Kasia and Zosia pronounce

HI! Can someone please help me pronounce the name "Kasia" properly?

Beannie,

Individual "s" sounds can vary. It sounds on the surface like "Kashia", but the "sh" sound in this combination, "Kasia", "Basia", etc. is pronounced much less like f.ex. an English "sh" and more lax, almost lazily. It is NEVER pronounced in Polish like a true "sh"sound in "Szczecin" (Sh-ch-e cin), the city name.

Furthermore, in Polish, every letter is pronounced and there are really NO schwa sounds (represented phonetically by a backwards-written "e") as in English or other languages

Marek

Hi!

I should also add that in Polish, syllable stress is much more regular than, say, English. Therefore, whereas English and French as well (but not German!) will typically reduce the final vowel e.g. "agenda", "livre" etc. into a sort of "uh"-sound, this doesn't happen in Polish. Charactaristically, when Poles say a sentence such as "I'm from Poland.", it frequently comes out sounding "Ay ahmm frrraum PoLAND." because to them, the typical schwa-sound doesn't exist!

Marek

So true! Whenever I try to say the names of Polish historical figures (or current people) whose names end in "-sław", my husband ALWAYS says, "No, no no no!" Then, depending on my error, he reminds me that there's no schwa and no "sh" sound in that syllable. I can make either error with that syllable, depending on the first part of the name I'll say "suhwav" ("uh"=schwa) or "schwav". Can't get just "swav" to come out!

I'm sllllooowwwly getting better . . .

Droga Medziu!

Cwiczenie tworzy mistrza. (Practice makes perfect!)

Marek

PS
Incidentally, Poles are usually far more tolerant of foreigners' occasional mispronunciations of their language than are the Hungarians, for example. Why they're even worse than the Parisians. Yet on a scale of 1-10, the Germans (not the Austirans) are by far the most tolerant I've found in Europe with regard to problems non-natives have with their language.

...plus, Americans especially are slurring all over the place! I never met a reduced vowel sound I didn't like. --:)
Marek

I would have thought that the British are fairly tolerant too as they hear people trying to speak English all the time in so many different accents.

......such as we Yanks, eh Michal?? -:)

The number of times my "American"was paraphrased and/or actually corrected when I was in London, would fill the pages of a small book!!

Marek

Were you in London as a tourist or did you work in an office? At work your written work may be of concern but on the street? In America nobody ever corrected my English though at times I had to repeat myself as we speak a little fast. I was there of course, as a tourist.

Michal,
The difference between Americans and Brits, as a rule, is that the English still have a deep and abilding respect for the sanctity of their language. In other words, it remains a tool with which communication occurs in as aesthetically satisfying a manner as is possible. In the States, on the on the other hand, language is used primarily as a means of filling the vacuum of empty space as much as we can, regardless of what is being said. In brief, we fart out of our mouthes a lot! I'm sure your English wasn't corrected here, as probably noone was really listening to the way you were saying something as much as on the supposed message you were communicating. We don't typically care how nice it sounds, but rather on whether we get your point or not: KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID!, that's our motto.

Don't misunderstand. We Americans pride ourselves on being a linguistically tolerant bunch. It's easy being tolerant when you don't know the rules.

Think I'll quit now! -:)
Marek

I was there both as a tourist when I was sixteen (around 1978) and later on business.
By the way, my written work had no "accent", so noone would have dared to correct it.
Marek

Nobody correctionized it. No thrus or tyers, then?

The results are that bad English is often not corrected

Allow me to right a wrong. :)

correctionized

You can institutionalise a young offender and send him to a correctional facility in order to correct his behavior. :)

Maybe it's just the American media and politicians that invent words like 'correctionized'. They devize bizarre new words and ways of using words and 'leverage' them into the language. I just wanted to use the American -ize instead of the British -ise. Hope no offense was taken or I might need to be instituationalised in a facetious correctionality.

English: Kasha
German: Kascha
French: Kacha
Czech: Kaša
Hungarian: Kasa
:-)))

Can any non-Polish differentiate between "ś" and "sz"?

Sure - one is a "sh" with a pout, the other is a "sh" with a smile. I just have trouble remembering which is which so tend not to do either (which is probably why I sound like Kevin Aiston when I speak Polish).

[Moved from]: How to pronounce: Zanns; Zosia; Wisia?

these are possible names for my new pies! thank you.

Zoe-sha Vee-sha

sha != sia

Thanks a lot!!!!! :-)))))))) Kevin :-)))))