Silesian exhibits regular consonant and vowel alteration that can be found across Slavic languages and more specifically Lechitic languages. These include the Slavic palatalizations, as well as vowel alterations result from historic "pochylone" or "slanted" vowels, which were the result from historically long vowels.
A few nouns display irregularities resulting from a fossilized dual form, namely in:
body parts that naturally come in pairs have synchronically irregular plural and other forms
ôko ("eye") – pl. ôczy
rynka ("hand, arm") – pl. rynce
ucho ("ear") – pl. uszy
Gender
Silesian, like other Lechitic languages, has three genders in the singular (masculine mynski, feminine żyński, and neuter nijaki). The masculine gender can be divided into three subgenders, masculine personal (mynski ôsobowy), masculine animal (mynski zwierzyncy), and masculine inanimate (mynski rzeczowy). "Tantum plurale" or "plural only" nouns can be divided into virile (mynskoôsobowego) and non-virile (niymynskoôsobowego).
The following tables show this distinction using as examples the nouns syn 'son' (masc. personal), ptŏk 'bird' (masc. animate), cios 'hit, blow' (masc. inanimate), drōga 'road' (feminine), ciasto 'cake' (neuter). The following table presents examples of how a determiner tyn/ta/to ("this") agrees with nouns of different genders in the nominative and the accusative, both singular and plural. Adjectives inflect similarly to this determiner.
singular
plural
nom.
acc.
nom.
acc.
masculine
personal
tyn syn
tyn ptŏk
tyn cios
tego syna
tego ptŏka
ci synowie
tych synōw
animate
te psy
te ciosy
te drōgi
te ciasta
inanimate
tyn cios
feminine
ta drōga
tã drōgã
neuter
to ciasto
For verbs, the distinction is only important for past forms in the plural, as in the table below:
singular
plural
masculine
personal
syn leżoł
ptŏk leżoł
cios leżoł
synowie leżeli
animate
ptŏki leżały
ciosy leżały
drōgi leżały
ciasta leżały
inanimate
feminine
drōga leżała
neuter
ciasto leżało
The numeral dwa ("two"), on the other hand, behaves differently, merging masculine non-personal with neuter, but not with feminine:
plural
nom.
acc.
masculine
personal
dwa synowie
dwōch synōw
animate
dwa ptŏki
dwa ciosy
dwa ciasta
inanimate
neuter
feminine
dwie drōgi
Gender can usually be inferred from the ending of a noun.
Masculine:
masculine nouns typically end in a consonant
some nouns, describing people, end in -a, specifically:
all nouns ending in -sta, equivalent to English "-ist", e.g. gardzista ("guardsman")
all abstract nouns ending in -ść, e.g. miyłość ("love")
some concrete nouns ending in -ść: kiść ("bunch")
-c:moc ("power"), noc ("night")
-czrzecz ("thing")
-ć:płeć ("sex, gender")
-dź: łōdź ("boat")
-j: kolyj ("railway")
-l: myśl ("thought")
-ń: jesiyń ("autumn, fall")
-rz: twŏrz ("face")
-sz: mysz ("mouse")
-ś: gynś ("goose")
-ź: gałōńź ("branch")
-ż: modziyż ("youth")
-w: krew ("blood")
words ending in -niŏ and -ni are feminine, e.g. boginiŏ ("goddess"); also pani ("Mrs")
Neuter:
neuter nouns typically end in -o
verbal nouns, which are always neuter, end in -e, e.g. robiynie etc.
Baby animals ending in -ã are always neuter, e.g. cielã ("calf")
Latin loanwords ending in -um : invariable in the singular, declinable in the plural by removing the -um ending and replacing it by neuter plural endings ; the genitive plural is in -ōw contrary to other neuters that have no ending → muzeum, muzea (N. pl.), muzeōw (G. pl.)
Semantic membership
The distinction between personal, animate and inanimate nouns within masculine nouns is largely semantic, although not always.
Personal nouns are comprised by human nouns such as 'man' or chop 'man'.
Animate nouns are largely comprised by animals such as pies ("dog"), many members from other life domains, as well as a number of objects associated with human activity. On the morphological level however, such nouns are only partially similar to animate nouns, having their accusative identical to their genitive only in the singular.
Masculine personal nouns can be "downgraded" to masculine animate nouns, called the deprecative form.
Synowie szli → syny szły (sons were walking).
Plants and objects ending in a consonant are masculine inanimate.
Declension
Declensions are generally divided into hard and soft declensions. Soft declensions are used when the stem of the noun ends in a soft (postalveolar or palatal-like) consonant in all forms, while hard declensions are used by nouns with stems ending in a hard consonant in some (but not necessarily all) forms.
The following generalizations can be made for the inflection of all nouns:
The nominative and vocative plural are always identical.
