EN
The article discusses the pronunciation of palatal labial consonants in the area of eastern Masuria. The questionnaires which are the source of the discussion, date from the second half of the 19th century. They were filled out for the use of the German linguistic atlas (Deutscher Sprachatlas) initiated by Georg Wenker (1852–1911) who worked in Marburg at that time. He formulated 40 sentences (in German) which were to be translated by school teachers of the entire German Empire. Conducted in the years 1877–1887, the research had the goal of presenting the dialectal diversity, including a demonstration of phonetic differences between German dialects. But the material from East Prussia which recorded German dialects remained in a raw state. An analysis of this material allows to determine that the areas of asynchronous pronunciation are located in a belt west from Ełk, and in a few spots in the East, neighbouring with the dialects of Białystok and its surroundings. A larger area is occupied by individual asynchronous pronunciation of ḿ which is spread over almost the entire territory. Later linguistic findings which discover the duality in the realization of palatal labial consonants in the East of Masuria, confirm the state recorded in the 19th c. questionnaires, which settles the matter of usefulness of G. Wenker’s material for the study of Masurian dialects, and also that of the ability which the teachers of the time displayed in the observation of the local language.