Genealogy / Help - looking for: Polish artist - Jan Zielecki [11]

You prolly have already done this, but if not -- try googling Jan Zielecki artysta malarz. You should get a few hits.

Genealogy / looking for a friend Elizabeth Schwinarscka [3]

ŚWINIARSKA = pig-herder's daughter

Genealogy / Information on the Pikul or Trzaskos family [10]

PIKUL: possibly from pikul (small slanted window in a larder) or pikula (trifle) -- both from the Italian word for small piccolo.

TRZASKOS: probably topo from Trzaski (root-word trzask suggests a loud noise: slam. bang, crash, etc.)

Genealogy / Otte? [6]

72 people surnamed Otte in today's Poland, 63 of whom live in Silesia (Górny Śląsk and Śląsk Opolski).

Genealogy / Dunda from Balnica and Cigan from Solinka search [12]

DUNDA: origin uncertain; possibly regional dunder (from German Donner= thunder) as in Niech cię dunder świśnie (May a thunderolt strike you)

CIGAN: mispelling or respelling of cygan (gypsy); from German Zigeuner

Language / in Polish slang, what is the difference between Siema and Siemka? [64]

Isn't siema an exmaple of bloker-speak like all that ziomal nonsense?

Genealogy / No idea of grandparents history before they left Horyniec, Poland [5]

PA£CZYŃSKI: possible root-word pałka (staff. stick, club); topo from Pałczyn (Staffbury, Stickville)

PALCZYŃSKI: possible root-wrod palec (figner); topo from Palczyn (Fingerton, Fingerville)

BIA£OKOROWICZ: probably topo-patronymic from Białokory (now in Belarus); someone was called Białokor becuase he hailed from there; when he fathered a son: Białokorowicz; root-words biała (white) + kora (tree bark):

Genealogy / Szczepanski from Warsaw, Poland [11]

SZCEPAŃSKI: patrornymic nick = Stevenson or topo from Szczepany (Stevensville).

OSIŃSKI: topo from Osina (Aspen).

Food / Herb used in Polish rosol (chicken soup)? [88]

The original Maggi seasoning was flavoured with lovage (lubczyk), and maybe some people refer to that herb using the Maggi trade name. Probably nowasaays in our fake-food era synthetic aromas are used to deceive the palate because it is cheaper (er, um, I mean -- cost-effective) and provides higher PROFITS!

News / Can Poland expect similar bomb attacks as in Moscow? [85]

There is no excuse for killing innocent people regardless of the cause. It is sick, disgusting and criminal! But is it also not sick, disgusting and criminal for the Russians to first destroy and occupy a tiny nation (for instance Chechnya) because of their inflated big-power ambitions and then instal a pro-Moscow puppet government to rule it? Poland and all the other captive nations have tasted the likes of Kremlin-backed puppet rule!!!!

Genealogy / Looking for family in Jedrzejowka, Narol [5]

MAMCZUR: metronymic nick = wet nurse's son

NIEDUŻAK: patronymic nick = son of the small fry, little guy, midget, etc.

Life / Polish Tattoo (considered the eagle) [29]

The similarity to an anchor resulted from the creative development of the abbreviation PW (Polska Walcząca = fighting Poland), so the anchor motif is actually a stylised letter 'W'.

Genealogy / Information on family name, Krzycki [23]

There were three noble lines in the Krzycki family, each entitled to use the Kita, Kotwicz or Lubicz coat of arms.

Language / Łejterka dostaje duże typy? [16]

Never thought of that. I regard it as a Polonised spin-off of the 'cave' element, preceded by the perfectivising prefix 'z' which before a 'k' turns to 's'. Since these things were not codified, some speakers may have pronounced it: skejwowało się.

Life / COMBATING "POLACK" JOKES [460]

Some jokes are funny, including ethnic ones. The Scots supppsedły love jokes about their ultra-mean compatriots: The limbo (dance where you bend backwards and inch forweard beneath a constantly lowered pole - no pun intended!) was invented by a Scot trying to get into a pay toilet...Copper wire was invented by two Scots trying to pull a penny out of each other's hands....

But not too many Jews will laugh at this one: How many Jews can fit in a VW beetle? --
100, 4 in the seats and the remaining 96 in the ash-tray...

The original Polish jokes went along these lines: A sign on a garbage truck in a Polish Chicago neigbourhood: WE CATER TO POLISH WEDDINGS.... A bit milder: Why are there so few suicides in Poland? - Because it's pretty hard to jump out of a basement window! Or --How can you tell the bride and groom at a Polish wedding? - They're the only ones wearing clean bowling shirts. (That is probably incomprehensible to non-Americans.)

