Language / A couple of questions relating to Polish names and terms [7]


since 11th or 12th century most probably


it was never called Lechia since Lech was a legendary ancestor of Poles and not a name of any tribe that later came to live in Polska (after the Polans conquered their neighbours)


you just reminded me that there must have been a tribe of Lęch people who became known Ljach(y) in Ukrainian - but the tribal name expired as the Lęch (perhaps) Lędzianie) submitted to the Polan's state - the common language of Poland was never called Lechicki though


since quite early - there were serious differences among Slavic Languages as early as 9th century (the loss of nasal vowels in most Slavic languages and kept in the Lechitic family (Polish dialects, Pomeranian dialects, and some Polabian dialects) - serious differences between Czech and Polish existed as early as 10 th century (Czech h instead of former g and a couple of various other differences)


no Legia is unrelated to Lech - Legia is related to legion and is a Latin borrowing into Polish

Law / Polish car insurance and how it compares to England [29]

but the insurance cost is significantly lower delphi

Law / Polish car insurance and how it compares to England [29]

OLLiN

I think it would - but you will have to drive the car with Polish plates - don't know what that involves (except driving back to Poland for your yearly MOT test)

Language / Czego, Czemu, Co, Kto, Jak, Dlaczego? [64]

it is also important to remark that although zjeść demands(governs) object in the accusative case it's negation demands genitive

Nie zjem tego świństwa. - I won't eat/have that nasty stuff.

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


człowiek, który je jedzenie niekoszerne

Life / Polish Cartoons/ Legends [15]

I guess they will be happy watching 'Zaczarowany ołówek' and 'Bolek i lolek'

History / The WW2 Hero.. Henryk Sławik (1894-1944) [17]

I think it was his wife who was more into the cause than Oskar Schindler himself.

History / just before the war the Polish/Ukrainian szlachta learned Ukrainian [243]


the forceful collectivization and then the Holodomor (widespread starvation) happened in the part of the Ukraine that was in the Soviet hands - there were no blue-blooded people there until then - in the part of the Ukraine that was within Polish borders there was no collectivisation until the Soviets taken the land in 1944-45

Language / men.male - Polish pronunciation? [8]


men -shcheez - na - the italics stand for accented syllable

it is approximate pronounciation - in fact Ziemowit had already written Poles pronounce it with ę not en - but I don't want to complicate things for you

Language / 'MOZNA' - When is this used? [27]


most of the names of the rivers in Poland are unitelligible to Poles (they don't make sense in Polish or any other Slavic language) - it seems they are not Slavic in origin which fits nicely with the fact that Slavic tribes encroached upon Poland from the east somewhere in 5th 6th century AD - some argue that they have been led by nomadic Avars who were skilled mounted raiders

Language / What are the Polish words of Mongol origin? [14]

there is a bunch of words that came to Polish from Tatar and Turkic languages - most of these are of military sphere like bachmat (a horse, or some special breed of horses), buńczuk (symbol of military command), jarłyk, kary (the colour of a horse (black) - turkic for black

Language / Polish and Hungarian, how similar? [53]


Polish Jews understanding Hungarian Jews is a no-brainer - they both spoke yiddish and that's it - some Jews in Poland could hardly speak Polish before the war - I stress the word some

Language / "Zaraz wracam" - Why not "zaraz wrócę" ? [32]

a) definitely - I think it is quite similar in English

pojadę seems more natural for some remote( or uncertain) future

kiedyś napewno pojadę do Anglii - some day I will surely go to England
do Anglii to może w przyszłym roku pojedziemy - We will possibly go to England in the next year

Language / brakować, braknąć, zabraknąć [9]


yes - as I stated these tend to be used interchangeably


I think your intuitions are quite right - perfective and imperfective are not that clearly opposite in the future (in Polish) as they are in the past

Pójdziesz do kina? Będziesz szedł do kina? and Idziesz do kina (with enough context) can well be used (and are used) interchangeably - the semantic differences are slight here - it is really a matter of nuance - Pójdziesz do kina? sugests that a more definite answer is expected, while będziesz szedł do kina is a more indirect form to ask a question and eventually Idziesz do kina? is at present the form of choice for asking someone if s/he is going to the movies in a stated time (on a stated day for example)

Language / Chodzic versus Isc. When and why? [18]


chodzę na spacery sounds more natural to me

Language / brakować, braknąć, zabraknąć [9]

braknąć and zabraknąć often are used interchangeably

jutro nam braknie/zabraknie chleba - we will run out/short of bread tomorrow

so there can be confusion whether braknąć is perfective or imperfective

in fact many verbs with -nąć ending are perfectives - on time actions - palnąć, golnąć, łypnąć, machnąć

Jemu brakuje cierpliwości - is constant - He lacks patience
Jemu zabrakło cierpliwości - is a one moment effect - He has run short of patience.

