"Spiszu" czy "Spisza"?
"Spiszu" or "Spisza"?

Summary/Abstract: This paper's purpose is to discuss the reason for the appearance and frequency of the two possessive variant forms of the geographic name Spisz. The alternation in possessive form usage of Spisz results from the appearance, in the eighteenth century, of the word Spiż, which was inflected to Spiżu, in contrast to Spisz, which was first inflected Spisza, then also Spiszu by analogy to Spiżu. Despite the elimination of the form Spiż in the beginning of the XX century and the return to its original name Spisz, Polish language dictionaries recommend the usage of Spiszu as the correct possessive form. However, in practice both forms of Spiszu and Spisza are used (with the dominance of the form Spisza), as the examples in the article show. The dissonance between the dictionaries' recommendation and practice points to the need to standardize the possessive form used. The author makes several arguments, suggesting either the change of the recommended possessive form from Spiszu to Spisza or at a minimum the acceptance of both variants of Spiszu and Spisza in possessive usage.

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