Editing Polish language (section)

==Dialects==
{{Main|Dialects of Polish}}
[[File:Modlitwy drukowane po polsku w r. 1475.JPG|thumb|The oldest printed text in Polish – ''Statuta synodalia Episcoporum Wratislaviensis'' printed in 1475 in [[Wrocław]] by Kasper Elyan.]]
[[File:Polish-alphabet.png|thumb|The Polish alphabet contains 32 letters. Q, V and X are not used in the Polish language.]]

The inhabitants of different regions of Poland {{as of | 2008 | alt = still}} speak Polish somewhat differently, although the differences between modern-day [[vernacular]] varieties and standard Polish ({{lang|pl|język ogólnopolski}}) appear relatively slight. Most of the middle aged and young speak vernaculars close to standard Polish, while the traditional dialects are preserved among older people in rural areas.<ref name=wtad>{{cite book|editor=Witold Tulasiewicz, Anthony Adams|title=Teaching the Mother Tongue in a Multilingual Europe|publisher=A&C Black|page=166|year=2005|language=en|isbn=978-0-8264-7027-0}}</ref> First-language speakers of Polish have no trouble understanding each other, and non-native speakers may have difficulty recognizing the regional and [[sociolect|social]] differences. The modern [[standard language|standard dialect]], often termed as "correct Polish",<ref name=wtad/> is spoken or at least understood throughout the entire country.<ref name="Swan-2002" />

Polish has traditionally been described as consisting of three to five main regional dialects:
* [[Greater Polish dialect|Greater Polish]], spoken in the west
* [[Lesser Polish dialect|Lesser Polish]], spoken in the south and southeast
* [[Masovian dialect|Masovian]], spoken throughout the central and eastern parts of the country

[[Silesian language|Silesian]] and [[Kashubian language|Kashubian]], spoken in [[Upper Silesia]] and [[Pomerania]] respectively, are thought of as either [[dialects of Polish|Polish dialects]] or [[Ausbau|distinct languages]], depending on the criteria used.<ref>{{cite book |title = Polish Western Affairs |year = 1989 |publisher= Instytut Zachodni | page=26 |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=OXFpAAAAMAAJ | language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Compendium of the World's Languages|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DWAqAAAAQBAJ|author=George L. Campbell, Gareth King|publisher=Routledge|date=2012|language=en|isbn=978-1-136-25846-6|access-date=13 November 2019|archive-date=27 April 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240427103822/https://books.google.com/books?id=DWAqAAAAQBAJ|url-status=live}}</ref>

Kashubian contains a number of features not found elsewhere in Poland, e.g. nine distinct oral vowels (vs. the six of standard Polish) and (in the northern dialects) phonemic word stress, an archaic feature preserved from [[Common Slavic]] times and not found anywhere else among the [[West Slavic languages]]. However, it was described by some linguists as lacking most of the linguistic and social determinants of language-hood.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Slavic Languages|year=1958|url=https://archive.org/details/readerinhistoryo00sher|url-access=registration|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]}}</ref>

Many linguistic sources categorize Silesian as a regional language separate from Polish,<ref>Henryk Jaroszewicz (2022). ''Zasady Pisowni Języka Śląskiego - Written Rules of the Silesian Language''. Silesia Progress </ref> while some consider Silesian to be a dialect of Polish.<ref>Robert A. Rothstein (1994). "Polish". ''The Slavonic Languages'', edited by [[Bernard Comrie]] and Greville G. Corbett. Routledge. Pp. 754–756.</ref> Many Silesians consider themselves a separate ethnicity and have been advocating for the recognition of Silesian as a [[Languages of Poland|regional language in Poland]]. The law recognizing it as such was passed by the [[Sejm]] and [[Senate of Poland|Senate]] in April 2024, but has been vetoed by President [[Andrzej Duda]] in late May of 2024.

