Old Polish

Old Polish
język staropolski
Pronunciation	[pɔlski]
Native to	Poland in the past
Language family	Indo-European Balto-Slavic Slavic West Slavic Lechitic Old Polish
Official status
Official language in	nowhere
Regulated by	-
Language codes
ISO 639-1	pl
ISO 639-2	pol
ISO 639-3	pol

Old Polish (Polish: język staropolski) is a name used to describe the period in the history of the Polish language between 9^th and 16^th century.

History

The Polish Language started to change after the Baptism of Poland - then came some words from the Latin, such as kościół (a church, lat. castellum - a castle). Around 14th/15th centuries the aorist and imperfect tenses became obsolete. In 15th century the dual stops being used.

The alphabet

Parkoszowic

About 1440 Cracow Academy professor and rector Jakub Parkoszowic tried to codify the Polish alphabet. He wrote first tract on Polish orthographic rules (in Latin) and rhyme Obiecado (in Polish). Parkoszowic wanted to differentiate:

• long and short vowels by doubling long ones,
• palatal and non-palatal consonants with letter of different shapes (round and edged).

His idea wasn't popular and did not became obligatory.

Kochanowski

In 16th century Jan Kochanowski proposed a set or ortographic rules and an alphabet of 48 letters and digraphs: a á à ą b b' c ć cz d dz dź dż é è ę f g h ch i j k l ł m m' n ń o ó p p' q r rz s ś sz t u v w w' x y z ź ż.

Literature

• Bulla gnieźnieńska - papal document which includes 410 Polish names bulla papieska wydana 7 lipca 1136
• Bogurodzica 10th-13th century - the oldest known Polish religious hymn
• The Book of Henryków (Polish: Księga henrykowska, Latin: Liber fundationis) - includes the earliest known sentence written in the Polish language.
• The Holy Cross Sermons (Polish: Kazania świętokrzyskie) 14th century

• Psałterz floriański 14th century - a psalmody; consists of parallel Latin, Polish and German texts
• Rozmowa Mistrza Polikarpa ze Śmiercią (Latin: De morte prologus, Dialogus inter Mortem et Magistrum Polikarpum) - Polish verse
• Lament świętokrzyski (also known as: Żale Matki Boskiej pod krzyżem or Posłuchajcie Bracia Miła)

Example

   Ach, Królu wieliki nasz
   Coż Ci dzieją Maszyjasz,
   Przydaj rozumu k mej rzeczy,
   Me sierce bostwem obleczy,
   Raczy mię mych grzechów pozbawić
   Bych mógł o Twych świętych prawić. 

(The introduction to The Legend of Saint Alexander (15^th century)