The value of dialect in consolidating the identity of the rural community (on the base of the Opowieści sołtysa (The Mayor’s Tales) by Stefan Szot)

Wartość gwary w utrwalaniu pamięci kulturowej społeczności wiejskiej (na przykładzie Opowieści sołtysa Stefana Szota)

Abstract

_{https://doi.org/10.26485/RKJ/2018/65/8}

_{Article in Polish}

_{The research material is comprised of the collection of 13 tales entitled The Mayor’s Tales by Stefan Szot, a long time mayor of Iwkowa village, who is still in office. The dialect used in The Mayor’s Tales (Opowieści sołtysa) plays a fundamental role in the village community and serves as a carrier of cultural content. Identification with a given area (Iwkowa) takes place, to a great extent, by means of the local dialect. The author authenticates the utterances of his characters by writing their words using the Pogórze dialect and incorporating expressive local characteristics, which are especially visible at the phonetic level (e.g. lack of the front nasal vowel, pronouncing -ro as -re, mazuration) and lexical level. Dialectal lexemes appear also in the narration emphasizing close connection between the dialect and the material and non-material products of traditional culture (without appellation in standard Polish language). The dialect used in The Mayor’s Tales very often serves as a measure of membership in the language and cultural community of Iwkowa, as the ability to fully understand the content hidden in the quoted nicknames, microtoponyms, and names of hamlets (in their phonetic dialect form) is dependent on good knowledge of local reality.}