Language / Łejterka dostaje duże typy? [16]

This is a vast area of study...not just something to be laughed at. The late Prof. Witold Doroszewski in the 1930s travelled the byways of Wisconsin on a motorbike with a wire recorder (no tape-recorders yet back then) and recorded the speech of Polish immigrnat farmers living in remote rural villages such as Polonia, Warsaw, Pulaski and Kościuzsko Wisconsin and wrote this all up.

A combination of factors join to determine the kind of speech used including education level, region of Poland the immigrants came from and local American circumstances. In the Detroit area people from Wiekopolska would say sklep for cellar whilst others (like my ancestors) always said piwnica. Still others used bejzment. In Pennsylvania, where we also had relatives, a blood-curdling term in the Polonian mining communities was 'skifowało się' (there's been a cave-in). No-one in Michigan or Chicago would have understood that expression.

The language of immigrants from German-speaking partitions and their descendants often had their Polonian jargon doubly reinforced by both German and English A case in point is: Mój synek jest już trzy lata stary (three years old/drei Jahre alt).

Language / What are some loanwords in the Polish language? [24]

I once heard that if you took the Russian and Polish influences out of Ukrainian, not much would be left. In other words, indigenously Ukrainian vocabualry, phrases and strcutrue are few and far between. I suppose one could say that about Polish and other languages as well.

Language / Łejterka dostaje duże typy? [16]

SORKI (to utter a 'high Polish' apology!) -- 'twas a typo and should've been bejzment.

frd -- I have heard each and every one of these Polglish words on a regular basis. None have been contrived or concocted for comic effect! Of coruse, you are right -- the degree varies from community to community and person to person. Some would always say ulica (never stryta) and dom (never hauza), but these same people might regularly use jarda, korner and sztor (podwórko, róg and sklep).

Very common are graduacja (W sobotę mój syn ma graduację), hajłej (highway),gazolina or just gaz (petrol), treki (tory kolejowe), insiura (insurance), forman (brygadzista), etc. Sometimes they involve only syntax: On był wczoraj na telewizji or słyszałem go na radio.

Other include norska (pielęgniarka), plombierz (hydraulik), buczer or bucier (rzeźnik), balbierz (fryzjer), drajwer (keirowca), pajnciarz (malarz), ticzerka (nauczycielka) and policman (policjant).

Genealogy / Niezabitowski, Kasprzyk, Wiatrowski, Researching genealogy of parents [8]

NIEZABITOWSKI: topo from Niezabitów (root-word: unkilled, survivor)

KASPRZYK: patornymic nick = Casperson

WIATROWSKI: topo nick from Wiatrów (Windville)

Genealogy / Paprocki: I am trying to figure out my Polish roots. [19]

PAPROCKI: root-word paproć (fern); topo from Paprotki (Fernville) or similar

History / A rare Polish medal [14]

Looks like the profile of that Polish turncoat and Soviet spy Sverchevskiy who fought on the Stalinist side in the Spanish Civil War, and after WW2 returned to Poladn to murder Polish patriots and try to sovietise the country. Luckily he got what was coming to him -- an assassin's bullet.

Genealogy / Searching for Koczela from Temeszow [18]

SZWACZYK: patronymic from szwacz (tailor, garment-maker); not to be confused with Szewczyk (son of the cobbler); re ancestors of living people, these are only fixed names and haven't been occupational or patronymic indicators for centuries.

Genealogy / Searching for Koczela from Temeszow [18]

Both surnames exist in Poland: KOCZELA used by 138 with main concentration in Rzeszów and neighbouring Krosno areas; KOCY£O (87) main bastion in Przemyśl area (east of Rzeszów) on Ukrainian broder.

Genealogy / Searching Bobreski Bobrecki Bobretzky [3]

BOBRECKI: root-word bóbr=beaver, probably topo nick from Bobrek; exists in Poland, but Bobreski does not. Bobreski looks to be a typical example of Latin>Cyrillic mistransliteration. Some Russian or Ruthenian seeing Bobrecki mistakenly transliterated it as Бобреский rather than the proper Бобрецкий. When it got re-transliterated back into Latin (perhaps at Ellis Island?) it ended up as Bobreski. Bobretzky might represent an attempt to phonetically render it in English or German.

DĘBROWSKI: toponymic nick from Dąbrów or Dąbrowa (oak grove); variant spelling of Dąbrowski

Genealogy / Please help me trace my surname origin - Gurklis [9]

Gurklis is ethncially not Polish, probably Lithuanian. There is only one person currently using that surname in Poland and lives in the Bydgoszcz area.

Genealogy / Searching for Szewczyk from Sanok [10]

SZEWCZYK: patronymic=son of the szewc (cobbler, shoemarker)
KOCY£O: someone using a kocyl (long-handled knife)
MILCZANOWSKI: topo nick from Milczany