Language interference in multiword place names in North–Eastern Poland

Abstract

The article examines the phenomenon of Polish–Eastern Slavic interference at different levels of the language system. Multiword names, like other structures, show the widest extent of interference within the phonetic subsystem, with the dominant direction of influence on Polish names being from Belarusian. Morphological interference is more limited. At the same time, a frequent pattern is that of different origin of particular parts of a multiword name. Such mixed names can include a Polish element and a Belarusian one: Ks’onʒy Łuh, Polish and Lithuanian: Samańin V’elk’I, or Belarusian and Lithuanian: Dr'usavyja Kust'e.