Language / My family's original last name is roughly pronounced Yarrogojenski. Jargocinski/Jargosinski? Spelling guess. [13]

You are welcome. Here is a definite winner so far:
Jargociński, 572 google ref.
From dialectical "jargać się" => 'złościć się, gniewać się'. (to be angry) , stankiewicze.com/index.php?kat=44&sub=540

Language / My family's original last name is roughly pronounced Yarrogojenski. Jargocinski/Jargosinski? Spelling guess. [13]

Do not be discouraged. We could have been missing something as well. Continue trying around Jargo/Jurgo prefix. For example, I found these two extremely rare examples:

Jurgociński - 1 google ref
Jargosiński - 1 google ref

Language / My family's original last name is roughly pronounced Yarrogojenski. Jargocinski/Jargosinski? Spelling guess. [13]

Yes, we tried that with various variants: -dzieński, -cieński, -dziński, -ciński, -ziński. None of that worked because your version is just too long, as if it had some extraneous characters. Yes, it may sound funny, because most Polish names are long, but yours is extra, extra long. This is why I came with a hypothesis of a compound, hyphenated name.

So, no - there is no Jarogodziński in all possible endings listed above. Neither Jarpogodziński (but there is Pogodziński).

Since you insist on the strong single "r" then we have a structure that has a definite prefix "Jar" or "Jur" and the suffix, as listed above.

Jar ... dzieński, Jar ... dziński, Jar ... cieński, Jar ... ciński, Jar ... ziński ... and same for Jur.

There are many possibilities here, provided that the name is shortened somehow:

JUR:
Juraczyński
Jurdzyński - from a village of Jurga in Russia
Jurdziński - as above
Jurdzinski - as above
Juraszyński
Juraziński
Jurczyński

JAR:
Jarociński - from the town of Jarocin
Jarocieński - google, very rare
Jarodziński - extremely rare name, looks corrupted
Jarodzieński - zero hits
Jarczyński
Jardziński
Jaroszyński

Check against this list "Lista nawisk", "Wyszukiwarka nekrologów z Wielkopolskiej prasy".
wtg-gniazdo.org/nekrologi_all.php

(A search engine of obituaries from Wielkopolska press)

Language / My family's original last name is roughly pronounced Yarrogojenski. Jargocinski/Jargosinski? Spelling guess. [13]

There is also a bunch of other possibilities if one takes seriously the double "r" in "Yarrogojenski". This could suggest a hyphenated name, such as:

Jar-Rogoziński or Jur-Rogoziński, as in Stefan Szolc-Rogoziński, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stefan_Szolc-Rogoziński;
Jar/Jur-Ragoziński; Jar/Jur-Rogodziński; etc.

Database "Moi Krewni" reports 282 "Jur" and 38 "Jar" people in Poland.

News / Polish robots did very well in Vienna [8]


A pleasure to come with good news from time to time.


I do not know anything about that, but Polish scientists and engineers of Wrocław University of Technology have produced amazing FLASH (Mobile Dexterous Social Robot) with EMYS head capable of demonstrating quite a range of human-like expressions. Flash project is founded via European research project LIREC.

lirec.eu
lirec.ict.pwr.wroc.pl/index1.php (Webpage of the Polish LIREC team project with several videos to watch)

You can also get them bundled directly on youtube here
youtube.com/watch?v=o8kf14SZkaQ&list=UUqGuu20BNOFGJcmxaca0oEw&index=1&feature=plcp
The first video is very nice - informative yet funny, but there are also some lovely moments elsewhere too, when FLASH flirts with a young woman, or demonstrates his approval of another girl passing by.

I said "his" rather the "its" since I am already captured by his anthropomorphic capabilities :-))

Genealogy / Looking for Graiper family [8]


The original poster inquires about this subject on the "Find a grave forums".


Hmm, let us run with the following hypotheses:
1. His original name was actually Gräper. The a-umlaut Ä is often represented by AE. So the alternative spelling would be Graeper. Nowhere in OP messages the soldier's nationality is mentioned. He could be equally well Polish, German or Silesian.

2. How does Graeper sound in German? To my untrained ear it sounds close enough to Polish "griepa" or English "graipa". I checked it via translate.google.com and ivona.com .

