Pomorian Eastern dialects

The Eastern group is a dialectal group of the Pomorian language spoken in Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, mostly in Alęšteiņa and surrounding areas. Nowadays it has approximately 500 native speakers left, but only 40 years ago this dialect was the most widely spoken with more than 7000 speakers. It is commonly reffered to as pamarėska uostroja (Eastern Pomorian), but its native speakers call it suvilkeina or suvyucyska rōka /su.ˈwɨʊ̯.t͡sɨ.skɐ. rɔː.ˈka/ from the Suvyucyja region where most Eastern Pomorians lived. The Eastern dialectal group is often considered being a separate language because of the time of divergence (about the VIIth or even the VIth century) which is more typical for a language.

History

Eastern dialects were showing some of their distinct features already in Old Pomorian. It came from lands between Sasna and Masuria and shared the northern part of this territory with sașinavi (Sasnavians in English) and galįdi (Galindians) tribes and in the north-west - with pumureiļi (Western Pomorians). During this time Eastern Pomorian was in a constant contact with Old Prussian, which influenced it and various loanwords connected to trade and fishing were borrowed.

After the end of the XIIIth century the Southern group began diverging from Eastern Pomorian but was slowly being substituted with Polish. But new Central and Southern dialectal groups began forming and thus creating a dialectal continuum between Eastern and Western groups of dialects. However like its northern neighbour Old Prussian Eastern Pomorian started dying out slowly from the XVIth century at first in the Masuria region and then elsewhere.

Orthography

Unlike other Pomorian dialects Suvilkian uses the Eastern orthography which is more similar to Prussian and Latvian ones. This orthography was created in 1952. According to a widespread opinion it was made due to political reasons (probably to deepen the difference between Eastern and Western Pomorians) than linguistic ones.

Phonology

The Suvilkian phonology is a bit different from the standard making the dialect harder to understand for other speakers. The vowel system is different for stressed and unstressed vowels, but these differences are allophonic and are mentioned only in some linguistic articles about the Pomorian phonology.

Vowels

Long vowels

	Front		Central		Back
	oral	nasal			oral	nasal
Close	ī /i:/	į /ĩ:/	ȳ /ɨ:/		ū /u:/	ų /ũ:/
Open-mid	ē /ɛː/	ę /æ̃:/			ō /ɔː/	ą /ɔ̃:/
Open			ā /a:/

Short vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i /i~ɪ/	y /ɨ~ə/	u /u~ʊ/
Open-mid	e /æ/	e (/ə/)*	o /ɔ/
Open		a /a/*

Notes:

• e is pronounced /ə/ at the end of words.
• a is pronounced /ɐ/ at the end of words if unstressed.

Diphthongs

ie /ie/	uo /uo/	ei /eɪ/	yu /ɨʊ/

Consonants

Consonants

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

Notes:

• 1 Occures only in borrowings.
• 2 [ɦ] is an allophone of /h/ in the intervocal position.
• 3 Does not appear in some dialects where it is plain [r] instead.
• 4 [w] occures after back vowels, while [ʋ] - after front ones. Some, mostly second-language speakers pronounce it as [v] (and [f] before voiceless consonants).

Prosody

Unlike Western Pomorian dialects and the standard Suvilkian developed a quantitative stress. It has only two types of stress - long and short which are phonemic only in diphthongs. It merged circumflex and grave into the short accent, while acute became the long accent. For example gèidz̗uo (to a tit) and géidz̗uo (to a whistle). However, sometimes the place of stress is different from the standard, being usually more regular and predictable.

Grammar

Nouns

First declension

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

	ròge = horn		galvà = head		màŗo = sea
	singular	plural	singular	plural	singular	plural
Nominative	ròge	rogì	galvà	gàlvā	màŗo	maŗā́
Genitive	rògā	rogų́	galvā́	galvų́	màŗā	maŗų́
Dative	ròguo	rogòm	gàlvē	galvā́m	màŗu	maŗòm
Accusative	rògo	rogā́	gàlvą	gàlve	màŗo	màŗe
Instrumental	rogum	rogàmy	gàlvo	galvā́my	màŗom	maŗàmy
Locative	ròdžie	rogèihu	galvḗ	galvā́su	maŗè	maŗā́su
Vocative	rodžḗ	rodžī́	gàlva	gàlvā	màŗa	màŗā

