Language / Why is the Polish language so difficult? [309]

Wow, what a veritable goldmine of info! Thank you, kpc21.

Never hurts to review. And indeed, what you said about Polish difficulties learning English, I can confirm first hand as an ESL-instructor:-)
Tenses seem often as obtuse to Slavs as aspects do to us.

Take for example, "mieszkać": Mieszkam we Forest Hills. = I live in Forest Hills.
POmieszkam we Forest Hills. = I've been living in Forest Hills (..for a while).
ZAmieszkam we Forest Hills. = I live in Forest Hills (.....as opposed to somewhere else!)

Is this the general idea?

Language / Why is the Polish language so difficult? [309]

Very instructive, kpc21!
Here, the very intricacies, yea, vagueries, of Polish aspects for foreigners.
Many thanks:-)

The distinction then between "POnalewać" vs. "nalać" (not even: "nalewać") is in English the difference between "He poured..." (then stopped) vs. "He

was pouring.." (continuously)?

Language / Why is the Polish language so difficult? [309]

The "straightforwardness" in reproducing "simple", i.e. basic, English sentences into Polish, ends rather abruptly, as soon the construction is beyond a mere "Where's the bookstore?" type deal! Where in English, the question of tense tends to dog even the more advanced foreign-born speakers, e.g. "How many languages are you speaking?" vs. (CORRECT!!!) "How many languages do you speak?", Polish too with its aspectual shifts, requires infinite care. Impenetrably difficult??? Scarcely. Nevertheless, knowing instinctively and properly when to employ "lać" vs. "nalać", "jechać" vs. "jeżdźić" etc, ad infintium, is no simple task either:-)

Language / Why is the Polish language so difficult? [309]

Done in by the diacritics, eh? Curses! Foiled (yet) again!!!!
:-)
CHOLERA!!!! czyli BLAST AND DOUBLE BLAST!!!!

Language / Why is the Polish language so difficult? [309]

My use of "swoim", I later realized, was indeed superfluous. Thank you:-)

On the other hand, were the sentence ambiguous, i.e. referring possibly to someone else's brothers, then, in order to avoid the "jego"/swój" confusion, I'd have opted for the latter!

"On nalał braciom piwo." Yep. Definitely reads/sounds better.

Here's something curious, people. The 2nd person singular imperative of the verbs "jechać" and "jeść" are both "jedź!"

Crazy, huh?

Language / Why is the Polish language so difficult? [309]

Hate to interject there, Pol'!

"On nalał swoim braciom piwo."

(And NO, I didn't cheat!!! With me, it's honestly right or honestly wrongLOL)

Language / Why is the Polish language so difficult? [309]

"Self-reliant" language?? Hmm, interesting translation, gość!

I'd say "isolated", myself. Then again, that's only me:-)
LOL

Language / Why is the Polish language so difficult? [309]

Polish counting, once again, was the hardest for me at the beginning. Not that memorizing vocab. etc.was a romp in the park, but it took me quite some time to master the cardinals correctly, particularly in writing.

In conversation, I could occasionally "slide by":-)

Language / Why is the Polish language so difficult? [309]

As a linguist and college-level instructor of German for many years, I can only concur regarding most of what you've said.
Polish word stock is usually unfamiliar to Americans especially, except if they've already studied Russian! The latter can help a little, of course, but only for the most basic similarities.

Polish nouns are ALL declined and this often includes even place names, something which rarely exists in German (at least in modern German). While Polish has no articles, it does have three genders (unless one categorizes masculine virile animate vs. inanimate as separate genders!) and the endings are not always an indication of the noun's gender if a learner just glances at it.

On the other hand, German has eight different plural markers, including zero-marker for a noun with no change:-)

Language / Slavic languages words similarities with Polish [238]

....and then there's "gospodin" = "Mr." and "gospozha" = "Mrs." or "Ms" in Russian. I've been told however that this is rare nowadays. Russians used to be addressed as "Garazhin!" or "Citizen", but today, just the patronymics/matronymics will suffice!

Some chap named Daniel Bunic from Prague, I think, did a thesis (in German!) on exactly this most fascinating linguistic area. It's available on line:-)

Language / Why is the Polish language so difficult? [309]

German is often a "challenge" for foreigners (including myself off and on, and I grew up practically bi-lingual!), not so, so much owing to its intricate morphology, i.e. inflections etc., but principally, its word order combined with often labyrinthine sentence length, especially in formal, academic language:-)

Polish has what has been termed, even by certain Poles, a "quirky" counting system, especially after the number "five". True enough. German on the other hand can confound many a non-native, learner as well as advanced user, by the mere placement of certain particle words.

Polish frequently reveals irregularities of conjugation in addition to an involved aspectual system which can be rough going at the start, e.g. the transition from a basic, ordinary verb such as "ciąć" (cut): tnę, tniesz, tnie etc..., not to mention the prefixed perfective forms too.

Another thing I've learned about Polish, compared with German for example, is that it's spelling often is based on the word stem, that is, on which letter the root ends. Knowing the"hard" as opposed to "soft" stems in a fair number of Slavic languages determines the spelling, even the gender, of a noun in certain cases. For all words though, this seems to be true.

Language / Interesting Polish tongue twister. [69]

Never as simple to transcribe from memory, Looker:-)

Language / Interesting Polish tongue twister. [69]

W Szczebrzymie chrząść brzmi w tcicinie - J. Bzechwa

Language / Slavic languages words similarities with Polish [238]

Of the two languages, Russian on the one hand, has borrowed comparatively less from, say, Latin, in contrast with Polish(..which is in no wise to initimate that Russians hasn't also borrowed plenty!), preferring to use more of her own native "Slavic" roots, cf. Polish "literatura" vs. Russian "slovonictvo", or some such construction:-)

Russian aspects are almost identical with Polish, as near as I can tell.