For neuter nouns, the nominative, accusative and vocative are always identical in both singular and plural.
The accusative of masculine nouns is identical to either the nominative or the genitive.
The locative, dative and instrumental plural almost always have the same endings (-ach, -ōm, -ami/-ōma) no matter how the noun is declined. The form -ōma is used mostly in the north-western part of Silesia.
Declension I
This group comprises nouns ending in -a and -ŏ. This is predominantly feminine nouns, with a few masculine nouns (in the singular).
This group comprises nouns ending in consonants and have -u or -a in the genitive singular. This pattern is exclusively masculine nouns, including masculine person, animal, and inanimate.
This group comprises nouns with adjectival declension, and can be masculine or feminine, taking the appropriate gender ending. See adjectives and adverbs.
Declension VI
This group comprises nouns ending in -um in the singular and neuter declensions in the plural. Nouns in this group are neuter.
Adjectives agree with the noun they modify in terms of gender, number and case. In the nominative masculine virile plural the stem undergoes a softening change, e.g.
-ry → -rzi
-ki → -cy
-gi → -dzy
-ty → -ci
-dy → -dzi
-ny → -ni
Class 1
Hard stems
Case
Singular number
Plural number
Masculine animate mynski ôsobowy
Masculine inanimate mynski rzeczowy
Neuter nijaki
Feminine żyński
Masculine personal mynskoôsobowy
Not masculine personal niymynskoôsobowy, i.e. masculine impersonal, feminine, and neutral
Most short non-relational adjectives have a comparative form in -szy or -iejszy, (e.g. dugy → dugszy and a superlative obtained by prefixing noj- to the comparative (e.g. dugszy → nojdugszy.
For adjectives that do not have these forms, the words barzij ("more") and nojbarzij ("most") are used before the adjective to make comparative and superlative phrases.
Adverbs are formed from adjectives with the ending ie, or in some cases -o (e.g. dugi → dugo. Comparatives of adverbs are formed (where they exist) with the ending -(i)yj (e.g. dugo → dużyj). Superlatives have the prefix noj- as for adjectives (dużyj → nojdużyj).
Pronouns
The personal pronouns of Silesian (nominative forms) are jŏ ("I"), ty ("you", singular, familiar), ŏn ("he", or "it" corresponding to masculine nouns), ŏna ("she", or "it" corresponding to feminine nouns), ŏno ("it" corresponding to neuter nouns), my ("we"), wy ("you", plural, familiar), ŏni (virile "they" – see Noun syntax below), ŏne (non-virile "they").
The polite second-person pronouns are the same as the nouns pōn ("gentleman, Mr"), pani ("lady, Mrs") and their plurals panowie, panie. The mixed-sex plural is państwo. All second-person pronouns are often capitalized for politeness, in letters etc.
There may be a form beginning with n-, used after prepositions.
Short clitic forms (i.e. mu) might be used in unstressed positions.
The reflexive pronoun for all persons and numbers is siebie, sie, siã.
Case
reflexive siebie/sie/siã.
Nominative/vocative (mianownik/wołŏcz)
—
Genitive (dopołniŏcz)
siebie / sie / siã
Dative (cylownik)
sobie
Accusative (biernik)
siebie / sie / siã
Locative (miyjscownik)
sobie
Instrumental (nŏrzyndnik)
sobōm
The possessive adjectives (also used as possessive pronouns) derived from the personal pronouns are mōj, twōj, jego (m., n.)/[jij (f.); nasz, wasz, ich. There is also a reflexive possessive swōj. The polite second-person pronouns have possessives identical to the genitives of the corresponding nouns.
The demonstrative pronoun, also used as a demonstrative adjective, is tyn (feminine ta, neuter to, masculine personal plural ci, other plural te). The distal demonstrative pronoun is tamtyn.
Interrogative pronouns are fto ("who") and co ("what"); these also provide the pronouns ftoś/coś ("someone/something"), nikt/nic ("no one/nothing").
The usual relative pronouns are kery, chtory, and ftory (which, which one; that) (declined like an adjective).
The pronoun and adjective wszystek means "all". It is used most commonly in the plural wszyjscy ("everyone"), and in the neuter singular (wszyjsko) to mean "everything". The pronoun and adjective każdy means "each, every", while żŏdyn means "no, none".
Numbers and quantifiers
Silesian has a complex system of numerals and related quantifiers, with special rules for their inflection, for the case of the governed noun, and for verb agreement with the resulting noun phrase.
