Genealogy / What nationality is Slavic? [23]


Polish Lithuanians wouldn't be Slavic, but Lithuanian Poles would be. Roma Poles don't really exist, but Polish Romani do. It makes a different which word comes first.

Travel / How often do you visit Poland? [32]

I can't afford holidays anymore. If I had been asked two years ago I would have said I visit more often, say one or more times a year.

Food / Polish Fruit Juice used to mix with beer [6]

I've seen strawberry syrup mixed with beer plenty of times. Look for sok malinowy. Sok is Polish for juice, but this stuff is more like syrup.

Fruit juice is reserved for going with vodka, usually in a seperate glass, and usually the stuff made from concentrate.

This might be the stuff:
zdrowazywnosc.com.pl/index.php?products=product&prod_id=284


Sorry. Somehow I missed this post. I didn't mean to cover something that had already been covered. But at least you've got a link as well.

News / European Quality Of Life Index: Poland in the middle [29]

Poland is second only to Spain in number of holidays per year. That explains why my Polish colleagues always ask if there's a day off work for such-and-such because there is in Poland. No name days either? Tsk tsk!

I actually earn less, work more and get less holiday, although I get more sunshine and expect to live longer.

Life / Why Poles don't use Facebook? [43]



Justysia, I (accidentally) looked up how many hours a week you spend "on facebook".
Facebook actually has no face. It is also not a book.

Genealogy / Polish and British men the ugliest -> according to... BeautifulPeople [27]


I'm not one to judge how good looking Polish or British men are. Maybe we are ugly... well, I don't think I am.

Language / A word about a dialect. [20]

What about overusing the o sound - a being pronounced as o, adjectives ending with o, that kind of thing?

It is all by chance that languages exist in their current forms. Standard Polish derives from a particular variety of Polish that became dominant through power and prestige, just as happens with any language. People in the south of France still speak their Occitan dialects even if they are often frowned upon. Britain is full of different accents even if differences in vocabulary and especially grammar are actually minimal. Standard English itself derives from a dialect spoken somewhere northwest of London, not from a London dialect as one might expect.

It seems to me that whereas in some countries, differences in accent or dialect mean relatively little (this is true across Britain, maybe even the English speaking world), in Poland, there is much less difference and people are far more likely to try to adhere to the standardised language - people who can vary their speech between the local and the general will tend much more strongly to "proper Polish" when speaking to other people from outside of their own local community.


I could do a longer one, but probably not a better one.

Language / 'Gateway' slavic language? [54]


Usually, but we still have more inflections in pronouns than in regular nouns.

He saw him.
She saw her.
They saw them.

The dog saw the dog and the dog saw the cat.

It is useful for a beginner to think of the changes to pronouns as an introduction to cases when learning Polish. Polish doesn't have too many cases. It has too many different case endings within each case and gender, and it has too many case endings that are the same for different cases. But what would life be without a challenge?


Horribly long words in agglutinative languages can look even scary than medium sized words in languages that look like they have a vowel deficit.

News / Anti-Polonism in Russian literature. [10]


A couple of times, Poles appear in Crime & Punishment, a book I admire and have enjoyed reading more than once. There are a couple of very minor characters who are always described as little Poles. Maybe they were supposed to be Polish and just coincidentally little. At the end of the book, the (anti-) hero of the story witnesses a mix of typical Russian criminals and Polish political prisoners in a Siberian prison camp, neither of whom are looked on particularly favourably although the Russians not quite so unfavourably. This may be based on Dostoevsky's own experience in a Siberian prison. Other foreigners in his work also seem to be portrayed somewhat negatively - Germans and Finns and so on.

I don't remember any references to Poles in the work of Gogol, but I haven't read everything by him. I am the king of Spain, by the way.


It seems all to often that we notice Russian popular opinion following the government line. However, if we look at the literatrure of the past and the country's history, we can see that things haven't always been quite so straightforward, although this does seem to be a recurring theme.

Life / What are people in Poland REALLY saying about 'swine flu'? [41]

Why is it Swine Flu and not Piggy Cold?

Love / Help with a Polish girl -How do I know if she is "interested"? [41]

I am teacher on English since two ago year. Mine lesson's are bests.

Language / Numbers in the Polish Language [39]

At work, we use "i pół" as an interjection just after someone has said a number.

Language / Numbers in the Polish Language [39]

Important update:

i pół - and a half
trzydziesci trzy i jedna trzecia - thirty three and a third

but I'm not so sure about quarters. I've seen too many different words for this - czwarta, ćwierć, kwatera. etc.

