Linguifex

Pamarėska

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Pomorian language
Pamarėska gålba
POMORZE 2016.png
Pronunciation[/pɑ.ˈma:.reː.skɑ/]
Created byRaistas
SettingParallel World
Indo-European
  • Pomorian language
Early forms
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The Pomorian language or Pamarėska gålba, język pomorski (in Polish) is a Balto-Slavic language spoken in the region of Pomorze Wschodnie in Northern Poland from Gdynia city to the town of Braniewo, mostly in rural areas. There are at least 20 000 speakers (including second-language speakers knowing the language on an elementary level), of which less than 4000 speak Pomorian natively. Most of the native speakers are at the age of 50 or above, while younger generation usually speaks Polish as their first language.

Classification

Pomorian is usually classified as a separate branch of the Slavic language group of the Indo-European language family, but some scholars agree that the language is actually a distinct group related to both Baltic and Slavic languages. There is also no sole opinion on whether Pomorian is a single language or a group of closely related languages. Nowadays it is considered to be a dialectal continuum.

History

According to most scholars the Pomorian language split from Early Proto-Slavic before or during the period of First Palatalization. Unlike Slavic languages it it highly conservative, which makes it more similar to Baltic languages. It also shared some sound changes common to this group.

Early Pomorian (Rėniapamarėska)

Little is known about an early period of Pomorian (before XIII century CE), because no written record had been left during this time. Archeological evidence state that early Pomorian tribes were living in the territory of Western Polesie region, which is now South-Western Belarus and Eastern Poland as far as the San river. Around V-VII centuries CE (during the Migration Period) Pomorians moved to their current land. The cause of migration is disputed, many factors played role in it. During this period many borrowings from neighbouring Baltic tribes entered the language. After that Pomorian did not changed quite a lot from its original state.

Old Pomorian (Vėtuhapamarėska)

First written records came from German missionaries in the XIII century and the language is called Old Pomorian (Vėtuhapamarėska). The first attestation was found on a stone, which could be a part of a monastery, in Viestūtė. The carving states: "Deywes kun semya preienlus esti", which translates as: "God has come to this land" (In modern language this would be: "Dieve kų zemio priejįlu est"). It is also the only attestation where final /s/ is present. Some inscriptions and even small texts survived from that period, showing some dialectal features.

Middle Pomorian (Serdapamarėska)

During the period between XIII and XV centuries Eastern Pomerania was under the Teutonic Order and was under a great German influence. Before that time Pomorze and Prussia were sparcely populated having no major towns there. Because of most towns being founded and populated by Germans (and later by Poles), the Pomorian language was a tine minority there. Despite that Pomorian continued existing in rural areas, where it stayed for all of its history. During this time contact with German and Polish began and a lot of loanwords were borrowed from these two languages. Also they influenced Pomorian phonology in different dialects creating even more distinction among them. Under the Polish rule Pomorian began to decline in southern territories of Pomorze and Prussia.

Modern Pomorian

 
The green area shows Pomorian-speaking territories (With more than 10% of total population speaking Pomorian)

The Modern period began at the end of the XIX century, when lots of people from rural areas started moving to cities and towns. People living in the city spoke primarily in German and Polish and Pomorian speaking new settlers began to forget their native tongue instead speaking the languages of prestige. Unlike in the previous period much more texts were written in Pomorian and also it became a language of liturgies, mostly in the countryside.

In the XX century there were some successful attempts to revitalize and standardize Pomorian. In 1952 a spelling reform was adopted and the standardized grammar was established. The standard was based on North-Eastern dialects, which were the most widely spoken back then. However, some writers continued using the traditional spelling or wrote in their native dialect. It was untill 1989, when a Polish linguist Sauliu Dzelini proposed a new Pomorian Proper, based on his native dialect of Viestūtė (Wiastowce in Polish), which is a Central-West dialect and also the one having the longest written records., which combined features of both previous ones. Older (Eastern) spelling was kept for linguistic works, dictionaries and as a standard for Eastern dialects.

Despite an active movement to promote speaking Pomorian, the language stays endangered with 3600-4000 native speakers according to Polish census in 2011 (compared to 17000 in 1978). The Pomorian Association was created in 2004 with the intention of promoting and popularizing the Pomorian language and culture. Pomorian language classes have been conducted for both children and adults in some areas (mostly in big towns) and an increasing ammount of people are learning Pomorian as a second language.

Phonology

Vowels

Pomorian has a distinctive vowel length and four diphthongs. Unlike Slavic languages, it retained all Early Proto-Slavic vowels, but most of them changed their quality having different outcomes in dialects of this language. Front vowels can palatalize a preceeding consonant, but in Western dialects this applies only to /i:/ and /e:/ before dental consonants.

