Wyrazy nie giną, wyrazy odchodzą w niepamięć
Words do not die, words sink into oblivion

Author(s): Mirosław Bańko
Subject(s): Language studies, Cultural history, Philology
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: archaic words; linguistic change; language as collective memory
Summary/Abstract: The paper argues that words do not disappear permanently from a language. They fall out of use, but they may return any time. Many archaic words are still used in some language varieties, in historical fiction, or in some fixed expressions. Indeed, what counts as an archaic word is a matter of degree, e.g., a word may be old-fashioned or even archaic for older generations, but not for younger speakers. The discussion is illustrated with detailed analyses of two Polish nouns which were old-fashioned at a time, but now live their second youth, being used frequently again in a different cultural context. Though language is often considered a kind of collective memory and compared to a treasure house, it is perhaps more apt to compare it to a settling tank in which all that has been said and recorded accumulates, layer by layer. To linguists, the layers of words used by subsequent generations are no less worthy than settlement layers to archeologists.

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