Language / The meaning of some Polish Diminutives [23]

Nice work. You're almost completely right.
But as I mentioned you can easily create a diminutive of your choice with every word and every degree of tenderness, but beware - some of them will sound idiotically and not used at all - but quite well intelligible by your listener. And this is a case of: ptaś.

And the verbs... I have been looking in my memory any verb to have diminutive and I have failed. Your artificially created forms płakuniać, płakuńciać, płakusiać are however quite cute and maybe used in some family language when talking to a baby.

The same case is with comparative - they have no dictionary entries for diminutives, but I understand your prędziusiej and I'm almost sure I have heard it talked to a baby.

And once again about meanings: diminutive (with no matter which ending) means in most cases lesser scale or intensity but also tenderness.

And with the scale, yes you;re right - if you're adding more one more diminutive it makes the word even smaller, so pies = normal dog, piesek = doggy, pieseczek = small doggy.

Endings -eńki, -śki sounds more tender than other.

And last remark: all these forms aren't declination (or declension) they are effects of word forming i.e. completely new words, but made according to Polish word forming rules and inheriting any phonetic properties of the root word.

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4501]

I know. The world is full of besserwissers (or knowing better), so please show them, if you like the map with geographical localization of persons with last name Furman in Poland - total of 6 193 persons, from whom - unfortunately - only very very few could be of Jewish descent.

Genealogy / Kozlowski / Krzysik in the Korczyna / Krosno or Wapiersk / Lidzbark [18]

KOZ£OWSKI is a male form, while KOZ£OWSKA is exact form for a female in Polish.

Anyway KOZ£OWSKI has origin in a proper noun KOZIO£ or KOZIE£ meaning a billy-goat or a male goat. But it also could be from a toponym: KOZ£ÓW (16 localities) or KOZ£OWA, KOZ£OWO.

It's quite popular name with 34 204 persons with male form & 38 658 female form. Here you have a map with geographical distribution.
And here you have something about localities wiith names Kozłów dir.icm.edu.pl/pl/Slownik_geograficzny/Tom_IV/560 (in Polish).

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4501]


Don't hurry with assessing nationality by name only. My family for example is of Austrian origin with very German family name, but polonized in the middle of Ukraine (what a mockery).

Furman was Polish proper noun for waggoner as early as in 16th century. It was, of course, a German borrowing, but made hundreds years ago, so it gives you NO EVIDENCE of the nationality or religion of the family - or let's better say - an origin of the first guy consequently described with this moniker.

He could be a Pole of Catholic or Lutheran denomination, or German living together with Poles, or Ruthenian (Ukrainian or Belorussian) or even Jew. In Yiddish (a German dialect with Hebrew and Slavic borrowings spoken by majority of Jews in former Poland) a carter was called: furman (from German) or bałaguła (from Ruthenian).

Law / Contracts for IT staff in Poland [12]

Delphiandomine is right in most details but the most important is what is the strategy of your firm, slainte:

1) building a presence in Poland to expand your business here - to catch new contacts, clients, contracts and so on, or

2) just outsource some work to the Isle of Poland for some better terms-of-trade, or

3) start with 1 and see if 2 is possible, or

4) just make some appearances of the globality to be better sold by your company board to even more global company.

So if A=creative payroll, B= contract for specified work, C=self-employed employees, you have:
1 - A
2 - C
3 - A + support of B&C
4 - A (one secretary) + whatever

I hope it can help to develop your strategy ;-)

Law / Contracts for IT staff in Poland [12]


The split you have mentioned is in the case of payroll contract with all that awful SS (ZUS) overhead.

You can however have your workers on:
- contract for specified work with clause of the transfer of author's economic rights (umowa o dzieło z przeniesieniem praw autorskich) - the whole pay is under 50% tax rebate.

- contract for specified work with a self-employed one-man-business - which is possibly the best for you; there is no tax rebate but on the other hand many costs could be deduced by the business owner, moreover new startups has 2-years vacation with 70% reduced SS overhead.

Language / Slovio - the international simplified Slavic language [37]

Slovio could be interesting linguistic experiment - if only the etymology and rules were well founded. However they weren't.

Slavonic languages are only languages. There is so many dramatic differences between nations speaking them. The language similarity does not build any deep unity in this case.

