- B. Malmberg speaks both of variants which are derived from different dialectal systems (the phonemes /e, ϵ/, /o, ǝ/, /c, 3/ in literary Italian) and of variants which belong to different historical stages of a system (the short and long vowels in French). The fact that some oppositions must be preserved in the language (e.g. /i:e:a:o:u/ in Italian), whereas others can, but need not be preserved (e.g. /e:ϵ, o:ǝ/) he calls “différences de stabilityé des oppositions”; cf. “A propos du système phonologique de l'italien”, and “Bemerkungen zum quantitativen Vokalsystem im modernen Französisch”, Acta Linguistica III, 1, 1942, pp. 34 ff., 44 ff.
- T. Milewski and Z. Stieber discuss the “potential” phoneme /ę/, which is in “free” variation with /e/ in standard Polish, and /ř/, which is in “free” variation with /ž/ in some Polish dialects; cf. “Derywacja fonologiczna,” Biuletyn Polskiego Towarzystwa Językoznawczego IX, 1949, pp. 43 ff., and “Na marginesie derywacji fonologicznej,” BPTJ X, 1950, pp. 72 ff. The nasal vowel /ę/, which is a stylistic (archaic) variant in word-final position, is an allophone in medial position (before spirants). The variety of functions is of particular interest in the study of variants.
- Ch. C. Fries and K. Pike, “Coexistent phonemic systems,” Language, 25, 1949, pp. 29 ff.
- R. Jakobson writes, “A change is at the beginning a synchronic fact and, insofar as we don't wish to oversimplify, the synchronic analysis must encompass linguistic changes,” Results of the Conference of Anthropologists and Linguists = Indiana University Publications in Anthropology and Linguistics, Memoir No. 8, 1953, p. 18.
- N. S. Trubetzkoy, Principes de Phonologie, 1949, pp. 17 ff.; R. Jakobson, M. Halle, C. G. M. Fant, “Preliminaries to Speech Analysis,” Technical Report No. 13, 1952, Acoustics Laboratory of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, p. 15.
- The declension of proper names and of adjectival substantives, and the indeclinable substantives are not discussed in this paper. The following dictionaries were used in the course of this study: Słownik Jçzyka Polskiego (Vol. I—II, L—N, 1939), by Trzaska, Evert and Michalski; Słownik Języka Polskiego (Słownik Warszawski) (1902–27), under the editorship of J. Karłowicz, A. Kryński, W. Niedźwiedzki, and the orthoepic dictionary by St. Szober, Słownik Poprawnej Polszczyzny, (2nd ed., 1948). The author wishes also to acknowledge the helpful assistance of Mrs. Anna Weintraub, who acted as an informant.
- The inflected forms are given throughout the exposition in conventional Polish spelling and are translated. Morphemic components are transcribed morphophonemically; phonemes and their sequences are transcribed phonemically.
- The referentially inanimate, but grammatically animate masc. substantives fall into several semantic groups; these designate the dead, mushrooms, monetary units, dances, alcoholic beverages, cigarettes, cards, illnesses, and the male organ.
- Switch of gender is thus connected primarily with expressive language. This fact has also been observed in other languages, where oscillation between the masc. and fern, genders is a common phenomenon in expressive speech (for references, cf. the discussion on affectionate formations in Jçzyk Polski, Vols. 14, 15).
- “Depersonalization” indicates the grammatical fact of substitution of the form of the nom. (instead of the gen.) for the acc.; it is not to be confused with the expressive variant in the nom. pl. of personal substantives, for which the term “depersonalized masculine” has misleadingly been applied (cf. also 7).
- Cf. J. Słowacki (“Anhelli,” 597): “I zawieszono na krzyzach ludzie owe obłakane…;” St. Wyspiański (“Narodzenie,” 22): “Ujrzycie bohatery i karły i wojenniki i gachy i dumne, pychę pojęte…;” J. Wittlin (“Sól ziemi,” p. 84): “Nie na Sodomity, nie na Amelekity i nawet nie na Egipcjany chciał dr. Jellinek rzucič bezbronne ciało Blumenkrantza, lecz na Rosjan lub Serbów”. On the stylistic function of “archaisms” in poetic language, cf. below, 7.2.
