Paul Ironmonger

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Paul Ironmonger
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The Polish Language

• What makes it special, how it works and why it is
  perhaps not as difficult as it looks.

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• or is it?

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Languages in Poland

• Polish
• Kashubian(official regional language)
• Dialects
• Silesian dialect(Slaski)
• Podhale dialect(Góralski)

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Highland and Kashuban dress
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Some Polish language facts...

• Almost 250,000 people in the city of Chicago are
  Polish-speakers.
• 26 of the population of Lithuanias capital,
  Vilnius, are Polish speakers.
• Until the 14th Century Polish mainly existed in
  spoken form only, with Latin being the language
  of literature.
• Nearly all ruling members of the Russian Romanov
  Dynasty (1613 1917) were fluent in Polish.

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Alphabet

• Latin alphabet (32 letters)
• A A B C C D E E F G H I J K L L M
  N N
• a a b c c d e e f g h i j k l
  l m n n
• O Ó P R S S T U W Y Z Z Z
• o ó p r s s t u w y z z z
• Note No Q, V, X

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• dz, cz, sz, rz, dz, dz, ch.
• But be careful when an accented letter is
  followed by the letter i you dont write the
  accent but still pronounce it!
• For example Dzien dobry
• Cicho!

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Pronunciation

• Word stress is ALWAYS on the second last
  syllable!
• Kielce
• Warszawa
• Szczecin
• Wroclaw
• Lódz
• Oswiecim

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Pronunciation

• Word stress is ALWAYS on the second last
  syllable!
• Kielce kyel-tse
• Warszawa var-sha-va
• Szczecin shche-cheen
• Wroclaw vrots-wav
• Lódz woodge
• Oswiecim osh-fyen-cheem

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• Mam na imie.....

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Some basic phrases

• Jak masz na imie?
• Mam na imie.... Jestem....
• Milo mi.
• Jak sie masz?- dobrze- tak sobie- zle

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7, 3, 3, 2

• Polish has 7 cases nomative, genitive, dative,
  accusative, instrumental, locative and vocative.
• 3 genders masculine, feminine and neuter.
• 3 tenses past, present, future.
• 2 verb types perfective and imperfective.
• masculine can be split into three - personal
  masculine - animate masculine - inanimate
  masculine

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Nouns

• When using Polish cases, the adjectives and nouns
  change according to the case
• Nominative butelka (bottle)Accusative butelke
  Dative butelceGenitive butelkiLocative bu
  telceInstrumental butelkaVocative butelko

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• This also happens with names!!
• Nominative MarekAccusative MarkaDative Mar
  kowiGenitive MarkaLocative MarkowiInstrumen
  tal MarkiemVocative Marku

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Verbs

• Byc to be
• (Ja) jestem
• (Ty) jestes
• On jest
• Ona jest
• Ono jest
• (My) jestesmy
• (Wy) jestescie
• Oni sa

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Some funnies..

• My other wife
• On my second trip to Poland I was trying to
  impress my mother-in-law with my improved Polish
  language skills and express how dear my wife is
  to me. I addressed my wife by calling her Moja
  druga zona. This came as a shock to my
  mother-in-law and all who were present because
  they were under the impression that I had never
  been married before, which was the case. Instead
  of saying Moja droga zona, my dear wife, I
  actually had called her my second wife. Big
  difference between droga, dear, and druga,
  second.
• Sent by Gerard

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• A colleague had told me how to say hello in
  Polish before I went to Poland a few years ago.
  In Polish, the word for hello is czesc pronounced
  "chesh-ch," but I thought my colleague had said
  tesc ("tesh-ch"). As a result, I ended up
  introducing myself to people by saying
  "father-in-law" instead of "hello".

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Things TO DO and NOT TO DO in Polish...

• DO
• - address elderly people and strangers as Pan
  or Pani (Sir or Madam) until they tell you not
  to.
• - introduce yourself when you telephone someone
  Hello, its Paul here, is Tomek around?. Not
  doing this is very rude.
• - when meeting someone for the first time, say
  your name at the exact moment you are shaking
  hands.
• DONT
• - say thank you (in any language) when you
  hand over your money in a bar, café or
  restaurant, unless you really do mean for the
  waiter to keep the change!

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• Dziekuje
• i
• Do widzenia!