The paper discusses and analyses the situation of regional languages in Poland against the background of phenomena taking place in Europe. The phenomena discussed include language extinction, language revival and raising the prestige of linguistic varieties generally considered inferior to recognised languages, i.e. state, national or official ones.

The multifaceted, complex and historically variable relationships between the nation, the region and literature can be discussed from various points of view. In the paper, I focus on two aspects. The first one concerns the intertwining of national and regionalist ideas and its impact on the development of literary regionalism. The other one concerns regional literature as such and its contribution to the creation of a national narrative. In the paper, I demonstrate that the reference to the national context makes it possible to track once again the development of literary regionalism, as well as read regional works anew. This is linked to the contemporary revaluation of regional works and its treatment as an important voice in the debate on the civil society and the nation.

Kashubian, as a Proto-Slavic dialect, was similar to the Greater Poland and Lesser Poland dialects which with time provided the foundations for the Polish language. However, as early as in the 13th century, differences became noticeable resulting from the autonomous development of Kashubian on the periphery of the Slavic world. Language is one of the most important ethnic building elements manifested by the Kashubian people since the dawn of ethnic emancipation which started in the mid-19th century, when Florian Ceynowa, physician and father of Kashubian national empowerment, created the first Kashubian alphabet, normalised the spelling, compiled the grammar rules and started to write journalistic, scientific and literary texts. In the past, the Kashubians had long lacked the conviction that their vernacular had value. The joint work of many communities, undertaken for the sake of the linguistic status of Kashubian in the 1990s, led first of all to a change of the attitude of the users towards their own language, and subsequently to its recognition as a separate Slavic language. Kashubian was granted the political and legal status of a regional language in 2005. It satisfies mainly those who have adopted a hybrid identity characterised by being Kashubian in the regional aspect and Polish in the national aspect. However, that status is insufficient for Kashubians representing the national option, who identify themselves as Polish citizens of Kashubian nationality.

The emergence of separate nationalities often entails standardisation of the language and an attempt to prove its multifunctional nature, while codification as such becomes one of the basic demands of ethnic movements striving towards emancipation. In her paper, the author analyses the process of emancipation of Silesian in the context of linguistic ideologies, studying above all the ideologies shared by Silesian ethnic leaders. The conclusions presented in the paper are based on analyses of numerous in-depth interviews conducted with Silesian ethnic leaders. This approach makes it possible to take into account, in the analysis of linguistic processes, the point of view of the users of the specific language and their linguistic awareness, and also makes it possible to seek relationships between linguistic awareness, language structure and social phenomena.

The paper attempts to discuss the Silesian ethnolect from two different points of view. The first one is determined by the current status of research, including above all the identifiable areas of shortcomings in the field. The other goes beyond the Polish perspective that prevails in the Silesian studies discourse. The author discusses the progress of work on a Silesian language corpus, interactive research into Slavic languages in the context of intercomprehension, as well as the matched-guise technique, potentially making it possible to assess the perception of the Silesian ethnolect in the area where it is present. The research scopes indicated are considered to be of key importance in the context of the description of the condition and status of the ethnolect.

The paper dedicated to the phenomenon of Wilamowicean theatre is composed of two parts presenting a different research approach. A review written by a literature scholar of the latest performance in the Wilamowicean repertoire serves as the basis for commentary built around it by a sociolinguist, dedicated to the situation of the Wilamowicean language, its history and revival. The paper also presents other processes of revival of minor languages using theatrical tools.

The paper discusses the representation of the so-called Regained Territories in reportage and novels by Ziemowit Szczerek. The aim of the paper is to identify the ways of creating a caricatural imaginary geography of the Polish-German borderlands which Szczerek calls “Poniemiecja” [“Post-German lands”]. An analysis of the source material made it possible to determine the functions of the borderlands theme in Szczerek’s works (demythologisation, deheroisation, confrontation). The paper also presents strategies of revising the pioneer myth of the so-called Regained Territories and of representing the Polish-German relations in Szczerek’s works of fiction and non-fiction.

The fact that the Lemko language is placed in the ethnolinguistic Western Slavic area next to the Polish language, which is dominant from the sociolinguistic point of view, has had and continues to have a significant impact on its development. Consequently, the Lemko language, similarly to other (Slavic) micro-languages, should be considered susceptible to changes resulting from the impact of exogenous factors, which can be observed even on a morphological level, which is generally perceived as particularly resistant to external influences. However, research conducted on the basis of material from the spoken corpus of the Lemko language shows that not all linguistic changes currently taking place in that language have been caused by the impact of Polish.

The author presents the results of own research carried out within the Romani community in two villages of the Podhale region (respectively in 2011–2017 and 2013–2016). The author focuses particularly on the reasons for differences in multiple aspects of functioning of the two groups studied. The results of own research presented and analysed in the paper are based on observations and free-form interviews with both Romani and non-Romani people.