3. What if the American newspapers misprinted: "Oppeln, Prussia" or "Opole, Prussia" into "Opale, Russia"? Apparently Opole is spelled Uopole in Silesian.

4. Graeper (Gräper) is quite a popular German name - 770,000 google results
5. There are 3,500 google results for Graeper Oppeln
6. There are 1,700 google results for Graeper Opole
7. A list of killed during WWI, polegli.tgcp.pl/polegli.php?lng=en&id=G&order=mp&sort=d, contains one record with the same last name: Oskar Graeper, Mikołajki, Warmian-Masurian Voivodship

The same game could be played with u-umlaut, Grueper. Its German pronunciation could also lead to confusion. I hear here a sound like a Polish "gripa". But Grueper looses to Graeper statistically: there are only 3,500 google results vs. 770,000 for the former.

Does it make any sense to you?

==========
German graeper => English graper:
In the fifteenth century, the roughened or studded gripe of the lance.
n. The ring or hollow cylinder of iron through which the shaft of a lance passes and by which it is seized.

Language / New Dialects in Western and Northern Poland [24]


Joseph Skvorecky, Czech-Canadian from Toronto, in his novel "The Bride of Texas" about Czech participants in American Civil War, describes how some of the Czech immigrants had become illiterate after reaching American shores. And he did not mean just the English language, but also the alphabet. You see, those Czechs were taught from books printed in an old fashioned German typeface, and they had problems getting used to typefaces of America.

Genealogy / My father from Lublin - Boris Cusazc [6]


A very interesting question, but I have no answer to it. Wikipedia, pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kategoria:Polscy_ornitolodzy , lists many meritorious Polish ornithologists - some of them born in 18th and 19th centuries, and quite a few of them exploring birds of South America, while others discovering birds of Siberia - mostly due to failed January Uprising and courtesy of tsar Alexander II.

Without going to details, the following names are worthy to check as possible Polish godfathers of the little "kusacz" birds: Konstanty Tyzenhaus (1786-1853), Feliks Jarocki (1790-1865), Władysław Taczanowski (1819-1890), Konstanty Jelski (1838-1896), Jan Sztolcman (1854-1928), Konstanty Branicki (1824-1884).

Btw, many species of birds were named after Taczanowski, including "kusacz Taczanowskiego" (Nothoprocta taczanowskii P. L. Sclater et Salvin,1875).

Genealogy / My father from Lublin - Boris Cusazc [6]

Cusazc is a very unusual name. Google shows only 29 results for cusazc -cuszac (eliminating randomly disruptive "cuszac").

The ending ZC looks very strange and it does not seem to belong to any European language. Check for example this page: List of digraphs in Latin alphabets:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_digraphs_in_Latin_alphabets

There is no ZC on that list, but there are:
CZ - Polish, Kashubian, historical Hungarian
CS - Hungarian
ZS - Hungarian
SZ - Polish, Hungarian
SC - Catalan, French, English, Latin American Spanish, Occitan and Portuguese
These are only a few selected samples from a long list of digraphs.

So considering the both reasons - the rarity and unusual ending digraph (if it is actually a digraph) - the name seems to be atrociously corrupted or invented. Since the correlation between Boris Cusazc and Paul Von Well is none, it looks to me like a big invention by your father, really.

But let us try few alternatives assuming corruption instead:
Cusacs (Hungarian like) - very unlikely, according to google
Cusacz (Polish ending) - few such names exist around the world. But it is not a Polish name. If it was Polish then Kusacz would be more probable, because this version has some meaning in Polish - referring to Tinamou family of birds (kusacze, kusaki, kusakowate).

But there are so many other alternatives possible, so I cannot suggest anything specific, unless you verify the name first and provide us with more probable alternative. By the way, Polish or Ukrainian version of Boris is Borys instead.

News / American soldiers beat up in Torun, Łódź [141]


Apparently your Polish is not that good and you had to use the help of good old Google. You are funny man.
This is the phrase in Polish: Pościg żołnierzy zakończył się niepowodzeniem. Amerykanie się przewrócili.
This is how I translated it: The chase of the soldiers ended in failure. Americans fell down.
Well yes, Google translated "Amerykanie się przewrócili" as "Americans were knocked down".

