The Podlachian Language or a Northern Ukrainian Dialect: Vocalism (Based on the Book by Halyna Maksymiuk “Słova na viêtrovi”)

Abstract

The relevance of the research topic lies in the need to understand and evaluate the project of a Podlachian literary microlanguage.

The research material is the prose book by Halyna Maksymiuk “Słova na viêtrovi” (2022). The author has noted that the texts are written in the Podlachian language, and are composed with special graphics based on the letters of the Polish alphabet; graphemes č, š, ž, ô, ê are added to them.

The purpose of the research is to examine the status of the Podlachian literary

microlanguage using Halyna Maksymiuk’s book as a case study.

The analysis of the factual material has been conducted from a synchronic perspective using the linguistic description method, which employs techniques of external and internal interpretation. The techniques of internal and external reconstruction were also partially used.

The Podlachian phenomena in the vocal system have been identified, systematized, and commented on from an etymological perspective. The status of the Podlachian dialects as part of the Northern Ukrainian linguistic area has been examined.

Halyna Maksymiuk has created a literary text that is entirely oriented towards dialectal speech. Her works reproduce the features of Podlachian vocalism so precisely that they can be considered valuable and promising dialectological sources. At the same time, the qualification of this local linguistic standard as a separate East Slavic language is questionable.

Most of the noted phonetic phenomena have counterparts in other Polissian areas. The stressed vocalism in Podlachia includes 8 phonemes, while unstressed vocalism includes 6. A similar composition of stressed vocalism is found in some other Northern Ukrainian dialects, particularly the Eastern Polissian ones. Based on the specifics of its vocalism system, Podlachia is an organic part of the Northern Ukrainian dialectal area. Due to its isolation from the rest of the Ukrainian linguistic space, it has preserved archaic phonetic phenomena or transitional stages in the development of Ukrainian sound processes.

Therefore, the Podlachian language (“pudlaśka mova”) is not a separate East Slavic language but an attempt to create a local linguistic standard (a Slavic microlanguage) based on the Podlachian dialect, which, according to its vocalism system, belongs to the Northern dialects of the Ukrainian language.