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Posts by Polonius3  

Joined: 11 Apr 2008 / Male ♂
Warnings: 1 - Q
Last Post: 9 Apr 2018
Threads: Total: 980 / Live: 115 / Archived: 865
Posts: Total: 12270 / Live: 4516 / Archived: 7754
From: US Sterling Heigths, MI
Speaks Polish?: yes
Interests: Polish history, genealogy

Displayed posts: 4631 / page 84 of 155
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Polonius3   
5 Jun 2015
Language / Why is the Polish language so difficult? [309]

Yes indeed, for maculine persons you've got a choice; it can be: Dwaj przyjaciele nas odwiedzili or dwóch przyjaciół nas odwiedziło.
Polonius3   
5 Jun 2015
Language / Why is the Polish language so difficult? [309]

French term cedille

The cedilla's hook turns to the left, whilst the ogonek to the right (Poles are always right, rigtheous and rightist - ha-ha!)
Seriously though, I once typed on my Polish-keyboard typewriter an ogonek (Polish hook) under garçon instead of the cedilla and a French teacher immediatley called my attention to the "misspelling". To speakers of non-diacritised lingos like English all those dots, accents and squiggles may seem meaningless trifles, but Romanians balked at the cedilla under the letters ţ and ş insisting there must be a comma ibstead. The IT geeks setting this all up (mapping, coding, configuring or whatever else they do?!) figured "what's the difference?", triggering a minor backlash in Romania.
Polonius3   
5 Jun 2015
Language / Why is the Polish language so difficult? [309]

Czech language

The Polish word ogonek (the little tail or squiggle beneath the nasal vowels ą and ę) has also entered the English language. Thta diacritic (˛) is also found in Lithuanian and, believe it or not, in Apache, Navajo and other Amerindian languages.
Polonius3   
4 Jun 2015
Life / Boże Ciało (Corpus Christi) - a beautiful celebration in Catholic Poland [22]

<<VELES"This day is bs".>>
And this is not offensive? It offends one of the most pround areas of human existence -- man's relationship to God.
The Christophobes claim religon-bashing is their right tro freeedom of speech until someone starts criticising one of their pet minorities or taboos.

Merged: JP2's top aide counting on Poland's president Duda

Speaking at a Corpus Christi celebration in Kraków, Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz, the late Polish Pontiff's closest aide, expressed the hope that things would improve under Duda. "Poland calls out for people of conscience in politics and social aiffairs. I am counting on the hopes placed in Andrzej Duda and that from August things in Poland will be better."

Dziwisz also condemned EU's anti-domestic violence convention which does nothing to prevent such violence but blames it on the family, religion and tradition. The convention convenientyl fails to point out that percentagewise the most domestic violence occurs in unmarried and same-sex households.
Polonius3   
4 Jun 2015
News / Kukiz and Petru - newly emerging political stage in Poland [57]

PiS is the lesser of two evils. Both major parties, like most parties everywhere, mainly want to get to the feeding trough and stay there as long as they can. When their stuffed and can tuck in no more they hightail it off to a cushy chairmanship in Brussels.

Waiting ot see what Kukiz represents. Will he be like the pigs in "Animal Farm". Once they got into power they became just as vile as their former oppressor.

One would think that a rock musician might well represent a decadent/libertine and irreligious aberration, but Kukiz is a family man so I'm waiting to see what his stand on various issues is.

Petru is a much better bet

As a big Petru fan you'll be interested to know that today (11 Sept 2016) Petru said on TVN (where else?) more or less: We are going to push the wreckers (szkodnicy) out of office. When we win the election, we will put Duda and Szydło before the State Tribunal. (LOL)

The bloke is either raving mad or hasn't been following .N's public-support polls.
Polonius3   
4 Jun 2015
Language / Why is the Polish language so difficult? [309]

Nie wyciągnij pochopne wnioski...(wrote jon) - 2 basic mistakes which learners find hard to master.
The 2nd one is that negation requires the genitive, hence wniosków.
But a linguistic quirk even more difficult to grasp (esp. since orders are often issued on the spur of the moment without time for consideration) is the fact that the imperfective form of the verb is required for negative imperatives. The 10 Commandments are a good example:

Nie zabijaj (not zabij), nie kradnij, nie cudzołóż, etc. Zamknij bramę, but - nie zamykaj bramy.
So jon should have written: nie wyciągaj. But for a learner that is an honest mistake if he started learning from scratch only a decade ago. Besides, a grammatcial fine point does not impede communicaiton which after all is any language's prime objective.