According to the last official census in Poland in 2011, over half a million people declared Silesian as their native language. Many sociolinguists (e.g. [[Tomasz Kamusella]],<ref>"Silesia and Central European Nationalisms", 2007. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press {{ISBN|978-1-55753-371-5}}</ref> Agnieszka Pianka, Alfred F. Majewicz,<ref>["Języki świata i ich klasyfikowanie"] (en: "Languages of the world and their classification"), [[Polish Scientific Publishers PWN|Polish Scientific Publishers]], Warszawa 1989</ref> [[Tomasz Wicherkiewicz]])<ref>"Ekspertyza naukowa dr Tomasza Wicherkiewicza", Language Policy and the Laboratory for Research on Minority, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, 2008</ref> assume that extralinguistic criteria decide whether a lect is an independent language or a dialect: speakers of the [[variety (linguistics)|speech variety]] or/and political decisions, and this is dynamic (i.e. it changes over time). Also, research organizations such as [[SIL International]]<ref name="SIL">{{cite web|url=http://www.sil.org/iso639-3/documentation.asp?id=szl |title=ISO documentation of Silesian language |publisher=[[SIL International]] |access-date=2015-03-31 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121003061821/http://www.sil.org/iso639-3/documentation.asp?id=szl |archive-date=October 3, 2012 }}</ref> and resources for the academic field of linguistics such as ''[[Ethnologue]]'',<ref>{{e25|szl|Silesian}}</ref> [[Linguist List]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://multitree.linguistlist.org/codes/szl|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130602110608/http://multitree.linguistlist.org/codes/szl|archive-date=June 2, 2013|title=Silesian|website=MultiTree: A Digital Library of Language Relationships}}</ref> and others, for example the [[Ministry of Administration and Digitization (Poland)|Ministry of Administration and Digitization]]<ref name="MoAaD">{{cite web|url=http://isap.sejm.gov.pl/DetailsServlet?id=WDU20120000309|title=Dz.U. 2012 poz. 309: Rozporządzenie Ministra Administracji i Cyfryzacji z dnia 14 lutego 2012 r. w sprawie państwowego rejestru nazw geograficznych|website=Internetowy System Aktów Prawnych|language=pl|date=14 February 2012|access-date=2015-03-31|archive-date=2015-04-29|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150429093635/http://isap.sejm.gov.pl/DetailsServlet?id=WDU20120000309|url-status=dead}}</ref> recognized the Silesian language. In July 2007, the Silesian language was recognized by [[International Organization for Standardization|ISO]], and was attributed an ISO code of szl.

Some additional characteristic but less widespread regional dialects include:
# The distinctive dialect of the [[Gorals#Language|Gorals]] (''Góralski'') occurs in the mountainous area bordering the [[Czech Republic]] and [[Slovakia]]. The Gorals ("Highlanders") take great pride in their culture and the dialect. It exhibits some cultural influences from the [[Vlachs|Vlach]] shepherds in the 14th–17th centuries.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://litopys.org.ua/rizne/magocie.htm|title=The Rusyn Question|author=Magosic, Paul Robert|year=2005|access-date=2008-01-30|archive-date=11 October 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071011064137/http://litopys.org.ua/rizne/magocie.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>
# The [[:pl:Gwara poznańska|Poznański dialect]], spoken in [[Poznań]] and to some extent in the whole region of the former [[Prussian Partition]] (excluding [[Upper Silesia]]), with noticeable German influences.
# In the northern and western (formerly German) regions where Poles from the territories annexed by the [[Soviet Union]] resettled after World War II, the older generation speaks a dialect of Polish characteristic of the [[Kresy]] that includes a longer pronunciation of vowels.
# Poles living in [[Lithuania]] (particularly in the [[Vilnius]] region), in Belarus (particularly the northwest), and in the northeast of Poland continue to speak the [[Kresy|Eastern Borderlands]] dialect, which sounds "slushed"{{clarification-needed|date=June 2024}} (in Polish described as ''zaciąganie z ruska'', "speaking with a Ruthenian drawl") and is easily distinguishable.
# Some city dwellers, especially the less affluent population, had their own distinctive dialects – for example, the [[Warsaw dialect]], still spoken by some of the population of [[Praga]] on the eastern bank of the [[Vistula]]. However, these city dialects are {{as of | 2008 | alt = now}} mostly extinct due to assimilation with standard Polish.
# Many Poles living in emigrant communities (for example, in the [[United States]]), whose families left Poland just after World War II, retain a number of minor features of Polish vocabulary as spoken in the first half of the 20th century that now sound archaic to contemporary visitors from Poland.

Polish linguistics has been characterized by a strong strive towards promoting [[linguistic prescription|prescriptive]] ideas of language intervention and usage uniformity,<ref name=mling/> along with normatively-oriented notions of language "correctness"<ref name=wtad/> (unusual by Western standards).<ref name="mling">{{cite journal | journal = Multilingua | editor = Miklós Kontra | volume = 19 | number = 1–2 ''Language contact in East–Central Europe'' | title = Special issue book reviews | year = 2000 | page = 193 | publisher = Mouton Publishers | url = https://www.degruyter.com/view/j/mult.2000.19.issue-1-2/mult.2000.19.1-2.169/mult.2000.19.1-2.169.xml | issn = 1613-3684 | language = en | access-date = 6 September 2019 | archive-date = 11 March 2020 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200311091328/https://www.degruyter.com/view/j/mult.2000.19.issue-1-2/mult.2000.19.1-2.169/mult.2000.19.1-2.169.xml | url-status = live }}</ref>