# Masovian dialect group

The Masovian dialect group (Polish: dialekt mazowiecki), also Mazovian, is a dialect group of the Polish language spoken in Mazovia and historically related regions, in northeastern Poland. It is the most distinct of the Polish dialects and the most expansive.
Mazovian dialects may exhibit such features as mazurzenie, sandhi (intervocalic voicing of obstruents on word boundaries), and asynchronous palatal pronunciation of labial consonants (so-called softening). Characteristics include:
* Depalatalization of velars before /ɛ/ and palatalization of velars before historical /ɛ̃/; e.g. standard Polish rękę, nogę ('arm', 'leg', in the accusative case) is rendered [ˈrɛŋkʲɛ], [ˈnɔɡʲɛ] respectively instead of [ˈrɛŋkɛ], [ˈnɔɡɛ];
* /li/ sequences realized [lɪ] instead of [lʲi];
* merger of the retroflex series sz, ż, cz, dż into the alveolar s, z, c, dz;
* /ɨ/ > /i/ before certain consonants;
* the Old Polish dual number marker -wa continues to be attached to verbs;
* Standard Polish /ɔ̃/ and /ɛ̃/ merged with /u/ and /a/ respectively, in most situations;
* certain instances of a > e;
* [mʲ] > [ɲ]
Masovian dialects also contain certain vocabulary that is distinct from the standard Polish language and shares common characteristics with the Kashubian language.

## List of dialects

Descended from the language of the Mazovians, the dialects are:
   * Lubawa dialect
   * Ostróda dialect
   * Warmia dialect
   * Masurian dialects
   * Suwałki dialect
   * Łowicz dialect
   * Near Mazovian dialect
   * Far Mazovian dialect
   * Kurpie dialect
   * Podlachia dialect
   * Białystok dialect
   * Warsaw dialect

## Features of the region

Features that can be found in various intensities and distributions in the region include:
* Labiovelarization of *telt > tëłt > tołt > tłot *pelti > płoc (Compare Polish pleć) (perhaps with the exception of słoʒona, sledziona)
* *TorT > TroT
* *ľ̥ > l̥ except in Pľ̥T́PK (po wargowych, a przed palatalnymi, wargowymi, i tylkojęzykowymi)
* remaining *ľ̥ in Pľ̥T́PK > ‘el: ḿelli, hard *l̥ > oł (Stolpsko), Pľ̥T (after a labial, before a hard postalveolar > ṔołT: v́ołna
* hardening of consonants before *ŕ̥t> ar: tfardi except źarno and śarno
* interword devoicing of consonants before voiceless consonants, liquids, or vowels: sat rośnie, sat urós, ukratem, zav́eśmi (zawieźmy)
* w > v/f trój, kfiat, *χw > χv > χf > f fała (chwała)
* mazurzenie: š ž č ǯ > s z c ʒ: scekać (szczekać, or a merger of the retroflexes and palatal sibilants into postalveolar: szcziekać, sziano
* Old Polish ḷ > ł > u̯, especially in West Masovia
* Hardening of Old Polish ľ > l even before i: lis
* Decomposition of soft labials: ṕ, b́, f́, v́, ḿ > pš/pχ́, bž/bɣ́, vź, fś, mń: kurpχ́/karpś, pafχ́/ołófš́, mniasto, also śfat (świat), niedźwiedź (earlier mniedźwiedź)
* Simplification of resulting clusters containing labials: ołóš́, źara (wiara), niasto
* śř, źř > śr, źr, środa, źrėbåk
* penultimate stress
* Loss aje> ā, grai̯e > grā
* preference for pochylone ȯ (kłȯtka, skȯlni)
* ir > ėr, sėrce
* *y > i, sin, dim, dwa ribi (compare decomposition of bilabials)
* Fronting of Old Polish short ă, even softening velars, pråvdä, ḱäńå täg vołå, sometimes merging with e
** a > ä > e in some Old Polish texts
** i̯a- > i̯ä- > i̯e-: i̯epko
** ra- > rä- > re-: reno
** -ar- > -är- > -er-: umer, derń (compare also umárł)
** frequent and common *ěT > ä > e: osierze (ofiara)
** ăN > äN > śäno
* á > a: dobra trawä
* loss of the phonemically short nasal in short syllables into a front, middle noasal between a and e, indifferent to the width of the opening of ą̈: zą̈bi, sometimes going to ą (ćąsko) or ę (ćęsko), or sometimes denazalisation in unstressed codas or before sibilants (i̯azik, i̯ėnzik)
* lost of the phonemically long nasal vowel ą̄ > ǫ and in regions touching Małopolska > ų, with frequent denasalization as above (kśůska)
* -išče > -isko
* spread of -isty, -asty
* replacement of -’ev in soft stems with -’ov in the 16th century, and occasional hypercorrection to adding -’ev after hard stems: synev́i
* establishment of od(-) (<*otъ) before vowels and liquids, od okna, odnaleźć in the 15th century
* loss via analogy of mobile e: do Suvȧłk
* spread of -ywać
* replacement of neuter nouns ending in -ę with -ak: ćelȧk
* replacement of -eć infinitives with -ić/-yć: lezyć
* replacement of the superlative nȧ- with nai̯-
* establishment of voiced z(-) before vowels and liquids: zleźć, z ńim
* replacement of the locative plural -’eχ with -aχ in the middle of the 16th century
* mixing of the dative endings -ov́i with -u > -ov́u: bratoźu, χłopakoɣ́u, wołoju
* replacement of the genitive singular soft-stem ending -’e (<*-ě₃) with -i: z źä(m)ńi
* replacement of the nominative/accusative neuter ending -ē < *-ьje with -ĕ with declensions from *-jo-: zboze
* replacement of the genitive/locative adjective/pronoun plural ending -iχ with -ėχ
* sporadic use of adjective/pronoun endings for some nouns
* replacement of neuter/feminine dv́e with dva: dva krovi, dva okna
* replacement of the ending -i for numerals from 5-10 with -u: z dvu, seśću, or ṕę̇ćuχ
* replacement of ā < *ěja in preterite forms with the reflex of *ě by analogy: mńāł, mńăłă, mńeli
* loss of -ui̯e, -ovać (-ivać) in some verbs: kupać, zlatać
* loss of the dual with the dual form -ta replacing the second person plural: ńeśeta, ńeśta with -će being used for formal forms: ńeśeće
* in some subdialects spread of the first person dual -va in the present: ńeśeva
* in some subdialects replacement of the first person imperative -m with -my: ńeśmi or more often with -va: ńeźva, and occasional contamination of the two with -ma: neśma
* in the first person compound past (nosił(a) + jeśḿ) > -eśḿ > -(e)m: nosiłem/uśatem
* first person past: ńeśli(je)sm > neśliśmy, and also replacement with the dual: bẏliźva or -śma: nośiliśma
* merger of masculine personal with masculine animal endings by spread of -y and -e
** regional replacement of -li with -ły: spałi (for m.pr and m.an)
** regional replacement of -ły with -li: spali (for m.pr and m.an)