Too many English words in the Polish language!

which brings us back to the title of the thread.

english words, but not always the same meaning in Polish.

if brits can't decide when they are eating dinner, how can anyone else hope to get it right.

It's our job to show their usage, really.

Why complain about a few English words in the Polish language? Chances are those words may not translate very well, if at all. Since sometimes a translation of a word may come out as something completely different in meaning than the original word. English is full of foreign words in it and you do not hear those people complaining. Study up on the history of the English language and the various languages that make it and you will see what I mean.

As someone or other has said, English is merely mispronounced French, going back to the last successful invasion of GB in 1066. Why reinvent the wheel(old Swedish).

strzyga wrote:


you see, you can joke around too! you DID czilałt.

as far as I know vitamine C decomposes significantly in higher temperatures - that's why fruit preserves don't have much vitamine C - also vitamine C oxidises (dried fruit don't have vitamine C to speak of)

not quite. where i come from there are a lot of viking, anglo saxon words. isthatu2 might say the same for his part of england.

i can't wait for Poles to start using words like netty and divvent. lots of vocabulary with double letters.

We got our phrasal verbs from Old Norse and many words in the NE of either England or Scotland have Germanic language roots.

My wife has made me aware of many things as she studied English Philology. For example, an uneducated Pole will claim kiosk is a Polish word. It's neither Polish nor English. I believe it's Persian.

I think I'm yet to be called a fcukwit by ITU2 - maybe my time has come.
I can't find who actually said English is mispronounced French, now. It was probably used in the context of taking a dig at England. In my school days it was always suggested if there is a choice between using a Latin or Saxon word always take the Saxon as being more English. Both are dead now yet gave birth to English as a modern language. Even Parliament came from the french verb, talk as with much of the language used in law as Latin in science.

A tv documentary made the claim the more working class, the more French used in one's vocabulary. It's a strength of English not to be xenophobic on incorporating foreign words or maybe simply a lasszz-faire attitude. Most coming in these days appear to be from America especially in technical language. The internet especially has made the language of business more vital in international communications on an informational level.

The word-creep of English/American forms into Polish is inevitable while if it is used and understood between two Poles it is then Polish. What I found amusing is SEKSI/SEKZI for SEXY How could there not be a more suitable word that doesn't already exist in Polish...

Sex is one of those international words. Many people identify with it.

How could there not be a more suitable word that doesn't already exist in English? English borrowed the word from Latin, you know.

In the end, everyone borrowed at least SOMEthing from SOMEbody else-:) The issue is if an already appropriate word exists in a given language, why then use a foreignism only to sound cutting edge? If appropriating a wholly foreign expression into a language such as 'Gemuetlichkeit' or the like into English for example, this is solely because in point of fact, NO other equivalent can be found in the English language which transfers the cultural meaning or nuance of the original. It's that simple.

Yes, I know.Didn't I just write two proceeding paragraphs saying that English or any language is not a immaculate conception and always growing.The word was originally from gender then diversified in English much later. The note on seksi was brought to my attention from a media piece written regarding text-speak in Poland over the past few years.

I think it may have been Daniel Defoe. He certainly railed against English pretensions of ethnic and linguistic purity in his poem A True-Born Englishman, in which after listing the diverse ethnicities who'd overan Britain throughout history he rhymed:

[quote From this amphibious ill-born mob began
That vain ill-natured thing, an Englishman.
The customs, surnames, languages, and manners
Of all these nations are their own explainers:
Whose relics are so lasting and so strong,
They ha' left a shibboleth upon our tongue,
By which with easy search you may distinguish
Your Roman-Saxon-Danish-Norman English][/quote]

No, actually it was Monsieur Voltaire, who made his remark to Lord Chesterton that English was merely French spoken badly.

I shall add "eventy" [events] to the list. I've come across this English word in the Polish language only this week, and in two high-quality national newspapers at once! Never heard or seen it before! As it's made my day in the sense that I can't stop laughing whenever I recall it, here is how the word has appeared in print:

Podczas kampanii prezydenckiej Napieralski stosował infantylne zagrywki w stylu "przewodniczący rozdaje jabłka pod fabryką" bądź "przewodniczący, tak jak cała Polska, zbiera grzyby". [...] Partia, która kiedyś była silna swoimi strukturami, skupia się na jałowych i mało zabawnych eventach. (Rzeczpospolita, 18th of August; Lewica się zapętliła, radość w PO)

Jeszcze rok temu szef SLD stawiał na bliski kontakt z ludźmi, rozdawał jabłka, stawał o 5 rano pod fabrykami. Dzisiaj widac coraz mniej eventów. (Polska The Times - Magazyn, 19th of August)

Obviously, this usage has a lot of ironic connotation in it. Yet it shows that the term must have been present in the oral journalistic jargon for some time and has now gone into print. In the Polish language of the "pre-English era", however, they would typically use the term "przedwyborcze zagrywki" for that.

Eventy or ewenty? Poles don't pronounce the 'v' as we do.

So how do Poles pronounce the "v" in your view?

