Posts by z_darius

z_darius

26 Oct 2007

Language / Abecadło (The alphabet) [19]

There are too many forms of English for such a statement.

Agreed.
In regards to UK English, RP is often used for comparative phonology, and that's what I had in mind too.

I'd be interested to know about the variety of forms within the Polish language.

Polish has a lot of shades. Some are hard subtle, others significant enough to prove difficult for native Poles to understand. The differences are in the lexis rather than in individual sounds. Still, there may be subtle differences in some of the sounds. For instance in central Poland they will say psies [ps'ies] instead of pies. On the phonological level, the differences will be mainly in stress and intonation (sometimes in addition to differences in vocabulary).

The purest (literary) form of Polish was, at one time, regarded to be that spoken in Western Poland along the border with Germany.

z_darius

26 Oct 2007

Language / Abecadło (The alphabet) [19]

I notice these letters are pronounced more like the way they are in Latin-derived languages like Spanish or Italian.

In both Spanish and Polish d is roughly similar to English, except that in Spanish is sounds almost like English th in "those" if it appears between vowels. Also, in Spanish, d in final position is sometimes nearly silent. The cause is that the Spanish d in those position is rather a stop than the somewhat fricative th sound

The most striking difference between Polish and English sound t is that in the latter case it is a strong consonant and therefore has a fair amount of aspiration (burst) to it, mostly if it appears before vowels, but also in final positions. In Polish there is little to no aspiration.

According to a teacher of mine yek.me.uk/jassem03.html -Wiktor Jassem, there are only 3 sounds which are identical in both English and Polish (m,n, ŋ). All the other differ to a lesser or larger degree.

...and at the end of a word it's just a bit nasal.

Always?
Usually?

In the final positions they should be nasal, but often (incorrectly) they are pronounced as [om]/[em].

A Polish linguistic/cultural joke illustrates it by deliberate miss-spelling and (in speech), deliberate mispronunciation:

"Chamstwu nalezy siem przeciwstawiac godnosciom i kulturom osobistom"

z_darius

26 Oct 2007

Language / Abecadło (The alphabet) [19]

This topic seems to cause some excitement, so here are some rules.

In general, as the last sound in a word , ą / ę are pronounced somewhat similar to French on/un in French garçon / Verdun. The difference is that in Polish they are more frontal than in French, and a little longer in duration.

ą, ę - Pronounce as [om], [em] before [ b], [b'], [p], [p'] example: dąb [d o m p]
ą, ę - Pronounce as [on], [en] before [d], [t], [dz], [c], [dż], [cz] example: kąt [k o n t]
ą, ę - Pronounce as [oń], [eń] before [dź], [ć] example: rżnąć [r ż n o ń ć]
ą, ę - Pronounce as [oŋ], [eŋ] before [g], [g'], [k], [k'] example: bąk [b o ŋ k]
ą, ę - Pronounce as [o], [e] before [ł], [l] example: wziął [w ź o ł]
ę - Pronounce as [eĩ] before [ś], [ź] example: więzić [w' e ĩ ź i ć]

z_darius

26 Oct 2007

Language / Polish Word Processor on line? [9]

Try openoffice.org (about 100MB download).
It's free, MS Office compatible and there is also a Polish version.

If you need just word then try much smaller AbiWord.
It also support Polish language.

z_darius

25 Oct 2007

UK, Ireland / Polls for Poles in the UK [178]

ok so please expalin what you mean, examples etc, i kind of get where your coming from but i would like to hear a few examples and reasonings please??

I will, tomorrow.

It's late on your side of the pond, and it's getting late here too, so for now have a good night all.

z_darius

25 Oct 2007

UK, Ireland / Polls for Poles in the UK [178]

sorry but if your part of the 'allied forces' your fighting for all allied members including your own, so don't play the defending your country card.

Yes, but the fact is that the allied forces did NOT fight for ALL members equally.

z_darius

25 Oct 2007

UK, Ireland / Polls for Poles in the UK [178]

OK so there is special circumstances for things such as the conventions of war etc.

So you're OK with foreigners fighting for and defending your country, but once they succeed they should be deprived of the right to vote in their own elections and for their own money?

z_darius

25 Oct 2007

Language / Abecadło (The alphabet) [19]

An old little text taught to Polish kids

That's lyrics:

Abecadło

Abecadło z pieca spadło,
O ziemię się hukło,
Rozsypało się po kątach,
Strasznie się potłukło:
I - zgubiło kropeczkę,
H - złamało kładeczkę,
B - zbiło sobie brzuszki,
A - zwichnęło nóżki,
O - jak balon pękło,
aż się P przelękło.
T - daszek zgubiło,
L - do U wskoczyło,
S - się wyprostowało,
R - prawą nogę złamało,
W - stanęło do góry dnem
i udaje, że jest M.

and that's the song:

youtube.com/v/H52C93LG_tE

z_darius

25 Oct 2007