The base numbers are as follows:
Zero – zero or nul
One – jedyn
Two – dwa
Three – trzi
Four – sztyry
Five – piyńć
Six – szejś
Seven – siedym
Eight – ôziym
Nine – dziewiyńć
Ten – dziesiyńć
Eleven – jedynŏście
Twelve – dwanŏście
Thirteen – trzinŏście
Fourteen – sztyrnŏście
Fifteen – piytnŏście
Sixteen – szesnŏście
Seventeen – siedymnŏście
Eighteen – ôziymnŏście
Nineteen – dziewiytnŏście
Twenty – dwadzieścia
Thirty – trzidzieści
Forty – sztyrdzieści
Fifty – piyńćdziesiōnt
Sixty – szejśdziesiōnt
Seventy – siedymdziesiōnt
Eighty – ôziymdziesiōnt
Ninety – dziewiyńćdziesiōnt
One hundred – sto
Two hundred – dwieście
Three hundred – trzista
Four hundred – sztyrysta
Five hundred – piyńćset
Six hundred – szejśset
Seven hundred – siedymset
Eight hundred – ôziymset
Nine hundred – dziewiyńćset
One thousand – tysiōnc or tauzyn, which is treated as a noun (as thousand is dwa tysiōnce/tauzyny, literally "two thousands").
Million – milijōn, also a noun.
Billion (short scale), milliard (long scale) – milijard
Compound numbers are constructed similarly as in English (for example, 91,234 is dziewiyńćdziesiōnt jedyn tysiyncy/tauzynōw dwieście trzidzieści sztyry).
The numeral jedyn (1) behaves as an ordinary adjective, and no special rules apply. It can even be used in the plural, for example to mean "some" (and not others), or to mean "one" with pluralia tantum, e.g. jedne dźwiyrze "one door" (dźwiyrze has no singular).
After the numerals dwa, trzi, sztyry (2, 3, 4), and compound numbers ending with them (22, 23, 24, etc. but not 12, 13, or 14, which take -nŏście as a suffix and are thus not compound numbers in the first place), the noun is plural and takes the same case as the numeral, and the resulting noun phrase is plural (e.g. 4 koty stały, "4 cats stood").
With other numbers (5, 6, etc., 20, 21, 25, etc.), if the numeral is nominative or accusative, the noun takes the genitive plural form, and the resulting noun phrase is neuter singular (e.g. 5 kotōw stało, "5 cats stood").
With the masculine personal plural forms of numbers (as given in the morphology article section), the rule given above – that if the numeral is nominative or accusative, the noun is genitive plural and the resulting phrase is neuter singular – applies to all numbers other than 1 (as in trzech chopōw prziszło, "three men came").
If the numeral is in the genitive, dative, instrumental or locative, the noun takes the same case as the numeral (except sometimes in the case of numbers that end with the nouns for 1000 and higher quantities, which often take a genitive noun regardless since they are treated as normal nouns).
Certain quantifiers behave similarly to numerals. These include kilka ("several"), ("a few") and wiele ("much, many"), which behave like numbers above 5 in terms of the noun cases and verb forms taken.
Quantifiers that always take the genitive of nouns include dużo ("much, many"), mało ("few, little"), wiyncyj ("more"), mynij ("less") (also nojwiyncyj/nojmynij "most/least"), trochã ("a bit").
The words ôba and ôbydwa (meaning "both"), and their derived forms behave like dwa.
Verbs
Silesian verbs have the grammatical category of aspect. Each verb is either imperfective, meaning that it denotes continuous or habitual events, or perfective, meaning that it denotes single completed events (in particular, perfective verbs have no present tense). Verbs often occur in imperfective and perfective pairs – for example, czytać and przeczytać both mean "to read", but the first has imperfective aspect, the second perfective.
Ôn czytoł ksiōnżkã. → "He was reading a book."
Ôn przeczytoł ksiōnżkã. → "He read a book."
Imperfective verbs have three tenses: present, past and future, the last being a compound tense (except in the case of być "to be"). Perfective verbs have a past tense and a simple future tense, the latter formed on the same pattern as the present tense of imperfective verbs. Both types also have imperative and conditional forms. The dictionary form of a verb is the infinitive, which usually ends with -ć and occasionally with -c, -ś, or -ź.
The present tense of imperfective verbs (and future tense of perfective verbs) has six forms, for the three persons and two numbers. There are eight main conjugation patterns.
The past tense agrees with the subject in gender as well as person and number. The basic past stem is in -ł; to this are added endings for gender and number, and then personal endings are further added for the first and second person forms.
The largely archaic or stylized pluperfect tense is formed analytically:[15]
In the first person masculine singular, with bōłch, bōłech, or bōł żech and the third person masculine past form.
In the first person feminine singular, with byłach or była żech and the third person feminine past form.
In the first person neuter singular, with byłoch or było żech and the third person feminine past form.
In the first person virile plural, with byli my orbylichmy and the third person virile plural past form.
In the first person non-virile plural, with były my or byłychmy and the third person virile plural past form.