Not surprised-:) German's had "der/das Event", "das Event-Marketing", "Event-Planning" (NOT: -planung!!!) for years now, so why should Polish be different?LOL

As Polish has no letter 'v', only 'w', the pronunciation would be as though it were pronounced by a Polish speaker "eVent" (despite being written with a Polish 'w'). Often times, Poles, but more often German speakers, will overcompensate and pronouce the English word "event", like "eWent", as though beign written "iieeuuent", since neither Polish nor German pronounce their 'w' like an English 'w'. Other Slavic speakers such as Czechs who HAVE a letter 'v', most likely pronounce it much as a Pole pronounces their own 'w' in their native language!

And Lebowski-- don't forget Lebowski. Then again, that could be Ashkenazic Jewish in origin-- e.g., Leib-> Leb-> Lebov, and so the cycle goes.

Exactly, £yżko. The Polish would pronounce the letter "v" no other way than they pronounce the letter "w". Althought the "v" doesn't exist in the Polish alphabet, it would appear in every Polish dictionary since it is present in numerous borrowed words of predominantly Latin, but also French, German and English origin. Here are examples of words that begin with the "v":

va banque [French] - stawka o cały bank
VAT [English] - podatek od towarów i usług doliczny do ich ceny (the Polish equivalent is "PTU")
vel [German] - albo, czyli; Policja poszukuje Jana Kowalskiego vel Stanisława Jankowskiego
verte [Latin] - odwrócić kartkę
via [French] - przez jakąś miejscowość; jechał do Paryża przez Berlin
video - [Latin ->English] - wideo
VIP [English] - bardzo ważna i wpływowa osoba
vis [?] - pistolet używany w czasie okupacji hitlerowskiej

Any Polish monolingual dictionary will give you a tip on pronouncing the letter "v" in Polish:
v - litera alfabetu łacińskiego odpowiadająca brzmieniu polskich spółgłosek w lub f

Thank you for the addendum, Ziemowit! Very helpful indeed-:)

Or pistolet wz. 35 Vis. Initially, that is in 1930 at the Fabryka Broni £ucznik (Arms Factory in Radom), it was named WiS (an acronym of the Polish designers' names Piotr Wilniewczyc and Jan Skrzypiński); later the name was changed to Vis, meaning force in Latin, with the wz. abbreviation for wzór, that is model.

Vel - originally Latin not German.

Via - from L. via "by way of," ablative form of via "way, road, channel, course,"

vis is part of vis-a-vis french expression (meaning opposite) that is quite often used by Poles - vis-a-vis (pronounced vizavee) is counterpart of Polish naprzeciw, naprzeciwko

The Danes use far more English in many areas of their language than the Poles do in theirs, albeit English is obviously much closer to Danish than to Polish-:)

Nonetheless, when I lived in Denmark for a summer, I must confess to finding it somehwat comical when Danish youngsters would ape Americanisms they heard on television, but which they clearly did and could not understand from the context, e.g. 'f****g', 'See ya latuh alligatuh!' etc...

I assume it would be equally odd sounding in reverse, i.e. to hear foreigners in their country using some weird Danish slang theyd heard in some old movie or someplace!

So here is an amusing text from "Polska The Times" which aptly shows four more or less recently assimilated words of English origin in the Polish language.

Boskie kształty Pippy Middleton to zasługa specjalnych majtek
Wygląda na to, że świat długo jeszcze nie zapomni o ślubie na brytyjskim dworze. Siostra Kate Middleton Pippa w jednej chwili stała się gwiazdą, a kształt jej idealnych pośladków komentowały media na całym świecie. Kilku niezależnych ekspertów jest przekonanych, że Pippa Middleton podczas ślubu swojej starszej siostry użyła jakiegoś triku, dzięki któremu jej pupa prezentowała się tak spektakularnie. - Nie jestem do końca przekonana, czy pośladki Pippy sa całkowicie naturalne. Jeśli spojrzymy na jej pozostałe zdjęcia, na których jest na przykład w dżinsach, to można zauważyć, że ma dość płaski tyłek - skomentowała Lesley Reynolds Khan, właścicielka londyńskiego spa. [...] Od ślubu Wiliama i Kate chirurdzy plastyczni w Wielkiej Brytanii odnotowali 60-procentowy wzrost w liczbie chętnych na zabieg podnoszenia pośladków. [...] Pupa Pippy stała się także hitem chirurgii w Stanach Zjednoczonych. - Mam coraz więcej zamówien na pupę Pippy, to po prostu sensacja - twierdzi chirurg z Miami dr Constantino Mendieta.

Seems sadly that Polish too is going the way of German,(even French)-:)))

Jeszcze międzynarodówska nie zginęła! Wszystce mówicie po globisz(-ku)?

developer...developerze(plural)

one deweloper
two deweloperzy

so i was thinking today.....

Bluetooth is basically synonomous with "hands free calling" these days. In the USA, we simply say, for example, "I have Bluetooth in my car".

for people in Poland that have Bluetooth, how do they pronounce it?

I don't think I've ever heard a Pole properly pronounce "th" so I can't help but wonder if Poles say, "bluetoot"....or.....well...."blutut".

that would be funny.