Аналіз лексікі беларускай гаворкі найстарэйшага пакалення мястэчка Крынкі
Analysis of the lexis of the Belarusian subdialect of the eldest generation from the town of Krynki

Author(s): Mateusz Jan Kwiatkowski
Subject(s): Studies of Literature, Belarussian Literature, Polish Literature, Philology, British Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: subdialect; Krynki; Belarusian language; dialectology; vocabulary; analysis; loanwords; Podlasie; language contacts; dialect
Summary/Abstract: The subject of research is the Belarusian subdialect from the town of Krynki (Podlaskie Voivodeship), which was analyzed lexically. The words for analysis were taken from the conversations with the residents of Krynki recorded by the author in 2020. These people have known the local subdialect since they were children. As for the subdialect itself, it is used in Podlasie (in the modern sense; historically, this region would be called Lithuania). In previous centuries, Podlasie was also populated by Baltic tribes, which affected local subdialects as well. The analysis showed that the dominant part of the vocabulary in this subdialect is of indigenous (Belarusian) origin. The next biggest group are loanwords from Polish, of which there are 185. (The words chosen for the analysis – 247 in total – were characteristic of this subdialect and/or nonexistent in literary language. In some cases, a word was assigned to several groups because it was impossible to determine its etymology). Besides words of Polish origin, words of Russian (22), German (6), Romance and Latin (3) origin were identified. The largest group of loanwords came from the Polish language, which makes sense, given that Krynki are located in Poland. Other loanwords are evidence of contacts with other nations, but it should be emphasized that the dominant part of the vocabulary remains indigenous, i.e., Belarusian.

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