EN
The paper attempts to define the development of professional language that constitutes an instrument of communication for Polish journalists. This problem has not been a subject of linguistic analyses to date and thus there are no comprehensive studies of the vocabulary associated with the emergence of periodicals or with work in radio and television crews, which makes establishing the origins and stages of the development of this variant of Polish a highly difficult task. Therefore, the paper preliminarily discusses the development of this professiolect, based on the characterisation of the evolution of the journalistic profession and with reference to the technological changes that influenced the way of preparing materials in the Polish context. The author distinguishes four phases of the evolution of this sublanguage: (1) the protoprofessiolectal period (17th–18th century), (2) the establishment of a professional code (19th century – early 20th century), (3) the period of unstable development (early 20th century – 1980s/1990s) and (4) of dynamic evolution (since the 1980s/1990s).