Congratulation Harry, 17 years in Poland and making such basic translation errors! Pathetic! - to use your favourite expression.

News / American soldiers beat up in Torun, Łódź [141]


Because not all sources I browsed, like the one I am linking right below, ever mentioned Korean roots of one of them. But all of the sources, clearly said the same thing here:


torun.gra.fm/informacje/22678/zolnierze-z-ameryki-pobici-przez-braci-z-bydgoskiego-przedmiescia

And that's the point I raised.



torun.gra.fm/informacje/22678/zolnierze-z-ameryki-pobici-przez-braci-z-bydgoskiego-przedmiescia

Well Harry, you are manipulating the truth here. All sources I read mentioned exactly that. What's more, they described the following scene:


Fall over when running after the attacker? So there must have been more than two drinks, and they were quite strong too. But this is actually irrelevant.

pomorska.pl/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120306/TORUN01/120309758


No sunshine, you just are too lazy. I posted the general link in post #67 - with the instruction how to use it, in case you missed something.


There are many tables up there, but any intelligent human being would know how to find them from the description I provided. But since you are such a sissy, here they are:

statystyka.policja.pl/portal/st/932/50867/Cudzoziemcy__przestepczosc.html]
statystyka.policja.pl/portal/st/840/48245/Pokrzywdzeni_cudzoziemcy.html


Of course I don't. Did not I say that in post #67?


So stop spreading gossip around and prove what I was asking you to do. How hard is it to admit that you may be wrong sometimes, Harry?

News / American soldiers beat up in Torun, Łódź [141]

Harry, you claim to have been living in Poland for 17 years and you still do not understand anything about the country. Hoodlums do not need any real reason to beat someone up. All they need is a slight excuse. They are opportunists. If the potential victim looks weak (as those Americans do) the worse for him. If he looks strong then they might feel like taking him up to a challenge. Statistically, Harry, your racist theory does not hold any water. The fact that one of them looked Korean is irrelevant. He was after several drinks, he was in the uniform, he looked weak and therefore a good target. The fact that the thugs also stole his buddy's expensive cell phone (iPhone?) shows how opportunistic the thugs were.

Anyway, here are some recent examples. And what is a common denominator here? Definitely not a race, but the place where beatings occur: night clubs, bars, etc. And this usually happens late at night.

2012-03-11: Mikołaj Burda, a five-times rowing medalist of European Championships, was sucker punched for no apparent reason, in one of Toruń's night clubs. He hit the ground, passed out, and consequently he is on observation in a hospital in Toruń. He is neither Black nor Asian, and he looks quite strong.

2012-02-12
Alan Andersz (24), Polish actor and dancer, was taken in serious condition to hospital, after either a fight or a sucker punch, as a result of which he either hit a pot or fell down the stairs. This happened in one of Warsaw's clubs. He does not look to me Black or Asian either. Excuse:? He was supposedly showing off.

2012-03-02
Włodawa. Two brothers (22, 24) beat up a 40 years old man with a rail, apparently because he was defending a barmaid. The Lublin's criminal chronicle does mentioned their skin colour, Harry, but I guess he was neither Black or Asian.

Harry, I am not going to waste my time searching through tabloids in order to make up my own statistical data file. The police produces some statistics, for example this: policja.pl, which may help evaluating the beating incident in Toruń in proper light. Check "Aktualności" (use pulldown menu to select a crime category), check also Statystyka (ogólne statystyki and wybrane statystyki); that is General Statistics and Selected Statistics.

According to them, there were about 12,000 proven fights and assaults in Poland in year 2011. A very small number compared to robberies, thieveries, etc..

There were 2319 suspected crimes committed by foreigners, and 1219 foreign victims on territory of Poland in the year 2010. Country wise the corresponding numbers are like this: (Great Britain 15 67), (USA 10 25), (Belarus 157 35), (France 20 50), (Lithuania 187 37), (Germany 137 297), (Ukraine 659 111), (Russia 133 42), etc.

(Another statistics at the same site, for the ¾ of year 2009, shows 16 foreign victims of assault.)

