Local language variants of Podlachian region as a component of the region’s intangible heritage

Gabriela Augustyniak-Żmuda

doi:10.32798/zl.1937

Published: 22025-12-15 — Updated on 2025-12-15

Vol. 63 No. 2 (2025)

Local language variants of Podlachian region as a component of the region’s intangible heritage

Gabriela Augustyniak-Żmuda

Zeszyty Łużyckie

Section: Articles

https://doi.org/10.32798/zl.1937

Abstract

The article addresses the topic of local variants of the Podlachian dialect, analyzing them in the context of their status as language heritage and the processes leading to its marginalization and possible revitalization. This region, located at the crossroads of cultural and linguistic influences, has for centuries been a space of coexistence of various ethnic and religious groups – Poles, Belarusians, Ukrainians, Tatars, Roma, and Jews – which has contributed to the shaping of a complex linguistic landscape. The local dialect which is the result of centuries of linguistic interference, combines elements of Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian and Russian, constituting a unique example of living intangible heritage.

The article presents the results of field research based on qualitative (narrative interviews) and quantitative (surveys) methods. The analysis of the empirical material allows to capture the progressive process of disappearance and revival of the local speech and shows ambivalent attitudes of the inhabitants towards its further existence – ranging from attachment to symbols of regional identity, to shame and distance resulting from school experiences, modernization, and the pressure of standard language. The author emphasizes the importance of local narratives as a source of knowledge about identity and language changes and as a tool for preserving and reinterpreting the cultural heritage of the Podlachian region.

Supporting Agencies

The article was written as part of research conducted at the Institute of Slavic Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences, where the research project "Linguistic diversity in Poland: collateral languages, language-oriented activities and conceptualization of collective identity" (SONATA BIS, National Science Centre, project number: 2020/38/E/HS2/00006) is carried out under the direction of prof. Nicole Dołowy–Rybińska.

Keywords:

Podlachian region, local language variants, intangible heritage, qualitative and quantitative research

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Augustyniak-Żmuda, G. (2025). Local language variants of Podlachian region as a component of the region’s intangible heritage. Zeszyty Łużyckie, 63(2). https://doi.org/10.32798/zl.1937

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Gabriela Augustyniak-Żmuda

gabriela.augustyniak-zmuda@ispan.edu.pl

Affiliation:

Instytut Slawistyki Polskiej Akademii Nauk Poland

Bio Statement (e.g., department and rank)

PhD, assistant professor at the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Linguist and researcher of cultural and linguistic borderlands, dealing with contemporary and historical conditions of language functioning in multilingual and peripheral contexts. Her academic work focuses on the analysis of linguistic biographies, with particular emphasis on individual and intergenerational experiences conditioned by historical and social processes. An important place in her research is occupied by the resettlement of populations to Poland after 1945 and its linguistic, cultural and identity consequences. Her research interests include Polish and Slavic linguistics, dialectology and sociolinguistics, including issues related to borderlands and language contacts, intergenerational language transmission, code-switching and the status of local language variants. Her reflections also focus on multilingualism and language ideologies, analysed from a social, cultural and narrative perspective. In her research, she combines qualitative and quantitative methods, using biographical interviews, discourse analysis and surveys, which allows her to capture the complexity of the relationship between language, memory, migration experience and identity.