Trzy dziewiętnastowieczne małopolskie słowniczki gwarowe

The paper describes three regional dictionaries from the north-central Region of Małopolska (Lesser Poland) by Oskar Kolberg, Father Władysław Siarkowski and Zygmunt Wasilewski. They contain records of the nineteenth-century lexicon from individual villages (Jaksice, Koszyce gmina, Pińczów powiat, Kielce Governorate), or larger areas: Kielce Region (environs of Pińczów), and Sandomierz Region. The lexical material was collected around the same time – in the period 1865–1895. When characterising sets of words, the following issues are taken into consideration: a) the time of creating the glossariesy; b) the volume; c) the territorial reach; d) the macrostructure of the dictionaries; e) the microstructure of the dictionaries. The lexical material contained in the dictionaries is primarily a source of knowledge about the oldest state of Małopolska dialects (more precisely, the north-central region of Małopolska), a source of research of Polish dialects in general, but it also gives an insight into the techniques used by unqualifi ed lexicographers, enthusiasts, hobbyists, admirers of folk artefacts, whose activities helped preserve the speech of residents of rural areas and save it from oblivion at times when Poland was not an independent country.