Language / Slavic languages words similarities with Polish [238]

...Anna, Annuszka, Annusia.... plus Polish has that Vocative case, no longer extant in modern Russian, I'm told:-)

Suckered into the same trap again, I fearLOL

"Anna" "Anno", Anniuszka!" "Anniusia"....

It's late and I'm getting sloppy (but still no excuse!)

I recently learned that Russian "karadash" is derived from Turkish. Polish "Ołówek" is probably pure Slavic?
lol

Language / Slavic languages words similarities with Polish [238]

Most enlightening, Vlad! Many thanks:-)

I have noticed a similarity between Polish and Russian diminutives, however. Seems the Poles though also go slightly overboard on the subject of intimacy, e.g. Małgorzata < Małgosia < Gosia/Gosiu! < Gocha/Gochu! etc..

Language / Slavic languages words similarities with Polish [238]

Vlad, could "kotyczka" be Russian as well, or only Polish?

Language / Slavic languages words similarities with Polish [238]

Indeed it is. "Wiele"> "viel(e)". Right on the money!

Language / Slavic languages words similarities with Polish [238]

You're right, Vlad! However, English also knows the more latinate "autumn" (cf. Italian "autuno"), but "fall" surely refers to the falling of leaves (as does the Polish). Interestingly certain Germanic tongues emphasize the cognate 'calque' for "harvest", e.g. German "der Herbst", Dutch "de herfst", Swedish "hoest" etc...

Check out the Czech names for the months.

Language / Slavic languages words similarities with Polish [238]

Wonder still if the word for ash is related to "jeśień", the word for "autumn"/"fall".

Language / Slavic languages words similarities with Polish [238]

Vlad, only watch out for "łaska" vs. "laska"!! The former means "walking stick". A single slip of a key stroke can either create a different word, and/or type a different word with a wholly different meaning:-)) Cf. "łaski" (walking sticks) and "łąski" (narrow)...

Typo! I "meant" "laska" in Polish.

Language / Slavic languages words similarities with Polish [238]

If I were to translate that word for word into Polish, I'd get "łaska niebieska" or "the/a blue walking stick"!

:-)

Language / Slavic languages words similarities with Polish [238]

Not only the Russians, Polonius:-) The Croats, Serbs and other Southern Slavs constantly tease the Polish for their hissing sibilant combosLOL

Language / Slavic languages words similarities with Polish [238]

Vlad' ol' man, NO OTHER Slavic language sounds like Polish!! The others all lost the nasals, plus Slovene and Czech both retained their long vs,.short vowels:-)

History / Good enough for British - Joseph Conrad? Poland-born novelist. [30]

Reading "Lord Jim" and "Heart of Darkness" in highschool, never once did I even suspect that his first or only language was anything other than English!!!

Language / Slavic languages words similarities with Polish [238]

Vlad, as a professional linguist, I can linguistically vouch for both the syntactic as well as semantic closeness of Polish with Czech, not that there are not false friend traps galore, e.g. "Obchód na korze", the title of a popular 1966 Czech film! In English, it is translated as "The Shop on Main Street". In Polish, the meaning is, well, rather differentLOL There's of course Polish "szukać" vs. Czech "szukat", Polish "stały" vs. "Czech "staly", Polish "pożar" vs. Czech "pozar" etc... The months are also quite different, yet more Ur-Slavic vs. the latinized Russian equivalents!

On the other hand, certain basic words such as Polish "tydzień" cf. "tyden" in Czech, "Dzień dobry" and "Dobry den" point to a closer day-to-day proximity, not to mention the buzzing sounds of Polish and Czech, compared to the much more exaggerated palatalization of Russian and Ukrainian.

R.U.R. while it is true that the average English speaker faced with a German or Dutch text, having never studied either of those languages, will be as doubtless bewildered as were I too glance casually at "Beowulf" or "Caedmon's Hymn" having never studied Old English, many American -born German students of mine over the years have found German (though NOT Icelandic!!!) much easier to get a superficial handle on than even Spanish or Italian.

Slavic languages words similarities with Polish, is what this thread is about.

History / POLAND: EASTERN or CENTRAL European country? [1080]

I generally speak of "Middle Europe" when referring to countries such Austria, Czechoslovakia aka Czech Republik, Hungary or Switzerland. Central Europe also includes Slovenia, Albania and Macedonia. Poland? Well, it has the strong historical influences from the Catholic West, namely, Rome (located in South Central Italy), therefore, I tend to classify Poland as Central European, yet she is physically located much further East, while having a much more Continental influence than, say, Romania or Bulgaria, which are closer to countries such as Greece and/or the bridge nation, Turkey!

When Americans especially close their eyes and conjure up a Middle European person/accent etc.., the latter generally sounds like a courtly, Viennese Austrian, decidely Germanic, although not "German" per se, fully of bowing and hand kissing.

Language / Slavic languages words similarities with Polish [238]

A more precient theory has been that in fact the Russians themselves are descendants of Rurik the Slav, curiously enough, the same progenitor of the present-day Swedes:-)

History / Good enough for British - Joseph Conrad? Poland-born novelist. [30]

While his written English might well have been indistinguishable from a native Brit, his spoken English was said to have retained a decidedly thick Polish accent:-)

LOL

Language / Slavic languages words similarities with Polish [238]

Admittedly, an exception to the list:-)