History / Why Is Lipsk nad Biebrzą Called "Lisko Orliscko"? [23]


My idea is that the core name is ORLISKO. It could be a small settlement, not even a village, that was situated near LIPSKO. Hence its local name could possibly be LIPSKIE ORLISKO. If indexed with a map, you should look for it under the letter "O" - ORLISKO LIPSKIE. But it could have been a strictly local name, not even known on the maps.

Another idea is that LIPSK was nick-named for unknown reasons as LISKO ORLISKO by some locals.

Po polsku / "Co sądzita" - zwrot w języku polskim (Oscar dla "Idy") [15]

Polonius oddał więc hołd liczbie podwójnej. Zacytujmy więc przysłowie, gdzie występuje rzeczownik w liczbie podwójnej:

"Trzy gęsi, dwie niewieście uczyniły jarmark w mieście"

Po polsku / "Co sądzita" - zwrot w języku polskim (Oscar dla "Idy") [15]

Termin "róbta co chceta" w takiej właśnie, a nie poprawnej gramatycznie formie, został użyty rozmyślnie, z określoną intencją twórcy. Nie tylko treść, ale i szczególna forma zostaje czasem wykorzystana przez autora (autorów) tekstu, aby pokazać dystansowanie się od jakiejś normy kulturowej bądź innej. Odbiorca szybko kojarzy, że taki był zamysł autora. W angielszczyźnie dobrym tego przykładem jest użycie przez zespół Pink Floyd form "we don't need no education; we don't need no thought control" w słynnym utworze "Another Brick in the Wall".

Po polsku / "Co sądzita" - zwrot w języku polskim (Oscar dla "Idy") [15]


Nic złego nie ma. Ja osobiście bardzo cenię sobie gwary. Ale wypowiadanie się w tym samym tekście językiem literackim, czyli w polszczyźnie standardowej, i wtrącanie nagle jednego słowa, które jednoznacznie kojarzy się z gwarą, nie wygląda dobrze, a nawet wygląda bardzo źle.

Zdaję sobie jednak sprawę, ze w przypadku Poloniusa, który jest tzw. polonusem był to błąd usprawiedliwiony, dlatego też zwróciłem mu nań uwagę.

Po polsku / "Co sądzita" - zwrot w języku polskim (Oscar dla "Idy") [15]

Skoro tak, znaczy to tylko, że to uczciwy film.
[Polonius, nie używaj formy "Co sądzita?", tylko "Co sądzicie?". Forma "sądzita" jest formą gwarową]

History / Why is it ok to represent Polish history of WWII inaccurately in the film "Our Fathers, Our Mothers"? [36]


If that is true, it is absolutely disgusting! But I really don't think it is true, so could you please a link showing that he did say so.

I didn't watch this film, but I read somewhere in the Polish press that the the title of it should really be "Our Mothers, Your Holocaust".

History / Questions About the Reformation of the Husaria under Sobieski and Poland's Husaria [9]

Those are very detailed questions and I doubt if anyone on the PF will ever be able to address them. If you read Polish, you may well try to find something by googling "husaria", "historia", "jan iii sobieski". This book I have found seems to be in English:

A. Wasilkowska, Husaria. The Winged Horsemen, Warszawa 1998

przezhistorie.pl/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=142:husaria-zarys-historii-formacji-i-opis-uzbrojenia&catid=12:xvi-xviii-w&Itemid=38

Language / Going to learn the Polish Genitive Case [28]


The -u ending in the dopełniacz of a non-animate masculine noun is common, but the -a ending is quite frequent.

I) Nie słyszałem żadnego głos-u; Nie widziałem samochod-u.

II) Nie mam komputer-a; Nie używam flamastr-a; Nie używam ołówk-a. Nie kupiłem telewizor-a; Nie wyciągałem portfel-a z kieszeni; Nie mogłem otworzyć słoik-a.

Law / Looking for confirmation of Grandfather's citizenship... [17]


Maybe this link to the website (in English) of the Ministry on "Ways of acquiring Polish citizenship" be of help.
msw.gov.pl/en

Life / Advice on Moving to Zakopane [37]

Zakopane seems to be fine for the OP idea of a 2-month career break. Two months or so? No problem, just come and check for yourself. But a 2-year career break seems to be too long really. Is the OP not looking for a career change?

