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How similar is the Italian accent to the Polish accent (when speaking English)?


Spaniel  2 | 16  
7 Oct 2010 /  #1
Hello, I'm new here!

My friend (who's been to both Poland and Italy) says that Italian people speaking English and Polish people speaking English sound quite similar. Is this true? She also said that when Italian people and Polish people sang English songs they sounded basically identical...

I've never noticed this myself, and wanted to know what actual Polish people thought...so I decided to ask here!

I know this seems like a strange question to ask, but it's become sort of important to me...

Thanks! :)
Teffle  22 | 1318  
7 Oct 2010 /  #2
To me, they don't sound at all similar.

Spanish & Italian sound a little similar maybe but I'd still know the difference. Lithuanians, Latvians & Poles all sound a little similar when speaking English though.
Polonius3  980 | 12275  
7 Oct 2010 /  #3
Italians tend to add vowels to the end of consonant-ending words...
As in: My frienda here, he's a gooda man.
Poles would tend to devoice final voiced consonants and drop out articles:
My frent, he gut man.
southern  73 | 7059  
7 Oct 2010 /  #4
No similarity at all.Italian sounds like baby speaking english.They have lots of z etc.Polish sounds like Russians speaking english because they pronounce vowels open and l,r the same like Russians do.So when you hear the sexy accent you don't know if it is Russkaya or Polka.You have to watch her heels and trousers to reach a conclusion.
pgtx  29 | 3094  
7 Oct 2010 /  #5
says that Italian people speaking English and Polish people speaking English sound quite similar.

well, i don't know... i've never noticed the Italian accent because every time i speak with an Italian, i have to pay attention to this person hands gestures to get out of the discussion with no bruises...
southern  73 | 7059  
7 Oct 2010 /  #6
Greeks who were born in Italy or studied there for long speak with a fag accent,it is totally ridiculous hearing them although they sound more civilized.
Amathyst  19 | 2700  
8 Oct 2010 /  #7
My friend (who's been to both Poland and Italy) says that Italian people speaking English and Polish people speaking English sound quite similar. Is this true?

Your friend must be tone deaf because they sound nothing alike.

To me, they don't sound at all similar.

I cant see how they'd sound similar to anyone :D

She also said that when Italian people and Polish people sang English songs they sounded basically identical...

Are you saying Pavarotti sounded Polish?

As in: My frienda here, he's a gooda man.

Very bad stereotype...
...  
8 Oct 2010 /  #8
Nothing alike at all..

Very bad stereotype...

That is what this hick does.
richasis  1 | 409  
8 Oct 2010 /  #9
Italians tend to add vowels to the end of consonant-ending words...
As in: My frienda here, he's a gooda man.
Poles would tend to devoice final voiced consonants and drop out articles:
My frent, he gut man.

Greeks who were born in Italy or studied there for long speak with a fag accent,it is totally ridiculous hearing them although they sound more civilized.

Funny! PF just wouldn't be the same without both of you here :)
Lyzko  
8 Oct 2010 /  #10
Poles speaking English, particularly the women, often sound like birds chirping. Italians, both men as well as women, have a sort of undulating rhythm, almost as though on a boat at sea. This rhythm can make one a bit dizzy listening over a period of time. At least that's my impression.

Poles too sound more deliberate when speaking, though not a plodding as Germans, and have more stress on their syllables than Italians.
smurf  38 | 1940  
8 Oct 2010 /  #11
Get them both to say "pennies" (^_^) it'll be really funny
...  
9 Oct 2010 /  #12
Oh, that is good. lmao
Lyzko  
9 Oct 2010 /  #13
Italians sound more definite when they speak English, as well as their native language, whereas Poles tend to sound dilatory, non-committal, almost emotional. That's my impression at any rate.

Italian: I-ah, am ah-stahdeeing-a law in-a my-a kaunntree -a.
Pole: Aj em stahdeeink lau een maj kahntrii.

Sort of similar, I guess-:))
OP Spaniel  2 | 16  
19 Oct 2010 /  #14
Nothing alike at all..

