Old orthographies, grammars and handbooks of Polish language
The nearly 700-page-long Polnische Grammatik… (= Polish grammar for Germans who wish to learn Polish well, supplemented with a small etymological dictionary), written by a librarian and bibliographer, philologist, linguist, lexicographer and editor, is composed of two sections, namely Polish grammar and a small etymological dictionary. Each of them has its own pagination. The grammatical part is made of 22 chapters, where the author discusses Polish letters, syllables and pronunciation; orthography; etymology (inflected and uninflected parts of speech); syntax and prosody. The grammatical section is followed, despite what the title declares, by a quite extensive Polish-German dictionary. It is a nest dictionary, i.e. entries are prepared based on common etymological nests. The author adds grammatical information to the entries. Samuel Bandtkie wanted the dictionary to serve teaching and self-teaching purposes. Like Johann Christoph Adelung, the author used the Latin terminology in his work. There were four editions of the study: 2nd edition Wrocław 1815; 3rd edition Wrocław 1818; 4th edition Wrocław 1824. All successive editions were released in Wrocław and additionally contained Tirocinium, a part with exercises. Polnische Grammatik… was ordered by Wilhelm Gottlieb Korn’s bookshop and publishing enterprise in Wrocław. Originally, the bookshop commissioned Bandtkie to prepare a new revised edition of Deutsch-Polnische Grammatik (1770) by Johann Christian Krumbholz. However, it did not rule out the possibility of writing a completely new one. Bandtkie chose the latter option.
Go to grammarCharakterystyka psychologiczna języka polskiego (= Psychological description of Polish) is one of 25 dissertations published in Volume II (Section III, Part I) of Encyklopedia polska (= Polish Encyclopaedia), titled Język polski i jego historya z uwzględnieniem innych języków na ziemiach polskich (= Polish and its history, including other languages in the Polish territory). Charakterystyka psychologiczna... begins with a lecture on fundamental theses and a specification of the objectives of the psychological concept of language. Baudouin de Courtenay believed in the absolute psychological nature of human language. The individually existing psychological and linguistic world (linguistic thinking) could be born only in a society and through human interactions, and human language makes sense only when it serves the purpose of communication. The central concept in the analysis of linguistic processes is an image, that is a mental unit. Images are three types of linguistic elements: phonetic, semasiological (semantic) and morphological. A phoneme – a mental element of language – is a combination of several kinema, acousma and kinakeme, associated with the image of the simultaneity of physiological works and their acoustic outcomes. Morphemes are uniform and indivisible morphological units associated with a certain meaning.
The changes occurring in language are conditioned on mental processes consisting in association of images. The result of association is phonetisation, semasiologisation and morphologisation of linguistic elements. The essence of semasiologisation and morphologisation of linguistic elements is illustrated by alternation relations. Assimilation – continuous processes of language changes, creation of morphological innovations, occurring in linguistic thinking, perceived after the changes become visible. The study is characterised by a range of properties untypical of phonic texts; graphisation consists in adding written and visual images to linguistic images.
A human being, when projecting his or her I onto the outside world, at the same time animates and substantivises the reality. The animated notions influence the way of thinking about oneself and the surrounding world. The phenomenon of stereotypisation of the reality involves extremely negative or positive evaluations and experiences. Polish linguistic thinking is tinged with sexual gender – sexualisation, masculinisation and virilisation are the most prominent effects of animation. Baudouin de Courtenay’s position as regards the linguistic worldview is similar to Humboldt’s standpoint.
Go to grammarGrammatica francuska i polska… (= French and Polish grammar, or the most effective method of learning French by a Pole and Polish by a French, printed for learners’ convenience) was released anonymously in 1759. Karol Estreicher attributed it to Stanisław Dąbrowski, a Piarist. The grammar book is a compilation, its contents were derived from other French grammar books: Klucz do języka francuskiego… (= A key to French…) (1700) by Bartłomiej Kazimierz Malicki and Nouvelle methode… (= A new method…) by F.D. Duchênebillot (1699). Published first in 1740. The author of the study describes mainly the French language: its phonetics, orthography and syntax, with Polish as a point of reference, in four treaties divided into chapters. Dąbrowski’s grammar book was used for teaching French in the School of Chivalry.
Go to grammarJan Nepomucen Deszkiewicz was an amateur grammarian. Published in 1846, Gramatyka języka polskiego (= Grammar of Polish) consists of introductory parts and fourteen chapters dedicated to speech classification, its individual parts (interjections, pronouns, nouns, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, words), syntax, vowel length, spelling, rhyming, and word formation. The author devotes much space to explaining the origin of each of the eight parts of speech he distinguishes. He presents inflection patterns of inflected parts. He also touches upon proper language use by providing examples of errors and propositions of their correction. The grammar book is intended for teaching purposes and is addressed to the entire nation. Deszkiewicz considers the 16th-century language as the basis and a supreme example of Polish, and therefore the innovativeness of the grammar book is to consist, among others, in restoring the dual or preserving the narrowed e with a diacritic. There was only one edition of the grammar book but it aroused the contemporaries’ interest, which is proved by its reviews. It was criticised e.g. for backwardness and linguistic purism.
Go to grammarNouvelle méthode… (= A new method of learning how to read, write and talk in French easily and quickly, to be used by Lay Maids staying in the Royal Monastery for Nuns of Adoration of the Most Holy SACRAMENT. With various words and popular discourse collected at the end) is the first textbook of French written in Polish (some of its sections are bilingual: French and Polish). It is composed of three basic parts: a) grammar of French, b) a French-Polish dictionary, and c) a French-Polish phrasebook. The work is closed with a phonetic supplement dedicated to pronunciation of Polish letters titled Petite instruction pour la prononciation des lettres polonoises (= A short method of learning how to pronounce Polish letters), written only in French. The supplement was addressed to the French and the fact that it was included in the discussed publication permits the inference that the textbook was supposed to be used not only by Poles learning French but also by the French staying in Poland at that time and wishing to learn Polish. F.D. Duchênebillot’s textbook was reissued 13 times throughout the 18th century, which might imply its great popularity in those days.
The grammar presented in Nouvelle méthode… consists of three parts, the first of which is devoted to French phonetics and orthography and the second – to morphology with elements of syntax. The third one, in turn, which is essentially unrelated to grammar, as it concerns French equivoques (lexical homonyms), can be regarded as a supplement to the two earlier parts. Duchênebillot’s grammar is an object of B.K. Malicki’s (not always legitimate) polemics in Klucz do języka francuskiego… (A key to French…), which was published a year later.
Go to grammarPublished in 1776, Zbiór rzeczy…(= A collection of what is most necessary to achieve excellence in the mother tongue) is difficult to classify into a specific genre: a grammar book or, due to the extent of the guidance on proper language use (good – bad), a linguistic guide. When substantiating his judgments, as was proved by a critical analysis of the work, the author referred to Grzegorz Cnapius’s dictionary (1643-1644), Sebastian Petrycy’s paraphrase of Horace’s poems (1609), and contemporary writers: Adam Naruszewicz and Dawid Pilchowski. Zbiór rzeczy… is composed of 21 chapters, some of which are supplemented with more or less extensive sets of words with the largest one to be found in the final chapter. Dudziński begins his deliberations with spelling and punctuation issues, continues with a discussion on phonetic, inflectional and syntactic aspects (government), and devotes most attention to vocabulary. As can be inferred from the content layout, he assumes word forms, stylistic values, time of appearance in the language, etymology, classification into a given thematic area, and ambiguity as the basis for segmenting vocabulary. Since Dudziński had a contact with a regional variant of Polish (he came from Mazovia, received his education in Polack and Vilnius, was a teacher in Minsk), regionalisms also became an object of his evaluation in terms of correctness, which makes Zbiór rzeczy… a valuable source of knowledge of the north borderland Polish language.
Go to grammarСравнительная грамматика польскаго языка с русским, составленная учителем гимназии Михаилом Грубецким (= Comparative grammar of Polish and Russian by a gymnasium teacher, Michał Grubecki) was reprinted seven times in the period 1872-1895. It is one of the first attempts to compare grammars of Polish and Russian for school purposes.