Actually time alone is not a factor. One has to be lingusitically disposed and receptive, and Anglos with their largely uninflected lingo have trouble acquiring inflected languages. I recall when learning German, my monoglot (English only) classmates were amazed the the simple word "the" goes through three genders and four (actually 8 if the plural is considered) cases.

Secondly, the best learning method is total immersion -- cutting oneself of form one's native tongue and interacting exclsuively with natives. By virtue of teaching English such detachment was not possible in his case. If he had had a Polish-only spouse, that might have made a difference, especially if she was a polonistka.
Polonius3   
4 Jun 2015
News / Kukiz and Petru - newly emerging political stage in Poland [57]

do business

It's a toss-up whether public ofificials or the business sector are more corrupt. Remember: there is no such thing as a corrupt politician or crooked businessman -- only stupid ones dumb enough to get caught!
Polonius3   
4 Jun 2015
Life / Boże Ciało (Corpus Christi) - a beautiful celebration in Catholic Poland [22]

As its name implies (Corpus Christi is Latin for 'God's body'), this feast is celebrated in honour of the Holy Eucharist or Blessed Sacrament, the Body and Blood of Christ. The Sunday after Pentecost is Trinity Sunday, and Boże Ciało is observed on the following Thursday. To this day it remains a public holiday in Poland and other Catholic countries. Despite their atheist<ayiton cmapaing which scrubbed other Catholic countries. Poland's former communist rulers (1945-1989) were afraid to ban Corpus Christi.

In addition to central celebrations in Warsaw's Old Town, every parish holds its own its neighbourhood procession. Little girls strewing the way the Blessed Sacrament is due to pass with flower petals They are followed by altar boys jangling bells and perfuming the air with incense. The priest is flanked by two parish volunteers who help hold up his elbows beneath the heavy monstrance containing the Holy Eucharist. Four other men, often firemen in parade uniforms, carry a decorative over the threesome. Worshipers watching the procession from the sidelines genuflect and make the Sign of the Cross when the Blessed Sacrament passes. Townsfolk living along the procession route traditionally decorate their windows and balconies with holy pictures and flowers.
Polonius3   
4 Jun 2015
Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]

Yes, that is a verbal noun or gerund. Wybór and wybieranie derive form the same source but are not identical. Wybieranie would be more like the process of selecting, something drawn out in time, whilst wybór would be a one-off thing. But you would be understood if you used wybieranie instead of wybór. I forgot another adjective -- wyborowy, similar to wyborny. It is the name of Poland's best-known vodka, Wódka Wyborowa (Choice Vodka).
Polonius3   
4 Jun 2015
USA, Canada / Where can I find Polish Festivals in Southern New England, USA? [22]

Merged: Polish festival time is getting under way in America

Celebrate Bremond's rich Polish heritage at the 28th annual Polish Festival Days (Polski Dzien) on Friday and Saturday, June 26 - 27, 2015. This year's festival will feature lots of delicious Polish food, cold piwo and plenty of Polish music by Jim Mazurkiewicz's Polska Kapela Band, Brian Marshall and friends and more. Wawel Folk Dance Group from Houston will also be dancing in Bremond this year.

2015 Polish Festival Days in Bremond Texas

To sample some of the flavour of a typical Polish-American summer fest check out this link. Yes, it is down-home all the way, salt of the earth, good family fun - not not for snooty snobs and self-declared common-sewers (er, um, I mean connoisseurs).

polish-texans.com/category/polish-texan-articles/polish-texans-biography/
Polonius3   
4 Jun 2015
Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]

Of course. Wybór is the noun form, wybierać/wybrać is the verb. There are also adjectival forms wyborny, wyborczy and wybiórczy, each meaning something compeltely different. Wyborny means superb, excellent, top shelf, wyborcza has to do with elections and wybiórczy means selective, implying that some thigns were left out. For instance a newspaper that highlights only the things that comform to its editorial policy.

Getting back to the nickname-turned-surname, it migth have even been of toponmyic (place-name) origin and initially used to identify a villager from Wyborów (Choiceton, Pickbury).
Polonius3   
4 Jun 2015
Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]

Wyborek

WYBOREK: probably from wybór (choice, selection, recruitment); possibly a clipped form of wymborek (bucket).
Considering widepsread illiteracy, letters got dropped or added by usually semi-literate priests ad village scribes.during successive recopying
Polonius3   
4 Jun 2015
Language / Why is the Polish language so difficult? [309]

dass

Is it admissible in normal texts to eschew the eszet (ß)? I know in a pinch it's OK. In a friendly letter or email would you omit it? The Swiss, of course, do. In fact I recall the Hermes and Olympia Swiss German typewriter keyboards contained no ß.
Polonius3   
3 Jun 2015
Language / Why is the Polish language so difficult? [309]

ponalewał sounds uncomfortable -

Only someone lacking what the Germans call Sprachgefühl, an intuitive feeling for the language which is rarely ever acquired by foreigners, could make such a claim. Uncomfortable to a neophyte. One concrete example is the distributive prefix po.

