Genealogy / Leszczynski surname, Balcerzak [51]

King Stanisław Leszczyński had only one daughter. This I may conclude from his own saying: "there do not exist two more boring queens in the world than my wife and my daughter" ("nie ma na świecie dwóch nudniejszych królowych niż moja żona i córka!"). I haven't heard of any (legal) sons he may have had. So, his only descendants would be the offspring of king Louis XV of France and Maria Leszczyńska.

Language / Polish words difficult to translate into English [66]

"Dutki" is "money" in the language of mountineers.
I wonder how to translate the word "klecha" into English.

The other way round, I think it is often difficult to translate the English word "integrity" (in the sense of a certain quality of a man) into Polish.

History / What Was Happening in Poland around 1905? [73]

An interesting case of Polish heritage in Texas is the village of Pana Maria (the name after Panna Maria, the Virgin Mary). It is thought to be the oldest Polish settlement in the US, dating back to 1854. Though Polish, the settlers came from ... the Prussian Upper Silesian, more precisely from an area near Oppeln (Opole). The area ceased to be part of Poland as early as in 1327 when these lands were made tributary by John of Luxembourg, king of Bohemia, so it is definitely not the question of people inhabiting the territory of the partitioned Poland? According to the views of TheOther they should undoubtedly be seen as Germans by the census. Yet the reportage of 1996 on the Polish TV showed a significant proportion of them speaking surprisingly fluent Polish with strong American accent to this very day (the rest lost their Polish through mixed marriages with Americans).

I couldn't have believed it, had I not seen those typical American farmers or breeders with my own eyes on TV talking about themselves as Polish Americans either in a little old-fashioned Polish or in Amercan English. Not a word of German language in their talk, and the letters of their 19th century ancestors written in Polish. Who were they for the Americans: Polish or German?

Love / What are the best love poems in Polish to receive? [77]

Mów do mnie jeszcze... Ludzie nas nie słyszą,
słowa twe dziwnie poją i kołyszą,
jak kwiatem, każdym słowem twym się pieszczę
mów do mnie jeszcze...

Travel / Travel from Krakow to Sandomierz [7]

I'm sure there must a bus service from Kraków to Sandomierz. Apart from the castle (only one wing is left, the two other ones were blown up by the Swedes in the 17th century) the Old Town market place is a charming place. The church nearest to the castle (the cathedral, I should think) has a tremendous interior which was under renovation a year ago, definitely worth seeing.

Language / "There will always be a Poland" in Polish [9]


That's along the lines of the well-known English patriotic song "There'll always be an England". I remember it from the "Keeping Up Appearances" ["Co ludzie powiedzą!?" - the title in Polish] series. The setings for this song were not patriotic, though, as everything in this most un-patriotic British TV production ever.


No, no, no! JAKAŚ doesn't sound good in this context. And we don't want it look like a thing from the "Keeping Up Appearances" series, do we?

Language / 'ucha' [23]

Please notice that the contemporary double forms: uszy-ucha or oczy-oka are traces of the old dual number forms in Polish:

jedno ucho - dwie uszy - trzy, cztery etc. ucha;
jedno oko - dwie oczy - trzy, cztery etc. oka.

News / Warsaw Frederic Chopin Airport to close in September [27]

Back to the thread, the PPL claims they should renovate the junction of runways, and as it is the junction, there's no other way to carry on than shutting the airport. I wonder why it is scheduled for September as this is the highest season with even more air traffic than in July or August. It might well be in November when the season is low.

What would be interesting to know is how the problem of renovating the junction of runways is solved in other one-airport towns where there's no possibility to re-direct flights to another airport in the same town.

News / Warsaw Frederic Chopin Airport to close in September [27]


You've ignored what I explained: it's the renovation of the junction of the two existing runways.

Language / Declension of town names in prepositional phrases in Polish [22]

Here are some tricky town names for Muciswriter to decline in the locative case:

A street in Limanowa (ulica w ....................).
A house in Włoszczowa (dom we ....................).
A church in Ostrów Wielkopolski (kościół w .......................).
A church in Ostrów Mazowiecka (kościół w .......................).
A palace in Wrocław (pałac we .........................).

For checking and comment by Derevon (who in my opinion is really good at the declension of name endings).

Language / Declension of town names in prepositional phrases in Polish [22]



Though it is easy, you may have noticed that Wrocław does not fit the rule you indicate; the name of the city ends in -w, so it should decline: we Wrocławie, but it doesn't. Any thoughts on that?

[Very few of the native speakers of Polish will tell you the explanation for it, but they are, of course, welcome to do it.]

Language / Declension of town names in prepositional phrases in Polish [22]

I am truly amazed at your ability to conceive the right answer without having prior knowledge of the history of the language. Indeed, the final -w in Wrocław was pronounced as a soft w until the end of the 18-th century (the soft w, for example, still exists in Russian to this day). Hence, the ending in "Wrocław' / we Wrocławiu", just the same as in "Toruń / w Toruniu".

