already undergone the change (innovative dialects) neighbored dialects which still had the older pronunciation (archaic dialects), the archaic dialects wanted to introduce this ]sound change
A sound change, in historical linguistics, is a change in the pronunciation of a language. A sound change can involve the replacement of one speech sound (or, more generally, one phonetic feature value) by a different one (called phonetic chang ...
themselves (as the change was an innovation it had a tendency to spread). But these dialects, not finding suitable sounds to reproduce the new sounds and in their own phonological system, replaced them with the known to them and (apparently deeming their nonpalatalized articulation as their primary feature, and their place of articulation
In articulatory phonetics, the place of articulation (also point of articulation) of a consonant is a location along the vocal tract where its production occurs. It is a point where a constriction is made between an active and a passive articula ...
as secondary). Hard and were borrowed from the new system to replace their own and ; while and could not last long causing asymmetry in the system, and likewise coalesced into and (the phonemic status of in Old Polish is itself dubious).
Mazuration and the literary language
Since the Polish literary language
A literary language is the form (register) of a language used in written literature, which can be either a nonstandard dialect or a standardized variety of the language. Literary language sometimes is noticeably different from the spoken langu ...
does not have mazuration, it has long been (usually) considered an inferior pronunciation. Those who wanted to rid their speech of this feature did not know which words should be pronounced using the postalveolar sounds – which were foreign to them – unless they heard it from a speaker with distinction, but in other cases they made frequent mistakes. The erroneous replacement of , , , by , , , in places where they are not etymologically justified is called , or simply erroneous demazuration. Examples of attested words with in Polish dialects noted in the ''Atlas of Polish Dialects'' (): instead of ("millet, ''Panicum
''Panicum'' (panicgrass) is a large genus of about 450 species of grasses native throughout the tropical regions of the world, with a few species extending into the northern temperate zone. They are often large, annual or perennial grasses, growi ...
''"), instead of ("bovine"), instead of ("lard").
Occasionally a mazurating pronunciation of words made its way to the literary standard and became normative. Affected words include ("marvel"), ("marvelous"), ("knick-knack"), ("bucket"), ("jug") – instead of Old Polish , , , , / – among others.
Similar mergers
In other Polish dialects a different merger called happens. It is found in the dialects near Jabłonków in Silesia
Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. Silesia is split ...
and in the north in Warmia
Warmia ( pl, Warmia; Latin: ''Varmia'', ''Warmia''; ; Warmian: ''Warńija''; lt, Varmė; Old Prussian: ''Wārmi'') is both a historical and an ethnographic region in northern Poland, forming part of historical Prussia. Its historic capitals ...
and around Ostróda
Ostróda (; Old Prussian: ''Austrāti'') is a town in northern Poland, in the historic region of Masuria. It is the seat of the Ostróda County within the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship and has approximately 33,191 inhabitants (2009).
Ostróda is ...
and Lubawa
Lubawa (german: Löbau in Westpreußen, Old Prussian: ''Lūbawa'') is a town in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, Poland. It is located in Iława County on the Sandela River, some southeast of Iława.
Geographical location
Lubawa is located i ...
and causes the merger of Standard Polish alveolopalatal consonants and retroflex consonant
A retroflex ( /ˈɹɛtʃɹoːflɛks/), apico-domal ( /əpɪkoːˈdɔmɪnəl/), or cacuminal () consonant is a coronal consonant where the tongue has a flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is articulated between the alveolar ridge and the har ...
s into an intermediate series. is commonly discussed together with mazuration as possibly stemming from the same causes (see above in the "Causes" section).
' is a merger of alveolopalatal
In phonetics, alveolo-palatal (or alveopalatal) consonants, sometimes synonymous with pre-palatal consonants, are intermediate in articulation between the coronal and dorsal consonants, or which have simultaneous alveolar and palatal articul ...
and dental sibilants in the Kashubian language
Kashubian or Cassubian (Kashubian: ', pl, język kaszubski) is a West Slavic language belonging to the Lechitic subgroup along with Polish and Silesian.Stephen Barbour, Cathie Carmichael, ''Language and Nationalism in Europe'', Oxford Univers ...