M. Grubecki’s work is based on a Russian grammar book (Русская грамматика (Russian Grammar), Ed. 1 1834) by Ardalion Ivanov. He replaced Russian examples with Polish ones, supplemented the textbook with Polish terms, discussed the characteristic features of Polish, provided information about Russian. When formulating theoretical rules, he relied also on Antoni Małecki’s and Józef Muczkowski’s textbooks.
The book is divided into the introduction and three sections: Словопроизведение (Morphology), Словосочинение (Syntax), Правописание (Spelling). Starting from the 5th edition [1887], the author adds a practical part titled Пример диктовки из древних авторов (Examples for dictation derived from old authors).
Grubecki’s textbook was released in a period of intensifying Russification and was used for teaching Polish in gymnasiums. In accordance with the regulations of authorities, all subjects, apart from Religious Education, were taught in Russian in the period 1869–1899.
Go to grammarVorbott der Polnischen Sprachkunst. Goniec gramatyki polskiej (= The messenger of Polish grammar), written by a translator, lexicographer, teacher and lawyer, is a 190-page-long textbook specialised in only one branch of language, namely grammar. Maciej Gutthäter-Dobracki addressed this textbook to the youth just starting to learn Polish, which means that it is a course for beginners. Therefore, the author does not present the whole grammar but limits himself to morphology, which is not discussed thoroughly either. He handles inflected parts of speech only. Dobracki provides full inflectional paradigms, yet reduces the commentary and rules as much as possible. It was an intentional procedure for two reasons. Firstly, as he emphasised himself, he did not want to overburden the students with an excessively difficult material, and secondly, he worked on a textbook for advanced learners, which covered the entire course in grammar.
In his study, Dobracki applies terminology in national languages (German and Polish). Although he was criticised for that, Goniec gramatyki Polskiej won recognition among the contemporary authors of textbooks for learning foreign languages (e.g. Georg Schlag). Despite that, Dobracki’s work did not gain popularity and was never republished.
Go to grammarPolnische Teutsch erklärte Sprachkunst… Gramatyka polska, Niemieckim językiem wyrażona (= Polish grammar explained in German) by Maciej Gutthäter-Dobracki, a translator, lexicographer, teacher and lawyer, is an extensive, 566-page-long, study of Polish grammar containing lots of rules, exceptions and commentaries on grammatical phenomena in Polish. Dobracki wrote his work as a more advanced course in Polish grammar, which covered all branches of grammar, namely orthography (with elements of phonetics and correct spelling), prosody, etymology (currently, morphology with elements of word formation), and syntax. The author’s intention was to teach sophisticated Polish and therefore his dry grammatical lectures are illustrated with examples from Polish literature and use no colloquial language or common expressions.
Like Justus Georg Schottel, he introduced terminology in national languages (Polish and German) to his textbook, although he did not fully resign from the Latin grammatical terminology as he mentions it aside Polish and German terms. Dobracki’s Gramatyka polska…, although appreciated by the contemporary authors of textbooks of Polish, did not gain popularity and was not republished. This could have been a consequence of the reader being overburdened with numerous rules, exceptions and commentaries, as well as references and comparisons to Latin grammar.
Go to grammarGrammatyka języka polskiego przez Maxymiliana Jakubowicza ułożona (= Grammar of Polish by Maxymilian Jakubowicz) is a two-volume study published in Vilnius in 1823, recognised as one of the best 19th-century philosophical grammar books covering all fundamental fields of language description: from phonetics and orthography, to inflection, which was analysed in greatest detail, to syntax and spelling. The terminological apparatus applied in the work is explained and consistent with the philosophical concept of language, and the study itself combines a description of the basic branches of language with the process of human thinking and perception of the world. For instance, the author very rarely uses the term zdanie (a sentence) in syntax, replacing it with the term myśl (a thought), and points to względy (relations), that is the role of individual cases in syntax, in expressing thoughts rather than to formal exponents of cases in nominal inflection. The description of verb inflection is complex as the author distinguishes a range of categories, such as the system of tenses, which is expanded and inadequate to the linguistic reality. Morphonological alternations, in turn, are identified correctly although their description is characterised by errors typical of the state of knowledge of that time. Some comments on Polish syntax are still topical, e.g. ones regarding syntactic requirements of participle clauses.
Go to grammarTwo extensive articles by Jan Nepomucen Kamiński Czy nasz język jest filozoficzny? (= Is our language a philosophical one?) and Wywód filozoficzności naszego języka (= An argument on the philosophical nature of our language) were included in two first volumes of Haliczanin, a literary quarterly published in Lviv, in 1830. These are theoretical, philosophical discussions on language, which represent the 19th-century inspired linguistics. Both are written in an elevated intricate style and the discussions are conducted in accordance with deductionism, which is underlain by unclear and false premises that lead to untrue judgments on selected words.
The author focuses on discussing the etymology and meaning of randomly juxtaposed words, often his own neologisms, based on significant, in his opinion, wyrobek (a root), that is combinations of sounds: je, ju, ja and się, referring to the existence, being, the human I, being “evidence of the highest philosophical nature of language.” For instance, the following are words containing wyrobek je, the most important one as it occurs in the verb jest (is): istota (being) (spelled also with reference to the form jest as jestota), istność, iściwość, istliwość, jestestwo, istnieć, iścieć, iściwy, isty, jąć, po-jąć, po-jętliwy, po-jętny, po-jemliwy, jemny, po-jemny, po-jętliwość, po-jętność, je-dno, w-idno, w-jedno, w-jé (something in-je), po-w-je, w-jedza (knowledge), and the use of a hyphen in the spelling of some of them is supposed to highlight the significant wyrobek.
Kamiński associates the philosophical nature of Polish not only with the pronunciation of sounds, their combinations or entire words but also with the graphic representation of individual letters, assigning meanings to their shapes. Meanings determined based on free associations are ascribed also to selected morphological categories, e.g. the system of grammatical cases. Kamiński is interested also in the issues falling into the scope of the theory of literature and therefore he proposes a redefinition, based on his own philosophical approach, of terms such as poezja (poetry), proza (prose), rym (a rhyme), miara (a measure).
Go to grammarPraktyczny wykład nauki języka polskiego… (= A practical lecture on the Polish language, including etymology, syntax and spelling) by Józefa Kamocka (1st edition: 1870) is one of the first Polish grammar books written by a woman. The book covers the material to be learnt by the youngest school children. The textbook itself is, however, addressed mainly to their mothers, who, according to the author, were supposed to teach them the knowledge contained there. This assumption, as well as the teaching qualifications of the author, who was a student of Stanisław Jachowicz, an advocate of new educational ideas, and an active teacher, determined the content presentation method. The convention of questions and answers was adopted, numerous subheadings were introduced, and the reasoning was illustrated with inflection tables, supported with examples, and supplemented with test exercises (with a key). The divisions (being part of grammar as defined at that time) discussed in the textbook are as follows: O grammatyce (On grammar) (a lecture on morphology), Nauka o składni (The science of syntax), O użyciu znaków przestankowych (On using punctuation marks), O pisowni (On spelling).
The work by J. Kamocka enjoyed high popularity, which is proved by the number of its editions, i.e. as many as eight.
Go to grammarPublished in 1767, the book O początku, dawności, odmianach… (= On the beginning, antiquity, variants and improvement of the Polish language. Sentences) is composed of 16 parts (called Zdania (Sentences) by the author). Sentences 1-7 are dedicated to the genealogy of Slavonic languages and Polish. Making references to the rich literature on the subject and etymology, Kleczewski argues that Slavonic was used by the Scythians (Scyths), followed by the Sarmatians and the Slavs. In Sentences 8-11, he takes up important issues in the field of Polish language culture, pays particular attention to borrowings, scientific and professional terminology, macaronicisms, neologisms (he formulates criteria for their evaluation), appropriate word choice, and correct pronunciation. As regards borrowings, he represents a purist approach, offers propositions of their replacement with native neologisms, old words or words borrowed from other Slavonic languages. He criticises the dismissive attitude to the mother tongue and negligence in language education and points to the absence of grammar and a codified standard. He appreciates the initiatives for language improvement taken by the environment of king Stanisław Poniatowski. Sentence 12 is dedicated to the issue of upbringing, 13 – to benefits from reading books and mastering memorisation skills, while Sentences 14-16 – to translating and writing books in Polish. Through his work, Kleczewski joined the group of Enlightenment activists (Franciszek Bohomolec, Ignacy Krasicki, Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski), who engaged in the battle for the rebirth of their native language in the 18th c.