Language / Polish Language Pronunciation - Example Words and Phrases [178]


No. Both ć and cz are allophones in English, represented by ch. An allophone is one of two or more different sounds that stand for the same sound. For example, the h in hippy is different to the h in hop, but we don't hear them as different sounds. This is probably analogous to the h and ch (regardless of which spelling is used) in Polish, where the ch in troche isn't pronounced quite the same as the ch in chceć. They are still heard as the same sound.

To me and possibly many English speakers, when Polish people pronounce ch with a cz sound, it sounds like the tongue further back on the palate than it should be.

It is merely a spelling convention that ci appears before a vowel rather than ć as found before consonants and in final position in a word. Spelling would be so much simpler if we weren't all using an alphabet designed for Latin to describe the sounds of English with all its many vowel sounds and Polish with its myriad consonants.

Language / 'Gateway' slavic language? [54]

If you observe Poles, Slovaks, Czechs and Russians working together as I have done in my place of work, you will notice that communication across language barriers is not a huge problem. I have used Polish to speak to Slovakian colleagues and been understood better than if I had just tried to rely on their minimal English skills. This means that if you speak one of these languages to a reasonable level, it should be possible to communicate with someone who speaks another Slavic language, not perfectly of course.

But why would anyone want to learn a language merely as a "gateway" to another? The best option has to be to want to learn a particular language, then learn that language. I have no desire to learn Slovakian, for example. It's just nice to know that I can speak Polish to a Slovakian and with a bit of luck and a bit of extra effort, be understood.

Life / Polish background music for presentation [3]

Chopin.

Language / Inventiveness in Polish word formation [9]

So basically, from what you have all said, Polish and Wroclaw Boy are quite boring.

On one hand I mean that last comment and on the other I don't really.

Are you trying to tell me that only words found in the dictionary exist and people don't coin new words in the process of natural conversation? I prefer to think that inventiveness exists in every language but not always in the same places.

Language / Inventiveness in Polish word formation [9]


Good!


Not entirely, but one should never look a giftdonkey in the mouth, so thanks for your contribution.

I'd like to see some examples of how words may be freely invented.

UK, Ireland / Why do Poles come to England? [514]

You have come to join us then?

History / Polish symbolisms [12]

It is a donkey on the shield. The goat is on the crest. The story of its origin distinctly mentions both animals (RIP).

History / Polish symbolisms [12]


... and ginger.


It's a good thing you weren't looking for in-depth analysis of heraldic motifs. But if you were, here's a little something of interest to... well, me actually:

Półkozic coat of arms - a Polish coat of arms with a donkey on it.


Thanks. I'm more than just a stupid donkey...


...

Love / What do Polish women think of feminism? [99]


Do the animals in nature documentaries ever receive any financial remuneration? In pornography, however, women performers are paid more the men.

News / Slavic linguistic union inside of EU; Polish language official [95]

In Britain, suitability for the monarchy is based on the combined genes of Germans and horses.

Language / The final "ę" [29]

The trouble is that books teach learners of Polish to use a feature that is considered by many to be a sub-standard form. It would be as if books teaching English taught the letter t at the ends of words as a glottal stop - it is how many people speak normally, although in careful or refined speech, this sound would not be used by nearly as many people.

I only started learning Polish because it has nasal vowels. Navajo also has nasal vowels and even uses the letters ą, ę and ł, but somehow Polish seemed like a more sensible option as a language to learn to speak.

So pronounce your final ę. Nobody will criticise you for doing so, but people may look down on your pronunciation you if you don't.

News / Slavic linguistic union inside of EU; Polish language official [95]

ec.europa.eu/education/languages/languages-of-europe/doc135_en.htm - European Commision - Multilingualism (that's what they call the page.)


The EU would have to really feel it was missing out on something to add another language to this list. As for official languages, it seems that each member state has an official language included in the list of languages official to the EU, except Ireland which has two and Belgium which has three.

Life / Why is Polka music played in Poland so much different than in the USA? [36]


Maybe Polka not being a Polish style of music could have something to do with it.

půl - half in Czech
-k- diminutive
-a typical feminine noun ending

It's origins are Czech.

The Scandinavian Polska dance (and associated musical style) is named after Poland, as is the Polonaise. Both of these are in 3/4 time (waltz) whereas Polka is 2/4.

USA, Canada / Do you think Americans are idiots. [149]

If someone was to run into an American, one or the other would have to be stupid, either for running into someone else or for getting in the way of someone running, although accidents do happen.

USA, Canada / Do you think Americans are idiots. [149]


Did they call it the USA?

USA, Canada / Do you think Americans are idiots. [149]


There's nothing boring about large-scale whisky consumption with a visiting distant Canadian relative. Some things can take years of recovery and rehabilitation to overcome. I'm sure some Canadians are boring, just as some Americans are stupid. I for one am neither stupid enough nor boring enough to go and count just how many fit into such categories.