acrimon 6 | 11 13 Sep 2008 / #61Merged: Spelling out words in Polish to someone elseHi,I had this question on my mind for a while now, and I guess it's high time I asked. ;D I was wondering, how exactly does one go about spelling out words in Polish to someone else. I know it's not like in English where you spell out words by the "names" of letters rather than their sounds, and so I'm not exactly sure how it works in Polish.Additionally, let's say you want to spell out an English word or words in Polish that don't have translations in Polish, such as a name of a store, like "Food Basics." I'm not sure how I would spell out the double o sound, and especially the final c in Basics as it has more of an k sound than the Polish variant. Or, in this case, is it just better to spell it out in English?I appreciate any help! ;DThanks in advance!
sausage 19 | 775 13 Sep 2008 / #62spell out words by the "names" of letters rather than their soundsdo you mean like alpha, bravo, charlie?The "Teach Yourself Polish" book says that christian names are used when spelling out words...e.g A jak Adam (A like Adam)B jak BarabaraC jak Celinaand so on
acrimon 6 | 11 13 Sep 2008 / #63Sorry, I think I worded that question a bit vaguely. ;P Like in English, for example a spelling bee, one would spell the word pool as: (the letter) P (the letter) O (the letter) O (the letter) L; that is, not by how those letters sound in the word.Hope that clears it up a little. ;PBut what you said is also a good bit of knowledge to have, though. ;P
clouddancer - | 25 13 Sep 2008 / #65AĄBeCeCie (=Ć)DeEĘEfGieHaIJotKaeLe£eMeNeŃOÓPeeReSeŚTeUfał (=V)WuIks (=X)igrek (=Y)Zetziet (=-)żet (=Ż)
osiol 55 | 3,921 13 Sep 2008 / #66igrekWhy?Actually, I like the distinction between curly-kuh and kicking kuh.
clouddancer - | 25 13 Sep 2008 / #67igrek Why?From the Latin Y Græca? In most languages it's either a variation on that, or on Ypsilon, see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YI forgot to add the distiction between U and Ó:ó - u kreskowane / u zamknięte / o z kreskąu - u zwykłe, u otwarte
mafketis 37 | 10,893 14 Sep 2008 / #68In my experience Polish people mostly don't spell words out loud.This is because, mostly, there's no need. Polish pronunciation and writing are much in sync than in English.There are strategies for dealing with the ambiguities that do appear.1. If a word (esp name) has an ambiguous point you just mention that. "Dahowski przez samo h". "Korza przez er zet"2. Pronounce a word just as it's spelled and not how it's commonly pronounced. Here, it's possible to voice final sounds that are usually voiced and ą and ę would be pronounced as in isolation. It's not uncommon for Polish people to do this with English words too (to indicate spelling) "'bread' pisane bread" (pronounced breh-ahd)To clearly indicate a word (or in an argument or to make a point) English speakers might spell a word."I'm broke, get it? B-R-O-K-E!"In Polish you'd say each syllable separately."Jestem spukłany, kapujesz? Spu-kła-ny!"Finally, IME Polish people often don't use the official names of letters (back when I foolishly spelled my name using the official names of letters it almost always got written down incorrectly). Ry and sy are especially common instead of er and es though 'rz' is always er zet.
acrimon 6 | 11 24 Sep 2008 / #69Excellent, thank you everyone for the information! :) This will definitely help me out. :D