Language / Declension of town names in prepositional phrases in Polish [22]


It did. But what I am trying to tell there is that the Polish name of the city in the 18th century was the same as today, only the final w in it was pronounced softly of which the traces remain in the declension of the name.


The PWN Dictionary of Polish (Słownik poprawnej polszczyzny PWN) of 1973 and 1981 by Witold Doroszewski as well as "Poradnik językowy. Podręcznik dla pracowników prasy, radia i telewizji" of 1969 recommended the forms: do Włoszczowej, we Włoszczowej (adjectival type, like in: w Istebnej, w Limanowej, w Kolbuszowej). It was later decided in the official "Wykaz urzędowych nazw miejscowości w Polsce (vol. 1-3)" of 1982 that the name should be declined according to the noun type of declention (like in: w Kudowie, w Jabłonnie, we Wschowie). The latter is in agreement with the pattern of declention being used locally, so it should indeed be:

do Włoszczowy, we Włoszczowie;

though quite a number of people in Poland (me included) are still used to the former, adjectival pattern of its declension.

Law / CAN SOME ONE GIVE ME FREE POLISH LEGAL ADVICE ON BANKRUPTCY? [22]

I strongly doubt if he may go to jail for not paying 3,000 zl of debt! A bill on consumer (individual) bankruptcy was passed not so long ago in Poland, but I am not able to give you any details on that (please search the internet in Polish).

His real problem may be alcohol depedency rather than the 3,000 zloties he owns someone. But you say he has stopped drinking, so let's assume you are well informed on that.

Language / Jestem za [11]


Indeed, we often use it in Poland. Lech Wałęsa had even gone to the extremes with this expression telling people who wanted his support: Jestem za, a nawet przeciw! I hope you can figure out what he meant (many, me included, could not!).

Language / Jestem za [11]

"Polak, Węgier, dwa bratanki
i do szabli i do szklanki"

When I was in Budapest in 1980s, a number of Hungarian people were able to say it in Polish to me. Unfortunately, I was not able to reciprocate the verse in Hungarian.

Language / Polish words difficult to translate into English [66]

Loser is often nieudacznik in Polish.

Language / Polish words difficult to translate into English [66]

Ha, ha, przegraniec is excellent, perfectly matching the English "loser", except that it is not used much, well, I've never heard it myself.

Gołodupiec is immediately associated with someone without money or goods, so he is certainly a loser, but the first meaning is a "person without resources".

Genealogy / William Alexander, 1850, Krunicza, Prussia, Poland [11]

Given the exact date of his birthday and the territory, the case is not hopeless. The crucial thing should be identifying the correct name of the village Krunicza.

What comes to my mind now is "Kruszwica" for Krunicza. Is the spelling of Krunicza in the record with the exact "cz" in it?

Genealogy / William Alexander, 1850, Krunicza, Prussia, Poland [11]


Krynica is what comes to mind, indeed. But if we stick closely to what was indicated as the territory of his birth, neither of the towns/villages of Krynica shown in the given Wiki link matches this except one. If the territory was described as "Prussia, Poland", we should only cover those Polish lands grabbed by the Kngdom of Prussia in the partitions of Poland in 1772, 1793 and 1795 which in 1850 still belonged to Prussia. These are: Grand Dutchy of Poznań, almost the entire province of West Prussia, and the land of Warmia on the territory of East Prussia. This only exception mentioned is the now resort village of Krynica Morska (taken over by Prussia in 1772), but I doubt if anyone originating from there would have been associating "Poland" to "Prussia" in reference to this town, as it had never been ethnically Polish until the end of WWII.

Language / Gospodarzu, dostanę u was trochę jaj? [14]

It really depends on the type of the yokel and the type of the speaker. My mother would use the latter, my mother-in-law would undoubtedly use the former. The former implies a greater dose of "assumed" familiarity; it is quite nice and quite traditional, but it is becoming less common in my view.

Language / Gospodarzu, dostanę u was trochę jaj? [14]


It may well be:
Dzień dobry. Gospodorzu, a dyć macie jajków na zbyciu?

Genealogy / Seeking Czarniecki family members and ancestors from Lublin, also Margiewicz, Danilowicz and Andrulewicz [77]


What's wrong in Mickiewicz having a Jewish mother? Which Polish people do not like to hear it? Being Polish, I can see nothing strange in it, and I'm also pleased to hear about it; although no more or less pleased than if he had a Polish, North American or Zimbabwean mother.

Genealogy / Seeking Czarniecki family members and ancestors from Lublin, also Margiewicz, Danilowicz and Andrulewicz [77]


It is because Jews were omnipresent in Poland and in Polish culture

Back to Adam Mickiewicz, I strongly doubt that if he had Jewish ancestors, the fact could have been effectively hidden from the public. He is simply too great an icon in Poland, so too many scholars would have been interested to uncover the truth. Hiding such a fact would have only been possible when all Polish scholars were anti-semitic, this in turn being possible only if all Polish people were antisemitic, too, As such a thesis seems extremely absurd, perhaps even in the eyes of the most anti-Polish visitors to the PF forums, a possible explanation is that it is a kind of a myth cherished by some. And indeed, the title of the reference given by the other poster may explain it all:


"Cultural Mythology" is a crucial expression here. So, if "allegedly, when one scholar tried to write indepth about this, she was blocked by a certain sector of the Polish academia" just because the scholar may have been obsessed with an idea that could be easily dismissed on scientific grounds.

