The Lesser Polish dialect ( pl, dialekt małopolski) is a cluster of regional varieties of the Polish language around the

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 ...

historical region. The exact area is difficult to delineate due to the expansion of its features and the existence of transitional subdialects. Commonly recognized subdialects of the Lesser Polish dialect include

Podhale Podhale (literally "below the mountain pastures") is Poland's southernmost region, sometimes referred to as the "Polish Highlands". The Podhale is located in the foothills of the Tatra range of the Carpathian mountains. It is the most famous ...

, ,

Lwów Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in Western Ukraine, western Ukraine, and the List of cities in Ukraine, seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is o ...

, , , and some others. The southernmost Lesser Polish dialects spoken by the

Gorals The Gorals ( pl, Górale; Goral dialect: ''Górole''; sk, Gorali; Cieszyn Silesia dialect, Cieszyn Silesian: ''Gorole''), also known as the Highlanders (in Poland as the Polish Highlanders) are an indigenous ethnographic or ethnic group primar ...

(Podhale, Żywiec, Orava, Spiš and many others) are collectively called the ( Polish: ''gwara góralska'') despite being a collection of many similar subdialects. Lesser Polish has the richest literature out of all Polish dialects. There are many books and poems written in the

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula, Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland un ...

and

dialects. The common traits of the Lesser Polish dialect include: * mazurzenie"Charakterystyka dialektu małopolskiego"
/ref> * regressive voicing of obstruents, including across word boundaries; e.g.: ''kot leci'' ɔd ˈlɛt͡ɕi(standard Polish: ɔt ˈlɛt͡ɕi * differentiated nasalisation (or lack thereof) of /ɔ̃/ and /ɛ̃/ in different parts of the area * merger of stop+fricative consonant clusters into

affricates 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 pa ...

; e.g.: ''trzysta'' �t͡ʂɨsta(standard Polish: �tʂɨstaor �t͡ʂʂɨsta * frequent usage of initial syllable stress, also oxytonic stress in

vocative case In grammar, the vocative case ( abbreviated ) is a grammatical case which is used for a noun that identifies a person (animal, object, etc.) being addressed, or occasionally for the noun modifiers (determiners, adjectives, participles, and nume ...

(as opposed to paroxytonic stress common in other varieties of Polish) * frequent usage of

grammatical particle In grammar, the term ''particle'' ( abbreviated ) has a traditional meaning, as a part of speech that cannot be inflected, and a modern meaning, as a function word associated with another word or phrase, generally in order to impart meaning. Altho ...

"że" in

imperative mood The imperative mood is a grammatical mood that forms a command or request. The imperative mood is used to demand or require that an action be performed. It is usually found only in the present tense, second person. To form the imperative mood, ...

("weźże" vs. "weź" – take)

References

Polish dialects Lesser Poland {{Slavic-lang-stub