On the Cashubian č (ć) and ろ (ろ) Derived from ḱ and ǵ

Abstract

It is thought that the change of k and g into c (ć) and ろ (ろ) is relatively recent. Its origins should be dated on the third quarter of the nineteenth century. The responses given in Georg Winkler's (a researcher of German dialects) survey have already been forgotten. It was made in the second half of the nineteenth century and targeted at the teachers of the majority of villages in the territory of the then German state. They allow the author to address anew the question of dating the changes of and in Cashubia, and their transformation into affricate. Numerous examples confirm that this phenomenon took place and developed earlier than it has been assumed so far (following P. Smoczyński). The occurrence of affricate around 1880 in J. Derdowski's dialect proves that his poem O Panu Czorlińścim (On Mister Czorlińści) was popular, and its popularity played a part in the approval of (ć) and ろ (ろ) in place of and as a typical Cashubian feature.