History / Heresy of Germanization and/or Anglicanization - The genesis; Polish, Slavic opinion [14]


This is indeed an interesting questions. First, I don't think that Poland is in any way threatened by some sort of anglicization now or in the coming 500 years. To gain some good insight into the processes of anglicization, it would be better to ask why people such the Irish or the Scotish let English be imposed on most of them as their native language. Why the vast majority of them do not use the language of their Celtic ancestors at home now? What made them give up Scottish or Irish and adopt English in their place?

As for the germanization of the Polish people, we know quite a lot about why and how it happened in Silesia. And I mean today's Lower Silesia here since the province being purely Slavic in the Middle Ages has become ethnicly German later on. In year 1097 Wrocław (Breslau) - according to Gallus Anonymus, the most important maedival chronicler of Poland - was one the three main capitals (or seats - sedes regni principales) of the kingdom:

([says Ladislaus Herman about his son Boleslaus the Wrymouth]: Bolezlaus vero, legitimus filius meus, in Wratislaw et in Cracovia et in Sandomir sedes regni principales obtineat).

The crucial figure who (uintentionally) laid the foundations for the prospective germanization of Silesia was another Piast ruler, Henry the Bearded (1165 - 1238), great grandson of Boleslaus the Wrymouth, who brought numerous agricultural settlers from Germany (but also from Flanders, Frisland and Holland) to Lower Silesia, granting them land and exempting them from tax for a certain period of time.

One of the major factors behind the subsequent ethnicity change in Lower Silesia was that those German-speaking settlers were intentionally separated for economic reasons from the indogenous Polish population of the region. Thus - rather than mixing with the locals and subsequently adopting Polish as their first language in the following generations - these people who were commonly referred to as "guests" in the documents throughout the whole 13th century, became majority on the left bank of the river Oder in Lower Silesia. The land on the right bank of the river, however, remained Polish for a much longer time being accordingly described as the "Polish bank" of the river until, I think, the18th century or so.

Classifieds / Inexpensive English Speaking Lawyer in Warsaw wanted - for money recovering [11]

If you read Polish, buy the copy of today's RZECZPOSPOLITA where you will find three articles on Tesco Law points located in several commercial centers in Warsaw and other major Polish cities. These are new to the law scene in Poland, but have been known for some time already in the US and Britain. Simple advice there will cost you 49 zloty, prices for advice involving proceedings in courts start from 299 zloty. Your problem can definitely be seen as "simple". Lawyers in those Tesco Law points should speak English (in my view).

Classifieds / Inexpensive English Speaking Lawyer in Warsaw wanted - for money recovering [11]

I'd say there should be English speaking lawyers in Poland that are not terribly expensive, but then I would re-phrase my answer to: are they terribly GOOD lawyers or are they not?

On a more serious note: do you have any written proof (or witnesses) of lending the money to a person?

Classifieds / Inexpensive English Speaking Lawyer in Warsaw wanted - for money recovering [11]

Lawyers are usually expensive, and those speaking English are double expensive.

Travel / Do trains in Poland arrive on time? [38]



I strongly doubt if calling someone a "keyboard warrior" could belittle them in any way. On the contrary, it seems to me kinda promoting someone to higher ranks on the PolishForum ...


Sobieski, I wouldn't trust any opinion of yours on Polish railways. I remember how you were complaining once about not being able to find your way to the platform during the damned modernization works at the Warsaw Central Station, though other foreign people on the PF said at the same time they had no problem whatsoever with arriving at their proper platform. But once the repair work had been finished, you triumphantly announced that it was such a good thing for Poland since the modernization of this station was achieved thanks to the EU funds (not exactly though, the EU co-financed the project, probably in more than 50 %).

Here we have the same story again: you simply ignore the fact that the line is vastly modernized (I know it very well since I use it on an every day basis), but instead you jump on the occasion to belittle Poland and its railways. It would have much fairer on you part if you put at least part of your blame on the EU financing as well for such - as you aptly call it - "true daily commuter horror".

please just focus on the topic

Travel / Do trains in Poland arrive on time? [38]

Harry, my bravest keyboard warrior, your repeated complains about the two train journeys which you took almost 20 years ago and which were both late makes your posts in this thread increasingly uninteresting and draws you even closer to earning the reputation of a railway troll rather than a true railway enthusiast! But true, your memory as to the exact years when your mishaps on the railways of Poland occurred is quite impressive.