Locations of brawls or beatings for year 2010: (house 336), (multiplex 708), (cottage 12), (hotel, motel 31), (camping, campsite 17), (shopping centre 49), (warehouse 3), (service workshop 4), (restaurant, bar 594), (boutique 56), (train 14).

So now, putting it all together: 12,000 brawl and assaults, 594 of them in bars, 25 American victims, assumed 10 of them beaten up, assumed all assaults racist and not sexist, assumed 5 of them Black. What does it give us? Black Americans beaten up in bars in Poland are about 1% of total assaults. But wait, if I take a hint from another statistic that claims a total of 16 assaults on foreigners, than if 50% of them are Black or Asian, than we come to more or less the same conclusion: non-white foreigners beaten in bars/clubs are about 1-2% of total number of assaults. The results would look even less significant if I included other public spaces.

Surely police statistics are biased. Sure, the racially motivating beating happen, I am not denying it. But, unless you prove that any significant percentage (> 20% cases perhaps?) of such incidents belong to racial category in Poland, I am going to ignore your 17 years experience in Poland and your gut feelings.

Oh, you do not need to rush with your response. I will be out for several hours, counting now.

News / American soldiers beat up in Torun, Łódź [141]


Oh, I love it. First Harry comes with his unfound racist hypothesis, then Pip runs with it. What is wrong with you today? Would you care to check the facts first?

Oh well, I did.

They were in uniforms. They were not black. But all five of them - the two victims and three witnesses - were boyishly looking men, probably some programmers or electronic engineers - handling/maintaining a Patriot battery stationing at the time in Toruń. They were unfit to face up two experienced thugs, convicted in past for banditry, robbery and assaults. The Americans are returning to their base in Rammstein, Germany on Thursday, and this is why the speedy trial took place just recently, even though the prosecutors have not finished yet with their investigation. The incident took place on February 11, but the police and the prosecutors kept it secret till now. One of the victims, was immediately sent to the base hospital in Rammstein.

Contrary to the sensationalist Super Express, which almost took pride in the event, the Torun's dailies told it as it was.

News / American soldiers beat up in Torun, Łódź [141]


No, the Americans will not be bothering with some bar brawl, and they will not be following your exact translation from a ridiculous trashy language of Super Express. How on earth did you happen to dig in to this trash? OK, I accept that you are not that familiar with Polish tabloids; everyone can make a honest mistake.

You see, SE in addresses like this se.pl stands for Super Express, and that means a real garbage.

Language / New Dialects in Western and Northern Poland [24]


Yes, but there is more to it as well.

According to some sources, Kashubian is considered seriously endangered; spoken in Poland by 53,000 speakers (Polish 2002 Census),

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_endangered_languages_in_Europe

A Kashubian born traveller to Kashubia observes:


linguistlist.org/fund-drive/2009/hometown-tour/Luiza

The estimates of the Kashubian speaking people significantly vary. For example this source, academia.pan.pl/pdfen/lifeforce_zieniuk.pdf estimates number of Kashubs is at 300,000-500,000, while the number of those who use Kashubian in speaking - at 150,000-300,000.

As many other sources stress, including the last two, Polish has functioned among the Kashubs as a language of literature, linguistic communication on an intellectual level, and education, while their native language has been used within the family and in local oral communication.

There is also serious fragmentation of Kashubian into geographical-based dialects, which cause problems for communication amongst the Kashubs themselves, as speakers from the southern dialect-area have difficulty in understanding those from the northern one.

It is well understood that for Kashubian ethnolect (this is a compromise word between "language" and "dialect") to survive a literary form of the language should be actively developed.


academia.pan.pl/pdfen/lifeforce_zieniuk.pdf

All of those things are also nicely described in details in Polish wikipedia,, pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Język_kaszubski#cite_note-ele-2

However, the above sources do not give any proper credit to Aleksander Majkowski - a pre-war activist of Kashubian culture, a developer of Kashubian grammar, and an author of "Life and adventures of Remus" (Pol.: Życie i przygody Remusa, Kasz.: Żëcé i przigòdë Remùsa), a Kashubian epos; a novel considered the greatest example of Kashubian literature. I read, with difficulties of course, few stories from that book (available on line) and I liked them. Nowadays, "Remus" is available in various forms (old and modified spelling), including audiobooks.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksander_Majkowski
pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Życie_i_przygody_Remusa

One more thing: Originally, Kashubian language used to recorded with Polish alphabet (eg Hieronim Derdowski), but Polish did not provide full phonetic features of Kashubian. Here is for example, a famous "Marsz kaszubski" (Kashubian March) written and transcribed by Hieronim Derdowski, based on Polish national anthem:

Tom, gdzie Wisła do Krakowa
W Polscie morze płynie,
Polsko wiara, Polsko młewa,
Nigde nie zadzinie.

