Polish Language Pronunciation - Example Words and Phrases

The American 'accent' is usually harder for Poles and many other Europeans, than the British or 'Oxford Standard' ('Received Pronounciation') generally taught in schools. While the sluggish drawl of Russian is the exception here, American English is notorious for slurring syllables and sounding the medial R in "woRd" or "biRd" as well as final R in "manneR" etc.. as well as that flat, almost dull 'u-sound' in words such as "lUnch" or "Ugly" etc.. which seeme to exist in no other languages.

I find English words in Polish a real pain - I never know if I should pronounce it as if I was talking in English, pronounce it in English but with a Polish accent so the listener understands me, or try and pronounce it according to Polish spelling/pronunciation rules....

The other day I was talking to a Polish guy about installing an automatic gate and he pulled out a brochure for a company called "Nice". First thing I thought - is that pronounced according to English, French, Polish, something else? I pronounced it Polish style and of course got it wrong...

....which is because English, unlike Polish, has neither rhyme nor reason for its often chaotic spelling, not to mention pronounciation. All of this is due to several notable historical events: The Norman Conquest in 1066 AD, which brought French orthography as well as vocabulary to Anglo-Saxon England (exluding the Celts, Picts etc...) and Caxton's printing expansion, brought to Britain during the 16th century, I believe.

The rest of the story's a bit complicated, but this is the general gist:-)

yes but my point is not that English words are difficult, more that it is hard to know when using words of English origin in Polish whether they have been polonised or not, and if so, to what degree....

Same holds true in German. Sooo many expressions in daily speech, particularly in business, have been anglicized, it's sometimes hard to know whether or not the German word is still in use, or even whether there ever was a German equivalent, e.g. "department meeting", "art director", "cash flow" etc.... ad infinitum, are used exclusively in German.

Polish, I think ( .... I hope and pray!!!) is much more judicious as to when to adopt foreign words.

It's a seperate letter £ pronounced like a w as W in polish pronounced like a v. There is various different letters in Polish. Ą (aon), Ć (ch), Ę (en), £ (w), Ń (nasally n), Ó (oo), Ś (sh), Ż and - (and someone else can fill you in on them cos i have no idea how to write them phonetically).

zh - as in Brezhnev

I suppose, although I have never heard of the word Brezhnev. I can use it but it's giving an english explanation that's a struggle.

say.expressivo.com/ewa - Link to a website where you can write words/sentences and hear how they should be pronounced

But it's very important that you spell them correctly and use the proper Polish letters. Or else it will sound completely wrong.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonid_Brezhnev

his name maybe the most well known word with "Ż" sound to the non slavs.

zgeeswuv

If the l is in fact a ł, then it's like 'zjeeswav', with the 'j' pronounced like an English j, 'ee' like in 'feet', and 'a' as a back-a like in 'father'.

maw-gah-zah-tah I'd say
well umm... but Gosia sounds way better

Jun 9, 09, 18:35 - Thread attached on merging:
Can't say "Trzy" #3

Hi I cannot say the number 3, trzy. some ppl seem to say it without the "t" and just rzy.
It is hard to explain how i say it now- more like ćrej. (ch-ray). Pomoc!

try it with tshee it sounds close

k, p, t before "rz" sounds like "sh".

so how does my "tshee" sound to you?

Can you say "czy"?

Merged: Moglismy or Mogłysmy pronunciation

Moglismy or Mogłysmy
Bylismy or Byłysmy

Whats the correct pronunciation?

moglishmi vs mogwishmi

bilishmi vs biwishmi

the accent is on the penultimate syllable of the verb root here not the penultimate of the word (in both these cases the penultimate is the first one)

moog lee shhmi would be better. moog wi shhmi. bee lee shhmi and bee wish mi

Sean - definitely not moog - it's not mógliśmy but mogliśmy

and wouldn't it be too similar to "biliśmy / biłyśmy"?

Aha, sorry gumishu. I hear Poles say it like mógliśmy. Maybe, I might have my own erroneous pronunciation, LOL

Well, as long as my English stays normal. Thanks for the help guys :)

Merged: HELP with name pronunciation. "Cezary"

Hi
How do you pronunce this name in English: Cezary. Thank you!

Tseh-zah-ri - hyphens indicate syllables italics the accent (stress)

Thanks for your help. Is this the only pronunciation or there is another one too?

It's the only one, but Poles often use abbreviated or diminutive forms of their names, so you may have heard for example Cezar or (mostly for children) Czarek [pronounced Chah-reck] or simply a conjugated form (different grammatical cases require different endings to a word)

thank you it helped alot!!!


i am using it but it didnt help me at all for trzy.

Polish pronounce 'rz' in 'trzy' as 'sz' - i think many people could have trouble understanding what you mean if you say 'trzy' with a voiced 'rz'

this is easily explained by a rule that says that voiced wovels become their voiceless counterparts if next to another voiceless consonant

gadka is pronounced like gatka (d becomes voiceless because of neighbouring k)