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Writing "to" and "from" on gifts in Polish.


OP The Elves  
30 Dec 2017 /  #31
I'm not a Latin scholar, but I did find an online reference that Felixa is a Spanish name from the Latin. All of the variants that we are discussing came from the Latin, Felix, meaning fortunate or happy. How that name becomes feminine can vary, and old Latin had various declensions. It just occurred to me that Felixka/Felikska might be a Lithuanian variant, which means it isn't Slavic.
kaprys  3 | 2076  
30 Dec 2017 /  #32
ксерокс in Russian

I hope the cyrillic will appear here :S

And where exactly did you find Felikska?
Was your family Lithuanian? Or Polish, Poleshuk or Ruthenian :S
mafketis  38 | 10963  
30 Dec 2017 /  #33
Felixka/Felikska might be a Lithuanian variant, which means it isn't Slavic.

Lithuanian is far more limited in what consonants can appear in what order than any Slavic language (it's very much a vowel dominant language) and x is not part of the Lithuanian alphabet and Lithuanians are notorious for respelling non-Lithuanian words according to Lithuanian spelling (pizza is pica there) so.... no.
OP The Elves  
30 Dec 2017 /  #34
Well, there is an early Roman female St. Felicitas. So then Felicja must be the Polish form of Felicitas, and Feliksa the femine of Felix. Given names from two different saints, but with a related Latin root. They could easily get confused or changed to the other. I retract my previous observation, but how these got recorded might depend on the knowledge of the priest or whoever wrote the record.

@kaprys
Babcia's family was the most Polish in the family. Dziadek's family came from the Kresy. The birth record was from a midwife in America c. 1900. The midwife was married, and had a Polish surname, meaning that she wasn't necessarily Polish herself.
kaprys  3 | 2076  
30 Dec 2017 /  #35
Was your Babcia born in Poland or the US? Does Felikska appear in the Latin records?

Pre-war Poland was really diverse in terms of ethnicity. There were ethnic Poles living in Kresy, too. Just like other ethnicities living in other parts of Poland.

szukajwarchiwach.pl

BTW, if you know where your ancestors were born, you may use that site to look for their vital records - use the English version.

However, not all church books have been scanned and made available. I found my paternal great grandparents but had no luck when it comes to my mother's family.
OP The Elves  
31 Dec 2017 /  #36
Babcia was born in the U.S. c. 1900. I haven't seen Felikska in any Latin records, as I believe it to have been a diminutive and not a proper given name. (My experience in searching the Latin church records is that different priests could write records differently, especially declensions of family names.) From online sources, I have found Felikska in the U.K. from the obituary, previously cited:

telegram.com/article/20120303/OBIT/203030303
It also, appears on an ancestry message board in the U.S. here:
ancestry.com/boards/surnames.labieniec/7.2/mb.ashx
Then there is my Babcia's birth record as "Felixka", also in the U.S. This leads me to believe that it was a diminutive of Feliksa, which is now not a common Polish name. I don't find Felixka/Felikska difficult to pronounce at all. What is odd about Babcia's birth record is that she was never Felikska or Feliksa in the family from the oral history. She was always called Felice, (So her proper Polish name was Felicja, and only Dziadek called her "Felja",) and her mother's first name is also slightly off. It could be an error, but with the other accounts, I doubt the name itself is "wrong", just old. We have now left a record on the internet for others who may come across Felixka or Felikska to follow. We have wandered far from the original topic. ;0
kaprys  3 | 2076  
1 Jan 2018 /  #37
brittonfuneralhomes.com/book-of-memories/2980487/hetel-rita/obituary.php

Here's a link to Ms Zaleski's sister obituary. The name is spelled Feliksa here. That's why I think it's a misspelling by a non-Pole.

I see no Felikska in the second link.

Again I have never come across such a spelling in Poland. I read a lot. I'm interested in history.
I have never come across any similar dimunitives of any name. In any dialect. And there are certain patters Polish follows in this case.
I can pronounce Felikska but it just has too many k's - take it from a native speaker.
That's what makes me believe it's an Americanism. It's a part of your family history though.
I really would have to see it in Polish to believe it is Polish.
OP The Elves  
2 Jan 2018 /  #38
The name is spelled Feliksa here.

Which doesn't prove that Felikska wasn't a diminutive of Feliksa. One cousin used the given name and the other cousin used the diminutive in the obit. I am curious how a Silesian or German-Polish person might consider the name.

Here we have Felicska and Felikska.
ancestry.com/boards/surnames.labieniec/7.1/mb.ashx
Perhaps Felikska is a misspelling of Felicska? Of course, the s is redundant in Polish here...
kaprys  3 | 2076  
2 Jan 2018 /  #39
I'm sorry I give up. It's simple - it's not Polish. All the links you provide are in English. In the link above the name is spelled in two different ways. Someone wasn't even sure how to spell it.

The same applies to busia, bapci etc.
Polish names and words got misspelled in different countries.
Sometimes they even got misspelled in Poland.
Not everyone was literate the 19th century.

You asked about Polish. You got your answers. I'm sorry you're not happy with them.
Now you're asking about Silesia - you do realise it's a long way from Kresy/eastern Poland? Even though Poland is just the size of Nevada (as one 'Polish' American used to claim here - the same who got angry when Poles couldn't understand his 'Polish'), even today it takes hours to drive from eastern Poland to Upper Silesia - not to mention Lower Silesia.

Is there any likelihood you'll come across such a spelling - perhaps but that's not standard Polish. If you do, let me know.

You also have Pomeranians, Kashubians, Polish Scots, Polish Tatars, Polish Jews, Mennonites and tens of other options.
kaprys  3 | 2076  
2 Jan 2018 /  #40
pozaschemat.weebly.com/uploads/4/1/0/2/41026389/6035270_orig.jpg

Look at the writing on a 19th century shrine in a Polish village. I remember it from years ago - one of the reasons is the spelling. The shrine was built/funded by a miller Jakub and his wife Katarzyna. The names are spelled Jakup and Katażyna. They're not different variants of these Polish names but misspellings. There are other spelling mistakes there. I'm sure these people were hard-working and religious but daily manual work was far more important then than education. I'm pretty certain than whoever wrote it was more literate than other people in the village.
More Elves  
26 Dec 2018 /  #41
To Dad is "dla taty"?

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