.
A phonomenon similar to mazuration also occurs in a few areas of the Chakavian dialect of Croatian, where it is known as '' tsakavism''.
In the Belarusian language
Belarusian ( be, беларуская мова, biełaruskaja mova, link=no, ) is an East Slavic language. It is the native language of many Belarusians and one of the two official state languages in Belarus. Additionally, it is spoken in some p ...
mazuration was borrowed by the dialects of a few villages in Podlachia
Podlachia, or Podlasie, ( pl, Podlasie, , be, Падляшша, translit=Padliašša, uk, Підляшшя, translit=Pidliashshia) is a historical region in the north-eastern part of Poland. Between 1513 and 1795 it was a voivodeship with the c ...
directly from neighboring Polish dialects.
The now extinct Polabian language
The Polabian language was a West Slavic language that was spoken by the Polabian Slavs (german: Wenden) in present-day northeastern Germany around the Elbe (''Łaba/Laba/Labe'' in Slavic) river, from which derives its name ("po Labe" – ''unto ...
exhibited a parallel change in some of its dialects. Of the surviving material Pfeffinger's rather consistently distinguishes the reflexes of Proto-Slavic
Proto-Slavic (abbreviated PSl., PS.; also called Common Slavic or Common Slavonic) is the Attested language, unattested, linguistic reconstruction, reconstructed proto-language of all Slavic languages. It represents Slavic speech approximately ...
*s, *z, *c and *š, *ž, *č, while the other works seem to represent a dialect (or dialects) which merged those sounds.
A more narrow merger affecting only voiceless affricate
An affricate is a consonant that begins as a stop and releases as a fricative, generally with the same place of articulation (most often coronal). It is often difficult to decide if a stop and fricative form a single phoneme or a consonant pair. ...
s occurs in some other Slavic areas. In East Slavic it is present in Northern Russian dialects
The northern Russian dialects make up one of the main groups of the Russian dialects.
Territory
* The territory of the ''primary formation'' (e.g. that consist of "Old" Russia of the 16th century before Eastern conquests by Ivan IV) is fully o ...
. In those areas Standard Russian (from PS *c) and (from PS *č) have completely merged, and are pronounced , or depending on dialect. This feature is termed (russian: цоканье) if the merger is towards a dental affricate and (russian: чоканье) if it is towards a postalveolar
Postalveolar or post-alveolar consonants are consonants articulated with the tongue near or touching the ''back'' of the alveolar ridge. Articulation is farther back in the mouth than the alveolar consonants, which are at the ridge itself, but no ...
affricate. Among the West Slavic languages
The West Slavic languages are a subdivision of the Slavic language group. They include Polish, Czech, Slovak, Kashubian, Upper Sorbian and Lower Sorbian. The languages have traditionally been spoken across a mostly continuous region encompass ...
, Lower Sorbian
Lower may refer to:
*Lower (surname)
*Lower Township, New Jersey
*Lower Receiver (firearms)
*Lower Wick
Lower Wick is a small hamlet located in the county of Gloucestershire, England. It is situated about five miles south west of Dursley, eight ...
changed the earlier into , while in Upper Sorbian
Upper Sorbian (), occasionally referred to as "Wendish", is a minority language spoken by Sorbs in Germany in the historical province of Upper Lusatia, which is today part of Saxony. It is grouped in the West Slavic language branch, together ...
they remain distinct.
See also
* Jabłonkowanie
* Szadzenie
* Ts–ch merger
* Sabesdiker losn
Der sabesdiker-losn (Yiddish: דער סאַבעסדיקער לשון (לאָסן)) is a dialectal feature characteristic of the Northeastern dialect of the Yiddish language ( NEY, ''Litvisher-vaysrusisher dialekt'', צפֿון ייִדיש ''Tsofn- ...
* Depalatalization
Notes
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
{{refend
Sound changes
Slavic phonologies
Polish dialects