Long vowels
Front Back
oral nasal oral nasal
Close y /i:/ į /ĩ:/ ū /u:/ ų /ũ:/
Mid ė /e:/ o /o:/
Open-mid e (/ɛ:~æ:/) ę /ɛ̃:/ ą /ɔ̃:/
Open a (/a:/)
Short vowels
Front Back
Close i /ɪ/ u /ʊ/
Open-mid e /ɛ/ å (/ɔ/)
Open a /ɑ/ å /ɒ/

Note:

  • Allophones /ɛ:~æ:/, /a:/, /ɔ/ appear under acute/circumflex accent.
Diphthongs
ie /ɪe/ uo /uo/ ei /eɪ̯~e:/ au /ɑʊ̯~ɔʊ̯/
  • Ei and au, are rather diphthongoids than true diphthongs.

Consonants

Pomorian languge undergone through a process similar to the First Palatalization of velars in Slavic and palatalizaton of velars in Latvian, which resulted in turning /kʲ/ and /gʲ/ sounds into affricates (probably /t͡ɕ/ and /d͡ʑ/). Then those affricates were depalatalized to /t͡s/ and /d͡z/ in most dialects. Also there is a sound change, which turned /ɕ/ (from earlier /x/) into /ʆ/, which merged with plain /ʃ/ in all dialects, except Western ones (previously lacking a /ʃ/ sound).

Consonants
Labial Dental Palato-alveolar Velar Glottal
Nasal m n̪ ɲ
Plosive voiceless p t̪ c 1 k
voiced b d̪ ɟ 1 g
Affricate voiceless t̪͡s̪ t͡sʲ t͡ʃ
voiced d̪͡z̪ d͡zʲ d͡ʒ
Fricative voiceless (f) 2 s̪ sʲ ʃ h
voiced z̪ zʲ ʒ (ɦ) 3
Trill r rʲ
Approximant w~ʋ 4 j
Lateral approximant l ʎ

Notes:

  • 1 In North-Western dialects there are stops [c], [ɟ], while in South-Eastern - affricates [t͡ɕ], [d͡ʑ].
  • 2 Occures only in borrowings.
  • 3 [ɦ] is an allophone of /h/ in the intervocal position.
  • 4 [w] occures after back vowels, while [ʋ] - after front ones.
  • Dental consonants such as [t̪] and [d̪] are usually written as plain /t/ and /d/ respectively.

Orthography

Pomorian has three different orthografies, all of which use Latin alphabet: the standard, [traditional and eastern. The traditional orthography is based mostly on German and Polish ones, it used digraphs like sch, ai and ei, instead of modern š, and ė. The Eastern (or dictionary) orthography was used after a spelling reform in 1952 and is still used in dictionaries and as a standard for Eastern dialects, because it's more phonemic, than a traditional one. The Pomorian standard orthography came into use after 1989 reform and combines both previous orthographies, though is mostly phonemic.

Prosody

Pomorian is a pitch-accented language. The stess is moveable meaning that any syllable of the word can be stressed, though usually the place of streess is predictable. A stressed syllable can be pronounced in two (in some dialects - in three) different ways. One way is a falling accent - tvírdagalså -, which can be long - dìlgå (marked with an acute) - or short - cẽrtå (marked with a grave). The second way is a rising accent - lìkugalså (marked with a circumflex or a tilde). Tvírdagalså translates literally as firm stress, and lìkugalså - light stress. Despite the stress is phonemic it is not written, except dictionaries. For example the word "úokte" means tall but "uõkte" means full of force, lusty.

Phonotactics

Every syllable in Pomorian can have an onset, a nucleus (always present) and a coda, with a nucleus being a vowel. If to mark vowels with V, consonants - with C and approximants - with R, than the biggest possible syllable would look like CCRVCC, which can seldom be found among Pomorian words. Typical syllables are C(R)V and C(R)VC. V (a vowel) can occure only word-initially, because VV clusters are not allowed in Pomorian. There is also a principle according to which a consonant with higher sonority should be closer to a nucleus than one with lower sonority, for example in the word /ˈstoː.rɛ/ - heavy - /t/ is higher on the sonority than /s/ and appears closer to /oː/ which is the nucleus.

Morphophonology

Ablaut, still productive in Pomorian, was inherited from Proto-Balto-Slavic period. It changes the morphological form of the word. For example "snė͂ge" (older snai͂ges) means "snow", "snigtì" (older "snigteĩ") to snow "snẽdze"(older "snegḗti") "it snows". Also ablaut appears in imperfective mood of different verbs:

Simple Imperfective Translation
veztì važýti to transport
birtì bieróti to take
piešė́ti piešuõti to paint (pictures)

It is also present when deriving verbs from nouns.