Go to grammarGramatyka współczesnej polszczyzny kulturalnej (= Grammar of the contemporary cultural Polish) (1st edition: 1939), as intended by its author, Zenon Klemensiewicz, was supposed to be a popular science publication addressed to non-professionals. The synthetic, merely 180-page-long, work was divided into the following chapters: Nauka o głosce (Sound science) (phonetics and phonology), Nauka o wyrazie (Word science) (morphology: word formation and inflection as well as semantics and etymology), and Nauka o zdaniu (Sentence science) (syntax in classical terms). Each of them is composed of paragraphs and ends with supplementary bibliography. The author does not use specialised terminology, makes his lecture clearer by illustrating it with numerous tables, and gives attention to proper language use.
The publication enjoyed high popularity, it was reprinted in 1946, and released twice in 1947. In 1952, it was retitled: Podstawowe wiadomości z gramatyki języka polskiego (Rudiments of Polish grammar) and published as an academic textbook. There were as many as 15 editions of this version, also after the author’s death. The last one was released in 2001.
Go to grammarGrammatyka dla szkół narodowych (= Grammar for national schools) by Onufry Kopczyński has been an unprecedented work in the history of the Polish grammatical thought since the 15th c. Although it is not the first Polish grammar written in Polish (Walenty Szylarski was earlier), it is the 18th-century study by the Piarist that has exerted the greatest influence on the grammatical terminology applied to this day. The publication of the school grammar written by the order of the Commission of National Education was spread over years and the work itself was divided into sections corresponding to the successive levels of language education of pupils (grammar for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd class, respectively). An integral element of the text is the so-called notes for teachers and Układ grammatyki dla szkół narodowych z dzieła skończonego wyciągniony (= A system of grammar for national schools drawn from a complete work), which is a summary, released in 1785.
The arrangement of the content presented in the initial three parts of the textbook was subordinated to its educational goal rather than (like e.g. in the so-called posthumous grammar book by Kopczyński) to individual language subsystems. Therefore, the grammarian, who also had extensive teaching experience, first discussed introductory issues and then developed them in textbooks for older classes. It is also worth emphasising that the main object of the description is Polish and Kopczyński’s work is treated as a groundbreaking textbook of Polish; the description provided there is in fact comparative since Polish grammar is continuously compared to the Latin one.
Go to grammarOnufry Kopczyński is known mainly as the author of the so-called school grammar book, written and published by the order of the Commission of National Education in the 1780s. Developed at the turn of the 19th century, Grammatyka języka polskiego (=Polish grammar by Piarist X. Onufry Kopczyński. A posthumous work), was released a year after the author’s death and is to a large extent an outcome of the revision of Grammatyka dla szkół narodowych (= Grammar for national schools) and the evolution of the author’s grammatical concepts. The study has 267 pages and consists of three parts divided into shorter chapters. This arrangement is subordinate to the classical triad and reflects Onufry Kopczyński’s theory on the nature of language, which, in his opinion, is composed of “speech” (the phonetic layer), “meaning”, and “painting of speech” (the graphic layer). The posthumous Polish grammar book offers a highly detailed analysis of these elements, as a result of which the reader is provided with a description of all language subsystems. Unlike school grammar, the description is made in isolation from the Latin one, which is a starting point for the discussion on Polish grammar in Onufry Kopczyński’s first work. Although the author had proposed a Polish-language grammatical terminology in his earlier study, he consolidated and (in some cases) revised it in the so-called posthumous grammar book. From the viewpoint of the 19th-century grammatical thought, Grammatyka języka polskiego of 1817 did not bring any revolutionary solutions and many of the theories its proposed originated from the Enlightenment concepts, which were criticised later, for instance by Józef Mroziński. It does not change the fact, however, that the work’s contribution to the development of not only the Polish thought but also (and foremost) the grammatical terminology cannot be overestimated.
Go to grammarSystematyczna składnia języka polskiego (= Systematic syntax of Polish) is one of the first Polish grammar books dedicated entirely to syntactic issues. Its author was Antoni Krasnowolski, a linguist, teacher and translator born in 1855. The author’s aim was to describe Polish syntax and its rules in detail.
His work is composed of Wstęp (Introduction), where he explains the basic syntactic terms, and two essential parts. The first one, dedicated to simple sentences, describes primary (subject and predicate) and secondary (nominal and adjectival attributes and adverbial modifiers as well as complements) elements of a sentence, and the second one discusses syntax of compound sentences, which the author divided by three criteria: the replaced part of speech, the discussed part of a sentence, and coordinate clause conjunctions into: 1) nominal, verbal, adjectival and adverbial, 2) subjective, predicative, attributive, and complement, 3) conjunctive, interrogative and relative clauses. The author did not disregard correctness issues and pointed to various syntactic barbarisms.
A. Krasnowolski’s grammar book was positively received by critics and users, which is evidenced by the number of editions and preparation of an abridged version for schools. A. Krasnowolski was the first linguist to describe so many syntactic aspects of Polish, standardise the syntactic terminology and introduce new definitions of popular terms. The 20th-century linguists also appreciated the author’s contribution to the development of the knowledge of Polish syntax: the use of formal and logical criteria in classification of terms, separation of subjectless sentences from one-element ones, identification of a nominal attribute, a preliminary description of an apposition as a separate part of a sentence, a more in-depth description of various parts of a sentence. Polish linguistics owes, among others, the distinction of the adverbial of comparison, the adverbial of regard, and the adverbial of accompanying circumstances to the author.
Go to grammarThe 1790 edition of Johann Christian Krumbholz’s work is composed of his two books published earlier, namely Kurzgefasste und deutliche Deutsch-Polnische Grammatik (= A short and concise German-Polish grammar) and Deutsch-Polnisches Tirocinium (= A German-Polish phrasebook). They were both released anonymously in 1775. The first book comprises German-Polish grammar and a Polish-German dictionary. The original dictionary was published in Bojanowo probably as early as in 1769 and was addressed to the local school pupils. The original grammar, in turn, was released ca. 1770. The latter textbook, Tirocinium…, published in Wrocław in 1775, is grammatical exercises and a hundred school phrases drawn from Latin grammar and translated into Polish with vocabulary and grammatical formulas explained. The first joint edition of both textbooks comes from 1783. That and successive editions, in accordance with the author’s intention, were used and printed together and under his name. All joint editions of Kurzgefasste und deutliche Deutsch-Polnische Grammatik and Deutsch-Polnisches Tirocinium were published by Wilhelm Bogumił Korn in Wrocław and republished in 1783, 1790, 1794, and 1797. In the relevant literature, Krumbholz’s work is usually mentioned under a shortened, given its content, title Kurzgefasste und deutliche Deutsch-Polnische Grammatik. It implies that it is only a grammatical study, while in fact it contains, apart from grammar, a dictionary and exercises with phrases – three originally separate textbooks merged into one.
Go to grammarGramatyka języka polskiego (= Polish Grammar) by Adam Antoni Kryński of 1897 may not be a revolutionary work but it is undoubtedly a groundbreaking one. It is one of the first textbooks where the historical-comparative method was employed and one of the last textbooks that are chiefly practical. In his work, the author focuses on three main branches. These are: I. Głosownia (Phonetics and phonology), II. Fleksja, czyli nauka o odmianach (Inflection, or the science of conjugation and declension), III. Pisownia (Spelling). An index of the explained words can be found at the end of the study.
The educational character of the work as well as the accessible and comprehensible form of the description imply that the textbook was intended mainly for youth from the very beginning. In Przedmowa (Preface) to the second edition of 1900, the author indicates that the addressee is more mature youth, perhaps university students. The textbook went down in history as a very good one, which thoroughly describes mainly inflection in the Polish language of the late 19th c. and its history. In many cases, diachronic information prevailes over synchronic one.
Kryński’s textbook closes the “grammar writing” period in the history of the Polish linguistic thought. The contemporary Polish linguistics can be said to have begun at that time. Although the work does not represent descriptive or historical linguistics yet, is constitutes the basis for the studies of researchers such as Jan Rozwadowski, Jan Łoś, and Stanisław Szober.