Please, be so kind and take a ride with a new Pendolino train and we would be happy to hear about your re-freshed experience with the trains in Poland.

Language / Should I just learn German? [55]

I think the Deutsche Welle TV has some interesting courses on their website.

Travel / Do trains in Poland arrive on time? [38]


In Poland they are labelled EIC - Express Intercity.

Clearly, the difference between "Intercity Express" and "Express Intercity" (or ICE vs. EIC) isn't something that a typical passanger would be much upset about. But I'm glad we have finally found out we were talking about trains in diferent countries.

I wonder what the names (trademarks) for express trains in other EU countries are.

Travel / Do trains in Poland arrive on time? [38]


Maybe you are talking about foreign ICE trains, but I am talking about EIC in Poland. The PKP INTERCITY company shows the setting-up of all its trains on their website. Of all the company's trains leaving Warsaw East Station between 14th December 2014 and 14th March 2015, only Pendolino trains (marked there as EIP) are shown as having the build-in drivers cabin. The only other train that has such a cabin is the train PODLASIE from Warsaw West to Terespol leaving Warsaw East at 7:24, but this one is marked TLK, so technically it is not an ICE train. Maybe you have precisely those in mind. Every other train, including the ICE to Vienna and Berlin, has a locomotive. If you know of any particular Polish ICE train that is not pulled by a locomotive, let me know and I will happy to check it.

intercity.pl/pl/dokumenty/zestawienia%20poci%C4%85g%C3%B3w/od-14-12-2014/warszawa%20wschodnia%20v212-12-2014.pdf

Of all the trains leaving £ódź (the city you indicate as your place of residence) which are - surprisingly for me - all TLK trains, none has a build-in drivers cabin, but every one is pulled by the locomotive where no passangers are allowed.


Oups ... there are other trains like this one, but again, they are all TLK trains.

Travel / Do trains in Poland arrive on time? [38]

There is a very good chance that Pendolino (it is marked as the "EIC Premium" train in the timetables, but originally it was to be baptised "Orlik") will run on time unless some exceptional mishap occcurs. There has been such a lot of fuss about it recently and so much checking before letting the train onto the tracks, that it seems really unlikely that something goes wrong. Currently there are nine Pendolino trains that have gone into service in Poland since the 14th of December with the number to be increased to twenty eventually.


As far as I know, the ICE trains are pulled by a locomotive, but Pendolino has indeed a built-in drivers cabin.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
About two weeks ago, I saw an express train from Budapest being 825 minutes late in Warsaw West Station. That was the record time displayed on a railway board I have seen in Poland so far. The express train from Vienna on the same day was 125 minutes late.

Genealogy / Jasiak, Jozwiak from Byczyn/Bychyn/Byczyna [9]


The closest Polish name to that is Byczyna (an American would spell "cz" as "ch"). The town Byczyna (Pitschen) was in Prussian Upper Silesia at the time. Nowadays the surname Jasiak is expanded in the poviat (district) Sieradz which borders the former Prussian Silesia. In my view it is possible that the person might have settled as a migrant worker in Pitschen (migration to Prussia in search of jobs did happen quite often those days), but originally may have come from the neighbouring "Russia Poland" (the Congress Kingdom of Poland created at the Congress of Vienna in 1815 ) and as such may have used the Polish name of that Silesian town when indicating the place of her last residence (it was not her place of birth!).

Byczyna was listed among other Silesian Polish names in an official Prussian document, the patent of Prussian king Frederic II, issued in Polish in Berlin in 1750 and addressed to his subjects living in the Duchy of Silesia ("Wszyscy obywatele na na Xięstwie Śląsku" - the document started).

News / Self-important Warsaw mayor [18]


Can you give some more details? I have vaguely heard of this affair, but never gone more deeply into it ...

News / UK to send tanks to Poland. [36]


UK tanks are not even in half as good as American ones, so they indeed may serve as good tools for different sorts of provocations.