- The phonemization used in this paper is based on the articulatory and acoustic analysis of the Polish phonemes presented in my study, “The phonemic patterns of the Polish dialects”, in the forthcoming volume For Roman Jakobson (Mouton, The Hague, 1956).
- This alternation is automatic if we operate with the stylistic phonemic variant /ę/ instead of /e/, as the desinence of the acc. sg. of the first declension.
- The vocalic and vowel-zero alternations are not pertinent to the main problem of this study and are discussed along general lines.
- That this is the case we know not only from historical grammar (Kochanowski, for example, still used the genitive forms obiada, stoła, ogroda). A comparison between the forms recommended in the orthoepic dictionary of St. Szober and the forms found in “Słownik Języka Polskiego” of Trzaska, Evert and Michalski is most illuminating in this respect. In cases in which the latter records only the ending -u, the former, being set on more conservative and normative usage, admits both -a and -u, and even -a alone; thus, in “Slownik Poprawnej Polszczyzny”, we find: buka/buku “beech-tree”, mosiądza/ mosiądzu “brass”, jaskra/ jaskru “crowfoot”, meteora/meteoru “meteor”, hektara/hektaru “hectare”, mlecza/mleczu “marrow”, chlewa/chlewu “pigsty”; but in “Słownik Języka Polskiego” only: buku, mosiqdzu, jaskru, meteoru, hektaru, mleczu, chlewu. The different attitudes of both dictionaries towards the norm of the standard language is similar also in regard to the other stylistic variants.
- In a historical study, “Mianownik 1. mn. typu chłopy, draby w języku ogólnopolskim,” Język Polski, 33, 3, 1953, pp. 129–155, M. Turska labels these forms “habitual pejorative forms which have been transmitted by tradition”. However, neologisms also, which are common in this productive category, would fall into one of the above groups.
- The suffix -us is particularly productive in the colloquial and substandard language; cf. the forms muzykusy “musicians”, łajdusy “scoundrels”, kryminusy “criminals”. In thieves-slang there is a larger number of such words, some of which have penetrated the standard language; e.g. andrusy “urchins”, mikrusy “small boys”, nygusy “loiterers”, manusy “friends”; cf. H. Ułaszyn, “Języki Tajne”, in Encyklopedia Polska, Vol. III, 1915, p. 464.
- J. Klemensiewiczówna points out that two-thirds of all compounds with the “joining” suffix -i have a derogatory, ironic and humoristic connotation; cf. “Wyrazy złożone nowszej polszczyzny kulturalnej,” 1951, pp. 96–97. These compound formations are likewise very productive in colloquial and substandard speech; cf. the various terms for drunkards: moczygęba, moczymorda, moczywąs, płczywąs, kropiwąs (more of these are found in J. Tuwim's “Słownik pijacki,” 1930), and the cant words: lapidziad “policeman”, męczybula “baker”, skrobi- deska “carpenter”, chwalidupa “lecher”; cf. Ułaszyn (op. cit).
- Cf. J. Wittlin (“Sòl Ziemi”): “tyrolskie Kajzerjegry, wiedeńskie Deutschmeistry, dumne Windischgrätzdragony zostaly podobno rozbite”; and the passage above from Mickiewicz's “Pan Tadeusz” (7).
- Cf. Z. Krasiński (“Przedświt”): “Dawne króle, radne pany i rycerze i hetmany…”; K. Ujejski (“Pogrzeb Kościuszki”): “Biegną, pany i kapłany, chłopi i wojacy…”.
- Obrębska has shown that the frequency of usage of these forms varied according to the literary genre and that the “pseudoarchaisms” were more common in rhymes than in medial position of the verse; cf. “Od archaizmu do nowej formy językowej,” in Stylistyka teoretyczna w Polsce, edited by K. Budzyk, 1946, pp. 209–220.
WORD
Volume 11, 1955 - Issue 4: Slavic Word No. 4