Uwagi o polszczyênie Dzienników (1853-1856) Antanasa Baranauskasa
Notes on the Polish language of Antanas Baranauskas' Diary (1853-1856)

Summary/Abstract: Linguistic analysis of Antanas Baranauskas' (1835-1902) Diary (1853-1856) proves that the author recorded it in a Polish dialect that was spoken in the region of Kaunas (Lithuania) at that time. His Diary reveals some phonetic, grammatical, and lexical features typical for that northern borderland variety of the Polish language. There are numerous examples of phonetic features that are not different from the contemporary Polish usage, but hardly any of them were present in the standard Polish of the nineteenth century. Baranauskas used many phonetic features that were characteristic for the northern borderland Polish dialect, e.g., different from the standard Polish distribution of <o> and <ó>; pronunciation of unstressed [e] and [o] as [a]; reduction of unstressed vowels; secondary palatalization and dispalatalization, especially dispalatalization of [n'] and palatalization of [s], [z], [c], [dz] in the position before [k']. The two latter cases can be explained by the interference from the Lithuanian language. There is assimilation (and simplification) of sequences (units) of palatalized consonants and fluctuation of alveolar and dental consonants, which are characteristic to Lithuanian (not Polish). There are also some cases of hypercorrection.

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