Thank you all! That's what I thought, but I didn't have the heart to say it to my friend's face.
Lyzko  
20 Oct 2010 /  #15
If they're a true friend however, they'll understand and even thank you-:)))LOL
Janm20  
22 Dec 2010 /  #16
Poles and Italians speaking English sounds pretty different from eachother. However, when they speak their respective own language, the pronunciation sounds pretty similar. I'm half-Polish (speaking Polish) and when I lived (temporarily) for a month in Italy I noticed this.
peterweg  37 | 2305  
22 Dec 2010 /  #17
I sometimes think Poles are speaking Italian, obviously its not just me..
isthatu2  4 | 2692  
23 Dec 2010 /  #18
That could be closer to the truth,Ive often heard Dutch people speaking Dutch and thought they were speaking english with a Yorkshire accent(and vice versa,coming home to yorkshire in the way you have to adapt back to the traffic for a while I often dismiss background chatter as being Dutch when its my native language and adopted accent being spoken), so the leap isnt too hard to make,I certainly cant hear any similarity tho between Poles and Italians speaking english.......
Teffle  22 | 1318  
23 Dec 2010 /  #19
I sometimes think Poles are speaking Italian

I'm sure it's the intonation rather than the sound of the language.

Polish tends to rise during a sentence and then fall at the end - a bit like Italian.
southern  73 | 7059  
23 Dec 2010 /  #20
Polish tends to rise during a sentence and then fall at the end

It is exactly the same in Russian.All Slavs talk with this intonation except the Czechs who use syncopated tones.(to the amusement and fun of Poles).
Lyzko  
24 Dec 2010 /  #21
Yorkshire lingo's kinda like Norse-English anyway: 'to lake' = to play etc...., not to mention those grand old Nordic names, such as Grimthorp, Brisby and so forth. Scotish Norn, now extinct, was a purely Nordic, not Celtic, language. In fact, only the river Humber which traverses the Yorkshire dales, recalls non-Germanic ancestors-:)
Leopejo  4 | 120  
3 Jan 2011 /  #22
Polish and Italian both use quite open vowels and are mostly stressed on the penultimate syllable. I find both very "normal", "prose" languages, as opposed to the more poetic/emphatic Russian and French respectively.
bookratt  6 | 85  
3 Jan 2011 /  #23
Not at all. I lived in Poland 3 years; had a grandmother who spoke Italian, and her mom was born in Italy:

The only thing that seems similar when a Pole and and an Italian both speak English, are their FACES. They are both so sincerely earnest; they try so hard for the perfect sound, that they over-enunciate and speak too loudly as they do. But this attention to detail and getting it exactly right, always made me stop and REALLY pay attention to what they were saying.

Which helped them and helped me, because Poles and Italians tend to speak VERY fast in their native tongues, and also when attempting English. The words slurred together.

As far as the accents sounding alike, for me, an American, Italian sounds more like Spanish (definitely NOT like French), and Polish sounds almost exactly like Czech--but maybe in the way accents are stressed, even a little like Swedish or Danish. The cadence, rhythm, whatever it is.

I can't back any of that up with linguistics.
Lyzko  
5 Jan 2011 /  #24
Yet, oddly enough, Poles and Italians DON'T really seem to 'slur' or garble their words when speaking in their native tongue the way we Anglos 'eat' our words to the ears of many Europeans, e.g. the French, the Italians, the Poles, the Hungarians etc... Oddly enough, I've yet to hear such a complaint from Scandinavians, Dutch or German speakers (Swiss-German and Austrians excluded)-:)
NKof2Day  
30 Jun 2012 /  #25
I think they sound quite similar,my dad is from Polish descent,and the accent has a nice tone to it.
Wulkan  - | 3136  
30 Jun 2012 /  #26
Polish sounds like Russians speaking english because they pronounce vowels open and l,r the same like Russians do

oh I missed that ignorant post of yours, Polish "l" sound is totally diffrent to the russian one, in fact Russians don't even have "l" sound, its something between English "l" and "w".
Ziutek  9 | 160  
30 Jun 2012 /  #27
So what do English people speaking Polish sound like to Poles?
Wulkan  - | 3136  
30 Jun 2012 /  #28
I don't know, I have never met one, my girl friend doesnt say a single word in Polish.
kondzior  11 | 1027  
1 Jul 2012 /  #29
English people speaking Polish

They sound as if they had their mouth full of noodels.
nunczka  8 | 457  
1 Jul 2012 /  #30
Spaniel:
says that Italian people speaking English and Polish people speaking English sound quite similar.

well, i don't know... i've never noticed the Italian accent because every time i speak with an Italian, i have to pay attention to this person hands gestures to get out of the discussion with no bruises.

Beautiful!!!!!! Tex said it all.

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