Slavic accent correction

so you think wrong


Whatever this letter is you don't have it in English nor Polish.


So what gives the different speach melody in English for Russian speakers if it's not the moving stress? comparing to the Polish speakers.


łopata, łeba, ława, łał - compare with English wow.

Russian speakers tend to slur their phonemes into one another compared with Polish speakers who tend to pronounce them separately. Perhaps one reason why many younger Russians are able to affect a believable-sounding "American" accent, whereas Poles typically cannot:-)

In Polish and in German, final devoicing of consonants occurs. In Russian, this is almost never the case:-)

Fair point

I'm agree,strangely sound.Not so sure if it's exact counterpart of English W.
Wonder where it came from in Polish...
But I do not disagree that Polish has some strange sounds.For example "ą" or "ę".
Somebody said it is archaic.Probably, pronounciation is larger divider between Slavic languages.
I bet that Polish pronounciation is as distant from Czech as it is from Russian.
Could somebody tell if we could say definitely that Polish is closer to Czech than it is closer to Russian,
and closer to Slovak than it closer to Ukrainian?

Almost but not quite. It's called the 'dark L'. Older people (in their 80s) often pronounce it a little more strongly, sort of / lj /.

yes, those are nassal sounds like you have in French.


Now, after so much time spent on this forum I don't know if you are being deliberately obtuse asking such a basic question but I'm going to answer it seriously.

Yes, Polish is definitely closer to Czech than it is to Russian and closer to Slovak than it is to Ukrainian. Russian and Ukrainian are Eastern Slavic and Polish, Czech and Slovak are Western Slavic.

Hi! "ę" and "ą" are not like the nasal sounds of French (there are 4 nasal sounds in French and Poles (not to mention any other language speakers) cannot recognize and pronounce them so no relationship between Polish and French sounds ;).

Well, it's quite close ;)
Especially with ą, between the French 'an' in 'quand' (when) and 'on' in 'mon' (my).

Sorry for ignorance,but some people on this forum including claimed naitive Polish speakers have different opinions on this regard.For example:


polishforums.com/general-language-17/ukrainian-language-similar-polish-30550/4/


polishforums.com/general-language-17/the-languages-russian-polish-similar-all-3935/2/


polishforums.com/general-language-17/czech-language-sounds-like-baby-talk-most-poles-52168/7/
Maybe these posts a bit confusing but I do not know...
And from what I know Slovak should be much closer to Czech than to Polish and also have some unique traits.And Ukrainian is much closer to Polish than Russian.Especially in vocabulary.So I do not know what to think.

It is absolutely your choice if you want to listen to the true facts I am giving you or listen to some nonsense written by a few individuals. I guess second option suits better to the fairy tale world you live in...

So Polish is closer to Czech than to Ukrainian?

starting from the closest to the Polish language:

1. Slovakian
2. Czech
3. Ukrainian
4. Russian

True, mostly. But if you ever have a chance to listen to Lower Sorbian (dolnołużycki) as spoken by those born 100 years ago (recordings exists) you'd think their language is no. 1 on that list. Unfortunately that language is dying and most of those still speaking it have had their pronunciation destroyed by the ever present influence of german.

You forgot to mention Kashubian,Silezian and Old Prussian.No metter how close they were to Polish but it allows effectively manage Ukrainian and Russian somewhere on 9-10 places.

what do you mean by manage?

Nothing. Just a joke.
Pomeranian and Slovincian are also worth to mention.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomeranian_language

Jon, as I'm sure you and most others are aware, the so-termed "dark" 'L'-sound in Polish is mostly confined to older stage diction, heard also in movies, pre-1960:-) Poetry recitations too frequently employ this sound, occuring as well in the dialect speech of those from Zakopane (both young and old), even when speaking standard Polish!

When I first encountered it, it almost sounded like Russians speaking Polish (though of course, Russian has TWO 'L'-sounds; those found in "boLshoi" vs."goLova"), until I became slowly more familiar with various pronunciations of the the Polish language.

I know a few people in their late 80s and 90s who still use it. One, however, is an actor. All are from places in the east that are no longer in Poland and all are from cultured backgrounds.

Could some linguist confirm that Czech is closer to Polish than Ukrainian to Polish?Either in vocabulary or prononce?
Or you could give some link to such a statement?

I found such a statement in I-net:


wikitravel.org/en/Talk:Polish_phrasebook
(at the end of page)

I know of another actor, Andrzej £apicki, who uses it constantly:-) Have a CD of him reading from some modern poetry and his voice is incantatory!