Nigde do zgube
Nie przyndu Kaszebe,
Marsz, marsz za wrodziem,
Me trzemume z Bodziem.

Language / New Dialects in Western and Northern Poland [24]

Dialects of Warmia are now classified, with reservations, as part of the dialects of Mazovia. The basis of the Warmia dialects were dialects of Chełmno-Dobrzyń region, which subsequently have been influenced by Mazovia dialects. As a result of the postwar population movements Warmia dialects disintegrated and now are mainly historical.

However, there are still aficionados and propagators of the Warmia dialects, such as Edward Cyfus, born in Dorotowo village - a geographical centre of the Warmia region.

On this page, you will find plenty of information about Warmia and its surviving dialect, including five written samples from Dorotowo, which you can also listen to as spoken by Edward Cyfus


gwarypolskie.uw.edu.pl/index.php?option=com_content&task=category&sectionid=6&id=17&Itemid=28

By the way, here is the 19th century Warmian version of the Polish anthem "Jeszcze Polska nie zginóła."

Jeszcze Polska nie zginóła.
Bżałoczerwóna kukarda.
Mniejwa łufnoszcz w Bogu,
Nam została tylko wzgarda.

Bo Bóg dobry sprawiedliwy,
Nie dopuszczy tego,
Żeby Polok nieszczeszliwy
Ni mniał kraju swego".

History / Why have Poles contributed so little to Academics? (Particularly Science) [180]

This thread needs some brightness, colour and humour. And yes, this post is still on topic:
The Polish National Bank will commemorate Stefan Banach (1892-1945), an internationally renown Polish mathematician of Polish School of Mathematics, by minting three coins of the nominal values 2 zł, 10zł and 200zł, on April 3 2012.

200 złoty coin :
Material: Gold .900, Proof
Size: 27 mm / 15.15g
Mintage: 4.000
Issue Date: April 3rd, 2012

The formula shown on both sides of this coin represents the theses of the Banach's theorem about fixed point: Each narrowing mapping of complete space X into itself has exactly one fixed point. In other words:

∃ 𝜆𝝺< 1 ∀ x ∈ X : d (f(x), f(y)) ≤ 𝝺𝜆 ∙ d(x, y) ⇨∃! p ∈ X : f (p) = p
which is to say:
For some lambda smaller than 1 and for all x from the set X there is: the distance between functions f(x) and f(y) is smaller or equal to lambda times the distance between arguments x and y. This implies that there does not exist p from the set X such that the function f(p) is equal p.

:-)

• 
  Banach 200 z� obverse
  
• 
  Banach 200 z� reverse
  

History / Why have Poles contributed so little to Academics? (Particularly Science) [180]


Oh, you read my other posts? Without comprehension obviously. But I know when to walk away from futile childish discussions.

History / Why have Poles contributed so little to Academics? (Particularly Science) [180]

No, I am not missing anything, don't be so presumptuous. I see your spite very clearly. You just resurrected the old thread, hoping to **** all over Poles, but actually you just ****ed all over yourself, because your logic is screwed here very badly.

You obviously do not see any difference between "universal quantification" and "existential quantification", between words "all" and "some". I already gave a little lecture somewhere on this forum on the subject of quantification and generalization. If you read it you would not have been posting your nonsense in this thread.

Specifically, when you say "Poles are always talking about how they are the smartest people" you imply "all Poles", and that is a universal statement, and because of its universality - it is definitely false.