Go to grammarУчебник польскаго языка. Przewodnik do praktycznej nauki języka polskiego dla Rossyan (= A guide to practical learning of Polish for Russians) by Tomasz Kurhanowicz was addressed to those who could already speak Polish. It was, in today’s terms, a textbook for advanced learners. It is composed of three major sections: the first one with the title in Russian Азбука польская разделенная на буквы гласныя и согласныя (= The Polish alphabet divided into vowels and consonants), the second one being a selection of texts describing the history of Poland (Wybrane podania kronikarskie dla wprawy do czytania po polsku (= Selected chronicle tales for developing the skill of reading in Polish)), and the third one demonstrating the output of Polish poets from the Renaissance to the 19th century (Przykłady poezji (= Examples of poetry)). Grammatical information is provided in part one, often as a comment on longer statements in Polish.
In order to familiarise the Russian recipient with the rules of Polish grammar, Kurhanowicz points to the common features of both languages on the one hand (e.g. the number of cases, endings of plural adjectives, with the exception of nominative, accusative and instrumental -emi), and to differences between them on the other hand (e.g. the scope of usage of the regular inflection forms of adjectives: in Russian этотъ человек добр, but in Polish – ten człowiek jest dobry (it is a good man), the use of personal pronouns with verbs: in Russian я был, in Polish – byłem (I was), the verb ending indicating the person or the ablative case: in Russian coзданный Богом – stworzone od Boga (created by God)).
The selection of texts incorporated in the guide (including translations and explanations of difficult words into Russian, e.g. równość (equality) or Rzeczypospolita (Commonwealth)) serve the purpose of both language skills training and familiarisation with the Polish history, literature and culture.
Go to grammarWegweiser zur Polnischen vnd Deutschen Sprache... (= A guide to Polish and German), written by a Polish and German preacher in St. Christopher church in Wrocław and rector of the Polish School in Wrocław, is made of 124 unnumbered leaves (248 pages) in total. Michael Kuschius’s work is first of all an alphabetical German-Polish-Latin dictionary supplemented with a merely 19-page-long Polish grammar book. The dictionary part is a text in three columns and covers ca. 5,500–5,700 alphabetically ordered entries lacking any grammatical information or labels. Their source language is German. For many entries, the author provides two, three, or even four equivalents in Polish. The publication of a dictionary with an alphabetical order of entries was a groundbreaking moment in the Silesian lexicography and it was Kuschius that initiated and implemented the project. The grammatical section of Wegweiser… is to a large extent declension and conjugation patterns with no commentary. Occasional trite grammatical information can be found.
As has been determined to date, there was only one edition of Wegweiser… It was supposed to be used chiefly in the school where the author of the study held the function of rector.
Go to grammarGramatyka języka polskiego (= Polish Grammar Book: A School Textbook with 19 Drawings, a Table and Map of Dialects) by Tadeusz Lehr-Spławiński and Roman Kubiński, originally intended for students, was first published in 1927 by the Ossoliński National Institute Publishing House. It had seven editions with the fifth one released twice. The authors of the work describe Polish grammar in three main unnumbered chapters divided into shorter subchapters and paragraphs. Chapter one is dedicated to phonetics and phonology, chapter two – to morphology, and chapter three – to syntax. Morphology is discussed in the greatest detail. It is worth noting that although it is not a study characterised by high innovativeness overall, Lehr-Spławiński and Kubiński express there some original thoughts and use peculiar grammatical terms (e.g. orzeczenie domyślne (an implied predicate), przydawka ilościowa przydawki (a quantitative attribute of an attribute)).
Go to grammarGramatyka polska (= Polish grammar) by Jan Łoś is in fact the first historical grammar of Polish, richly illustrated with examples from relics. It was addressed to students, secondary school teachers, enthusiasts of Polish, representatives of the intelligentsia. Gramatyka polska is composed of three parts released at intervals: I. Głosownia historyczna (Historical phonetics and phonology), II. Słowotwórstwo (Word formation) and III. Odmiennia (fleksja) historyczna (Historical inflection). There is Słowo wstępne (Preface) and a list of abbreviations at the beginning and an index of Polish words at the end of each of them. Each section is divided into chapters. The author commented on some difficult issues that were insufficiently characterised or were studied only then, and provided the latest findings of scholars. For instance, in the case of verb aspect, he went back to the first references to it in the 16th-century grammar books and then presented the standpoints of successive grammarians until the study by Sigurd Agrell of the early 20th c. and Stanisław Szober of 1923.
Gramatyka polska was appreciated by linguists for its subject matter and abundance of examples excerpted from relics, which illustrate individual findings of the author.
Łoś intended to release also the fourth part of Gramatyka polska, syntax, but his plans failed due to his death. However, the scholar left his study of syntax in Gramatyka języka polskiego (= Grammar of Polish), written in collaboration with Tytus Benni, Kazimierz Nitsch, Jan Rozwadowski, and Henryk Ułaszyn in 1923, and the discussion on historical syntax in Krótka gramatyka historyczna języka polskiego (= A short historical grammar of Polish) of 1927.
Go to grammarKlucz do języka francuskiego... (= A key to French, that is Polish-French grammar compiled by Bartłomiej Kazimierz Malicki, a Doctor of Philosophy and Medicine, a Secretary of His Majesty, to help the Poles eager to learn French) is the second Polish-language French grammar book published in Poland (the first was F.D. Duchênebillot’s Nouvelle méthode..., published in 1699). Malicki decided to release it, as can be inferred from the preface, as a study clearly competitive and critical against Duchênebillot’s grammar book, which was published a year earlier. Klucz…, written with the Poles learning the language of Moliere in mind, was to be the first reliable lecture dedicated to French relying on grammatical publications recognised in France (the basic source used by Malicki was the bilingual Latin-French grammar by M. Mauconduit titled Nouvelle Grammaire Françoise..., released in Paris in 1678). On the other hand, Klucz… was supposed to serve, as an accessible aid in learning French grammar, practical teaching purposes.
Klucz... is composed of three treaties dedicated to: a) phonetics and orthography (“orthography”), b) morphology of the inflected parts of speech (“etymology”), c) morphology of the uninflected parts of speech and syntax (“syntax or structures, in Polish: term agreement”). The discussed grammar book was not officially reissued (yet its fragments were illegally reprinted a few times in the 18th century). Published in 1701, Lexykon francusko-polski (French-Polish Lexicon) is an intended continuation of and supplementation to Klucz… by Malicki.
Go to grammarAntoni Małecki used the output of comparative linguistics and included the historical development of the Polish language in his description presented in Gramatyka języka polskiego większa (= Greater grammar of Polish) published in Lviv in 1863, which made his study stand out from earlier textbooks in terms of scientific level. The historical approach left its mark on nearly all branches of grammar (in the traditional sense of this discipline). The textbook contains not only a description of the language contemporary to Małecki but also, which is a novelty against the earlier Polish studies, extensive commentaries on the history of Polish, the information about its development, transformations, system and unit language changes, and reconstructions of entire words, individual inflectional endings, suffixes, word-formative affixes, etc. The relevant literature emphasises the prominent role of Małecki’s study in inspiring new methodological ideas as it is owed to this textbook that a new stream of research on language, i.e. the historical-comparative method, was there to stay in Poland and prevailed in the Polish linguistics until as late as the early 20th century. What is also noted in Gramatyka... is a completely novel definition of the category of voice, important observations about aspectual pairs, separating word-formation and inflection issues (which had been described jointly by earlier grammarians) as well as a specification of the object and scope of the description of these branches, and a new approach to some declension issues, consistent with Western scientific grammar books.
Go to grammarGrammatica seu institutio Polonicae linguae in qua etymologia, syntaxis & reliqae partes omnes exacte tractantur; in usum exterorum edita (=Polish grammar or rules, where etymology, syntax, and other elements are thoroughly discussed; published for foreigners) was released in Georgius Forster’s publishing house in 1649. Its author, Franciscus à Mesgnien Meninski, came from Lorraine.
