I am a classical singer (clairevangelisti.com). I have just been asked to sing a movement from Henryk Gorecki's Symphony No. 3 and I need help with a few lines of pronunciation. I would graciously accept any guidance. I have sung in Russian and Czech but never Polish. The text is taken from the wall of a Polish concentration camp, written by an 18 year-old girl. Here it is:
Thank you SO MUCH!! I think Polish is more complicated than Russian! This Symphony is a beautiful piece of music and is "looped," or played over and over again, in the Holocaust museum in D.C. Even if you don't like classical music, it is worth a listen.
Mother, mother, don't weep, The Purest Queen of the Heavens Always support me. Hail Mary, full of grace.
I don't think any pseudo-phonetic transcription can give you any idea of the pronunciation. Polish sounds are just completely different. I think you should either get a recording of this symphony (it shouldn't be a problem), or if you can't figure it out, I can recite it and record it for you, and send it to you in mp3 (I'm a native speaker, so that will be the most proper pronunciation). I don't have the best mic in the world but it should be enough. If you want it, send me your e-mail via PM.
Cool someone is finally not interested in Doda or Feel but in some real music.
Hello, I am new to the forums and I have a question.
My polish friend keeps talling me that I cannot pronounce the word "Cztery" correctly, even when I repeat exactly what he says. He tells me there is a saying that is "Only people from Poland can pronounce Polish", but I am really trying to get it right, so can someone take this step by step with me?
For example, use phonetics or try spell it out in English or German pronounciation (zB. Fourty- For-tee)
And also, to name the real problem, it's with the ending "ry"
Trill the r. Don't pronounce it for too long, Then the y is like a short English i sound, like in big, fish, chips.
Are you convinced you've got the czt bit right. I would have thought that would be the tricky bit.
use phonetics
Until it is possible and practical to type with IPA, then this will always be unreliable.
I always check when people ask these questions, where the questioner is from. I'm no expert on German pronunciation, but I know to give a different kind of answer to someone from northern as opposed to southern England, or the US as opposed to... blah blah blah.
ery - if it had ng on the end it would rhyme with herring.
The first sound (cz) is like 'ch' in English 'chips' or 'tsch' in Deutsch.
The second sound (t) is not like an English t at all, it's made against the teeth as in Spanish or Italian (and at least some kinds of German, I don't know about yours).
The next sound (e) is like English e in 'get' or German nett.
The next sound (r) is like a single r in Spanish or Italian (not like English or German r at all).
The final vowel (y) is like 'i' in English sick or hit (this doesn't occur in word final position in English) maybe like German i in Mist or schicken (again it doesn't occur at the end of words in German).
Also important: Polish doesn't have long or short vowels, all the vowels are pronouned clearly, the word cztery has two syllables and the first is stressed but be careful not to make it too long (and to not make the second vowel too short).
the polish Y is just like the english Y in LiberY.
I've never heard of such a word, libery.
The letter y in final position in English is usually more equivalent to the Polish i rather than y (that's if it's not like the y in try which is more like a Polish aj).
Another important difference is that the English i sound, found in words like tea, is more of a dipthong (possibly like a Polish ij, maybe yj). Long English vowels have a tendency to be dipthongs or glides rather than pure vowels. The long English u, as in rune, would be rendered in Polish as uł rather than just u.
I still think that that final -y in English is only the same as in Polish in certain English accents of the north of England. I have often been complimented on my Polish pronunciation, only slightly less so on my talking like a Yorkshireman.
Lets face it. Polish is one tough language to learn. I was born into it by my immigrant parents, but if I were in Poland today, I would have trouble. Modern day Poles use words that I never heard before. Maybe it is like America..It depends on what part of the country that one lives in.