čį͂ste cęšýti kąšýti kųstù
frequent to share to divide a branch

Morphology

Nouns

There are seven (or six if count the sixth and the seventh as one) noun declensions in Pomorian. Nouns have seven cases: Nominative, Genitive, Dative, Accusative, Instrumental, Locative and Vocative. In Pomorian Proper most nouns have only two numbers: singular and plural, while in Western and Southern dialects there is also a dual number. Some noun cases can have two endings: long (with an unsterssed "e" or "i" at the end) or short (without end vowels). Also the Accusative plural of some words like mariå has two endings: "-e" and "-i". Those endings are interchangeable and can specifically be used in poetry or in dialectal speech.

First declension

More than a half of Pomorian nouns belongs to this dieclension. Loanwords usually also decline according to it. There are two different declining patterns for masculine and feminine genders.

-e (masculine), -a (feminine), -å (neuter)

gróde = hail galvà = head mariå̀ = sea
singular plural singular plural singular plural
Nominative gróde gródė galvà gãlvo mariå̀ marió
Genitive gródo gródų galvó galvų́ màrio marių́
Dative gródau gródam(e) gãlvei galvõm(e) màriau mariãm(e)
Accusative gródå gródu gãlvą gãlve màriå màri/e
Instrumental gródum(i) gródėmy gãlvają galvomy͂ màrium(i) mariamy͂
Locative gródė gródėhu galvė́ galvosù marė́ mariosù
Vocative gróde gródė gãlva gãlvo mària màrio

Second declension

Second declension contains mostly feminine gender nouns, usually inanimate. Some masculine gender nouns and old loanwords belong to this declension.

-i (masculine), -i (feminine)

zvėrì = mammal ųgnì = fire
singular plural singular plural
Nominative zvėrì zvė͂rė ųgnì ųgný
Genitive zvėrió zvėrių́ ųgný ųgnių́
Dative zvė͂rei zvėrìm(e) ųgneĩ ųgnìm(e)
Accusative zvė͂rį zvė͂rį ųgnį́ ųgnį́
Instrumental zvėrimì zvėrimy͂ ųgniją́ ųgnìmy
Locative zvėrė́ zvėrėhù ųgnė́ ųgnìhu
Vocative zvėrie͂ zvėrė͂ ųgnie͂ ųgny͂

Third declension

This declension contains only masculine gender nouns. About one sixth of all the nouns belong to this declension.

-u (masculine)

sūnù = son ledù = ice
singular plural singular plural
Nominative sūnù sū͂nave ledù le͂dū
Genitive sūnó sūnų́ ledó ledų́
Dative sū͂navie sūnùm(e) ledaũ ledùm(e)
Accusative sū͂nų sū͂nų le͂dų le͂dų
Instrumental sūnumì sūnumy͂ ledumì ledumy͂
Locative sūnáu sūnuhù ledáu leduhù
Vocative sūnuõ sū͂nave leduõ le͂dave

Fourth declension

Few old nouns of a feminine gender belong to this declension, some can come in pairs, like brū (eyebrows) and thus have a dual number.

-ū (feminine)

brū́ = eyebrow
singular dual plural
Nominative brū́ brùvi brùvy
Genitive bruvý brùvuõ bruvų́
Dative bruvie͂ brùviema bruvìm(e)
Accusative brùvų brùvi brùvų
Instrumental brùve brùviema bruvimy͂
Locative bruvė́ bruvuõ bruvihù
Vocative brùvie brùvie brùvy

Fifth declension

Few nouns once ending in "-n" belong to this declension. There are two different patterns of declining: for the feminine and the neuter genders. This declension preserves a dual number.

*-n (feminine), *-n (neuter)

elū́ = deer ìmnę = name
singular dual plural singular dual plural
Nominative elū́ elèni elèny ìmnę imnèni imnenó
Genitive elèny elènuo elènų imneny͂ imnenuõ imnenų́
Dative elènie elènima elènim(e) ìmnenie imnènima imnenìm(e)
Accusative elènį elèni elènį imnenį́ imnèni imnenį́
Instrumental elène elènima elènimy imnenìm(i) imnènima imnenimy͂
Locative elènė elènuo elènihu imnenė́ imnenuõ imnenihù
Vocative elènie elènie elèny imnenie͂ imnenie͂ imnenó

Sixth declension

Also called the consonant declension, the sixth declension contains only a few words, all of them descending from proto-Balto-Slavic. There is also a dual number for the nouns belonging to this declension.

