The interpenetration of cultures
Local dialect:
Aleksander Osipowicz’s reconstructed 19th-century Augustow dialect dictionary1 is an extraordinary source of knowledge about the dialect of the Suwałki, Augustow and Sejny regions. He reflects the mentality of people living in these ethnically and culturally mixed regions.
Over the centuries, the area in which the Augustow Canal is located administratively passed from hand to hand. Hence, apart from Polish, traces of Lithuanian, Belarusian, Ruthenian and Ukrainian languages are noticeable in the language.
Neighbours:
Historically, the area of today’s Podlaskie Voivodeship was a typical borderland where Polish (Masovian), Ruthenian, Yotvingian and Teutonic influences, and later also Lithuanian, interpenetrated and clashed. Read more about the history of the region here.