Second declension

-y (masculine), -i (feminine)

	zvērỳ = mammal		ųgnì = fire
	singular	plural	singular	plural
Nominative	zvērì	zvḗŗȳ	ųgnì	ųgņī́
Genitive	zvērȳ́	zvēŗų́	ųgnī́	ųgņų́
Dative	zvḗrē	zvērỳm	ųgņḗ	ųgņìm
Accusative	zvḗrį	zvēŗį	ųgnį́	ųgņį́
Instrumental	zvērym	zvērỳmy	ųgņò	ųgņìmy
Locative	zvērḗ	zvērỳhu	ųgņḗ	ųgņìhu
Vocative	zvērī́	zvērȳ́	ųgņī́	ųgņī́

Third declension

-u (masculine)

	sūnù = son		ledù = ice
	singular	plural	singular	plural
Nominative	sūnù	sū́nū	ledù	lèdū
Genitive	sūnṓ	sūnų́	ledṓ	ledų́
Dative	sū́nuo	sūnū́m	lèduo	ledū́m
Accusative	sū́nų	sū́nų	lèdų	lèdų
Instrumental	sūnùm	sūnùmy	ledùm	ledùmy
Locative	sūnṓ	sūnùhu	ledṓ	ledùhu
Vocative	sūnṓ	sū́nuo	ledṓ	lèduo

Fourth declension

-yu (feminine)

	brýu = eyebrow
	singular	plural
Nominative	brýu	brùvȳ
Genitive	bruvȳ́	bruvų́
Dative	bruvī́	bruvỳm
Accusative	brùvų	brùvų
Instrumental	brùve	bruvỳmy
Locative	bruvíe	bruvỳhu
Vocative	brùvī	brùvȳ

Fifth declension

-n, -t, -s, -r (feminine, neuter)

	alę́ = deer		akmę́ = stone
	singular	plural	singular	plural
Nominative	alę́	alènā	akmę́	àkmenā
Genitive	alènī	alènų	akmenī́	akmenų́
Dative	alènī	alènym	àkmenī	akmenỳm
Accusative	alènį	alènį	àkmenį	àkmenį
Instrumental	alènim	alènimy	àkmenim	akmenìmy
Locative	alènie	alènihu	akmeniè	akmenìhu
Vocative	alènī	alènā	akmenī́	àkmenā

Verbs

Indicative mood

Present tense

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

	1	2a	2b	3	4
	vèsti - to lead	zynā́ti - to know	catįti - to wish for something	mȳļíeti - to love	bū́ti - to be
I	vedò	zynā́jo	catỳņo	mȳ́ļo	asmì
You (singular)	vedḗ	zynā́jē	catỳņē	mȳ́ļē	asì
He/She/It	vèda	zynā́ja	catỳņa	mȳ́ļe	àst
We	vedàmo	zynā́jamo	catỳņamo	mȳ́ļemo	asmò
You (plural)	vedàta	zynā́jata	catỳņata	mȳ́ļeta	astà
They	vèdą	zynā́ją	catỳną	mȳ́ļą	są́

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
	vèsti - to lead	zynā́ti - to know	catįti - to wish for something	mȳļíeti - to love	bū́ti - to be
I	vedù	zynā́ju	catỳnu	mȳļíeju	buvù
You (singular)	vedī́	zynā́jī	catỳņī	mȳļíejī	buvì
He/She/It	vedíe	zynā́je	catỳņe	mȳļíeje	býu
We	vedā́m	zynā́jām	catỳņām	mȳļíejām	bùvām
You (plural)	vedíet	zynā́jet	catỳņet	mȳļíejet	bùvāt
They	vedę́	zynā́ję	catỳnę	mȳļíeję	bùvę

Future tense

A new synthetic future tense came from an extension of "n-verb forms" of Old Pomorian. It is the only dialect having such a way of representing future tense.

	1	2a	2b	3	4
	vèsti - to lead	zynā́ti - to know	catįti - to wish for something	mȳļíeti - to love	bū́ti - to be
I	vedanò	zynā́jno	catỳņano	mȳļíejno	bunò
You (singular)	vedanḗ	zynā́jnē	catỳņanē	mȳļíejnē	bunḗ
He/She/It	vèdaņa	zynā́jņa	catỳņaņa	mȳļíejņa	bùņa
We	vedanamò	zynā́jnamo	catỳņanamo	mȳļíejņamo	bunamò
You (plural)	vedanatà	zynā́jnata	catỳņanata	mȳļíejņata	bunatà
They	vedaną́	zynā́jną	catỳņaną	mȳļíejną	buną́