As an example, I will tell you very strongly that your quantification "all Poles" does not include me, and because of it - "all Poles" - "boletus" is not equal to "all Poles" anymore. So what you have implied is actually false, and therefore you were spreading a lie. If you have just said "some Poles" rather than "Poles" (or "all Poles") I would have just passed by happily, ignoring your post.

Secondly, I am not going through the futile exercise of comparing either brain capacities or penis sizes. That's the childish game. Whatever happened for the last two centuries before was historically conditioned and it is a matter of the past. Whatever happens nowadays is another story. Poles have nothing to be ashamed of in the field of modern science nowadays.

But if you still attempt to play a game about superiority of your people, then I remind you of my challenge from my previous post: Show off and I would be more than happy to match it. Otherwise shut up.

History / Why have Poles contributed so little to Academics? (Particularly Science) [180]


And you are about to tell us, and to prove it too, how smart you are personally? Perhaps you have invented something breathtaking in mathematics, physics, engineering, or computer science - so you can gloat about it all over this forum? I cannot wait, please hurry up. I am humbly ready to examine your achievements and - if they are anything more than high school exercise - I am ready to personally decorate you with a laurel wreath.

Otherwise, apologize and shut up.

Love / Anglo-bride at left? Polish bride at right? [9]


Alternative custom, although opinions differ: on a sidewalk a woman walks inside, a man protectively outside.


Interesting..

Life / College student with a few questions about daily life and culture in Poland [3]


In Poland, as opposed to North America, cut flowers are offered in odd numbers, so you can even give a single flower. But this rule applies only to small number of flowers: one, three, five, seven, etc. and is of no importance for bigger bouquets. This rule is not due to a superstition of any sort, but it is due to compositional consideration - three flowers look better than two in a bouquet, five look better than four and so on. This guide also applies to grouping flowers with similar features - preferable composition are groups of three or five flowers. It is of no importance for large bouquets because then the number of flowers is unnoticeable and the composition principles are not ruined.

However, even number of cut flowers is usually reserved for funeral ceremonies.

Avoid giving flowers that are specific to certain circumstances. For example, do not offer chrysanthemums or calla lilies (Pl: kalie) to your friends, because they are associated with funeral ceremonies - unless they are their favourite flowers and you know for sure that they will not evoke any unpleasant associations. Carnations could as well to be avoided, because for many people of the older generation, they are associated with communism; they were the only flowers readily available everywhere then.

To avoid blunders, you might want to know what is the symbolism of flowers and of their colours. This is not a rigid binding canon, but if a recipient of a bouquet attaches heavy weight to such symbolism, it is better to avoid unnecessary embarrassment. It is good to know, for example, that the white colour indicates innocence, red - hot feelings, and yellow - jealousy.

Formerly it was thought that a bouquet of red flowers, especially roses and carnations, could be only given to a woman by a man of her life. Today, this rule is not adhered to rigorously. But it is worth to know the "language of flowers", especially when you are shy and you have problems to verbally express your feelings. At the same time, please remember that these days trends and habits change rapidly, so the symbolism of flowers should be treated with tongue in cheek.

Here is a link, in Polish, to a very long list of various flowers and their associated symbols, asflor.pl/mowa.htm

Personally, I never cared for such symbols and offered flowers, which I liked myself, for example freesias. But here are some examples:
Freesia - Give me your love
White Freesia - Delicacy, only with you
Red Freesia - I'm happy with your presence
Lilac freesia - You intimidate me
Pink freesia - Let us dream, flirt
:-)

News / About fifty injured after two trains collide in Poland [73]

Translated and shortened interview with a train dispatcher, with 20 years experience (not involved in the crash). Gazeta Wyborcza, March 4, 2012.

1. Cause of the crash? Possible incorrect setting of the so-called junction head; that is, the entire system of junctions located on the track. It is a train dispatcher who controls the junctions, but it is not known yet if the one on duty made a mistake. It could have been a breakdown caused by one of the junctions being faulty. This will be decided by investigation of a special commission. The junctions are always sealed and hence it is easy to determine in what condition they were at the time of the crash. For now we only know that the train dispatchers on duty were sober.

2. The status and the actual positions of the junctions is displayed on the desktop of the train dispatcher. He should have noticed if there was anything wrong with them. In such a case he could press the special "radio stop" button, to stop all trains in vicinity of 20 km. He could also radio the trains directly to stop them. However his reaction time is critical since the breaking distance is about 1 km for a train travelling 120 km/h.

