Mazurzenie or mazuration is the replacement or merger of Polish

Polish language

Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...

's series of retroflex

Retroflex consonant

A retroflex consonant is a coronal consonant where the tongue has a flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is articulated between the alveolar ridge and the hard palate. They are sometimes referred to as cerebral consonants, especially in Indology...

 fricative

Fricative consonant

Fricatives are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate, in the case of German , the final consonant of Bach; or...

s and affricate

Affricate consonant

Affricates are consonants that begin as stops but release as a fricative rather than directly into the following vowel.- Samples :...

s /ʂ, ʐ, t͡ʂ, d͡ʐ/ (written

Polish alphabet

The Polish alphabet is the script of the Polish language, the basis for the Polish system of orthography . It is based on the Latin alphabet, but includes certain letters with diacritics: the line or kreska, which is graphically similar to an acute accent ; the overdot or kropka ; the tail or...

 ‹sz›, ‹ż›, ‹cz›, ‹dż›) into the alveolar

Alveolar consonant

Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli of the superior teeth...

 series /s, z, t͡s, d͡z/ (written ‹s›, ‹z›, ‹c›, ‹dz›). This merger is present in many dialects, but is named for the dialect of Masuria

Masuria

Masuria is an area in northeastern Poland famous for its 2,000 lakes. Geographically, Masuria is part of two adjacent lakeland districts, the Masurian Lake District and the Iława Lake District...

.

This phonological

Phonology

Phonology is, broadly speaking, the subdiscipline of linguistics concerned with the sounds of language. That is, it is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning in any spoken human language, or the field of linguistics studying this use...

 feature is observed in dialects of Masuria and Masovia, as well as in parts of Lesser Poland

Lesser Poland

Lesser Poland is one of the historical regions of Poland, with its capital in the city of Kraków. It forms the southeastern corner of the country, and should not be confused with the modern Lesser Poland Voivodeship, which covers only a small, southern part of Lesser Poland...

 and Northern Silesia

Silesia

Silesia is a historical region of Central Europe located mostly in Poland, with smaller parts also in the Czech Republic, and Germany.Silesia is rich in mineral and natural resources, and includes several important industrial areas. Silesia's largest city and historical capital is Wrocław...

, and on the periphery of Greater Poland

Greater Poland

Greater Poland or Great Poland, often known by its Polish name Wielkopolska is a historical region of west-central Poland. Its chief city is Poznań.The boundaries of Greater Poland have varied somewhat throughout history...

.

The boundary of mazurzenie runs from north-east to south-west.

A similar phenomenon, Tsokanye

Ts-ch merger

In phonology, the ts-ch merger is the merger of the voiceless alveolar affricate and the voiceless postalveolar affricate.In Russian language it is the merger of the consonants rendered by letters Che and Tse...

, has been observed in the Old Novgorod dialect

Old Novgorod dialect

Old Novgorod dialect is a term introduced by Andrey Zaliznyak to describe the astonishingly diverse linguistic features of the Old East Slavic birch bark writings from the 11th to 15th centuries excavated in Novgorod and its surroundings...

 of Old East Slavic. It also occurs in a few areas of the Chakavian dialect of Croatian

Croatian language

Croatian is the collective name for the standard language and dialects spoken by Croats, principally in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbian province of Vojvodina and other neighbouring countries...

, known as tsakavism.

See also

• Ts-ch merger
  Ts-ch merger
  In phonology, the ts-ch merger is the merger of the voiceless alveolar affricate and the voiceless postalveolar affricate.In Russian language it is the merger of the consonants rendered by letters Che and Tse...
  
  
• Depalatalization
• Sabesdiker losn
  Sabesdiker losn
  Der sabesdiker-losn is a dialectical feature characteristic of the Northeastern dialect of the Yiddish language , which is the replacement, or merger of the "hushing" consonants ch, sh, with the "hissing" ones, "ts", "s"...
  
  , shibboleth
  Shibboleth
  A shibboleth is a custom, principle, or belief distinguishing a particular class or group of people, especially a long-standing one regarded as outmoded or no longer important...
  
  ,- about sh->s merger