There is almost nothing more. All these small liaisons between Slavonic nations are due to the neighborhood not to the common ancestry.

There are no Slavs. It isn't a race nor DNA-based group. There is no common history. There is no common civilization. You rather have here 3 or 4 civilizations fighting for these people: Western, Eastern, Muscovian and Muslim.

In terms of civilizations: Slovenians are closer to Lombards than Sicilians are - and by no means close to remote Russians, Croats are closer to Abruzzians, Slovaks are closer to Hungarians, Czech to Germans, most Poland to Germans.

Panslavism is stupid because it ignores the reality.

Language / The meaning of some Polish Diminutives [23]


You're taking it from wrong side. All these endings are to make diminutive without any difference in meaning but in degree.

Polish diminutives (zdrobnienia) have different roles in itself - the same as in English - but in English you have so small choice of wordings here.

It can mean smallness, lightness, tenderness and of course by contrariness - so popular both in English and Polish - toughness, and extreme hugeness.

And the endings. The whole mess about it is due to medieval history of Polish language. There were 2 small semivowels which was lost. They are called yers - soft one and hard one.

They are responsible for all these confusions with declination of piesek (doggy): pieska, pieskowi, pieska, pieskiem, piesku.

All the rest is a plentifulness of tenderness:
0) pies, kamień, Jan | kura, gazeta, Anna
1) -k: piesek, kamyk, Janek | -ka: kurka, gazetka, Anka
2) -cz-k: pieseczek, kamyczek, Janeczek | -cz-ka: kureczka, gazeteczka, Aneczka
and so on...

And all these not only with nouns but also with adjectives and adverbs:
mały (small): maleńki, maluśki, malusieńki
drobno (finely): drobniutko, drobniuteńko, drobniusieńko

After some training with word formation rules you can easily create a diminutive of your choice with every word and every degree of tenderness, but beware - some of them will sound idiotically and not used at all - but quite well intelligible by your listener.

Language / IS "MURZYN" word RACIST? [686]

Take it easy - it's only etymology.

Let's have a look to another source:

PL: Murzyn, jak czytamy w Etymologicznym słowniku języka polskiego Andrzeja Bańkowskiego, pojawił się w języku polskim w XIV -wiecznych psałterzach, jako przekład z łacińskiego Aethiops (gr. Aitiops), znacząc tyle co ciemnolicy.

EN: Murzyn as we can read in Etymological Dictionary of Polish Language by Andrzej Bańkowski was firstly reported in 14th century in psalters as an equivalent of a Latin word Aethiops (Greek Aitiops) and meaning a dark faced man.

And here you have: Latin mauros (acc. to Mirosława Siuciak) and Greek mavros (acc. to any Greek dictionary) meaning black.

Having in mind that Polish was under very high Latin pressure in medieval and early modern times, the Latin etymology is the most probably one ie. Murzyn means black.

UK, Ireland / Recently beaten up in England by 3 Polish guys [93]


By the way - Fakt is German owned newspaper.

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

OK. So let's look how difficult and complicated is Polish comparing to English.

English CH is pronounced like:
1. cz in Polish, tsch in German, c (before e) in Italian
2. not exact equivalent in Polish, ch in Spanish, c (before i) in Italian
3. ć in Polish
4. sz in Polish, sch in German, and... sh in English
5. k in Polish and all other languages
6. ch in Polish, kh in other languages
Enough?

So try now with an English vowel - may favourite one is I - here you are:
1. aj in Polish, ai in Italian, ei in German
2. i in Polish, i in Italian, i in German
3. something between Polish i and y, sometimes i in German or u umlaut
4. y in Polish

So guys, if you managed to learn all these funny inconsequences in English language (inherited from deep past and different languages: Latin, Anglosaxon, French, Greek, Gaelic), don't worry Polish is boringly predictable.

You just attacking it from the wrong side.

Polish vowels are plain vanilla.
With one exception of o-accented which sounds exactly like u.
Besides of this what you hear is what you write.
And of course always - even in this exception - what you read is what you say.

The case of Ę in word endings (ultima) is slightly exagerated.
It used to be full nasal vowel like IN in French or EN in Portuguese.
However now there is tendency to pronounce it like E proper - you know on the end of the word young guys have no more power to blow through nose.

