EN
In the Polish language surnames exist that contain the lexical morpheme 'Ciem- / Ciem'-' of the type Ciemoszewicz, Ciemiewicz, that have no convincing interpretation in etymologico-motivational dictionaries. One may suppose that the morphemes Ciem-, Ciem'- are variants of the morphemes Cim-, Cim'- that developed as a result of articulatory expansion of the vowel i before the half-open consonant 'm'. The pronunciation of 'im' as 'em' was widespread in the 16th century in Mazovia and Podlasie, where alongside names containing the morphemes Cim-, Cim'- of the type Cimoszewicz, Ciminski, surnames appeared of the type Ciemiewicz, Ciemachowicz. As a result of asynchronous pronunciation of the palatalized consonant m' the morpheme Ciem'- may be realized in northeastern Poland in the form Ciemn'-, compare the surname Ciemniewicz, or Cien'-, e. g. in the surname Cieniewicz.