The principal text of the treaty is divided into nine chapters: De Litteris earumque pronuntiatione (On letters and their pronunciation), De Nomine (On the noun), De Pronomine (On the pronoun), De Verbo (On the verb), De Participio (On the participle), De Adverbio (On the adverb), De Praepositione (On the preposition), De Coniunctione (On the conjunction), De Interiectione (On the interjection), De Syntaxi (On syntax). The system of grammatical cases (7) described in the grammar book responds, which should be considered the author’s achievement, to the needs of the Polish inflectional system. Meninski divides words in accordance with the Latin model (like Pierre Statorius-Stojeński before him and Sigismund Kotzer after him) into eight parts of speech. However, he does not provide their definitions and their names can be inferred only from the titles of individual sections of the treaty. In the inflection of the noun and the verb, he mentions three patterns for each and illustrates them with numerous examples. Against the earlier Gdańsk grammar books, this work stands out by a special chapter dedicated to syntax. The discussion on syntax begins with presenting ways of addressing the interlocutor(s), including the use of titles.
The contemporary researchers mention Meninski’s grammar among the best ones.
Go to grammarEnchiridion Polonicum oder Polnisches Hand=Buch. Enchiridion Polonicum lub Podręcznik języka polskiego (= Enchiridion Polonicum or a textbook of Polish) by Jan Moneta, a Lutheran preacher and translator, is an over 400-page-long study comprising several sections constituting a full course in Polish. They include: a short Polish grammar, a few useful phrases, Polish proverbs explained in German, a list of German and Polish words (in fact, a German-Polish dictionary with entries in an alphabetical order), a form with titles, a template of letters, and merchant dialogues.
Published in Gdańsk, Enchiridion… enjoyed high popularity not only there but also in Toruń, Warsaw, Leszno, Jelena Góra, Leipzig and, in the second half of the 18th c., even in the faraway Wrocław, where Daniel Vogel, a Wrocław teacher in Maria Magdalena Gymnasium, elaborated it anew. Beginning from its fifth edition of 1786, Moneta’s textbook was released under a changed title Polnische Grammatik (= Polish grammar). It was used in schools in Pomerania and Silesia until as late as the early 19th century. It was considered to be the best course in Polish for nearly 100 years.
Go to grammarPolnisches Lesebuch, Lexikon und Sprachlehre für die ersten Anfänger (= A Polish storybook, lexicon and grammar for beginners) by Krzysztof Celestyn Mrongowiusz is composed of three independent parts: a storybook (titled: Polnisches Lesebuch), a dictionary (Kleines Polnisches Handwörterbuch), and a grammar book (Kurzgefaßte Polnische Sprachlehre für Deutsche). In the long title of his work, Mrongowiusz argues that it is addressed to both learners of Polish and those who wish to learn or master German. The content of the study does not, however, confirm this declaration: the analysis has shown that it is dedicated to Germans learning Polish. In the first of 12 chapters of Polnische Sprachlehre…, titled Von den Buchstaben und ihrem Laute (On letters and their sounds), Mrongowiusz shares his comments on Polish spelling and phonetics with the reader, in chapter two, titled Classification…, he enumerates parts of speech, which are discussed in successive chapters (III–XII).
Polnische Sprachlehre… is a reliable and, as for the end of the 18th c., a relatively modern compendium of the knowledge of the Polish language. Mrongowiusz systematises and complements the earlier theories, polemicising with some of them.
Go to grammarJózef Mroziński was a well-educated extremely talented soldier. After one of the military campaigns in which he took part, he wrote a text entitled Oblężenie i obrona Saragossy, w latach 1808 i 1809, ze względem szczególniejszym na czynności korpusu polskiego (= The siege and defence of Saragossa in 1808 and 1809 with a particular focus on the operations of the Polish Corps), which was published in 1819. Mroziński’s work was evaluated positively by the editor of Pamiętnik Warszawski (Warsaw Diary), Feliks Bentkowski, and since its language was far from perfect, Bentkowski communicated his critical remarks to the author and thus inspired him to work on his Polish and grammar.
Mroziński took up the study of Polish grammar books. As he did not find answers to the questions that bothered him there, he reached for grammar books of other European languages. The outcome of the works was the publication of Pierwsze zasady grammatyki języka polskiego (= The first rules of Polish grammar) in 1822. This textbook differed from earlier studies. The author did not want to learn inflectional patterns, he wished to explore the phenomena present in the language based on observations of its sound layer and inflection. He tried to discern dependencies between alternations occurring in words and their inflection. For the first time, he pointed to the difference between a letter and a sound.
His innovative approach to the subject was criticised by the linguists of that time. Mroziński responded to the critical opinion in 1824 writing Odpowiedź na umieszczoną w Gazecie Literackiej recenzję dzieła pod tytułem: Pierwsze zasady gramatyki języka polskiego (= A response to the review of the study titled “The first rules of Polish grammar” published in Gazeta Literacka (Literary Gazette)). The response was almost 300-page-long, while Zasady was nearly 100-page-long. After the publication of Pierwsze zasady gramatyki, and in particular Odpowiedź na recenzję…, he was acclaimed an authority. Although he was invited to participate in the works of the commission for orthography by Towarzystwo Warszawskie Przyjaciół Nauk (Warsaw Society of the Friends of Science), his ideas were not understood.
It was not until decades later that the precursory works by Mroziński were truly recognised by linguists. His scientific thought was referred to by Jan Niecisław Baudouin de Courtenay, a precursor of structural linguistics. Roman Jakobson called Mroziński “the general linguist”.
Go to grammarThe 276-page long Neu-erörterte Polnische Grammatica… (= Polish grammar explained anew. Based on dependable authors, own exercises and experience, for the glory of God, for the benefit of school youth), the author of which was the rector of the Municipal School in Kluczbork in the period 1711-1745, is an extensive and thorough study discussing four branches of grammar: orthography, etymology, syntax, and prosody. As declared by the author himself, the textbook was written to facilitate and improve the process of teaching and learning Polish. The author prepared the textbook relying on his own experiences as a teacher of Polish. Being an advocate of learning by memorising, who puts emphasis on remembering words, he wrote a typical grammatical textbook which discusses individual branches of grammar, provides rules and examples rather than teaches words. The author recommends that words be learnt from lexicons, which perfectly supplement his grammatical compendium, which is intended to be used in schools. He addresses his work to the German youth learning Polish at the Kluczbork school, and later also at the Byczyna school. The grammar book by Jan Ernst Müllenheim must have enjoyed high popularity in Silesia given that there were three editions of it (1717, 1726, 1755). It should be noted, however, that it is not an easy read as the author applies Latin grammatical terminology, the grammatical commentary is skimpy at times and does not always suffice to comprehend the numerous inflectional paradigms presented.
Go to grammarThe over 400-page-long work by Carl Friedrich Müller, Vollständige, deutliche und nach Art der Lateinischen Grammatic des Herrn Professor Langens, eingerichtete Pohlnische Grammatica (= A complete clear Polish grammar modelled on Professor Langen’s Latin grammar), a teacher of Polish in Królewiec gymnasium, is an extensive study of Polish grammar characterised by abundance of content. Basically, the study is made of two sections: orthography and grammar. The discussion on orthography, which has merely 12 pages, provides the author's comments on the pronunciation of selected sounds, consonant clusters, at times syllables. He comments in particular on the sounds or sound clusters that distinguish Polish from other languages. The grammatical section is divided into five parts: I. name, II. verb, III. particles, IV. syntax, V. prosody.
Müller’s grammar book is a study which, apart from the dry matter of Polish grammar, contains many trivia concerning language behaviours of Poles, changes occurring in Polish, as well as diatopic and diastratic variations of Polish. The information is incorporated in the description of grammatical issues rather than gathered in one place. Müller’s work was not republished, which might evidence its lack of popularity among recipients. The detailed description, saturation with rules and exceptions, and application of grammatical terminology obviously did not facilitate its reception.
Go to grammarOrtografija polska (= Polish orthography) by Stanisław Murzynowski is a short dissertation on orthography of four or five pages, depending on the edition. It is placed at the beginning of the Protestant translation of the New Testament published in parts in Królewiec in the period 1551–1553. This work is made of three sections: introduction, a list of letters, and explanations with examples and comments on the relation between spelling and pronunciation. Murzynowski introduced 51 graphemes corresponding to Polish sounds. He provided separate markings of soft and hard consonants, e.g. labials: [b] and [b’], [p] and [p’], [w] and [w’], which were placed together in Jan Seklucjan’s primer (to which he obviously referred) signalising only the necessity to mark soft variants. He did not distinguish soft velars [k’] and [g’] separately, yet the examples illustrating the pronunciation of [g] included sługa (a servant), jego (his) with [g] and zginął (he was killed), nogi (legs) with [g’]. He treated also [h] and [x] as one but there are no errors in print as regards the spelling with h. Murzynowski tried to systematise the spelling of dorsal consonants [ś], [ź], [ć]. He even introduced a new character ɀ derived from Latin for the sound [ź] and used it also in the digraph dɀ, and employed s with two overdots and ċ, i.e. c with an overdot to mark [ś] and [ć], respectively, in the first edition. This enabled him to clearly distinguish sounds [ż] and [ź], [ś] and [š] as well as [ć] and [č]. Murzynowski proposed also a method of marking clear and slanting vowels differing from that applied in most prints. In Ortografija…, he adopted the convention of acute accent for slanting rather than clear vowels [a], [e], [o]. He justified it with the fact that slanting vowels were less frequent. Murzynowski used also the letter j to mark non-syllabic [i].
