Language / Polish words that sound funny? [224]


my speculation... być and bić differ not just in the vowel (roughly like b*tch and beach) but also in initial consonant.
There is a distinction between hard (roughly: normal) and soft (pronounced together with a short y sound) consonants*
This used to be more important in Polish phonology than it is now but it still is reflected in pronunciation in a number of ways

hard consonants tend to be more fortis (pronounced with more tension in the neck muscles) and soft consonants tend to be more lenis (with more relaxed muscles)

It's my idea (backed up by some linguists) that originally być and bić differed mainly in the initial consonant and the vowel difference was due to the difference in consonant. In modern Polish the main difference has shifted to the vowels but the consonant difference is still there (more audible in some speakers and/or regions than in others)

*a similar distinction occurs in Irish with broad and slender consonants, thing of soft consonants as being slender (though the broad consonants have no real equivalent in Polish)

Language / Polish words that sound funny? [224]


No really, English 'ch' (or 'tch') is somewhere between ć and cz, and my pronunciation of final ch in English is definitely apical (using the point of the tongue more like cz) while ć requires the tongue to be more flattened.

Love / It seems everyone is so isolated here in Warsaw [11]


First, you need a good psycho-analyst to help you find out why you're so self-destructive.

Secondly, it's because of guys like you that God made hookers. The last time I was in Warsaw you couldn't walk three feet without seeing ads for hookers so it's not even like they're hard to find.

Genealogy / Was there a town in Galicia named Bič? [5]


It was also used in the old Belarusian łacinka alphabet and in some types of an old Ukrainian latin alphabet...

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belarusian_Latin_alphabet

Polonia / Polish people in Malta [6]

Go to google, put in "Polacy na Malcie" and some sites come up.

When I was in Malta in 2017 before Easter one of the local tv stations had a short story on Polish people in Malta and how they celebrate Easter.

The story was in Maltese but the Polish people (explaining święconka) spoke English. They showed 20 or 30 people gathered in a local church (a lot of the churches do double duty, both for the local population and mass in some other language for other people, I remember seeing churches offering mass in German, Tagalog and a few others).

UK, Ireland / Alcoholics Anonymous for Poles living in Ireland [27]


Just ask Courtney Love!

More seriously, I've read that a rich person can do heroin pretty regularly without suffering too much, the drug itself isn't that harmful (kind of a preservative) it's the poor addict lifestyle (scrounging for money for the next hit, shooting up heroin cut with other stuff and using dirty needles etc) that kills poor addicts. And unless a person is marginalized economically to begin with it doesn't ruin them economically - one famous addict said a heroin addiction is like having a second stomach, you feed it regularly and it's okay you don't have the urge for more and more heroin. Cocaine, on the other hand, is like an open insatiable addiction, the more cocaine a person does the more they want to do. Cocaine users are the ones who squander fortunes...

UK, Ireland / Do British partners of Polish people in the UK speak their (Polish) language? [17]

I once did some informal interpreting at a function with guests where I work (translating some short speeches in Polish into English for some non-Polish guests). During the cake and coffee, a Polish guest tracked me down to tell me (in Polish) how well I spoke English. My answer (in Polish) was along the lines of "I should hope so, I am American, after all"

"Still" they countered "your English is really good!".

Study / Study a master degree in Poznan University of Life Science as international student [15]

Here are the wydziały for Adam Mickiewicz University

amu.edu.pl/dzialalnosc/wydzialy

And on this page you can find the wydziały for Uniwersytet Przyrodniczy (a separate institution unrealted to Adam Mickiewicz University

skylark.up.poznan.pl/uczelnia/struktura

Study / Study a master degree in Poznan University of Life Science as international student [15]


Nope. They are separate institutions. Each is subdivided into Wydziały (Faculties or Colleges).

Life / Are there any Muslim areas in Poland? [173]


My go to site for questions about (Sunni) Islam is

islamqa.info/en

this is not any kind of weird marginal interpretation but was founded by a revered Salafi theologian and is the most popular such site in the Sunni (or at least Arab sunni) world. They meticulously document every one of their answers with numerous citations from the koran and hadith.

It's relevant because over the last 40 years sunnis all over the world (from Morocco to Indonesia) have been abandoning milder local versions of islam and gravitating towards the islam of that site

they are clear that muslims are required (as much as they can) to make non-muslims follow islamic practices

Study / Study a master degree in Poznan University of Life Science as international student [15]


no such animal exists, there are several state universities

University of Life Sciences (formerly Algricultural University)
Medical Unviersity
University of Engineering (Polytechnika)
University of Fine Arts
Adam Mickiewicz University (Humanities, Social and Natural Sciences)

Linguistics would have been studied at the last

Life / Are there any Muslim areas in Poland? [173]


No, but if muslim migrants (and their descendents) are over-represented in crime statistics in Europe (which.... they are when statistics are made available) then that should probably inform migration policy.

Study / Study a master degree in Poznan University of Life Science as international student [15]


That is very true.


The former Agricultural University, not the highest prestige within Poznań itself...

Polish education is very good in Polish, but it tends to be a lot weaker in English and living in Poland without knowing Polish is often inconvenient and difficult (possibly like living in Costa Rica without knowing Spanish, maybe more so).

Language / Polish words that sound funny? [224]


Not in those words, it's just painfully obvious everytime you write anything about Poland or Polish...

Language / Polish words that sound funny? [224]


Well actually the translation is "Excuse me, sir, would you be so kind (as to)..."

