Pomorian North-Western dialects

The North-Western group is a dialectal group of the Pomorian language spoken mostly in the eastern part of Puck County and in Rumina, Reda and Weiherinå gminas (which are the western part of Pomorze wschodnie in Poland). It is often referred to as pamarėska uzskąda (Western Pomorian), sometimes also as pumurėlina guora/galba and is considered being a separate language by its native speakers.

History

Western dialects started diverging from Old Pomorian approximately in the VIth-VIIth century, which is a very long time for a dialect. It came from lands in between Masuria and Ziemia lubawska and slowly migrated to its current lands by the end of the XIII century. During this time Western Pomorians came into contact with slavic Pomeranians and their dialect was influenced by Slovincian and Kashubian spoken there. A partial assimilation with those peoples gave birth to Northern and South-Western dialects.

From the XIII century onwards, Western Pomorians dispersed on the rest Pomorian territory intermixing with local population. During this process Central and Southern dialectal groups began forming and thus creating a dialectal continuum from Western to Eastern groups of dialects.

Under German rule Northern dialect was heavily influenced by Low German resulting in some new features of it such as an initial stress and loss of the pitch accent. however morphology stayed quite intact preserving some archaic features not present in Pomorian standard.

The earliest writings in Pomerellian appeared in the XIVth century the most famous of which is "Gudoniskė Predihtė" ("Gdańskie kazania" in Polish). The first written phrase was from 1395: "Ate Nassye kao essi annebesseich", which is the first line of the Lord's Prayer.

Phonology

The Pomerellian phonology is very similar to the standard with main features being:

• lack of nasalization before plosives;
• preservation of k, g before front vowels in some ablaut alterations and after s;
• lack of shortening of old diphthongs *au and *ai at the end of the word;
• narrowing of au to ou;
• no palatalization before front vowels, however it depends on a speaker (usually only y can cause palatalization);
• no /c/, /ɟ/ palatalization to /t͡ɕ/, /d͡ʑ/;

Vowels

Long vowels

Western dialect	Front		Back
	oral	nasal	oral	nasal
Close	y /i:/	į /ĩ:/	ū /u:/	ų /ũ:/
Mid	ė /ɛː~eː/		o /ɔː~oː/
Open-mid	e (/æ:/)	ę /æ̃:/	å (/ɔː/)	ą /ɔ̃:/
Open	a (/a:/)

Short vowels

	Front	Back
Close	i /i~ɪ/	u /u~ʊ/
Open-mid	e /ɛ/
Open		a /ɑ/ å /ɒ/

Note:

• Allophones /æ:/, /a:/, /ɔː/ appear only under circumflex accent.

Diphthongs

ie /ie/	uo /uo/	ei /eɪ/	ou /oʊ/	ui /uɪ/

Long vowels

Northern dialect	Front		Back
	oral	nasal	oral	nasal
Close	y /i:/	į /ĩ:/	ū /u:/	ų /ũ:/
Mid	ė /eɪ~eː/		o /oʊ~oː/
Open-mid	ē /æ:/	ę /æ̃:/		ą /ɔ̃:/
Open	ā /a:/

Short vowels

	Front	Back
Close	i /i~ɪ/	u /u~ʊ/
Open-mid	e /ɛ/
Open		a /ɑ/ å /ɒ/

Diphthongs

ie /ɪe/	ea /ɛæ/	oa /ɔɒ/	uo /uo/	ei /eɪ~ɪ:/	ou /ɔʊ~ʊ:/

Consonants

Consonants

		Labial	Dental	Palato-alveolar	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n̪	ɲ
Plosive	voiceless	p	t̪	c	k
	voiced	b	d̪	ɟ	g
Affricate	voiceless		t̪͡s̪	t͡sʲ~t͡ɕ 1
	voiced		d̪͡z̪	d͡zʲ~d͡ʑ 1
Fricative	voiceless	(f) 2	s̪	sʲ~ɕ 1 ʆ 3		h
	voiced		z̪	zʲ~ʑ 1		(ɦ) 4
Trill			r	(rʲ) 5
Approximant		w~ʋ 6		j
Lateral approximant			l	ʎ

Notes:

• 1 Depends on speaker. Affricates [t͡ɕ], [d͡ʑ] are considered to be a Polish influence.
• 2 Occures only in borrowings.
• 3 Pronunciation varies from [ʃ] to [ʂ] in different speakers with the latter being more common.
• 4 [ɦ] is an allophone of /h/ in the intervocal position.
• 5 Does not appear in most North-Western dialects and is usually pronounced as as a sequence [rj] or plain [r]. It is also pronounced as [r̝] by some northern speakers - a unique feature of the Northern dialect.
• 6 [w] occures after back vowels, while [ʋ] - after front ones.

Prosody

The Western dialect has a pitch-accent while Northern has lost it gaining a fixed initial stress as in German. The Western dialect has the same accent types as in the standard: the falling accent - tvírdagalså - which can be long - dìlgå (marked with an acute) - or short - cẽrtå (marked with a grave) and the rising accent - lìkugalså (marked with a circumflex or a tilde). However in some words with the rising accent in the standard there is a falling accent (tvirdagalså) while tvirdagalså certå can be retracted to a previous syllable. For example dąbù (oak) is dǻmbu in Western dialect and doambu in Northern.