The paper presents the educational situation of Romani children in Poland. It reflects on the actions of the Polish state contributing to the improvement of the process of educating Romani people. Referring to the subject literature and to experience in work with Romani children, the paper also indicates areas that require constant support and actions aimed at improving the quality of Romani education. Consequently, these considerations represent an analysis and an attempt to verify the practical manifestation of the Romani people’s attitude towards school and its actions in favour of children from the Romani ethnic minority.

The aim of the paper is to present selected aspects of integration (in the cultural sense) of the Arabic community in Poland in the context of Poland’s integration (migration) policy which Poland formally does not have at present. What Arabic and Polish respondents have to say about the integration process may be useful for the more efficient management of the immigration phenomenon.

The aim of the paper is to present the dramatic works of Sholem Asch with reference to the basic characteristics of the Young Poland period “interior drama”, further specified by Jerzy Waligóra as a manifestation of the processes of drama subjectivisation in the late 19th/early 20th century. Departing from the traditional perception of Asch’s dramatic works in the context of the literary heritage of the Polish-Jewish borderlands or the modernist symbolic drama makes it possible to interpret his works as identity drama, based on the need to choose between what was and what will be, between the past with its tradition on the one hand, and the present with the related modernity on the other hand.

The paper presents a new view on Polish-German relations, focusing also on Lusatians. The author sheds light on the role of Lusatians in the network of Polish-German relations, pointing out that they are in fact not bilateral, but rather trilateral. It is possible to describe them in this way if the classification is based on ethnic awareness, with Germans, Lusatian Sorbs and Poles facing one another. This trilateral situation may be even more diversified (between the standard German and Polish languages, there is also Kashubian and Lusatian, which can be divided into Lower Sorbian and Upper Sorbian; one must not forget about the Czech influences either). The author focuses particularly on the original, German-Lusatian-Polish triangle, in which the Lusatian Sorbs occupy the central position, as they are linked to both sides, even though they retain a certain independence.

Cultural identity is a very important part of national identity, as it defines the individual’s place in society. The aim is to show the Rusyn national identity consolidated in the contemporary literary works and to define the symbolism used by the Rusyn authors to emphasise their belonging to that nation. The six basic areas into which post-1989 Rusyn literature in Slovakia is divided are the following: poetry dedicated to the emerging national identity; poetry and prose based on folklore; rural-themed prose; metaphorical poetry dealing with diverse themes; literature for children and young people; literary translations. Authors belonging to the individual groups prove with their works that aspects of national identity, self-identification and, in fact, national revival continue to resound strongly in contemporary Rusyn literature in Slovakia.

The author discusses the concept of diglossia in the sociolinguistic aspect, but also in the cognitive one, assuming the significance of the opposition between the language of primary socialisation (unofficial and spoken) and the language of secondary socialisation (official and written) for the cognitive development of an individual functioning in a situation of diglossia. A broad interpretation of the concept is supported in the paper, with the author extending it to cover also the simultaneous presence of a minority language (as the language of primary socialisation) and the general language of the dominant culture (as the language of secondary socialisation) due to the clearly separate nature of their functioning.

The author addresses the constantly relevant problem of the relationship between language and identity, gaining a new dimension in the context of transformations related to civilisation, globalisation and glocalisation. The research concerned students’ awareness of the role they believed language to play in the shaping of identity. For this purpose, surveys were conducted among 66 students of humanities. The paper fits in the field of ethnolinguistics and sociolinguistics.

The article presents the most important and the most interesting prose and poetry publications that appeared in 2018. Last year was marked by a dominance of well-known authors (such as: Marek Bieńczyk, Wiesław Myśliwski, Zyta Rudzka, Eustachy Rylski, Szczepan Twardoch, Krzysztof Varga, Janusz Pasterski, Marzanna Bogumiła Kielar, Eugeniusz Tkaczyszyn-Dycki) and proved that the Polish literary market was stable, but there was no place for new trends or spectacular literary debuts.

The article presents a summary of the 2018 season of Polish filmmaking. All movies mentioned in the article are chosen and described according to that which would be interesting for a foreigner or a person who studies Polish as a foreign language. The following films are described in the article: Zimna wojna [Cold War], Kler [The Clergy], Jeszcze dzień życia [Another Day of Life], Jak pies z kotem [A Cat with a Dog], Kamerdyner [The Butler], 303. Bitwa o Anglię [Hurricane: Squadron 303], Dywizjon 303. Historia prawdziwa [Squadron 303. A True Story].

The article attempts to sum up the progress of research on glottodidactics in Polish studies, with particular regard to the inclusive approach in the context of students who have experienced migration. The basic source used was the book by P.E. Gębal Podstawy dydaktyki języka polskiego jako drugiego. Podejście integracyjno-inkluzyjne. [Fundamentals of teaching Polish as a second language. An integration- and inclusion-based approach]

The paper briefly analyses representations of the city and “writing about the city” as reflected on in contemporary humanities, in relation to Katarzyna Taborska’s book Literatura miejsca. Piśmiennictwo postlandsberskie. [Literature of a place. Post-Landsberg writing].