So you have here:
Word PROSZĘ (I ask/here you are) you can pronounce:
PROSZĘ (full nasality, sounding artifically and rarely listened),
PROSZE' (with reduced nasality, often heard) or
PROSZE (with no nasality at all - very popular).
CHCĘ (I want): CHCĘ, CHCE' (most popular), CHCE, CHCEM (used by louts and of course by some politicians)
CIĘ (you = thee): CIĘ, CIE', CIE - with even more popular reduction of nasality.

But believe me all forms are equally understood - it's a matter of style not of intelligibility.
And you never learn this small differences of still changing language but only through listening native speakers and repeating.

The same with consonants with very few exceptions and some general rules.
Voiced consonants sometimes are becoming voiceless to make the pronunciation easier.

Language / Polish Swear Words [1242]


Thank you for your good word, Gumishu.

So my hypothesis are crap and only you have possessed this deep reaching insight in the past far before the history started, before barbarians of Germanic or Slavonic origin even know how to read. Nice to meet somebody with these skills.

Take it easy - it is only etymology - and with languages with so short history like Germanic and moreover Slavonic - you have only hypotheses out there.

And you are right that Latin hypothesis is funny one - some folk staff but very old one. It was very popular from early modern times together with another explanation for curva meaning corner - you know where all working girls stand.

I can tolerate your German root proposal but only as one more hypothesis - let it be number 3). I have heard about that - but it has no clear phonetic path from Gothic HORS to Slavonic KUREW.

But we have one more and very promising hypothesis:
4) In very old Polish KUR = cock and KUREW = hen
If Polish KUR, English COCK and Latin PETUX mean male gender of chicken,
and if simultaneously all these words mean also penis,
so KUREW could mean also the complement or other part of penis or vagina.

Now we are just close to final association and here you are:
If KOGUT = rooster or penis - is used to call a horny man or a cocksman in slangish,
so KUREW = hen or vagina - could be used to call a whore or a c*nt in slangish.
It is some kind of pars-pro-toto association.

And, hello, Gumishu, suffix -WA sometimes is a transformed female noun form with -EW (it could be the case of kurew) but in the other words it could be a collectiva like in DZIATWA = all the children, GĘSTWA - all the shrub, LITWA - all the Lithuanians, TATARWA - all the Tartars.

UK, Ireland / Brits to protest against foreigners in the workforce, including Poles. [289]


Yes, indeed.
Socialism and nationalism are both collectivisms and statisms.
The former gives an extra authority to the state to fight for lower class at the expense of middle class tax payers - and of course - to decide who is who.

The latter gives the same extra authority to build walls against foreigners at the expense of both foreigners and countrymen.

Moreover special rights for local workers fueled by socialism support or lever discriminatory actions against foreigners.

We should remember that exact name of the Nazi party was Nazional-Sozialistische Deutsche Arbeiter-Partei and that Mussolini was a socialist activist at first.

Life / Lack of Spacial Acuity in Poland [69]

Different culture have different spatial awareness. Private zone in Polich culture is slightly smaller than in UK, but luckily for us - still greater than in Latin American or Arab culture.

Moreover Polish society isn't so monolithic. There are many cultural differences between social classes and regions including private zone or politeness.

But you're right. There are many louts in Polish streets and public spaces.
We can partly blame Soviet era - with scarce buses & trams going with no regard for timetables, with scarce merchandise in shops, attacked by crowds to get anything.

And - of course - bad education.

It could sound pompously posh, but I also hate these loutish crowds but learned how to avoid them. For example I'm not going to malls during peak hours.

Language / Polish Swear Words [1242]

There were question about etymology of the word: kurwa.

There are 2 hypotheses:
1) From Protoslavic (and still used in Poland and many other Slavic languages) word KUR meaning COCK, postfix -WA means collective noun.
Calling a woman kurwa used to suggest that she knows many cocks=males ie. was a prostitute or a lascivious one. (French word COCOTTE has analogical history.)

2) From Latin word CURVA meaning CURVE or ASKEW - suggesting that the way of life of kurwa wasn't so straight - ie. with many curves and bits on the side.

Recently this hypothesis is treated as obsolete popular ad-ideation.