[2] It evolved in the 19th century in the areas of Congress Poland: it is said to have originated in Gęsiówka, a prison in Warsaw.
[3] The basic substrate of the dialect is Polish, but there are many notable influences (mostly lexical) from other languages used in Polish lands at that time, most notably Yiddish and German, but also some Lithuanian, Ukrainian, Russian, Greek and Latin.
Initially, it served the role of a cant, or "secret language", but in the late 19th century, it became a standard sociolect of criminals.
Grypsera is constantly evolving to maintain the status of a language understood only by a select group of inmates and not by the wardens or informers.
Phonetically, Grypsera is similar to the Warsaw dialect and shares its most notable features of assimilation of ⟨i⟩ [i] into ⟨y⟩ [ɨ] and the disappearance of nasal vowels, especially in word-final syllables.