Murzynowski’s orthography book has some features of a humanistic study. The translator introduces the terms litery || figury (letters || figures) instead of the German words buchstaby || buksztaby, preserves the term punctowany (accented). The word wokalisz (a vowel) is an interesting term which, according to the author, comprised only oral vowels: a, e, i, o, u, y (choć z punktem, choć przez punktu pisane (written either with or without an accent)). He probably classified nasal vowels as accented vowels.
Go to grammarTraktat o ortografii polskiej (= Treaty on Polish orthography) by Jakub Parkosz, written circa 1440, is known from its later copy (of 1460 or 1470). It was printed for the first time in 1830. It is the first study dedicated entirely to the issues of Polish spelling. The text is divided into two parts: a foreword (by another author) and the proper treaty. The proper treaty is composed of a Latin text with Polish examples and the Polish rhyming alphabet. Parkosz’s propositions are based on the Latin alphabet, which is common in Poland. The source of inspiration was Jan Hus’s orthography book. The author of the treaty adopted a rule that one character should correspond to one sound. For instance, he suggested that long vowels be distinguished from short ones by doubling letters (e.g. long [ā] as aa), soft consonants from hard ones with the shape of letters (e.g. [b’] as b with a rounded bowl, [b] as b with a square bowl).
Although Parkosz’s proposals have never been applied in practice, the relic is an extremely valuable source of knowledge of the 15th-century Polish language (e.g. of the Old Polish vowel length, pronunciation of nasal vowels, or Lesser Polish pronunciation of the consonant cluster chv- as f-). The treaty was familiar to the author of first printed Polish orthography book, Stanisław Zaborowski, who also referred to it.
Go to grammarZasady... (= Rules of Polish grammar prepared exclusively for the purposes of the Polish School (Batignolles in Paris)) by R. Piotrowski was published with students of the Polish School in Paris (commonly known as the School at Batignolles) in mind. The work consists of two separately published parts, the first of which is dedicated chiefly to morphology, while the second, complementary, one – to syntax. Piotrowski clearly specified the source he used when writing the syntactic part: it was “gramatyka Józefa Muczkowskiego” (“Józef Muczkowski’s grammar”). Both parts were arranged according to the question and answer method (grammarians of that time called such a layout a catechismal one). Phonetic information was outlined briefly in the introduction to part one, whereas Polish spelling was addressed in separate chapters (one in part one and the other one in part two), as well as in three Dodatki do pierwszej części tej Gramatyki (Supplements to part one of this Grammar Book). For instance, the last of the supplements, by Feliks Wrotnowski, contains, as indicated in the title, information O znaczeniu i używaniu głosek: i, j, y (On the meaning and usage of sounds: i, j, y). Zasady..., which encompasses issues in the field of morphology and syntax as well as phonetics and orthography, can be regarded as a complete pedagogical grammar (based, however, on “scientific” grammars of that time).
Go to grammarJacek Idzi Przybylski, a classical philologist, polyglot, translator, poet, professor of the university in Cracow and librarian, expounded his thought regarding the Polish language when working on commentaries to his translations of Greek literature. His work is a mere “dorywczy roztrzęs Narodowego Języka” (a lengthy discussion on the National Language), which was written in the form of a dictionary entry, namely Język polski (Polish language), with the mentioned explanations entitled Klucz staroświatniczy do sześciudziesiąt dwu śpiewów Homera i Kwinta (An ancient key to sixty-two songs by Homer and Quintus) (Cracow, 1816).
The dissertation is a lecture on how Przybylski perceived and described language. The main reason for writing it was his wish to explain his translation procedures, which were characterised by originality and freedom in selecting linguistic means. The author did not intend to create a new and, what is more, common grammar book as he appreciated Onufry Kopczyński’s work and found it exhaustive. Hence, his study is not addressed to a wide range of recipients. The erudite reasoning is targeted at “prawoświatli Rodacy” (enlightened Compatriots), “Taynioznawcy” (Insiders).
This and the author’s strong stamp locate Przybylski’s grammar book within the amateur, non-scientific, stream of grammar writing typical of the 1st half of the 19th c. Each of the five sections: Przystęp (introduction), Pismownia (where he describes spelling rules), Wywodnia (a description of etymology and morphology, including in particular word formation), Szykownia (syntax) and Wyśpiewnia (prosody), which constitute the main description of the system, contains numerous digressions where the author substantiates, among others, his views on proper word usage (their copestone is wyrazar – an extensive etymological and prescriptive dictionary). What is particularly attention-grabbing is the peculiar grammatical terminology being a consequence of the views (e.g. istotnik – a noun, przedzak – a preposition, uczęstniak – a participle, okoliczniak – an adverb, natrącak – an interjection). Although it is not revolutionary and free from errors, Przybylski’s work covers some modern approaches to grammatical problems, such as the postulate to resign from slanting vowels or the distinction of the y – i – j series, and interesting classifications resulting from the author’s independent, and specific, look at language.
Go to grammarThe 111-page-long Polish grammar book (= A guide to Polish / That is a thorough training of Polish captured in short and clear rules), the author of which was a teacher of Polish and Italian at Leipzig University, is a study discussing three branches of grammar: orthography, etymology, and syntax. It is an outline of Polish grammar rather than an extensive or detailed work. The author describes the individual issues in brief and illustrates them with some examples. However, he often refers to studies by other authors (e.g. of Latin grammar books), pointing to them as a source of knowledge of Polish grammar. He uses Latin terminology in the description. Hence, he expects the user of his grammar book to be familiar with Latin grammar. This is evidenced also by the fact that the author shortens the grammatical commentary or omits it altogether claiming that it is redundant as the discussed phenomenon can be found also in Latin.
The textbook is addressed to the German recipient, for whom a command of Polish became not only useful but also indispensible on August II of the Saxon Wettin dynasty ascending the Polish throne. As the author states in the preface, both countries thus became an economic and social community. He justifies the need to publish his study with the outdatedness of the older textbooks for learning Polish available on the market, since Polish, like all other languages, becomes increasingly more perfect and subtle year by year. The textbook he offers the readers teaches the contemporary language.
Go to grammarThe 128-leaf-long work titled Schlüssel zur Polnischen und Teutschen Sprach (= The key to Polish and German) by Jeremias Roter, a teacher of Polish in Wrocław and a deacon in Powidzko, is consistent with the trend of combining various branches of the knowledge of language in one textbook, which prevailed until the mid-17th c. Such an integration was normally accompanied by the dominance of one branch, and in the case of Schlüssel…, the main content of the textbook is Polish grammar. It is supplemented with phrases, prayers, templates of letters, names of days of the week, months, seasons of the year, and church holidays, which adds a practical character to Roter’s textbook. The principal part of Schlüssel…, grammar, is composed of three sections: orthography, etymology and syntax. The last, fourth, section of the work is entitled Phraseologia (Phraseology) and presents forms of address, example questions and answers needed to communicate at the market, templates of letters, and expressions related to time. The author used, without indicating the source, grammar books by his two predecessors: Nicolaus Volckmar and Pierre Statorius-Stojeński.
Schlüssel… is the first grammar book of Polish in Silesia. Roter applies there polonised Latin terminology, which was an unquestionable progress in the early 17th c. There were several editions of the work (the last one in 1706), apart from Wrocław also in Poznań and Gdańsk, which undoubtedly proves its popularity. The author dedicated his textbook to Germans learning Polish and Poles learning German. He substantiates the need to publish Schlüssel… with the necessity to speak Polish in Silesia.