But someone who isn't Polish (and doesn't know the language and depends on googletranslate) can't be expected to know that

Law / Received confirmation citizenship was approved from Polish Embassy. What's next? [25]

Mr Big Speeender!

Language / Polish words that sound funny? [224]


Well you're not Polish so.... duh you don't understand ordinary (if unpleasant) words.


You're not Polish, you haven't studied the language, you don't understand it. It's all very obvious...

Law / Received confirmation citizenship was approved from Polish Embassy. What's next? [25]


I think you have the wrong tense "am" is the word you're looking for.


Yeah..... that' didn't happen and we both know it. Though a person in admissions would be perfectly correct in giving some nosey posey yammering on about his health insurance the brush off and concentrating on real sick people.

Genealogy / Angela Merkel is partially Polish. Her family name could be Kaźmierczak [208]


Go svkk Vova some more....

Genealogy / Angela Merkel is partially Polish. Her family name could be Kaźmierczak [208]


No, Russia has a kleptocratic tyrant and an impoverished, ignorant populace because none of the massive amounts of money made by oligarchs has gone into diversifying the economy, it's all sent abroad for safekeeping and so the oligarchs can indulge their vulgar tastes with the support of the foul UK government.

It has a massive drug and HIV problem and a collapsing birth rate (with replacement being reached only by muslim subpopulations) and an ever increasing Chinese population in the East

Genealogy / Angela Merkel is partially Polish. Her family name could be Kaźmierczak [208]


Well had AH been killed or left office for some other reason by early 1939 he'd probably be remembered as a great, if flawed, leader.


In other words, you'll cheat people if you get the chance. Interesting thing to confess on this forum...

Genealogy / Angela Merkel is partially Polish. Her family name could be Kaźmierczak [208]


Russia's big problem is that it has no place for people who are both smart and honest.

Smart and crooked? the game is on!

Dumb and honest? your future as a scapegoat is assured!

Dumb and dishonest! Viva Putin shout the masses!

Smart and honest? They usually get the hell out of Russia.

Work / Can a Poland work permit holder can work in Denmark/EU? [44]

No. Someone who works for Iceland a few years then leaves is not an Icelander by any stretch of the imagination. Similarly the million plus Ukrainians in Poland are not Polish....

Work / Can a Poland work permit holder can work in Denmark/EU? [44]


they could be talking about citizens (and not residents...) there is a difference

Genealogy / Angela Merkel is partially Polish. Her family name could be Kaźmierczak [208]


No, that was just one that was easy to find from a source you'd be likely to trust, there's lots more out there if you care to look.


Do the work (beyond wikipedia) and explain the great compression (historic low immigration historic low economic inequality).

The mystery is the 1965 act brought about with no voter demand whatsoever. One theory is that financial interests wanted a new source of cheap labor since the civil rights movement was seen to herald the economic improvement of blacks who would move out of the low income jobs they had been employed in.

Genealogy / Angela Merkel is partially Polish. Her family name could be Kaźmierczak [208]

Are you talking total population or ethnic Germans...

I strongly doubt, for example, that these children of migrants who don't respect German values will ever pull their economic weight in Germany....

youtube.com/watch?v=JIyetR4Ut5I

Genealogy / Angela Merkel is partially Polish. Her family name could be Kaźmierczak [208]


I completely agree. The paranoid "any nationalism or patriotism leads straight to gas chambers!" hysteria combined with the retreat of religion is largely responsible for Germany's demographic collapse... nihilistic people don't have many children

Genealogy / Angela Merkel is partially Polish. Her family name could be Kaźmierczak [208]


yes, Germans are easily the most influential non-British-Isle group in American History, at least one intellectual said the US was more an Anglo-Germanic country than Anglo-Saxon...

But, for example, I have an oral history on Mexican migration to the US, the author interviewed hundreds of people (both sides of the border) and not a single Mexican ever expressed the idea that they wanted to become "American". Most are essentially like Poles who go to Germany to work for a time and return to Poland. But various factors (including inertia and the dangers of crossing into Mexico illegally) end up meaning that many stay longer.

It's also worth noting that Mexican Americans who date their ancestry to the Treaty of Hidalgo traditionally opposed illegal migration into the US by Mexicans (among other reasons it held down their wages).

Calling everybody an "immigrant" muddles the issue and makes it impossible to form a functional policy.

Genealogy / Angela Merkel is partially Polish. Her family name could be Kaźmierczak [208]


Part of the degradadtion of modern language is calling anyone who moves anywhere for any reason an "immigrant" or "migrant". An immigrant is someone who moves to a new country so that they (and their children) can become members of the new society.

Neither the Pilgrims (settlers) nor Puritans (colonists) wanted to join any existing society in the New World.


Paying attention...

npr.org/2011/10/12/141259490/economic-progress-lags-for-u-s-born-children-of-mexican-immigrants?t=1530075640035

The information is out there if you're interested....


You've got a lot of unlearning to do... immigration has been an important part of the American story, but it's importance has been greatly exaggerated in recent decades as part of the justification of dysfunctional immigration policies...

Genealogy / Angela Merkel is partially Polish. Her family name could be Kaźmierczak [208]


Again, that's based on propaganda (of the last 50 or 60 years). The country was founded by the descendants of settlers and colonists and expanded by pioneers. Immigration was one source of population growth but never the most important.


Again, only true of the last 30 to 40 years and adoption of the neoliberal model 'hey, let's let other countries educate their children and we can poach them as adults' which is neither sustainable or very moral.


That's how it generally works with Mexicans, the third generation does worse than the second and the fourth worse than the third. (also how it works with middle eastern and african migrants in Europe)