However, the train dispatcher on duty does not have any camera view of what is happening on the tracks. He does not have any special monitors showing that the trains are going at each other. These things are just in the movies.

3. The trade union of PKP train dispatchers appealed for fair assessment, if it is proven that it was a human error at fault. The reason for this appeal is this: the public does not know that train dispatchers are responsible not only for what happens on the tracks, but they must also be both stokers and cleaners in their workplace. There are stations where they also sell tickets and announce incoming trains. It's absurd.

History / Poland did reasonably well in land terms out of the postwar settlement [270]


Actually this has nothing to do with anything. Given another geopolitical system things could have turned differently. For example, the Tri-city of Galicia: Borysław, Drohobycz and Truskawiec was the area where big money was made on crude oil (Borysław, Drohobycz) and spent (Truskawiec). Sure, Borysław was ugly and muddy and the area's economy was predatory, but:



Stanisław Nicieja, "Kresowe trójmiasto. Truskawiec - Drohobycz - Borysław"


And again, this has nothing to do with economics. Most of the people from Kresy I know - bar some strange characters, gave up their dreams of going back to Ukraine many years ago. Many recognize the current geopolitical reality and do not care for any revision of borders, many accepted the rights of Ukrainians to their own state. Some still dream of the land of their childhood and youth, collect memoirs, books and songs - but that's only normal for any human being.

History / Poland did reasonably well in land terms out of the postwar settlement [270]

Yes, I am aware of it. But the Museum of History of City of Gdańsk claims, for example, that they collect various documents via purchases, and sometimes via donations.

In addition, some documents in Gdańsk Archives actually survived the fires.


gdansk.ap.gov.pl/o-archiwum

Just in relation to Oliwa's Chronicle the National Archive in Gdańsk contains these:
+ Manuscript of Oliwa's Abbey, sign. 940/420, paper, 54 leaves in quarto
+ Manuscript of Oliwa's Abbey, sign. 940/421, paper, 53 leaves in quarto, previously archived in Königsberg
+ Manuscript of Oliwa's Abbey, sign. 940/422, paper, 88 leaves in quarto. Includes "Annales" 1170-1629, previously in Königsberg
+ Copy in Bibliotheca Archivi, 300, R, LI, q. 55-56, poz. 1. Copy of the Petersburg edition, original in Rumiancew Museum

======

BTW, in addition to these four documents in Gdańsk, there are altogether 12 various sources of the Chronicle archived elsewhere:
1. Bibl. Ap. Vatic, Bibl. Chig., Ms Q II 516 3 ;
2. Niedersach. Bibl. Gottingen, Cod. Ms. Theol. 207;
3. Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich we Wrocławiu Rękopis Pawli­kowskiego, nr 123.;
4. Universitatsbibliothek Greifswald, Acc. 22156;
5. Staatsbibliothek Berlin, Nachlass Oelrichs, Nr 466;
6. Biblioteka Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego w Krakowie, zbiór rę­kopisów, sygn. przyb. 57/52;
7. Biblioteka P A N w Kórniku, rękopis nr 65;
8. Lwowskaja Naucznaja Biblioteka im. W. Stefanika, Acta privata d. referendarius Lucas, 1820, sygn. 0 4, on. I , N° 636;
9. Linkópings - Stifts - och Landsbiblioteket, sygn. H 3 a;
10. Archiwum Państwowe w Toruniu, Katalog II,sygn. XIII-55;
11. Staatsatsarchiv Greifswald, Rep. 38, f. Hs, Adelung Nr 15;
12. Kunglinga Biblioteket Stockholm, D 1360.

History / Poland did reasonably well in land terms out of the postwar settlement [270]


1. Well, the Oliwa's Chronicle (Chronica Olivensis, Kronika Oliwska) is just one such document, existing in many manuscripts from XV and XVII centuries, located in Poland, Germany, Austria, Vatican, Ukraine and Russia - either in full or in partial editions. Many XIX c. and XX c. Prussian, Polish and Austrian investigators tried to combine and verify the versions, remove errors and misrepresentations of ancient copyists. As a result several monographs were prepared - both in German and in Polish.