Go to grammarE. Rykaczewski edited his Grammaire... (= Grammar of Polish with rules followed by examples derived from the best Polish authors, intended mainly for Polish schools in Paris) for the Polish schools in Paris established during the Great Emigration. He wrote his entire work in French (with the exception of Polish examples) and used Polish (apart from French) grammatical terminology only sometimes. Grammaire... is made of two parts, the first of which (untitled) is dedicated to Polish morphology, and the second, as the title indicates, to syntax. A brief phonetic opening was edited as Wstęp (Introduction) to part one. Rykaczewski, describing individual language rules in the grammar book, always illustrates them with his own examples and longer quotations from the Polish literature. The discussed work could be considered today as a complete (save the phonetic part) and hence an extensive scientific grammar book (it is a detailed theoretical and content-based prescriptive grammar rather than pedagogical grammar). As the analysis showed, Grammaire... is a grammar book of the mother tongue (although written in French) rather than of a foreign and second language.
Go to grammarThe orthographic studies by Jan Seklucjan were included in catechism books (1547, 1549: Krótka a prosta nauka czytania i pisania języka polskiego (= A short and simple instruction on reading and writing in Polish)), had a practical character, and were modelled on analogous German and Czech works. The applied terminology is a polonised version of German terms: buchstab from German Buchstabe (a letter, sound, font), it can be usually found in the plural form: buchsztaby || buksztaby, similarly to głośniki and nieme – terms for vowels and consonants, respectively, being partial calques of the corresponding German words, namely Lautbuchstaben (Cf. Laut (a voice, sound)) and Stumme Buchstaben, stummen Buchstaben (Cf. stumm (dumb)). In the catechism book of 1447, Seklucjan enumerated as many as 11 vowels (głośniki), namely: a, â, ą, e, ę, i, o, u, ü, w, y, which included also w and – useless in Polish – â, ü.
A graphic distinction of clear and slanting vowels was important for Seklucjan. Clear vowels [a], [e], [o] were to be accented, whereas slanting ones were not. This proposition is partly convergent with the Cracow convention but extended not only onto clear [a] but also onto other vowels which occurred alongside slanting ones, i.e. [e] and [o]. However, the author does not comply with the rule in the catechism book. He distinguishes [ę] and [ǫ], yet the scope of their usage sometimes differs from the today’s one. The spelling of [i] and [y] and the examples provided in the orthography book do not raise any doubts, but in print, like in the manuscript tradition, sounds [i] and [y] are not sufficiently distinguished, the spelling does not comply with any rule. There are also no examples of non-syllabic i in Nauka czytania. As regards the consonant system, the spelling of consonant series [š], [s], [ś] and [ž], [z], as well as [c], [č] in the catechism book itself is the most interesting. The spelling of the series [š], [s], [ś] is not stabilised, letters are multifunctional, some spellings reveal Masurian influences in the author’s pronunciation. J. Seklucjan distinguishes voiced [γ] and unvoiced [x] although he does not mention the latter sound in his orthography book. As a general rule, he resigns from describing soft consonants.
Go to grammarPierre Statorius-Stojeński, a French settled in Poland, a co-author of the Brest Bible, wrote the first Polish grammar Polonicae grammatices institutio. In eorum gratiam, qui eius linguae elegantiam cito & facile addiscere cupiunt (= A lecture on Polish grammar. For the use of those who wish to learn the refined language quickly and easily), published in Maciej Wirzbięta Royal Printing House in Cracow in 1568. It is written in Latin, modelled on Latin textbooks and grammatical categories, and dedicated to foreigners residing in Poland. Its practical purpose makes the author pay attention to specific issues without an extensive theoretical foundation for them yet with the use of empirical data derived from colloquial Polish and quotations from written sources, mainly from the piece by Mikołaj Rej Wizerunk własny żywota człowieka poczciwego (= The Image of a Good Man’s Life). The textbook contains information about: 1) pronunciation of sounds (called letters) and their combinations, 2) parts of speech, such as nouns (and adjectives), pronouns, verbs and participles, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions and interjections. These are sections devoted chiefly to phonetics and inflection with some comments on word formation and lexis. Specific solutions are adopted from the Latin model, e.g. the division into three declensions (masculine, feminine and neuter), six inflectional cases, two numbers (singular and plural). The inability to divide a word into the inflection stem and the ending results in identification of ca. 150 noun paradigms. Stojeński proves to be a good observer as he manages to distinguish, with few errors, seven conjugations based on present tense endings: I. -uję (żałuję (I regret)), II. -yję (ryję (I engrave)), III. -eję (leję (I pour)), IV. -oję (stoję, roję się (I stand, I swarm)), V. -ę after a consonant (piszę (I write)), VI. -am (szukam, sypiam (I seek, I sleep)) and VII. -em (rozumiem (I understand)).
Go to grammarGrammatica Polono-Italica abo sposob łacny nauczenia się włoskiego języka… (= Polish-Italian grammar or how to learn Italian easily…) by Adam Styla is a textbook of Italian written in Polish. The author occasionally puts single sentences in Latin. Examples are provided in Latin with Polish equivalents. The textbook is made of three principal sections: the first one concerns orthography and phonetics, the second, which is the most extensive, covers parts of speech, and the third discusses syntax. The arrangement of grammar reminds classical textbooks (e.g. by Donat), the model of which is followed by Styla. He begins his lecture with the most general content and continues with more detailed issues. The textbook is complemented with numerous warnings, which are supposed to draw the reader’s attention to the most common errors. Styla set himself the goal of writing a study which would make learning Italian easier to Poles, of making its content, unlike in older works, as comprehensible and accessible as possible. He assumed that his work would enable the readers to learn Italian by themselves, without a teacher’s help. Styla should be included in the group of pioneers of the Polish grammatical thought. He explained Italian grammar thoroughly in his mother tongue applying the 16th-century terminology when it was commonly believed that only Latin could serve as the language of science. He uses Latin names of the discussed grammatical terms but he usually provides also their Polish equivalents and defines them.
Go to grammarStanisław Szober, a linguist and teacher, wrote many grammar books, most of which were intended for primary school and gymnasium pupils. He also published three different grammar books, albeit under the same title Gramatyki języka polskiego (= Polish grammar books). The first edition was released in parts in the period 1914–1916 and was addressed mainly to secondary school teachers. The second one was published in 1923 as a university textbook. The third, completely revised and uncompleted, was to be an academic textbook and a summa of the knowledge of the contemporary Polish language. Two out of four planned volumes of the last Gramatyka... were published in 1931.
The object of the analysis and description in Gramatyka… of 1923 is the literary Polish language. The explanations related to the history of language were limited to the issues which might have been useful for comprehending the facts from the contemporary Polish language and served the purpose of complementing the psychological interpretation. Gramatyka… is composed of the following sections: Nauka o głoskach (Sound science), Nauka o znaczeniu wyrazów (Word meaning science), Nauka o budowie wyrazów (Morphology science), Nauka o odmianie wyrazów (Word inflection science), Nauka o zdaniu (Sentence science).
It was an independent, modern and well-thought university textbook comprehensively covering the knowledge of the contemporary literary Polish language. Its value and popularity is evidenced by the fact that the third edition of the textbook compiled by Witold Doroszewski, Szober’s student, was republished as many as nine times until 1971.
Go to grammarPublished in 1770, Początki nauk dla narodowej młodzieży, to jest Grammatyka języka polskiego ucząca, a tym samym pojęcie obcych języków, jako łacińskiego, francuskiego, włoskiego i innych ułatwiająca (= Beginnings of education for the Polish youth, or a grammar book teaching Polish and thus facilitating the comprehension of foreign languages, such as Latin, French, Italian and more) was a revised (slightly shorter) version of a more extensive grammar book prepared by Walenty Szylarski at the request of Towarzystwo Literatów w Polszcze Ustanowionego dla Wydawania Książek Najlepszych i Najbardziej Użytecznych (The Society of Literary Men Established in Poland for Publishing the Best and the Most Useful Books). The work is divided into four sections: I. Ortografia (Orthography), II. Etymologia (Etymology), III. Syntaxis (Syntax), IV. Prosodia (Prosody). It is preceded by Wstęp do gramatyki (Introduction to grammar) and a preface (Do czytelnika (To the reader)). The primary lecture is accompanied by comments (the author calls them words of caution). The grammatical description of Polish that emerges from Początki… does not deviate from the descriptions known from earlier grammar books in terms of general rules. The author is given credit for breaking with the practice of writing Polish grammar books in foreign languages, selecting the mother tongue as a tool of description, and addressing it to the Polish youth. With his grammar book, Szylarski joined the stream of the Enlightenment discussion on the Polish language and its role in the life of the society. In the introduction and lecture on grammar, he refers to the idea of common grammar by juxtaposing general rules with the linguistic convention. Szylarski’s grammar book is also a valuable source of knowledge of the Polish language of the 2nd half of the 18th c. and the theoretical standard applicable at that time.