Language / Polish was chosen the HARDEST LANGUAGE in the world to learn... :D [1558]

The nature of your question shows that you are a very advanced learner (or may I call you 'very advanced user"?) of Polish indeed. I'm sure you can do it yourself, only bearing in mind that you will have to distiguish between groups of people of same sex versus mixed groups/groups of minors.

Language / Polish was chosen the HARDEST LANGUAGE in the world to learn... :D [1558]


Calm down, mate, calm down (and don't write everything in bold, what you'll write in normal letters will be perfectly visible)! I suggested to Fuzzy to translate the stuff himself as trying to do it on your own is better than simply reading what someone else has written.

"Five ears" would be pięcioro uszu, just as "two ears" would be "dwoje uszu", in the anatomical sense (human or animal ears). In the plural without any accompanying numeral it will be "uszy" as, for example, in the sentence "miej oczy i uszy otwarte". When we talk of ucho in the sense of the handle of a bag, it is: jedno ucho, dwa ucha, trzy ucha, cztery ucha, pięć/sześć/siedem etc. uch/usz/uszów.

Language / Polish was chosen the HARDEST LANGUAGE in the world to learn... :D [1558]


Actually, it did.


I do assume you already know how to do it. That's why I wrote you should answer your question yourself.


What you are writing here is just too personal, so I'm not going to answer it. If you want to discuss such personal matters, I suggest that you turn to other members of this forum who would be eager to discuss these things with you. There are several threads on "Polish girls" and reading them and interfering with them could probably turn you on.

All in all, I understand you do not wish any comments from me on your Polish. Agreed, I promise I will never again intervene with your language questions or views regarding the Polish language.

Language / Polish was chosen the HARDEST LANGUAGE in the world to learn... :D [1558]


I am Polish, I was born in Poland, my native tongue is Polish and I've always lived in Poland except for the six month in the 1980s when I lived in the UK totally immersed in an native-English speaking environment; it why my Polish is probably better than yours, but I've never said yours might not be as good as mine or better.

FUZZYWICKETS

As I promised, I am not going to respond to any of your posts relating to langage any more, so please do not bother to engage me into any discussion on that, as you did in your last post (number 664).

I am not going to change my style of writing. If you don't like it, please do not read my messages. English is not my native language, I've been learning it mostly by myself, so my style may seem irritating to some.

I've never been calling ayone names on this forum, so I am not going to follow your example and address you by names such as "Yoda of something" or "pompadour", adding to it stuff like "boo hoo hoo" and "OOOHHH".

If you are going to "call me out on my tone of writing every time" I post, I'm going to quote what you've written towards me in post nr 662 every time you will call me out:


to show people you are rude enough to go into such personal insults at the same time critisizing someone else's "tone" of writing.

If you are a citizen of the world, you should observe rules of behaviour that are universal to people in Europe, America, Asia, Africa and Australia.

If you are only a frustrated American of the United States, you should read Rule 8 of this American Forum's "Rules and Code of Conduct" which is:

if, from the moderators perspective, the intention of the poster is to ridicule another poster, the offensive post may be removed without warning and the poster may be suspended,

since from now on I am going to report to moderators all your posts attempting to ridicule me, as threatened in your post 664, as posts violating Rule 8 of the Code of Conduct.

Language / Polish was chosen the HARDEST LANGUAGE in the world to learn... :D [1558]


I'm afraid that what you say is unfortunately true. You need no Freudian therapist to discover it once you've visited this forum. With a few exceptions, they just cannot hide the feeling of superiority over everything that is Polish, though some of them really try to hide it. If a Polish person seems to be too "intelligent" to them, some of them will just ignore you, some will openly attack you as in the case of FUZZYWICKETS who made such an attack against me (see post 662 of this thread and my reply to it in post 668). I sometimes have the impression that those who stay in Poland for longer because of business are simply some "exiled" persons who, as ancient employees of "East Indian Company" in India, just long for good old "England" or "Scotland" or "America" or whatever.

The PolishForums.com, despite the true effort of its founders, seem to deter people who would have to say "something" and attract more and more people who have no other interests than Polish girls or who endlessly raise the point of how "stupid" the Polish language is.

News / Polish President Lech Kaczynski and gov officials die in a plane crash in Russia [686]


The Kremlin, that is Prime Minister Putin, met his Polish counterpart in Katyń a few days earlier. On that day it was the official Polish-Russian celebration of the tragedy of Katyń. Today's celebrations were meant as entirely "Polish" event, so the presence of any Kremlin officials were not envisaged at all. The Polish central bank governor Sławomir Skrzypek was just among the many Polish representatives for these celebrations.