Genealogy / Surname Smolen and Swierk [3]

Smoleń, a variant of smoluch, is derived from smoła (tar, pitch) but used figuratively to mean a grubby, soot-streaked slob. In the olden days it also meant a scruffy drunk and in the hunting world -- a boar wont to bed down or hide in a den covered by coniferous branches. It could have also derived from such localities as Smolany, Smolechy (Tarville, Pitchly) et al. A tar-maker incidentally is a smolarz, but it's not inconceivable that one got humorously dubbed Smoleń.

Świerk is a spruce. Possible toponymic sources: Świerki, Świerkocin, Świerczyna (Spruceville, Sprucewood).

History / Trying to identify old military medals. Are they from Poland? [15]

Yes, I've got a pic but don't know how to post it here. Not everyone is a hi-tech type.

Genealogy / Looking for family of Pogoda or Iwanos (Ewanos) [7]

There are 3 people in Poladn named Iwanos but not a single Ewanos. It appears to be the Lithuanised version of the first name Iwan (Ruthenian forheohn). Lithuanian for John is Jonas, but over the centuries there has been a lot of Lithuanian-Ruthenian cultural interaction also in the name area.

History / Trying to identify old military medals. Are they from Poland? [15]

Merged: CAN ANYONE IDENTIFY THIS POLAND WAR MEDAL?

Can anyone identify this medal and what the numerals and letters stand for? I suspect it is a commie-era distinction of soem sort.
It is a cavalier's cross with the numeral 5 on all four bars. At centre is a small uncrowned Polish eagle surrounded by the letters 1 Bt J SP.

I was wondering if it might not mean "Pierwszy Batalion Junaków Służby Polsce".

BTW, I copied it and tried to paste it into this box, but nothing happened. I could easily paste it into Microsoft Word. Is there from special PF trick for copy-pasting things?

History / Poland and Lithuania [161]

What do Lithuanians think of General Żeligowski? Would the average Lithuanian nowdays even know who that was?

Food / flaczki [7]

I like a coupla dashes of Louisiana hot sauce (like Tabasco)!

Food / flaczki [7]

Although as a rule I'm no great fan of industrially processed foods, I must admit that bottled Flaki Zamojskie and the Pudliszki brand (sold at Polonian delis) are quite good and can be eaten jsut as they come without too muich doctoring up.

Life / Poles are some of the most wonderful people. [18]

Rafał, defintiely hop a Greyhound and see America. Don't fly unless you want to see just clouds. Between the east and west coasts there are many things worth seeing. But also miles and miles of nothing but miles and miles....

Love / IS GIRL'S HAND IN MARIAGE REQUESTED OF PARENTS in POLAND? [7]

I haven't conducted sociological surveys in every area. Maybe such knowledge is somewhere on the net, but what's the harm in asking PFers for their take on things. Isn't that what this forum is for -- to wonder, ask, reply, share, contribute.....?

Life / List Some Polish Social Norms... [3]

POLISH CHIVALRY IS NOT DEAD!

Always greet females first, from elderly down to young. Many a Polish-American couple visitng relatives in Poland the first time has experienced this: they appear at the door and the Polish-American male extends his hand but the Polish family ignore him and start in hugging and kissing his wife, before doing the same to him.

When serving food or pouring out drinks, serve the females at table first.

Always sign letters, cards and e-mails from a couple: Alina i Jan Nowakowscy or
Barbara i Jerzy Szulcowie, etc. with the lady always first.

Language / Familial Terms [6]

Many dzięks and congrats on your familial terms. One thing I have wondered about for some time, and it is included in your list, is calling a stepsister siostra przyrodnia. Przyrodnia is a half-sister ie sharing one of the two parents.

One's stepsister is a total stranger (no common blood), and I fear Polish lacks a porper term for that. Someone has suggested siostra przyszywana but that is highly colloquial and hardly a standard, let alone legal term.

Genealogy / "Sajdak and Hanzel" Families. Also Spurek - Is my family still alive? [4]

The largest concentration of Spureks in Poland is in teh Świętokryzskie Mountain area around Kielce, so that might be the place to start.
Perhaps the missing letter was a "j". The Naj surname exists in Poland and is used by 10 people.

Love / IS GIRL'S HAND IN MARIAGE REQUESTED OF PARENTS in POLAND? [7]

Thanks for the tip, but how does one use the search fucntion. I typed in "parents' permsision to marry" in teh search box but got no reply.