*-t, *-s (neuter)

telę́ = calf kãkla = wheel
singular dual plural singular dual plural
Nominative telę́ telę́ti telę́to kãkla kãklani kaklasó
Genitive telę́ty telę́tuo telę́tų kãklasy kaklasuõ kaklasų́
Dative telę́tie telę́tima telę́tim(e) kãklasie kaklasìma kaklasìm(e)
Accusative telę́tį telę́ti telę́tį kãklasį kãklani kaklasį́
Instrumental telę́tim(i) telę́tima telę́timy kãklasim(i) kaklasìma kaklasimy͂
Locative telę́tė telę́tuo telę́tihu kaklasė́ kaklasuõ kaklasihù
Vocative telę́tie telę́tie telę́to kaklasie͂ kaklasie͂ kaklasó

Seventh declension

This declension is sometimes considered to be a part of sixth one. It has only four nouns in it: mūti (mother), broti (brother), sesti (sister) and dukti (daughter).

*-r (feminine)

mū́ti = mother duktì = daughter
singular dual plural singular dual plural
Nominative mū́ti mū́teri mū́tery duktì dùkteri dukterý
Genitive mū́tery mū́teruo mū́terų duktery͂ dukteruõ dukterų́
Dative mū́terie mū́teriema mū́terim(e) dùkterie dukterie͂ma dukterìm(e)
Accusative mū́terį mū́teri mū́terį dùkterį dùkteri dùkterį
Instrumental mū́tere mū́teriema mū́terimy dùktere dukterie͂ma dukterimy͂
Locative mū́terė mū́teruo mū́terihu dukterė́ dukteruõ dukterihù
Vocative mū́terie mū́terie mū́tery dukterie͂ dukterie͂ dùktery

Pronouns

The personal pronouns are az (I), tu (you) je (he), ja (she), jå (it), ane (the other one) and the reflexive pronoun sebe are declined as follows:

Nominative Genitive Dative Accusative Instrumental Locative
Singular I àz menè meni/mė́ menę́/mę́ manàją/maną́ manė́
You (singular) tù tebè tebi/tė́ tebę́/tę́ tavàją/tabą́ tavė́
3rd person He jè jegà/gà jamù/muõ jį́ jė́mi jamì
She jà jeję́/ję jojì/jė́ ją́ jóji jajì
It jå̀ jegà/gà jamù/muõ jå̀ jė́mi jamì
The other He anè anagà anamù anå̀ anė́mi anamì
She anà anaję́ anojì aną́ anóji anajì
It anå̀ anagà anamù anå̀ anė́mi anamì
Reflexive pronoun – sebè savi/sė́ sebę́/sę́ savàją/sabą́ savė́
Dual We two mùvi/vì nóju/náu nóma nà nóma nóju/náu
You two jùvi/và vóju/váu vóma và vóma vóju/váu
They two masculine jóva/jà jàju/júo jė́ma/múo jà jė́ma jàju
feminine jė́vi/jì jóju/jáu jė́mi/mė́ jì jė́mi jóju
neuter jė́vi/jì jóju/jáu jė́mi/mė́ jì jė́mi jóju
The other two masculine anóva/và anúo anė́ma anà anė́ma anàju
feminine anė́vi/vì anáu anė́mi anì anė́mi anóju
neuter anė́vi/vì anáu anė́mi anì anė́mi anóju
Plural We mū́ nósų nóme mų́ nómi nósu
You (plural) jū́ vósų vóme jų́ vómi vósu
They masculine jíe jų́ jė́me jį́ jė́mi jė́hu
feminine jó jų́ jóme jį́ jė́mi jė́hu
neuter jó jų́ jė́me ją́ jė́mi jė́hu
The others masculine aníe anų́ anė́me anį́ anė́mi anė́hu
feminine anó anų́ anóme anį́ anė́mi anė́hu
neuter anó anų́ anė́me aną́ anė́mi anė́hu

Some pronoun cases can have two forms: long (which is older and usually changed less from its' original state) and short (made by a contraction of the long form). Some cases retained only the short form. Nowadays mostly short forms are used with long forms appearing in poetry to make a speech look old. However they are still used in dialectal speech as basic pronoun forms.

Adjectives

In Pomorian adjectives have two declensions called declension I and declension II, which are determined by the nominative case ending of singular number. Adjectives must match with nouns in number, gender, and case. Like in other Balto-Slavic languages all Pomorian adjectives have two forms: simple (or indefinite) and pronominal (definite). Here are examples of each adjectival declension. In Old Pomorian there was also the third declension, but it merged with the second one during the Middle Pomorian period.

-e (masculine), -a (feminine), -å (neuter) Declension I

-u (masculine), -i (feminine), -u (neuter) Declension II

Pronominal (definite) forms are made by adding a third person pronoun to the end of the adjective. The pronoun also has to match with its' adjective in number, gender, and case. In Early Proto-Slavic (or possibly even in Proto-Balto-Slavic) adjectives and pronouns were separate words, but in Old Pomorian they have already merged into a single word with pronouns turning into pronominal endings. That's why some sound laws like final consonant drop and shortening of end long vowels did not applied to adjectival endings in definite adjectives. For example rudà + ja results in rudója (in Old Pomorian: rudā́ + jā - rudā́jā)

Pronominal declension

Simple and pronominal adjective forms act similarly to English arcticles ("a" and "the" respectively). For example: Lėpa dieni literally means "a good day"; Lėpoja dieni means "the good day" or "the day is good". To say "What a good day is today!" one should use the pronominal form - Kė lėpoja es ši dieni!

