The borderline between what is and what is not a codified standard

Anna Berlińska

Abstract

The article analyses a few examples of innovations, widespread in spoken and written texts and largely accepted by average educated users of Polish language (especially, though not only, by the younger ones), but not yet fully and/or unanimously recognized as correct in normative dictionaries and critical works of normative linguists. The author focuses on two phonetical phenomena: denasalization of the vowel ą [o] at the end of a word, replaced by the diphthong [ou]; generalization of the accentuation of the last but one syllable in those words which were traditionally exceptions to the rule. Then two derivational models are looked into: feminine nouns derived with suffix -ka from masculine profession names en ding in -log (psycholog > psycholożka etc.); „statistical" nouns formed with the suffix -(aln)ość (oglądalność, słuchalność). More of the „almost standard" phenomena will be analysed in another article.