Genealogy / Polish place name Scharlach? [6]

Found such places as Szarłat, Szarłata and Szarłatów. The Polish spelling of the town you mentioned would have to be Szrałach or Szarlach. Perhaps it is beyond the borders of today's downsized Poland or has changed its name.

Genealogy / Stolkowski Surname [7]

The root of Stołkowski is stołek (stool), so someone who made or dealt in stools might have acquired such an occupational nickname.-

Language / ANGLOS HAVE TROUBLE WITH SZCZ, SOME WITH TRILLED 'R' [22]

The tongue approaches the back of the upper teeth but I'm at a lost as to how to generate the trill. Try pronouncing Eddie, Betty, litter, butter, etc. the American way and you will effectively be producing the trilled r.

News / WHAT POLISH THINGS COULD/SHOULD BE EXPORTED? [27]

Where one happens to live is immaterial. There are thinking people everywhere. I once heard a very good saying in Poland: "Najpierw pomyśl -- to nic nie kosztuje!·" (First think, it doesn't cost a thing). If more people did, we wouldn't have to choose between the fanatical extremes of McWorld (unbridled, media-driven consumerist pop culture taken to the extreme)and Jihad (Muslim fanaticism, Holy War). Between the two extremes is a broad area known as common sense.

There are probably no advocates of Jihad (terrorists, suicide bombers, etc.) on this forum, but the oppsotie extreme, referred to by some as Mc World, also poses a threat to the human psyche, spirit and value system by reducing people to docile consumers miondlessly swept along by passing fads, seasonal idols, fly-by-night gimmickery, de rigueur fashions, etc. Naive young people, who have yet to develop a sense of critcial evaluation, are especially victimised, and many of them do not even know it.

The current global crisis was not caused by Bush or greedy bankers but by stupid people living beyond their means, demanding instant gratification here and now and falling deeper into the debt and foreclosure trap. Naturally the forces of aggressive commercialism kept talking them into high livng on credit, but ultimately it was their stupidity that made them fall for it.

In a world where most people go to bed hungry, isn't there something sick and decadent about having four cars and 5 or 6 flat-screen TV sets plus tonnes of other expensive gadgetry per family? I am referring not to celebs or millionaires but ordinary auto workers in Michigan who have cluttered their lives with this stuff on credit. When they lose their jobs and even their heavily mortgaged homes, they are learning the hard way that unbridled consumerism does not pay.

Genealogy / The surname Kupaj ... [3]

Kupaj may be derived from kupić/kupiec (to buy/merchant) but kupa indeed means a heap, żpile, lot of something or colloquially a pile of excrement. But is may also be derived from Kupajło, a now obsolete Ukrainian term for St John the Baptist, whose feast day (24 June) is celerbated by Slavs as mid-summer night. "Kupajło" (also "Kupała") was also the name of a straw effigy burnt in the bonfires lit on that occasion.

Chudka probably from root "chud-" meaning lean, thin, meagre, poor. Possibly of toponymic origin derived from such localities as Chudek, Chudowo, Chudzyno et al.

Name has been recorded but currently no-one uses it. There are 7 people named Chudko and 17 named Chudkiewicz (son of Chudka or Chudko).

News / WHAT POLISH THINGS COULD/SHOULD BE EXPORTED? [27]

I am totally unfmailair with British kids, but some Brit on the forum said that Polish schools are like heaven compared to British ones, so I am taking that person's word for it.

At least there are no shoot-ups in Polish schools like in the US, where packing a rod is regarded as "cool" in some quarters. But the drug slime IS oozing into the Polish school system, sad to say.

News / I love Poland because... (in 10 words or less) [182]

.....it's more challenging to be Polish in America than not!

Food / Ordering Polish Food Online [14]

Thread attached on merging:
PolishEats online food supplier

Anyone ever try online Polish-food supplier PolishEats.com?

Language / POLISH OR RUSSIAN -- MORE MODERN? [20]

Many dzięks for the input. To Polish and perhaps others speakers who are not professional linguists Russian can sound subjectively crude as in: Я студент… он хорош...
Almost reminds one of some kind of pidgin -- "me student, he good, me go" or "Kali jeść, Kali pić".
It's interesting you brought up the multi-ethnic lingua franca aspect. That would certainly apply to English which is even more far-flung and cosmopolitan, and may well account for its more simplified structures compared to German.

After you explained things, now it makes more sense to me why they always use the personal pronouns. In Polish it suffices to say pojechaliśmy but in Russian ноехали alone without a pronoun would be ambiguous.

You therefore disagree that a language's modernity does not corelate to its simplicity.