Comparison

The adjectival comparison is usually formed by adding suffixes to a word or by adverbs like English "more" and "the most" before a word. The suffixes are -esn(i)- for comparative and -(u/i)š- for superlative. These suffixes are added before other ones, if a word already has other suffixes.

Comparative

Superlative

Verbs

Every Pomorian verb belongs to one of four different conjugations:

  • The first conjugation, which is the most common, contains verbs whose infitives end in -ti before a consonant. There are some irregulare verb patterns in this conjugation.
  • The second conjugation encompasses verbs with infintive form endings -ėti (with -ėj- in the present tense), -oti,uoti. Verbs with infinitives ending in -įti and ąti are a subclass of this conjugation.
  • The third conjugation contains verbs with infintives ending in -yti and -ėti.
  • The fourth conjugation contains few old athematic and auxillary verbs. Almost all of these verbs are irregular.

Active Voice

In Pomorian active voice has four moods: Indicative, Imperative, Conditional and Indirect, but the last one isn't usually considered to be a mood.

Indicative mood

There are two simple and six compound tenses.

Present tense

This tense describe present or ongoing events without a definite time. Conjugation types are marked with numbers.

1 2a 2b 3 4
vestì - to lead žinóti - to know cetįti - to wish for something zodýti - to decide bū́ti - to be
I vedå̀ žinójå cetìnå zoďå̀ esmì
You (singular) vedesì žinójesi cetìnesi zoďèsi esì
He/She/It vedè žinóje cetìne zõďe e͂s(t)
We vedemà žinójema cetìnema zoďèma esmà
You (plural) vedė́te žinójete cetìnete zoďète estè
They vedą́ žinóją cetìną zõďą są͂(t)

In Pomorian Proper there is no dual for verbs, but in dialects forms for "we two", "you two" and "they to" are still in use. The verb būti conjugates for dual even in the Standard, though these forms are seldom used by today speakers:

bū́ti - to be
We two esvà
You two està
They two e͂ste

The verb būti has an additional simple future tense which conjugates like present, but using the form bąsti instead.

I bą́då
You (singular) bą́desi
He/She/It bą́de(t)
We two bą́deva
You two bą́deta
They two bą́dete
We bą́dema
You (plural) bą́dete
They bą́dą(t)

Past tense

This is the basic tense to describe actions in the past. Like in Present tense the stress pattern of a verb is usually predictable.

1 2a 2b 3 4
vestì - to lead žinóti - to know cetįti - to wish for something zodýti - to decide bū́ti - to be
I veduõ žinóju cetìnu zoďúo buvù
You (singular) vedeĩ žinójei cetìnei zoďéi buveĩ
He/She/It vedė́ žinójė cetìnė zõďė bū͂
We vedomè žinójome cetìnome zoďóme bùvome
You (plural) vedė́tè žinójote cetìnėte zoďė́te bùvote
They vedę́ žinóję cetìnę zõďę bū͂vę

The verb būti also conjugates for dual.

bū́ti - to be
We two bùvė
You two bùva
They two bùve

Perfect tenses

There are three perfect tenses in Pomorian (present, past and future), which are all formed by using the verb 'būti' in the respective tense and person as well as the active past adjectival participle (the l-paticiple) in its respective number and gender:

zodýti - to decide Present perfect Past perfect Future perfect
I esmì zodie͂lu/ zodie͂li/ zodie͂lå buvù zodie͂lu/ zodie͂li/ zodie͂lå bą́då zodie͂lu/ zodie͂li/ zodie͂lå
You (singular) esì zodie͂lu/ zodie͂li/ zodie͂lå buveĩ zodie͂lu/ zodie͂li/ zodie͂lå bą́desi zodie͂lu/ zodie͂li/ zodie͂lå
He/She/It e͂s(t) zodie͂lu/ zodie͂li/ zodie͂lå bū͂ zodie͂lu/ zodie͂li/ zodie͂lå bą́de zodie͂lu/ zodie͂li/ zodie͂lå
We two esvà zodie͂la/ zodie͂lė bùvė zodie͂la/ zodie͂lė bą́deva zodie͂la/ zodie͂lė
You two està zodie͂la/ zodie͂lė bū́sta zodie͂la/ zodie͂lė bą́deta zodie͂la/ zodie͂lė
They two e͂ste zodie͂la/ zodie͂lė bū́ste zodie͂la/ zodie͂lė bą́dete zodie͂la/ zodie͂lė
We esmà zodie͂lū/ zodie͂lio bùvome zodie͂lū/ zodie͂lio bą́dema zodie͂lū/ zodie͂lio
You (plural) estè zodie͂lū/ zodie͂lio bùvote zodie͂lū/ zodie͂lio bą́dete zodie͂lū/ zodie͂lio
They są͂(t) zodie͂lū/ zodie͂lio bū͂vę zodie͂lū/ zodie͂lio bą́dą zodie͂lū/ zodie͂lio