Po polsku / Pytanie dotyczy gwary poznańskiej (słownictwa) - "kaczmarki" / "objechać w pasie" [15]

Trudno nawet powiedzieć czy to jest gwara czy też może "dół i górę objechać w pasie" to jakieś wyrażenie krawieckie. Podaj szerszy kontekst!

Nic takiego, jak podajesz, nie znalazłem w słowniku gwary poznańskiej. Ale są tam ciekawe słowa, np. sklep znaczy u nich "piwnica", czyli tak samo jak w języku czeskim. Z innych podobały mi się: szczun - chłopak oraz uślumprać - ubrudzić się.

Work / How to find work in Warsaw "if u don't speak Polish" ! [176]



Monitor lives in Munich, Germany, so he must have confounded "English" with "Englisch". But the use of "good" instead of "well" in his phrase makes his action what we typically describe in Polish through the saying: "przyganiał kocioł garnkowi".


If I were to pay this, I'd prefer to go to the "Learning English with the BBC" website. They are very good as well.


I don't think so unless someone reports you to the police which is extremely unlikely in your case.

Law / how to get marriage with polish girl with non-EU [28]


Marriage is possible all over the world, so you should go and ask there where the local people are granted marriage certicates.

History / Ethnic, lingual and cultural relations between Poles and Lithuanians before WW1? [4]


Some of the Lithuanian gentry who did not speak Lithuanian decided to learn it later on since they ragarded themselves Lithuanian rather than Polish. Their children were not taught Polish.

Thomas Venclova, a Lithuanian writer, learned Polish himself late in his childhood because he was always intrigued what his mother talked about with his sister since they used Polish, their first language, between themselves every time they wanted little Thomas not to comprehend them. Thomas now speaks Polish like a native speaker.

UK, Ireland / Curious about differences Polish people see with the British? [95]




I don't think blaming the British (or any other nation) for having an empire is correct. The expantionist tendencies seem to be immanent to human nature, now and then they take on different forms and are present today, but no longer in the form of territorial take-over (except, for example, Putin taking over the Crimea, but this again under the pretext of the will of the local people who wanted to join motherland Russia). That was the political "state-of-the art" of former times and nothing of different nature was imaginable then. We can only condemn it from today's point of view which was not known to our ancestors.

As far as Poland is concerned, she was not an "agressive imperialist" herself in the 14-15th centuries as the lands stretching to the Black Sea were not at all conquered by Poland. The Crown of Poland for several centuries was a union state with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania which in reality was more Ruthenian than Lithuanian. From the very beginning of the historical process of unifying, the gentry of both states were granted equal proportional representation in parliament, irrespective of religion (Catholic or Orthodox). The unique title of "prince" was left to the magnates of the Grand Duchy in the Act of the Union of Lublin in 1569 (it had not been used in the Crown where all gentry were supposed to be "equal"), The monarch held the title of King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania and the initial ruling house originally came from the Grand Duchy (Jagiellonian dynasty). Later on the sovereigns were elected by Parliament which was common to both union states and was called into Warszawa in the once independent Duchy of Mazovia that existed between the Crown and the Grand Duchy rather than was called to Kraków or Vilnius, the capitals of respective union states. The ever moving eastern frontier changed shape due to the rivalry between the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Moscow (the city of Smolensk was a good example of that rivalry; after the final capturing it by Moscow nearly all members of the ruling Ruthenian-Lithuanian elite left the city for Vilnius). It was not until the 3rd May Constitution of 1791, four years before the final collapse of the Commonwealth, that the freely elected Parliament of Both Nations declared themseves from then on a "unitary and inseparable country" and adopted its new official name "Polish Commonwealth" (Rzeczpospolita Polska), granting however that taxes collected in formers parts of it should be spent in those respective parts only.

If that means Poland had once been an "agressive and imperialistic state", I would very much doubt.

Please stick to the topic.

UK, Ireland / Curious about differences Polish people see with the British? [95]

So do I, Rozumiemnić. Who is CasualObserver who presents an analysis so brilliant and up-to-date? I particuralry liked this: xenophobia that you see in poorer cities in the north (and Scotland), where they think 7 generations of working class roots in the same street gives them a higher status than anyone moving in.

Real Estate / Poland's apartment prices continue to fall [1844]


That's an interesting question! Reading his posts, albeit vaguely, I had an impression that he is trying to buy an appartment (or a house) for himself.