In the second person masculine singular, with bōłś, bōłeś, or bōł żeś and the third person masculine past form.
In the second person feminine singular, with byłaś or była żeś and the third person feminine past form.
In the second person neuter singular, with byłoś or było żeś and the third person feminine past form.
In the second person virile plural, with byliście or byli żeście and the third person virile plural past form.
In the second person non-virile plural, with byłyście or były żeście and the third person virile plural past form.
In the third person masculine singular, with bōł and the third person masculine past form.
In the second person feminine singular, with była and the third person feminine past form.
In the second person neuter singular, with było and the third person feminine past form.
In the second person virile plural, with byliście and the third person virile plural past form.
In the second person non-virile plural, with byłyście and the third person virile plural past form.
Future tense
The imperfective future tense is formed analytically using a future form of być and either the infinite or the appropriate third person past form.
czytać → bydã czytać/bydã czytoł
The perfective future is formed using a personal non-past form of a perfective form.[16]
przeczytać → przeczytōm
Conditional mood
The conditional is formed analytically or by attaching a declined form of the clitic by and the third person past tense.[17]
In the first person singular, with bych and the appropriate third person past form.
In the first person virile plural, with by my or bychmy and the third person virile plural past form.
In the first person non-virile plural, with by my or bychmy and the third person virile plural past form.
In the first person singular, with byś and the appropriate third person past form.
In the second person virile plural, with byście and the third person virile plural past form.
In the second person non-virile plural, with byście and the third person virile plural past form.
In the third person, with by and the appropriate third person past form.
Imperative
The imperative is formed in various ways depending on the conjugation pattern. Sometimes only the stem is present with raising, as in robić → rōb, sometimes the suffixes -ej/-ij are added. Further suffixes -my and -cie are available for the first person plural and second person plural forms. To make third-person imperative sentences (including with the polite second-person pronouns pōn etc.) the particle niych is used at the start of the sentence (or at least before the verb), with the verb in the future tense (if być or perfective) or present tense (otherwise). There is a tendency to prefer imperfective verbs in imperative sentences for politeness; negative imperatives quite rarely use perfectives.[17]
Participles
present adverbial participle (imperfective verbs only) are formed with -ōnc such as śpiywajōnc (meaning "(when) singing", "by singing", etc.)
present adjectival participle (imperfective verbs only), formed from the present adverbial participle by adding adjectival endings with -ōncy as śpiywajōncy etc., meaning "singing" (as an attributive adjective), although such participles can be used to form extended adjectival phrases, which (usually unlike in English) can precede the noun.
The verbal noun is formed by adding either -ni(e) or -ci(e). It is a regular derivation of verbs.
Prepositions
Silesian uses prepositions, which form phrases by preceding a noun or noun phrase. Different prepositions take different cases (all cases are possible except nominative and vocative); some prepositions can take different cases depending on meaning.
The prepositions z and w are pronounced together with the following word, obeying the usual rules for consonant cluster voicing (so z tobōm "with you" is pronounced stobōm). Before some consonant clusters, particularly clusters beginning with a sibilant (in the case of z) or with f/w (in the case of w), the prepositions take the form zy and wy. These forms are also used before the first-person singular pronouns in mn-; several other prepositions also have longer forms before these pronouns, and these phrases are pronounced as single words, with the stress on the penultimate syllable (the -y). The prepositions po and do have the variations pō and dō when before nasal consonants.
Common prepositions include:
na, with the locative with basic meaning "on", and with the accusative with basic meaning "onto" (also metaphorical meanings)
w, with the locative with basic meaning "in"
z, with the instrumental comitative meaning "with" (in accompaniment of); with the genitive meaning "from, out of"
do/ôd, with genitive, meaning "to, into/from"
dlŏ, with genitive, meaning "for"
ô, with locative meaning "about", also with the accusative in some constructions
przed/za/nad/pod with instrumental meaning "before, in front of/behind/over/under", also with the accusative in some meanings (and genitive in the case of za); there are also compound prepositions sprzed/zza/znad/spod ("from in front of" etc.) taking the genitive
przez/bez with the accusative, meaning "through" etc.
przeciwko with dative, meaning "against"
po, with locative meaning "after", also with the accusative in some meanings
jeśli/eźli/ejźli/jeli/eli/jeźli/jesi meaning "if" (for real conditionals) or gdyby and keby (where by is the conditional particle)
czy meaning "whether" (also an interrogative particle)
kedy or gdy meaning "when"
wiync and beztōż/bezto meaning "so" and "therefore"
bo meaning "because"
choć/chociŏż meaning "although"
aby/żeby meaning "in order to/that" (can be followed by an infinitive phrase, or by a sentence in the past tense; in the latter case, the by of the conjunction is in fact the conditional particle and takes personal endings as appropriate)
