Dialectism

A dialectism is a word, form, expression or pronunciation peculiar to a certain territorial dialect and not belonging to the literary norm: "fainyi" (fine, in the western dialect), "gazda" (householder), "kohut" (rooster). Dialectisms are divided into lexical, phonetic, grammatical and semantic. In literature they fulfil important functions: they reproduce local colour, individualise the speech of personages, attest to their social and geographical origin, lend the narrative authenticity. The masterful use of dialectisms is characteristic of works about the life of a particular region — thus Hutsul dialectal elements sound distinctly in Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky's Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, and Pokuttian ones in Vasyl Stefanyk's short stories. Excessive use of dialectisms, however, may complicate the understanding of the text. Dialectisms are a subject of dialectology and the stylistics of artistic speech.