These tenses are roughly equivalent English perfect tenses (I had read / I will have read). They usually indicate an action that happened before another action or to indicate that an action is complete.

The l-participle indicates a quick, momentary action and š-participle (zodie͂vušu/ zodie͂vuši/ zodie͂vušå) is used instead the l-participle to indicate actions which lasted for a certain period of time similarly to English Perfect-Continuous tense. For example: "Juo esmi zodielu" means "I have already decided"; "Dilgau zodievušu esmi ši" - literally "I've been deciding it for a long time".

Continuous tenses

There are three continuous tenses in Pomorian (present, past and future), which are also formed by using the verb 'būti' in the respective tense and person but with the active present adjectival participle (the nť-paticiple) in its respective number and gender:

zodýti - to decide Present continuous Past continuous Future continuous
I esmì zoďą͂ťu/ zoďą͂ťi/ zoďą͂ťå buvù zoďą͂ťu/ zoďą͂ťi/ zoďą͂ťå bą́då zoďą͂ťu/ zoďą͂ťi/ zoďą͂ťå
You (singular) esì zoďą͂ťu/ zoďą͂ťi/ zoďą͂ťå buveĩ zoďą͂ťu/ zoďą͂ťi/ zoďą͂ťå bą́desi zodie͂lu/ zodie͂li/ zodie͂lå
He/She/It e͂s(t) zoďą͂ťu/ zoďą͂ťi/ zoďą͂ťå bū͂ zoďą͂ťu/ zoďą͂ťi/ zoďą͂ťå bą́de zoďą͂ťu/ zoďą͂ťi/ zoďą͂ťå
We two esvà zoďą͂ťa/ zoďą͂ťė bùvė zoďą͂ťa/ zoďą͂ťė bą́deva zoďą͂ťa/ zoďą͂ťė
You two està zoďą͂ťa/ zoďą͂ťė bū́sta zoďą͂ťa/ zoďą͂ťė bą́deta zoďą͂ťa/ zoďą͂ťė
They two e͂ste zoďą͂ťa/ zoďą͂ťė bū́ste zoďą͂ťa/ zoďą͂ťė bą́dete zoďą͂ťa/ zoďą͂ťė
We esmà zoďą͂ťū/ zoďą͂ťo bùvome zoďą͂ťū/ zoďą͂ťo bą́dema zoďą͂ťū/ zoďą͂ťo
You (plural) estè zoďą͂ťū/ zoďą͂ťo bùvote zoďą͂ťū/ zoďą͂ťo bą́dete zoďą͂ťū/ zoďą͂ťo
They są͂(t) zoďą͂ťū/ zoďą͂ťo bū͂vę zoďą͂ťū/ zoďą͂ťo bą́dą zoďą͂ťū/ zoďą͂ťo

These tenses are used to indicate ongoing incomplete actions. Though being similar to English Continuous tense, they are used almost exclusively in literature in Pomorian. Often the continuous tense can be indicated by an imperfective verb usually formed by adding suffixes -ėj-, -aj- or -av- to a verb. For example: zodyti (to decide) - zoďuoti (to be deciding) - the -av- suffix added. This way of expressing the continuous tense is much more common in spoken Pomorian.

Imperative mood

This mood is used to describe orders and commands. There is no conjugation first person singular, instead a phrase with the word ati is used, for example: Ati zoďå which translates as "let me decide". This construction is used with a third person for all the numbers as well (Ati zoďą - let they decide).