One of the newest translations of the Chronicle - from Latin to Polish - is this one: Kronika oliwska. -ródło do dziejów Pomorza Wschodniego z połowy XIV wieku, tłum. Dominika Pietkiewicz, komentarz Błażej Śliwiński, Malbork 2008, s. 160, ISBN 978-83-60518-18-2

There are other versions of the Chronicle floating around the internet, such as this Latin version with some fragments translated into Polish:
historia-oliwy.trojmiasto.pl/o_chronica01.html

Based on this "The History of Oliwa's Abbey" has been prepared here, historia-oliwy.trojmiasto.pl/o_hist1.html

There is some additional confusion here, since many monographs combine several documents under the one "Oliwa's Chronicle" title:
+ Oliwa's Chronicle (the proper chronicle)
+ The table of the Founders (copied from wooden tablets in the abbey's church)
+ The table of the Benefactors (as above)
+ List of the abbots
+ Oliwa's annals (1356-1545)

The following study (181 pages), in Polish, is highly recommended: Studia Gdańskie, Tom VII, Seria: Studia Olivensia, Tom I
Jarosław Wenta, Dziejopisarstwo w Klasztorze Cysterskim w Oliwie na tle porównawczym, Gdańsk-Oliwa 1990, studiagdanskie.diecezja.gda.pl/pdf/sg_vii.pdf

2. There must be many other original documents to be found in Gdańsk. Think about 15 or so museums in Tricity. Some of them have separate unique branches. There are also several libraries in Gdańsk and its neighbourhood.

The Museum of History of City of Gdańsk (MHMG) has several interesting branches and several departments. Its History Department collects objects and documents relating to Gdańsk from the beginning of recorded history to modern times.

The staff of the Department developed also a calendar of events in Gdańsk, consisting of about 17 thousand facts. On their basis, they prepared two volumes of "Gdańsk Chronicle". The Volume 1, covering the years 997-1945, was published in 1998. The Volume 2, covering the events from March 30, 1945 to December 31, 2000, was prepared for print in 2002 but has not been released so far, due to lack of funds.

Language / Need Advice On Polish-English language barrier (my Polish boyfriend and his family) [59]


Customs change quickly, so the following explanation might be a bit outdated:

Poles are polite in the department of giving tips or buying somebody a drink or a meal. They will rarely say "I'd like to buy you a lunch", but rather "I'd like to invite you for a lunch". The invitee knows that s/he will get a free lunch, but the ugly word of "money" or "buying" is never mentioned. However the expression "Would you like to go with me for a lunch" implies that the cost of lunch will be either shared or the matter will be decided later.

Similarly, "Here is your tip, darling" would be considered impolite, degrading. After all, by definition, all Polish waitresses are little princesses. Instead the "Thank you" phrase is used.

News / More anti Polish sentiment in western media ("Apple is worth more than Poland") [110]


This blogger : russian-front.com/2012/02/29/remarkably-dumb-journalism/ took exactly the same position but in addition he attempted to estimate capitalization of Poland. Accuracy of actual numbers aside, he came to these two conclusions:

1. So leaving out all the malls and office buildings going up in Warsaw, and all those cows and pigs in the Polish countryside, we find it would cost at least $1770 billion to buy Poland, making it worth at least three times as much as Apple.

2. My question is why professional financial journalists make basic mistakes like this [boletus:comparing GDP to market capitalization]

USA, Canada / Texas Silesian Language [13]


I guess "szczyrkowa" comes from the highlander word "szczyrkać"; in Polish - terkotać, grzechotać, brzeczeć; in English - to rattle. Hence szczyrkowa => rattlesnake.

The etymology of the name "Szczyrk" is not obvious, as there are at least two distinct possibilities.


As an addendum, this joke demonstrates a use of the word "szczyrkać"


This was in Opole. And this is a true story. One drunk fell into the freshly dug grave on his way home. In the morning it was getting a bit cold, so he woke up with his teeth chattering and he cried out: "Brr ... I'm so cold!" A gravedigger, hearing this, responded: So why did you dig yourself out, by thunder!?