REGIONAL PHONETIC FEATURES IN THE INTERWAR PERIOD OF THE CULTURAL VILNIUS POLISH LANGUAGE (VOCALISM)

Joanna Joachimiak-Prażanowska

Instytut Neofilologii i Lingwistyki Stosowanej Uniwersytet Kazimierza Wielkiego w Bydgoszczy

Abstract

This paper presents the phonetic peculiarities of vocalism functioning in the cultural Vilnius
Polish language during the interwar period. The research reveals the most common phenomena
as well as the most characteristic ones for the northern borderlands pronunciation. Characteristic
linguistic facts were excerpted from “Kurier Wileński” published in 1924–1939. In the studied
newspaper there were 6 effects reflecting the occurrence of regional dialect (vocalism). The majority
of phonetic peculiarities were characterized by a high textual frequency. The most often recorded
were the following ones: quaint o as an equivalent of common ó, the extension of o to a and e to a,
as well as hypercorrect inverted alternations.

Keywords:

phonetic features, vocalism, cultural Vilnius Polish language, interwar period