Simple tenses

1 2a 2b 3 4
vestì - to lead žinóti - to know cetįti - to wish for something zodýti - to decide bū́ti - to be
You (singular) veďì žinóji cetìni zõďi bą́ďi
He/She/It (ãti) ve͂ďe (ãti) žinóje (ãti) cetìne (ãti) zõďe bą́ďe
We veďiemà žinójima cetìnima zõďima bą́ďima
You (plural) veďietè žinójite cetìnite zõďite bą́ďite
They (ãti) vedą́ (ãti) žinóją (ãti) cetìną (ãti) zoďą́ bądą́(t)

The verb būti (bąsti) also conjugates for dual.

bū́ti - to be
We two bąďýva
You two bąďýta
They two bąďýte

Compound tenses

Pefect Continuous
You (singular) bą́ďi zodie͂lu/ zodie͂li/ zodie͂lå bą́ďi zoďą͂ťu/ zoďą͂ťi/ zoďą͂ťå
He/She/It bą́ďe zodie͂lu/ zodie͂li/ zodie͂lå bą́ďe zoďą͂ťu/ zoďą͂ťi/ zoďą͂ťå
We two bąďýva zodie͂la/ zodie͂lė bąďýva zoďą͂ťa/ zoďą͂ťė
You two bąďýta zodie͂la/ zodie͂lė bąďýta zoďą͂ťa/ zoďą͂ťė
They two bąďýte zodie͂la/ zodie͂lė bąďýte zoďą͂ťa/ zoďą͂ťė
We bą́ďima zodie͂lū/ zodie͂lio bą́ďima zoďą͂ťū/ zoďą͂ťo
You (plural) bą́ďite zodie͂lū/ zodie͂lio bą́ďite zoďą͂ťū/ zoďą͂ťo
They bądą́(t) zodie͂lū/ zodie͂lio bądą́(t) zoďą͂ťū/ zoďą͂ťo
Indirect mood

This mood is different from other moods and is not always considered as such, because it isn't composed of conjugatable verbs but only active participles in the nominative case. There is no future tense in this mood.

  Singular Plural
Present zoďą̃ťu, zoďą̃ťi, zoďą̃ťå zoďą͂ťū, zoďą͂ťo
Past zodie͂vušu, zodie͂vuši, zodie͂vušå zodie͂vušū, zodie͂vušo
Present perfect estą̃ťu zodie͂lu, estą͂ťi zodie͂li, estą͂ťå zodie͂lå są̃ťū zodie͂lū, są͂ťo zodie͂lio
Past perfect bùvęťu zodie͂lu, bùvęťi zodie͂li, bùvęťå zodie͂lå bùvęťū zodie͂lū, bùvęťo zodie͂lio
Present Perfect-Continuous e͂stevu zodie͂lu, e͂stevi zodie͂li, e͂stą͂vå zodie͂lå są̃vū zodie͂lū, są͂vo zodie͂lio
Past Perfect-Continuous bū́vu zodie͂lu, bū́vi zodie͂li, bū́vå zodie͂lå bū́vū zodie͂lū, bū́vo zodie͂lio

This mood is not used in daily spoken language, but in literature, especially in folklore, usually describing actions happened a long time ago.

Passive Voice

The Pomorian passive voice is different from the active voice, always being formed analytically, like in all the Balto-Slavic languages. Is is always composed of the auxiliary verb būti in its respective tense / person and either a present passive participle (the m-paticiple) or a past passive participle (the n- and t-participles) that must match the gender and number of the subject. The n-participle indicates an imperfect mood while the t-paticiple - a perfect mood. An additional conditional mood is formed by a supine form of būti and a participle.

In order to avoid redundancy, the following table only includes the third (masculine) person of singular.

výdėti - to see   Present passive Past simple passive Past perfect passive
Indicative mood Present e͂s výdame e͂s výdune e͂s výdute
Past bū͂ výdame bū͂ výdune bū͂ výdute
Future bą́de výdame bą́de výdune bą́de výdute
Indirect mood Present bū́ťu výdame bū́ťu výdune bū́ťu výdute
Past bū́vušu výdame bū́vušu výdune bū́vušu výdute
Future bą́dąťu výdame bą́dąťu výdune bą́dąťu výdute
Imperative mood bą́ďe výdame bą́ďe výdune bą́ďe výdute
Conditional mood bū́tų výdame bū́tų výdune bū́tų výdute

Supine

In Pomorian supine is used mostly with motion verbs and indicates purpose or in the phrase meaning "to be going to". It is formed from an infinitive form of a verb by replacing the -ti ending with the -tų. For example: Jenå sklepå hlėbo kuoptų - "I go to the store to buy some bread.

Adverbs

In Pomorian adverbs have the basic stem of their corresponding adjectives and are not inflected (though they have three degree of comparison just like adjectives). Adverbs can have only an indefinite (non-pronominal) form. A lot of Pomorian adverbs are formed by replacing an adjectival ending with -ė or -au. For examle: lėpe (good) - lėpau (well). Some adverbs are derived from nouns, but probably from adjectives which were derived from nouns: kalna (high place, mountain; noun) - pakalne (being from the height; adjective) - pakalnė (downwards, downhill; adverb). Some are derived from other adverbs: ligė (being fine, allowed; adverb) - neligė (not well; adverb) - perneligė (too much; adverb). Some are very old and not comparable, they are not derived from anything: ba and bu (even), šiet (here), tuo (there), kė (how, so), juo (already), doli (far), dovė (long ago) and tali (only). The word doli also has a comparable doublet dolė.

