A heritage park or treasury? Material culture of the inhabitants of Bydgoszcz preserved in their urban dialect: Etymological analysis

Abstract

The study concerns the names of clothing, home furnishings, everyday objects, tools, and means of transport contained in the lexicon of the Bydgoszcz city dialect. This lexical stock includes the names of the outer garment (e.g. buks ‘trousers’), recreational clothes (badeje ‘swimming trunks’), headgear (e.g. lujmycka ‘hooligan’s cap’), footwear (e.g. kropusy ‘men’s shoes with high uppers’). Another area is the apartment; for example, the names of kitchen equipment have German origin (e.g. ausgust ‘kitchen sink’, kastrolka ‘saucepan’). This also concerns the names of three stools differing in height: the lowest one is called ryczka, a taller one is szemel, and the tallest is hoker. Texts in the Bydgoszcz city dialect also contain the names of artefacts necessary to perform everyday activities, such as cleaning (e.g. szruber ‘rice brush’) or laundry (e.g. balia ‘large wooden bath tub’). A separate place in the material culture of the inhabitants of Bydgoszcz is occupied by technological vocabulary, such as the names of tools (żaga ‘saw’) and transport (e.g. rolwaga ‘horse-drawn cart for transportation of goods’). Most of the names are Germanisms. A smaller number come from rural or folk dialects (e.g. modre ‘bleaching agent’, rydelek ‘visor of a cap’, szlory ‘old, trodden footwear’, trygiel ‘cast iron pot’). It is concluded that the city dialect is not only a museum or heritage park but also a treasury of old words.