grypsera

{{Short description|Polish prison slang language}}

{{Infobox language

|name = Grypsera

| altname = Drugie życie

|pronunciation =

|states = Poland

|region = Warsaw

|speakers =

|ref=

|familycolor = Indo-European

|fam2 = Balto-Slavic

|fam3 = Slavic

|fam4 = West Slavic

|fam5 = Lechitic

|fam6 = Polish

|notice = IPA

|isoexception = dialect

|glotto = none

}}

Grypsera ({{IPA|pl|ɡrɨˈpsɛra}}: from Low German Grips meaning "intelligence", "cleverness"; also drugie życie, literally "second life" in Polish{{cite journal |last1=Ciechanowska |first1=Anna |last2=kleparski |first2=Grzegorz Andrzej |date=December 31, 2015 |title=On the semantic features of prison slang |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o3HbDQAAQBAJ |journal=Token: A Journal of English Linguistics |publisher=Jan Kochanowski University of Kielce |volume=4 |pages=59–63 |access-date=28 August 2022}}) is a distinct nonstandard dialect or prison slang of the Polish language, used traditionally by recidivist prison inmates.{{cite web|title=grypsera - Encyklopedia PWN|url=https://encyklopedia.pwn.pl/haslo/grypsera;3908413.html|publisher=Internetowa encyklopedia PWN|accessdate=27 March 2018}}

It evolved in the 19th century in the areas of Congress Poland: it is said to have originated in Gęsiówka, a prison in Warsaw.{{cite journal|last1=Rodasik|first1=Radosława|last2=Ćwiertnia|first2=Ewelina|last3=Zat’ko|first3=Jozef|title=Język podkultury więziennej – gwara. język migowy, tatuaż|journal=Kultura Bezpieczeństwa. Nauka – Praktyka – Refleksje|date=January–June 2013|volume=13|pages=119–127|url=http://kultura-bezpieczenstwa.pl/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/7-R.-Rodasik.pdf|accessdate=27 March 2018|publisher=Wyższa Szkoła Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego i Indywidualnego „Apeiron” w Krakowie|language=Polish|issn=2299-4033|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180327212754/http://kultura-bezpieczenstwa.pl/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/7-R.-Rodasik.pdf|archive-date=27 March 2018|url-status=dead}} The basic substrate of the dialect is Polish, but there are many notable influences (mostly lexical) from other languages used in Polish lands at that time, most notably Yiddish and German, but also some Lithuanian, Ukrainian, Russian, Greek and Latin. It was also heavily influenced by various regional dialects of the Polish language, most notably the Bałak jargon of Lwów and the Warsaw dialect.

Initially, it served the role of a cant, or "secret language", but in the late 19th century, it became a standard sociolect of criminals. Grypsera is constantly evolving to maintain the status of a language understood only by a select group of inmates and not by the wardens or informers.{{cite book |last1=Baicchi |first1=Annalisa |title=Cognitive Modelling in Language and Discourse across Cultures. |date=2017 |publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing |location=Newcastle-upon-Tyne |isbn=9781527500396 |pages=187–188}} That makes it currently one of the lexically richest dialects of Polish. Also, it is not possible to prepare a comprehensive dictionary of the dialect since it differs from prison to prison.

Phonetically, Grypsera is similar to the Warsaw dialect and shares its most notable features of assimilation of {{angle bracket|i}} {{IPA|pl|i|}} into {{angle bracket|y}} {{IPA|pl|ɨ|}} and the disappearance of nasal vowels, especially in word-final syllables.