Brakowało nam pieniędzy. - We kept on lacking/being short of money.
(Za)brakło nam pieniędzy. - (At a certain moment) we ran out/short of money

still in real life usages this opposition is not that stark as one can imagine - quite often imperftective constructions are used instead of perfective ones

History / Polish soldiers in '68 made Czech men to drink beer from his shoes... [34]

you forgot to mention that Lithuanians were puny minority in Wilno/Vilnius whatever you call it and in the surrrounding area. Even now there are pockets around Wilno/Vilnius that have Polish majority. You would be surprised to know that even in there second best capital Kaunas?Kowno Lithuanians were originally a minority in 1919

Language / Vocabulary: rasowy [3]


or archetypical - or whatever English name to that effect :)

Language / When do you use 'się'? And what does it mean? [37]


it only means the same in the constructions - ten sam, ta sama, to samo, taki sam, taka sama, takie samo (all of these of course get declined)

example: Dzisiaj na obiad podano to samo co wczoraj. They served the same thing for the lunch (dinner) as yesterday.

Life / Do expats living in Poland speak Polish? [233]


sorry to mislead anyone - the construction in question is instrumental contruction not dative

my mistake


Kim jesteś is sort of declining yes
although Kim Pan jest sounds very natural

Life / Do expats living in Poland speak Polish? [233]


Trevek Polish people often use the same construction and the dative construction is slowly sliding into oblivion. Except for those sentences where the nominative construction simply sounds absurd (like Kto jestem instead of Kim jestem? - but you can notice more and more Kto ty jesteś)

Language / co to jest? [11]


what's the new Polish guy in the store like - jaki jest ten nowy Polak z magazynu

what's the colour of your car - jakiego koloru jest twój samochód
(literally - what colour is your car - don't know if it is good English)

what is your name - jak się nazywasz/ jak masz na imię

what is the price of these oranges - w jakiej cenie są te pomarańcze

what does your country look like - jak wygląda twój kraj

Note that in most cases sentences in Polish don't translate literally (word for word) into English - it is very often the case with these two languages

with the more standalone situation of what in English Polish counterpart is co

what is it? - co to jest
vs
what is it like? - jakie to jest

what is it that you have on your coat? a stain? - co to jest to coś co masz na płaszczu? plama jakaś?

I can't now figure if there is any apparent rule when what translates into co and when into jak(i,a,ie)
just learn more examples and you may get the feeling of when to use one and when the other

Genealogy / Anyone here from the UK? Looking for a Pristow [6]

getting hand on a phone directory can perhaps get you somewhere when looking for your kin - I haven't got one so can't help you really here

Genealogy / Anyone here from the UK? Looking for a Pristow [6]

Sokal is no more in Poland now - although it's just behind the border on the Ukrainian side - this is just a helping note - well I hope it helps get you a broader picture

Language / Why in the world there are three ways to write simple U ?!?! [54]


I don't know if you are a foreigner but as you can see from my previous post (the one before yours) there is a good reason u and ó and most definitely ł retain there presence in Polish ortography

Language / Why in the world there are three ways to write simple U ?!?! [54]


that's a matter of precision of Polish language - some forms of two in Polish would be only precisely translated into English using a couple of English words (at two people of different gender - for example - in Polish - dwojgu ludziom)

simplicity and precision are a difficult balance two reach in a language


I pronounce pół and puu differently - maybe it is just me - of course the difference is subtle


well maybe this is what you hear (which is all right if you are a foreigner) - but they are (by me at least) pronounced/rendered differently - the difference is in the shape of lips etc.

Language / ów its meaning [11]


only in phrases like - to i owo, tego i owego (this and that), tu i ówdzie - (here and there)

Language / Why in the world there are three ways to write simple U ?!?! [54]


it is so because Polish words tend to change pretty dramatically when they are declined, conjugated, given diminutive aspect etc etc - then you figure out that all these three cases of a u sound act completely differently

sód - sodu (genitive) (natrium, of natrium/natrium's)
lód - lodu
lud - ludu
cud - cudu
kół - kołu (a pillar, a stomp and it's genitive

ł - is not a proper vowel by the way and it does not create sylables
genetically it comes from l - much more l like pronounciation of ł was still common before the WW2 as can be heard in the pre war Polish movies (and some post war too like 'Zakazane piosenki') - the pronounciation was like hard l like in say 'ball'

quote=RubasznyRumcajs]rz and ż - they sound the same- but it is really useful to know the difference (in writing system- in declination 'ż' and 'rz' are changing into different consonants)[/quote]

very true -

harcerz gives and adjective harcerski

while papież gives and papieski adjective

so keeping the genetically correct spelling helps very often

even the words like gówno should retain their genetic spelling because of their relatives in other Slavic languages

you have Polish rzeka but you have Russian rieka

gumishu

harcerz gives and adjective harcerski

while papież gives and papieski (and not papierski) adjective

Language / Polish nouns of unpredictable gender [50]


gnu is simply neuter - to gnu, tamtemu gnu (like to okno, tamtemu oknu)
the only thing all gramatical cases of this word look (and sound the same) - one can say it is not declined - similar cases are boa, wotum(only in singular) - both are neuter

Language / ch - antychryst - chłeb [13]

Michal


it does not come from the Anglo-Saxon loaf -
Slavic chleb and English loaf come from the same Germanic word - it was accepted in Slavic (proto Slavic) through the contact with Gothic settlers that made their way from Baltic Coast (Gdańsk area) down south to the Black Sea - it was pretty probable Slavs (proto Slavs back then) didn't make bread as we know it now (with the use of 'zakwas' or yeast) and just learned to make it through the contact with the Gothic people.


must be the influence of Greek missionary activity - see Cyryl and Metody in Polish wiki and then open the English counterpart of the article