Słowa, które giną, a gwara miejska Poznania
Disappearing words and the urban dialect of Poznań

Summary/Abstract: This paper concerns words which used to be present in general Polish but disappeared from it over time (that is archaisms), and yet have survived in Poznań Polish. They are characterised by a varied degree of persistence in the dialect used by Poznań residents. A considerable number of them have been moved or is moving to the linguistic archives even in this dialect (e.g. celstat, dęga, gardyny, nawarka, sztykutać, taszka, wenerować), others, however, are still alive (e.g. chęchy, drabka, kejter, korbol, nabierka, nieusłuchany, wysiepać, zesmyknąć się, żybura and semantic archaisms, e.g. ból ‘a wound, a sore’, pyza ‘a steamed bun’, uliczka ‘a gate’, or zatrzasnąć ‘to kill’). The persistence of the Poznań dialect is influenced by factors such as: the tradition of cultivating linguistic distinctness and conservatism, which is stereotypically attributed to inhabitants of Wielkopolska region, and most of all their positive emotional attitude to the dialect. The residents of the city often use it for ludic and stylisation purposes, and the fact that they have made it an important element in promoting their city is a sign of the times.

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