The
Podhale dialect () refers to the language spoken by the
Gorals, or the highlanders living in the
Tatra Mountains. The dialect, itself a part of the larger
Lesser Polish dialectal group, is characterized as
Proto-Slavic from the Eastern
Lechitic, Old
Polish area, superimposed by
Slovak.
In other words, the language is of Polish origin, but has been influenced by Slovak in recent centuries. The language contains Polish words, specific words, Vlach respectively words, Slovak words and words that are peculiar to the Carpathian language area (
Carpathisms). Moreover, typical Goral words such as those for
mountain/hill such as
magura or for
fireplace such as
vatra which are of
Illyrian and
Daco-Romanian origin, and which are in used to this day in both
Albanian and
Romanian languages, became now part of the Polish
toponomy in the
Highlands inhabited by Gorals.
In
Henryk Sienkiewicz's 1900 novel
The Teutonic Knights, the author had his characters speak a variety of medieval Polish which he recreated by utilizing many of the archaic expressions then still common among the highlanders of Podhale.
Category:Polish dialectsnl:Podhale-dialectpl:Gwara podhalańska