He set up shops in all the major provincial cities. - On pozakładał sklepy we wszystkich większych miastach wojewódzkich. (A foreigner who has learnt schoolbook Polish would say: założył, missing that typically Polish feature.

Although surrounded by fearsome savages, the soldier killed them all off. - Choć otoczyli go groźni tubylcy, żołnierz ich wszystkich pozabijał: (Again the foreigner would say just zabił.)

Drill yourself on these and similar formulations and eventually you'll get the hang of it.
Polonius3   
3 Jun 2015
Language / Why is the Polish language so difficult? [309]

[quote=jon357]a translation from English to Polish[/quote

But you haven't demonstrated a single one, only variations on the how-to-wiggle-out-of-it theme.
I'd wager you never did any translations. If you did, you woudln't be so reluctant to show what
what you can do. Very suspicious for someone trying to pass himself off as a fluent Polish speaker.
Polonius3   
3 Jun 2015
Language / Why is the Polish language so difficult? [309]

OK, I'll do it. I think it was to use the verb ryczeć in the following sentence:
The lion stood on a hill giving off a roar every now and then.
Lew stał na pagórku i porykiwał.
Porykiwać is a beautiful verb not found in any Germanic tongue inclduing English. They have to bring in added adverbs or adjectives to even roughly approximate what a Pole can do with a single word.
Polonius3   
3 Jun 2015
Language / Slavic languages words similarities with Polish [240]

I notice that no diacritics (ł, ę, ż, ś) are seen in the original. Also the German eszet ß is used as well as a Y umlaut (Ÿ). But of course back then everything was in statu nascendi. A century later things slowly started falling into place.
Polonius3   
3 Jun 2015
News / Kukiz and Petru - newly emerging political stage in Poland [57]

PiS is a danger to whom???

PiS is mainly a danger to corrupt officials and businessmen who wholeheartedly support the scam party PO, to shady types in the service of foreign interests, to those who wish to poison the minds of children with every manner of decadent propaganda, to enemies of traditonal family values, partiotic traditions and the nation's Catholic heritage. Also to comunist-era types who made it through the cracks of a very slipshod vetting process into positions of inlfuence in government, privazisation, academia, education, culture and the media as well as assorted deviates trying to bamboozle people into believing that therr aberrations are somehow normal. Anyone who does not fit those categories has nothing to fear.

The Fourth Republic will rise again!
Polonius3   
3 Jun 2015
Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]

MÜLLER: German for miller (mill owner)

KOTOWICZ: patronymic for the son of someone nicknamed Kot (cat).

CZERNY: the Polish spelling of the Czech nad Slovak word for black (èerný)

For more info on these please contact: research60@gmail
Polonius3   
3 Jun 2015
Language / Why is the Polish language so difficult? [309]

Russian is much clearer

I disagree. Polish, Italian and Spanish have nice, full, clear vowels no matter where they appear in a word. Russian has a sloppy swallow-up of unaccented vowels. In Polish and Russian it's written polityka, but Russian pronounces it palityka. That is not phonrtic. Russian is full of that nondescript shwa (uh sound) we also find in English but not in Polish, Spanish or Italian.
Polonius3   
2 Jun 2015
Language / Why is the Polish language so difficult? [309]

"On nalał braciom piwo."

Here the PIWO would be accented. In other words it would be understood that he poured BEER, not something else.
Ponalewał is best becuase he probbaly did not pour all the brotehrs' beers from a single jug ina a single motion, but poured one glass after the other. That's why it's called distributive.

£yżko - Feel up to tackling the lion sentence? Jon has chckened out. He's afraid of being shown up.
Polonius3   
2 Jun 2015
News / Kukiz and Petru - newly emerging political stage in Poland [57]

Merged: Kukiz takes p*ss out of pro-capitalist Petru party

Musician Paweł Kukiz took the stuffings out of a new pro-capitalist grouping led by economist Ryszard Petru. He called the Petru project a party of foriegn bankers and industrialists and another incarnation of the Democratic Union, Political scientist Prof. Chwedoruk believes the Petru-led grouping will become a lifeboat for politicians abandoning the sinking PO ship. According to him, it's the only party they could transfer to.

wpolityce.pl/polityka/254457-pawel-kukiz-kpi-z-partii-petru-i-balcerowicza-kolejne-wcielenie-unii-wolnosci