O zachowaniu się przy stole

The festive custom and culinary vocabulary are two components of the Polish culture which have undergone intensive transformations. Originally, in the Old Polish period, the lexical field of this vocabulary covered between one and two hundred units, in the Middle Polish period – a few hundred units, and nowadays – a few thousand units. At the same time, both lexis and customs have been subject to continuous internationalisation processes, which have intensified in particular over the past two hundred years. At present, native words constitute ca. 30% of the lexis falling into this field, and borrowings – ca. 50%. The vocabulary common to various variants of Polish (including ones with the Proto-Slavic and Old Polish origin) is strongly present in native lexis.