-ė -au
Simple Comparative Superlative Simple Comparative Superlative
far further the furthest well better the best
dolė doliau doliši lėpau lėpėjau lėpuši

Prepositions

Prepositions are used to clarify an object's position or direction. Each noun case can take different prepositions but only some prepositions can be used with different cases. Dialectal variations are listed in the table after slashes, non-standard but also being frequently used.

With genitive case
Preposition Meaning
prie near, at
da/do till
lig up to (about time)
sker/skerz by, over
pa/pu after, past
uz behind
ėz beyond
bez without
is from
With dative case
Preposition Meaning
kų to
pa onto
With accusative case
Preposition Meaning
abie/abe about
azu for
With instrumental case
Preposition Meaning
su/sų with
az(u) after (motion)
pad under
per across, through, during
With locative case
Preposition Meaning
į in (often dropped)
an(u) on
pad under

Conjunctions

Conjunctions are used to link clauses in sentences and to establish their relation.

  • a, o, je - and
  • o, be - but
  • da, dakal - until
  • jė - if
  • kad - when
  • bu, ka - or/but
  • čy - or (also used to start a question)
  • li - because
  • partė - however

Derivational morphology

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Syntax

Constituent order

Like other Balto-Slavic languages Pomorian has a SVO word order. However due to its' case system and verb conjugations the word order is actually free. The place of words in a sentence plays rather a semantic role and not the grammatic one. For example, saying Gålbėjå pamarėskają means "I speak Pomorian"; while Pamarėskają gålbėjå is "It's the Pomorian language I speak"; Az gålbėjå pamarėskają - "It's me who speaks Pomorian". There could be other meanings depending on different words position like adjectives, adverbs, or the context (when a sencence is a part of a text).

Noun phrase

Verb phrase

Sentence phrase

Dependent clauses

Dialects

 
Area with more than 4% of total population speaking Pomorian. Pamarėskė sačinė (Pomorian dialects)

Pomorian consists of

  1. Northern and North-Western
  2. Central-Western
  3. South-Western
  4. Central
  5. Southern
  6. Central-Eastern
  7. Ežerina (Lake dialect)
  8. Prūsisk (Eastern)

Those dialects form three dialectal groups: Western (1,3), Central (2,4,5,6) and Eastern (7,8)

The most widely spoken dialect is Central-Western one having 1000 native speakers. Western and Eastern dialects have approximately 500 native speakers each, Central-Eastern has about 700 speakers and Southern has less than 500 speakers. The rest of the dialects are spoken by less than 800 speakers and are severely endangered (the Ežerina dialect having only 12 native speakers left). In 1984 died Anna Ribbeck - the last known speaker of the Hel dialect (Heliska guora). It was a dialect once spoken in three villages on the Hel peninsula and since the XX century only in a small town of Jastarnia. This dialect had some distinct features absent from the rest dialects, such as the back vowel fronting, a lack of palatalization and a stress fixed on a first syllable. Also its' syntax was highly influenced by German.

There are some differences in phonology and morphology among dialects while the syntax stays pretty much the same. For example, the sentence: "I gave a few pennies to Brone (short from Bronislove)" would be "(Àz) dóďe cẽlkų gróšå Bróniau" /(ɑz.)ˈdoː.ɟɛ.ˈt͡sɛːl.kũ.ˈgroː.ʃɒ.ˈbroː.ɲɑʊ̯/ in Pomorian Proper, but (Jès) dõďe kelkǻ gróšå Bróniau" /(ˌjɛz.) ˈdoː.ɟɛ.kɛl.ˈkɔː.ˈgroː.ʃɒ.ˈbroː.ɲɑʊ̯/ in Western dialect and "(Às) dā́džia cálko pènįgo Broniū́ /(ˌɑz.)ˈdaːd͡ʑɐ.ˈt͡saːl.kɔ.ˌpɛ.nĩ.gɔ.brɔ.ˈɲuː/ in Eastern dialect. The word penįgė is present in Pomorian Proper where it means "money". There is also seen a long vowel /aː/, which is a separate phoneme in Eastern dialect and did not became /oː/ like in the Proper. The word kelkå in Western dialect shows /k/ insted of expected /t͡s/, which is a common development in it. A borrowing from Polish could be also possible, but it doesn't explain the accent of the word. Major difference between Western and Central/Eatern dialectal groups is a retaining of final /ɛ/ or /ə/ sound from Proto-Balto-Slavic *-as ending (Brone, Bronislove) in former, but a complete loss in latter (Broń or Broniu, Bronislov).

Example texts

Small texts in the Pomorian Proper and dialects.

Swadesh list for Pomorian Proper and dialects.

Other resources

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