Go to grammarCompendium linguae Polonicae in gratiam iuventutis Dantiscanae collectum (= A compendium of Polish for Gdańsk youth) by Nicolaus Volckmar is the first Gdańsk Polish grammar book the editio princeps of which was released in the city lying on the river Motława in 1594. The researchers of the history of the Polish language considered the study derivative and dependent on Polonicae grammatices institutio (= Lecture on Polish grammar) by Pierre Statorius-Stojeński. However, these opinions were revised over time. Although Volckmar took over the general arrangement of the material and numerous examples from his predecessor, he was not uncritical in doing so and selected some of the examples illustrating the discussed phenomena by himself, in particular where his language standard did not overlap Stojeński’s one.
Compendium… can be divided into two principal sections: one concerning orthography and partly phonetics and the other one discussing the generally defined word science (parts of speech, inflection and word formation). Nevertheless, the absence of a separate chapter on syntax is striking. Hence, the division is very close to the arrangement of the lecture on grammar adopted in popular textbooks of Latin signed with the name Aelius Donatus. This is probably the model from which Volckmar drew the idea to present his lecture in the form of questions and answers, which are characteristic mainly of Ars Minor. This teaching style is known also from catechism books, which might have additionally influenced the Gdańsk teacher.
Volckmar distinguishes three declensions of nouns and, guided by Latin patterns, he enumerates eight grammatical cases. Depending on the present tense indicative first person ending, he divides verbs into three conjugations: -am (e.g. czytam (I read)), -ę (e.g. proszę (I ask)) and -iem (e.g. rozumiem (I understand)).
Volckmar’s textbook arose from practical needs of the multicultural Gdańsk, the citizens of which were politically and economically tied with the Commonwealth, a large part of which was inhabited by speakers of Polish. Therefore, as a general rule, the author of Compendium… avoids any theoretical discussions and focuses on ensuring the greatest possible clarity and functionality of the textbook. However, he makes an interesting comment in the preface, where he quite explicitly divides language into two parts: vocabulary and grammar. His new textbook was to serve the purpose of mastering the latter component.
Go to grammarThe work Compendiosa linguae Polonicae institutio in gratiam exterorum, qui recte ac facile linguam Polonicam addiscere cupiunt (= A concise lecture on Polish grammar for foreigners who wish to learn Polish properly and easily) by Jan Karol Woyna, released in Latin in Gdańsk in 1690, is the first (preserved) Polish grammar written by a Pole. The author sets himself the goal to create a textbook facilitating the process of learning Polish by foreigners and calls his study “książeczka niewielkich rozmiarów, ale wielkiej użyteczności” (a book of small size but great usefulness). What deserves noting is the fact that Woyna’s grammar book does not rely much on the works by his predecessors: Pierre Statorius-Stojeński, Jeremias Roter, Nicolaus Volckmar, Franciscus à Mesgnien Meninski, Sigismund Kotzer. At the end of the 17th c., the study was the basic textbook of Polish in the Academic Gymnasium Danzig. The arrangement of content is traditional and very clear. The principal part of the textbook was divided into three sections titled Orthographia (Orthography), Etymologia (Etymology ) and Syntaxis (Syntax), which were supplemented with Onomasticum and grammar tables. Clear classifications and abundance of examples are unquestionable advantages of Woyna’s grammar book. It must be also added that the starting point for the discussions and formulation of rules in the analysed work is Latin, which serves as the basis for explaining individual language phenomena: by analogy or through presentation and emphasis of differences. There are occasional references to German. It should be noted that there is absolutely no Polish grammatical terminology, which was present even in earlier works.
Go to grammarThe textbook (= Polish stylistics and rhythmicity: a textbook for schools and the self-taught) by Kazimierz Wóycicki is dedicated to Polish stylistics and rhythmicity. The scope of the notion of stylistics is extensive and diversified, among others, by including the issues of versification based on the custom of that time, as well as of lexis, stylistic aspects of grammar, dialectology, stylisation, the use of metaphors, and the so-called oratory expressions in this study. According to the author, the objective of stylistics is to examine the linguistic means serving the purpose of expressing human thoughts and feelings. The content of the book is highly varied as it covers the issues related to everyday use of language: vocabulary and grammar, figures occurring in texts, and analysis of prose and poetry. What is particularly conspicuous within the broad range of subjects gathered here is the chapter dedicated to variants of Polish: spoken and written language; literary, that is the standard Polish language, and its special and territorial variants, as well as word life: archaisms and neologisms.
The theory presented in the textbook is limited as much as possible since its aim is to collect many exercises facilitating teachers’ work with students on literary texts. The purpose of the exercises is to ask questions to prompt discussion among students, seek answers and improve language and analytical skills needed when working on a text.
Go to grammarOrtographia seu modus recte scribendi et legendi Polonicum idioma quam utilissimus (= Orthography, or the most useful method of writing and reading in Polish correctly) by Stanisław Zaborowski comes into existence when printing houses begin to release books in Polish. Its publication was justified with the need to standardise the disorderly and chaotic orthography. Zaborowski was familiar with the Jakub Parkosz’s work, references to it are noticeable in the structure and content of the study. Contrary to his predecessor, like Jan Hus, he ascribed the function of differentiating the phonematic value of letters to diacritics. They served the purpose of distinguishing, in writing, slanting vowels from clear ones, nasal vowels from oral ones, [y] from [i], soft vowels from hard ones, rustling consonants from hissing ones, [ł] from [l], and [ř] from [r] (e.g. he suggested that [ć] be written as c̈, c̄̇, c̄, [č] as ċ). The work is a valuable source of knowledge of the Polish language of the early 16th century. The orthography proposed by Zaborowski was original, mature, based on uniform criteria, and it covered the basic oppositions of Polish sounds. However, in comparison to the spelling used at that time, it was too revolutionary. What Polish orthography owes to Zaborowski is the differentiation of clear vowels from narrow ones by means of diacritics, a stroke in ł, an overdot in ż, an acute accent to mark soft consonants. The standardisation of Polish spelling in the 16th century is credited to printers.
Go to grammarThe primary objective of the study was to seek the truth about Polish. As an insightful observer of the language, the author distinguishes a few types of communication and, consequently, language variants. The division into written and oral Polish as well as the language of higher social classes and commoners is clearly outlined here. Żochowski imposes high requirements of truthfulness, logicality, and consistent reasoning on grammarians.
Części mowy… (=Parts of speech inflected for case) was written for teachers of Polish as a foreign language and for foreigners. The author’s long-term teaching practice in a Jewish school contributed to the development of a reflection on the grammar of Polish and enforced the preparation of a relevant grammatical compendium.
The author specified the basis of the presented theoretical assumptions admitting that he did not devise all solutions incorporated in the study but adopted them chiefly after Józef Mroziński. Mroziński was a role model for the author of Części mowy… in terms of not only thinking about language but also building an argument. What should be considered common for them is the rejection of the a priori description patterns of Polish built on grammatical descriptions of other languages; formulation of conclusions exclusively based on in-depth analyses; a polemic character of the reasoning and reference to historical texts.
The content of Części mowy… was divided into 325 paragraphs, which filled up thirteen chapters of the book. Chapter one was dedicated to phonetics, chapter two – to enumeration of the parts of speech inflected for case. The author devoted five chapters to nouns (III–VII), three chapters to adjectives (VIII–X), one chapter to numerals (XII) and pronouns (XIII). Chapter XI discusses the so-called imiona nieforemne (irregular names) and imiona ułomne (imperfect names).
The grammarian presents his original approach to the issues and proposes his own terms in several cases. Some of the judgments stand the test of time.
Żochowski’s text is highly diversified in terms of style.
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