Language / "sorry" instead of "przepraszam" [76]


No it does not. Both languages stem from Germanic and thus have similar words.

Do you think a load of Swedes came over to the UK, and unlike the Danes and Norwegians (who preferred looting and pillaging), they just kept apologising for everything and telling everyone what terrible sorrow they felt, until the poor English had no choice but to borrow these Swedish words to replace the void left in English since they had lost one of the most important words in the language (sorry) since God-kniws-when, leaving them with no way of apologising for anything.

Michal, shut up if you don't know. By the way: you don't know.

Language / "sorry" instead of "przepraszam" [76]


No it doesn't.


No it doesn't.Words of Scandinavian origin mostly come from the two varieties of Old Norse that preceded Danish and Norwegian. Sorry and sorrow came to English persisted from the Germanic from which English descends. They are related, but one does not come from the other.

Let's have more about przepraszam someone.

I once walked between two nuns who were walking in the opposite direction to me. I used the word przepraszam and they parted and one went either side of me. A mighty word indeed. Sorry wouldn't have done it!

Language / "sorry" instead of "przepraszam" [76]

Actually, I did my best in my question:


... to be as Anglo-Saxon as I possibly could. It still looks natural, but it would be next to impossible to say much more without venturing into loan-word country.

The word 'sorry' originates from Germanic *sairig- (the asterisk there means unattested by the way), which developed into Old English: sarig. The original meaning of the word would have been more to do with mental pain, angush rather than the apology or expletive that it later became.

I'd be interested to know the derivation of the word 'przepraszam'.

Language / "sorry" instead of "przepraszam" [76]


Named after Croatia (Hrvatska?). So it's kind of Slavic in origin, even if the word was borrowed from Francais.

UK, Ireland / Poles in Ireland, are they second class citizens? [90]


There were people who were probably related to the Picts of Scotland, more than one group of Celtic people (P-Celtic and Q-Celtic speakers), Vikings, Normans, then even some Scots and English. Phil Lynott from Thin Lizzy was half Brazilian as well.


No cats, dogs or amish.

Language / "sorry" instead of "przepraszam" [76]

Would speaking Polish with only words that come from Slavic be as hard as trying to speak English with only Anglo-Saxon words?

Language / Double entendres in the Polish language? [37]

I knew of a few of these already, but there are some that are new to me too.


Curious how there is the same thing in English with this one.

Language / Double entendres in the Polish language? [37]

But this is more precise than just slang.


It might help. We just need to lure the right people in. The problem is some people who might have something to add might just think it's another off-topic chit-chat.

Language / Double entendres in the Polish language? [37]

Hmm - all seem to be English so far.

Language / Double entendres in the Polish language? [37]

Partly I thought I'd give people the opportunity to post some things in Polish with two meanings - one innocent, the other risque (entendre, risque - English is a great language).

But mostly I thought the title looked good following the Are there double letters in the Polish language? thread.

UK, Ireland / Polak moving to north-west England [56]


I might have found another one, but the only one that comes to mind right now is 'sto'.

History / German Deaf/Mute able to give voices to Hitler's personal videos...scary [29]


But he didn't instigate the invention of Fanta until the US joined WWII. Probably.

Language / "sorry" instead of "przepraszam" [76]

Okay, but how did Polish people in the past deal with the influx of French words into the Polish language a couple of hundred years ago. How many of these words of French origin disappeared and how many still remain? Also, how well known is the Francophone origin those words that are now a part of the Polish language?

Language / "sorry" instead of "przepraszam" [76]


Especially when it was only watered-down Russian to start with! Soon, it will be almost pure water.

Language / Most-used Polish verbs (and every-day sentences) [37]

I found this one difficult for a while.
We were at work. I announced to my workmates that it was break time.
'Przerwa.'
The response: 'No.'
Okay then, you keep working, but I'm going for a cup of tea.

Nice to see the K-word has been given a mention too.

Language / Difference between Polish Ł and English W [23]


It's possibly my favourite letter in Polish. It reminds me of the things that happen to the L sound in the English spoken in my part of the world and also in Brazilian Portuguese. (Braził, as they say).

Language / Capital Letters at the start of Polish words. [26]


You didn't capitalise the English word. Only if there are multiple gods do you leave it with a small 'g'.
Also, you failed to use a capital letter at the start of a sentence.
Oh god, whatever next?

Language / Capital Letters at the start of Polish words. [26]


I think you mean God is always capitalised.

Language / Is this a TRIPLE negative? [9]

I asked about double negatives before.
In English, spoken by a trained and experienced practitioner, one negative can be negated back into a postitive by another negative.
This ain't no case in Polish, or most languages, including most English.
The two negatives work with, not against eachother.

Life / The "Ski" surname in American Movies [21]

Starski & Hutch?
Okay, so if it ends in -y it doesn't count?

Language / Capital Letters at the start of Polish words. [26]


But I won't edit out the second one.

Thanks for your help mr. 123... I mean Mr. PLK.

Life / Grafitti in Warsaw [44]

A lot ofgrafitti is quite bad. Often purile and damaging to other people's property.
On the other hand, sometimes it can actually be quite good.
Banksy has been in the news quite a lot recently. An example of a true artist.
Aslo, when dealing with words, grafitti is not always about childish rudeness. I quite like a situationist slogan or two here and there.

Language / Capital Letters at the start of Polish words. [26]


Dziękuję, Pan Plk123.
That kind of thing? or

Sp*******j Ty ch**u.
Kind of balances it out a bit, eh?

Language / Capital Letters at the start of Polish words. [26]


Are we now talking about punishment rather than letters?

Language / Capital Letters at the start of Polish words. [26]


Is there a Trend for more Words to start with a Capital Letter these Days?

Life / The "Ski" surname in American Movies [21]


A name also used in Vanishing Point. I only know of this film from the Primal Scream song named after it.

Language / Capital Letters at the start of Polish words. [26]


It was mainly the personal pronouns I was interested in.

Another thing is in titles where you have small words.
Like in English, the 'and' example I gave. Should the Polish 'i' be capitalised in such places?

Language / List of Polish consonants [8]

Not amazingly informative, but this is the only one that shows up on a search.
There is a bit more information here, but the search function won't find it if you're looking under the words 'hard', 'soft' or 'softened'.