Abstract
The starting point of this article is the analysis of texts collected in the Polona.pl database and other databases of the Digital Libraries Federation. Based on these archives, the author outlines the transformation of the semantic scope of the word głośnik – “loudspeaker” – in 19th-century Polish. The functioning of this term is particularly interesting in the context of inventions which, from today’s perspective, appear as precursors of the modern loudspeaker. The development of radio broadcasting after the First World War popularised the contemporary understanding of the term; earlier – pre-radiophonic – uses in the 19th-century cultural press and dictionaries make it possible to trace changes not only within the language itself, but also the entire acoustemology of Polish society of the time. The semantic evolution of the term “loudspeaker” is at the same time a picture of deeper shifts in the perception of the role and meaning of sound. Under the pressure of the cultural policies of the partitioners, the Polish community retreated in its search for national identity to the level of language, and then – under the influence of new media and lifestyles, but also of the profound reforms of the Polish language in the interwar period – interacted with the cultural phenomenon of the new medium, with its help redefining its view of modernity. Key-words: acoustemology, speaker, semantic field, sound history, Polish history
Published Version
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