| Old Polish | |
|---|---|
| ięzyk Polſki | |
| Pronunciation | [ˈjɛ̃zɨk ˈpɔlski] |
| Spoken in | Central and Eastern Europe |
| Era | developed into Middle Polish by the 16th century |
| Language family |
Indo-European
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
| Linguist List | 0gi |
Old Polish (Old Polish: język staropolski, modern Polish: język polski) is a name used to describe the period in the history of the Polish language between 9th and 16th centuries.
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The Polish language started to change after the Baptism of Poland – bringing in words from Latin, such as kościół ("church", from L. castellum, meaning "castle"), often via the Czech language, which also influenced Polish in that era (hence Lechitic "wiesiełyj" yielded modern Polish "wesoły" and "wesele"). Also, in later centuries, with the onset of cities founded on German law namely 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 a few fixed expressions (adages, sayings). In relation to most other European languages, though, the differences between Old and Modern Polish are comparatively slight.
About 1440 Cracow Academy professor and rector Jakub Parkoszowic tried to codify the Polish alphabet. He wrote the first tract on Polish orthographic rules (in Latin) and rhyme Obiecado (in Polish). Parkoszowic wanted to differentiate:
His idea wasn't popular and did not become obligatory.
(The introduction to The Legend of Saint Alexander (15th century)