Old Polish

Old Polish language (Polish: język staropolski) is the period in the history of the Polish language between the 10th and the 16th centuries, followed by the Middle Polish language.^[1]

The sources for the study of the Old Polish language in the pre-written era are the data of the comparative-historical grammar of Slavic languages, the material of Polish dialects and several monuments of writing with Polish glosses; the sources of the written era are numerous monuments of the Latin language with Polish glosses and monuments created only in Polish: "Holy Cross Sermons" (Polish: Kazania świętokrzyskie), "Florian Psalter" (Polish: Psałterz floriański), "Mother of God" (Polish: Bogurodzica), "Sharoshpatak Bible" (Polish: Biblia szaroszpatacka) and many others.

The Old Polish language was spread mainly on the territory of modern Poland: in the early era of its existence – in the Polish tribal principalities, later – in the Polish kingdom.

History[]

The Polish language started to change after the baptism of Poland, which caused an influx of Latin words, such as kościół "church" (Latin castellum, "castle"), anioł "angel" (Latin angelus). Many of them were borrowed via Czech, which, too, influenced Polish in that era (hence e.g. wiesioły "happy, blithe" (cf. wiesiołek) morphed into modern Polish wesoły, with the original vowels and the consonants of Czech veselý). Also, in later centuries, with the onset of cities founded on German law (namely, the so-called Magdeburg law), Middle High German urban and legal words filtered into Old Polish. Around the 14th or 15th centuries the aorist and imperfect became obsolete. In the 15th century the dual fell into disuse except for a few fixed expressions (adages, sayings). In relation to most other European languages, though, the differences between Old and Modern Polish are comparatively slight; the Polish language is somewhat conservative relative to other Slavic languages. That said, the relatively slight differences between Old and Modern Polish are unremarkable considering that the chronological stages of other European languages that Old Polish is contemporary with are generally not very different from the Modern stages and many of them already labelled "Early Modern"; Old Polish includes texts that were written as late as the Renaissance.

Spelling[]

The difficulty the medieval scribes had to face was attempting to codify the language was the inadequacy of the Latin alphabet to some sounds of the Polish language, for example cz, sz. Thus, Old Polish does not have a standard spelling. One letter could give several sounds – e.g. s can be read as s, sz or ś. Writing words was almost entirely consistent with the spelling of Latin, for example. Bichek – Byczek, Gneuos – Gniewosz etc.

Earliest written sentence[]

"Day, ut ia pobrusa, a ti poziwai", highlighted in red

The Book of Henryków (Polish: Księga henrykowska, Latin: Liber fundationis claustri Sancte Marie Virginis in Heinrichau), contains the earliest known sentence written in the Polish language: Day, ut ia pobrusa, a ti poziwai (pronounced originally as: Daj, uć ja pobrusza, a ti pocziwaj, modern Polish: Daj, niech ja pomielę, a ty odpoczywaj or Pozwól, że ja będę mielił, a ty odpocznij, English: Come, let me grind, and you take a rest), written around 1270.

The medieval recorder of this phrase, the Cistercian monk Peter of the Henryków monastery, noted that "Hoc est in polonico" ("This is in Polish").^[2][3][4]

Alphabet[]

Parkoszowic[]

About 1440  [pl], a professor of Jagiellonian University, tried to codify the Polish alphabet. He wrote the first tract on Polish orthographic rules (in Latin) and rhyme Obiecado (in Polish). The reform consisted in the introduction of round and unrounded letters on the distinction between hard (velarized) and soft (palatalized) consonants. It also contained merging double vowels to a long vowel, for example: aa – /aː/. Parkoszowic's proposal was not adopted, and his theoretical concepts had no followers.

Phonetics[]

Over the centuries Old Polish pronunciation was subjected to numerous modifications. These are only the most basic ones.

The consonant system transferred into the soft coronal consonants, for example /tʲ, dʲ, sʲ, zʲ/ for /t͡ɕ, d͡ʑ, ɕ, ʑ/. Along with these, for a time Old Polish had the voiced alveolar fricative trill, found in Czech as "ř" and still spelled rz in Polish, and which developed from /rʲ/, but it has since collapsed into ż. Many consonant clusters were simplified; which in the process made assimilation reverse many consonants in words, before that following a voiceless consonant.

Polish used to also have long vowels like Czech, but these have also since disappeared, although long o, spelled ó, collapsed into u. Long á survived well into the Middle Polish period.

Literature[]

• The Gniezno Bull (Polish: Bulla gnieźnieńska) a papal bull containing 410 Polish names, published 7 July 1136 (This document can be viewed in Polish wikisource)
• Mother of God (Polish: Bogurodzica) 10th–13th centuries, the oldest known Polish national anthem
• The Book of Henryków (Polish: Księga henrykowska, Latin: Liber fundationis) – contains the earliest known sentence written in the Polish language.
• The Holy Cross Sermons (Polish: Kazania świętokrzyskie) 14th century
• St. Florian's Psalter (Polish: Psałterz floriański) 14th century – a psalmody; consists of parallel Latin, Polish and German texts
• Master Polikarp's Dialog with Death (Polish: Rozmowa Mistrza Polikarpa ze Śmiercią, Latin: De morte prologus, Dialogus inter Mortem et Magistrum Polikarpum) verse poetry, early 15th century
• Lament of the Holy Cross (Polish: Lament świętokrzyski, also known as: Żale Matki Boskiej pod krzyżem or Posłuchajcie Bracia Miła), late 15th century
• Bible of Queen Sophia (Polish: Biblia królowej Zofii), first Polish Bible translation, 15th century

Example[]

Ach, Królu wieliki nasz

Coż Ci dzieją Maszyjasz,

Przydaj rozumu k'mej rzeczy,

Me sierce bostwem obleczy,

Raczy mię mych grzechów pozbawić

Bych mógł o Twych świętych prawić.

(The introduction to The Legend of Saint Alexius (15th century)

See also[]

• Modern Polish
• History of Polish
• History of Polish orthography

References[]