Grammar

Nouns

North-Western Pomorian nouns decline in a similar way to the standard patterns. The main difference is a dual number being fully present in every declension and not just as a relics as in the Pomorian proper. Nouns have seven cases: Nominative, Genitive, Dative, Accusative, Instrumental, Locative and Vocative.

First declension

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

	gróde = hail			galvà = head			mariå̀ = sea
	singular	dual	plural	singular	dual	plural	singular	dual	plural
Nominative	gróde	gróda	gródė	galvà	gãlvė	gãlvo	màrjå	màrjė	marjó
Genitive	gródo	gróduo	gródų	galvó	galvóu	galvų́	màrjo	marjuõ	marjų́
Dative	gródou	gródumu	gródam	gãlvei	galvómu	gàlvom	màrjou	marjàmu	màrjam
Accusative	gródą	gróda	gródu	gãlvą	gàlvė	gãlve	màrją	màrjė	màrje
Instrumental	gródum	gródumu	gródėmy	gãlvają	gãlvómu	galvomy͂	màrjåm	maràmu	marjamy͂
Locative	gródė	gróduo	gródėch	gàlvojė	gãlvou'	gãlvos	marjėjė͂	màrjuõ	màrjos
Vocative	gródei	gróda	gródė	gãlva	gãlvė	gãlvo	màrja	màrjė'	màrjo

Second declension

-i (masculine), -i (feminine)

	zvėrì = mammal			ugnì = fire
	singular	dual	plural	singular	dual	plural
Nominative	zvėrì	zvė́ri	zvė́rije	ugnì	ugnì	ugný
Genitive	zvėrý	zvėriuõ	zvėrijų́	ugný	ugniúo	ugnių́
Dative	zvė́riui	zvėrìmu	zvėrìm	ugnéi	ugnìmu	ugnìm
Accusative	zvė́rį	zvė́ri	zvė͂rį	ugnį́	ugnì	ugnį́
Instrumental	zvė́rim	zvėrìmu	zvėrimy͂	ugnìją	ugnìmu	ugnìmy
Locative	zvėrie͂	zvėriuõ	zvė́rich	ugnýjė	ugniúo	ugnìch
Vocative	zvė́rie	zvė́ri	zvėrie͂	ugný	ugnì	ugný

Third declension

-u (masculine, neuter)

	sūnù = son			ledù = ice
	singular	dual	plural	singular	dual	plural
Nominative	sūnù	sū́nū	sū͂nave	ledù	lèdū	le͂dū
Genitive	sūnuõ	sūnóu	sū́navų	leduõ	ledóu	ledų́
Dative	sū́nave	sūnùmu	sūnùm	lèdou	ledùmu	ledùm
Accusative	sū͂nų	sū́nū	sū͂nų	le͂dų	lèdū	le͂dų
Instrumental	sū́num	sūnùmu	sūnumy͂	lèdum	ledùmu	ledumy͂
Locative	sūnóu	sūnóu	sū́nuch	ledùju	ledóu	lèduch
Vocative	sūnuõ	sū́nū	sū͂nave	leduõ	lèdū	le͂dū

Fourth declension

-ū (feminine)

	brū͂ = eyebrow
	singular	dual	plural
Nominative	brū͂	brùvi	brùvy
Genitive	bruvý	brùvuo	bruvų́
Dative	bruvė́	bruvìmu	brùvim
Accusative	brùvų	brùvi	brùvų
Instrumental	brùve	bruvìmu	bruvimy͂
Locative	bruvė́	brùvuo	brùvich
Vocative	brùvy	brùvi	brùvy

Fifth declension

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

	elū́ = deer			ìmnę = name
	singular	dual	plural	singular	dual	plural
Nominative	elū́	elèni	elèny	ìmnę	imnèni	imnenè
Genitive	elèny	elènuo	elènų	imnený	imnenuõ	imnenų́
Dative	elèniė	elènimu	elènim	ìmnenė	imnènimu	imnenìm
Accusative	elènį	elèni	elènį	ìmnenį	imnèni	ìmnenį
Instrumental	elène	elènimu	elènimy	ìmnenim	imnènimu	imnenimy͂
Locative	elènė	elènuo	elènich	imnenė́	imnenuõ	ìmnenich
Vocative	elène	elèni	elèny	ìmnene	ìmneni	ìmnenė

Sixth declension

*-t, *-s *-r (neuter, feminine), bróti (-r, masculine)

	telę́ = calf			kãkla = wheel			bróti = brother
	singular	dual	plural	singular	dual	plural	singular	dual	plural
Nominative	telę́	telę́ti	telę́te	kãkla	kãklesi	kaklesè	bróti	bróteri	bróterė
Genitive	telę́ty	telę́tuo	telę́tų	kãklesy	kaklesuõ	kaklesų́	brótery	bróteruo	bróterų
Dative	telę́tė	telę́timu	telę́tim	kãklesė	kaklesĩmu	kaklesìm	bróterė	bróterimu	bróterim
Accusative	telę́tį	telę́ti	telę́tį	kãklesį	kãklesi	kàklesį	bróterį	bróteri	brótesį
Instrumental	telę́tim	telę́timu	telę́timy	kãklesim	kaklesĩmu	kaklesimy͂	bróterim	bróterimu	brótesimy
Locative	telę́tė	telę́tuo	telę́tich	kaklerė́	kaklesuõ	kàklesich	bróterė	bróteruo	bróterich
Vocative	telę́tie	telę́ti	telę́tė	kaklese͂	kàklesi	kaklesė́	brótere	bróteri	bróterė