Accent marks in Polish language

Hi

I'm trying to get some understanding of writing Polish for signs. Can anyone tell me if you need to but accents etc on words if they are in capitals?

Thanks

Matt

there is no such thing as accent marks in Polish.. the little signs that you see are part of the letters and have to be there regardless if they are caps or not.

I know what you mean, in French the accents can be taken away for capitals, but for languages like German and Polish where they are part of the letter, they have to stay even for caps :) x

Polish has accent on the second syllable counting form the end of the word in almost all cases. Exceptions are so rare that you don't need to learn them. For examle, in word Warszawa syllable sza is stressed (or accented): War-SZA-wa.

Yes, but these are called diacritics, or diacritical marks (signs), as they have nothing to do with accent.

I have a question about ę in particular.

Is it pronounced or not pronounced at the end of a word?

Like się, myślę, etc.

dziękuję(I have said this enough to know it is not pronounced but is it the same for all words?)

Some people tell me to pronounce it while other don't. What was thought in school? And what is the proper way to speak so I don't look like a fool? Better to get it right now than learn how to speak incorrectly.

Thanks

I asked this question myself a couple of years ago, and some answers are here Two years later and I still hear some words pronounced with the "ę" sound. I have come to the conclusion that some words need to be like this, to hear the difference in sound between similar verbs like chcę (I want) and chce ( he/she/it wants). Maybe a native Polish member will clear this up for us:)

The ę at the end of a word may be neglected and pronounced only as e, I should think. It can't be so when the ę is within the word, so you shouldn't say dziekuję, but you may say either dziękuję or dziękuje.

Thanks Vincent and Ziemowit

I can't remember where, but I read somewhere that the ę-pronunciation at the end of word is something only really learnt in school, and that children of Polish speakers abroad who haven't learnt Polish in school pronounce it only as "e". I guess pronouncing ę at the end of word is some kind of extra "accurate" reading pronunciation that isn't really natural in normal everyday speech.

I think you are right. The ę said too distinctly at the end of a word would sound very silly. Yet, people who speak good Polish ("Queen's" Polish) will usually (and unconsciously) pronounce it with this little, quite moderate, "extra" which is undoubtedly beyond the reach of those who tend to say "kurwa" every time they want to take a breath while speaking.

Hehehe, my Polish friends laughed when I said, 'ona ma ładną dupę'. I accented on purpose but they said that they just don't say it that way.

lol :D

but just because the laughed, doesn't mean you are wrong... some Poles would say, for example, "ni ma takiej kobity" (as pronounced) but it doesn't mean they are necessarily wrong either ;)


Spot on :)

In Silesia, there is a different accent system altogether. For example, standard Polish would be dzięki za informację whereas, in Silesian, it'd be dzięki za informacja. Quite different if you stress the ę.

Beware because some polish people say Chcę like "chcem" which is absolutely wrong.
I personally say chcę with a bit "ę" accent, but in examples like dupę, komórkę we say "e".

A few years ago I read an article by a very prominent Polish philologist and phonetician.

They said (paraphrasing). Pronouncing every final -ę as -ę (with the full or reduced nasalization) sounds tiresome and pedantic. Not pronouncing any final -ę as -ę sounds too informal and bordering on the uneducated. The best result is pronouncing some final -ę's as -ę and others as -e.

They very helpfully didn't indicate at all which should be pronounced as -ę and which should be pronounced as -e.

IME I notice that chcę often as a nasal element (not the full nasal -eł sound but there's some nasalization there). On the other hand kupię almost never does.

I'd say that when the first and third person would be the same when -ę is pronounced as -e, then -ę is more likely to be different but there are lots of exceptions (I think I hear muszę sometimes, but I think I've only heard (ja) pisze (instead of piszę))

I could be completely wrong of course..... I almost always just use -e for -ę, as a non-native I figure that -ę won't make me sound much better anyway.

I think I would need some of those "take a breath"-words in order to avoid saying "uhhh" all the time when I have to think, but I'd prefer something slightly more sophisticated than "kurwa". What good words exist in Polish that don't really mean anything, that can be thrown in everywhere when you don't really know what to say? ;) I've found that in Poland, if you're quiet for 1 second, someone will always try to fill in the blanks for you.

where do I find the ASCII codes for all the special letters in Polish alphabet? Please help, I can't find them!

This may be of help...
biega.com/special-char.html - Unicode table

thanks. That's the one I have, where I can't find the majority of Polish special letters. missing.
Where is the s, c with the thing on top, or a, e with the thing on the bottom... etc?

How do I find the codes for those: ĄąĆćĘę£łŃńÓóŚś-źŻż?

they are on the bottom table, I am pretty sure you have to use unicode for them...

Duh!
Thanks! I see them now!