Language / Polish or any Slavic language key to any other Slavic languages? [126]


Yes, but it used to have the exact form wrzemię in 13th century. However 100 years later was completely unknown and misinterpreted.

For example in Holy Cross Sermons.
K niemuż gdaż człowiek grzeszny rozpamię[taję grzechy z]stąpi, to czu sam siebie wspomienie, z tajnego sirca [strumienie gor]zkich słez za grzechy wylije i to uznaje, kiegdy sgrzeszył, w kakie wrzemię sgrzeszył, kilkokroć sgrzeszył, którymi grzechy twórca swego na gniew powabił; a jakokoli to grzeszny człowiek uczyni, tako nagle sirce jego jemu doradzi, iżby grzecha ostał, swojich grzechów sirdecznie żałował i [z] świętą cyrekwią dzińsia zawołał: Veni, Domine! et noli tardare; relaxa facinora plebi tue Israel! Toć to i jeść prawda, iże idzie tobie kroi zbawiciel, iżby nas ot wieczne śmirci zbawił.


Funny question. And what is the most Germanic language?

Language / Etymology of pan /pani [18]


But it used to be... Some 1000 years ago.


Nice story. Send a script to Hollywood and they call you.

Pantofel < Germ. Pantoffel < Fr. pantoufle < It. Pantofola < Lingua franca < medieval Greek meaning. whole made of cork.

Nice journey and not be made in pantoffles.

Language / Polish and Hungarian, how similar? [53]


He could mix facts or misinterpret but there were Vlachs in Slovakia and Poland of Romanian origin ie. from Walachia. They migrated in search of new pasturages in late medieval period.

Vlachs (Wołosi in Polish) wandered along Carpatian ridge to former Poland, Hungary and even as far as to Moravia and got place to live, when villages in mountain regions emptied due to climate change and exhaustion of soils. Vlachs were granted with autonomy under the Ius Vlachonicum (Walachian Law, Prawo Wołoskie), professed Orthodox faith and spoke eastern slavonic dialects Ruthenian, which they caught during their long journey, however with many borrowed words from Romanian.

Genealogy / What are common Polish character traits? [417]


What a stupid factoid. I live here for quite a lot years, and lost only old mobile 3 years ago. While when I was on my journey to Spain, I was expropriated the very first day from all my credit cards and some euros.

Poles have this wonderful opinion since 70s in Germany, when there were some gangs there stealing cars with Poles as bosses. By the way the biggest figures were connected with commie secret police or spying agency. But please stop repeating these nonsenses even now. Let's look at some statistics in this field.

What is really shameful, it is the way Police treat theft victims. They are just awfully impertinent and blaming the victim not excusing their inefficiency and incompetence.

Life / Ripped Off in Poland? - Expose here: [185]


Polish service sector never was as good as in USA. Nobody even try to say something like that. In fact American services are widely regarded as the best in the world. So I'm not surprised you're nervous here dealing with shop workers who don't care. I feel your pain. But you are overreacting. I think you should just depart from Poland as soon as possible. Otherwise your allergy on Poland will intoxicate you totally and the forum posters as well.

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


Thanks for the input. I'll be cautious not to address you as murzyn.

Life / Ripped Off in Poland? - Expose here: [185]


Yes, false smile isn't so nice as sincere one - still better than scowl.
However I haven't meant face grimacing but the getting things done attitude. German service workers are stiff. If you're late with something and need extra quick service, you can forget about it in Germany as I remember from printing industry. But it's only my personal observation. I'll be happy to hear what are yours.

Language / Polish or any Slavic language key to any other Slavic languages? [126]


Yes, it was true. There are many borrowings from Low Saxon in Danish, Swedish and Polish, maybe some in English and Flemish. But it was in XII-XIV century and only in limited region.

Polonia / POLISH People IN SPAIN ....... [12]


Erasmus - they refinance your accommodation.
Technical University of Gdansk has exchange programs with Barcelona (beware Catalan), Madrid, Alcala de Henares, Murcia, Granada

History / Is Jozef Pilsudski the king of modern Poles? [138]


Yes, unfortunately, there is no direct evidence. There are only clues and hints: one letter mentioning French refusal of "something", some trails of German counteractions, some memoirs, changing foreign minister from pacifist one to more devoted one, the Ensign Incident in Gdańsk...

Dariusz Baliszewski wrote about it


What does that have to do with anything?
The hypothesis about preventive action is quite plausible. And if you treat seriously diplomacy language it was at least to fly a kite if France wish to stop German remilitarization. The answer was negative and immediately after that new FM Beck started the equal distance policy with Germany and Soviets.

It's not a Michael Moore post-modernistic rubbish goulash or red-green gobbledygook on Man Made Great Global Warming.

History / Life magazine 1.09.39 and sattelite pictures? [3]

Wonderful piece, indeed. Thanks TIT.

It's cartographers work, of course. I've seen this kind of shading the mountains from 30s and you can find some similarity in Austro-Hungarian crosshatching the mountains. But you're right it's excellent artistic quality.

But look! How fascinating it is - even Life guys didn't believe that drole de guerre is possible and the Western front will be the most peaceful place on earth till the spring 1940.

All these bombings expected and never made.

History / The relations: Church and III Reich (Kosciol-NS Niemcy) [16]


The very old RED tune. Boring. Facts please, not factoids. I found a novel from the Stalin times - very long (1000 pages or so) and the language that defends this 'piece of art' from being read. However there were some illustrations: guys in Nazi caps with hakenkreuz shaking hands with ugly mugs in cardinal's hat and patting big fat cigar smoking capitalist, and another with bishop having blood on his hands. Wow, thriller.

Pope never supported Hitler. If you found some facts denying it, please be specific and share with us and don't disseminate memes. If he was very cautious in open attacking Nazis it was to protect laymen from regressive measures. However:

- in 1934 in the Christmas Eve sermon Pope condemned Nazi,
- in 1935 after Nuremberg statutes were imposed Vatican Radio broadcast a plea to pray for persecuted Jews.
- the Pope's encyclical "Mit brennender sorge" read in 11500 parishes in Germany - Goebbels in response noted in his diary "Now priest must learn our order and tenacity".

- 1938 during meeting with pilgrims from Belgium Pope said: "Antisemitism is unacceptable, we are all Semites spiritually".
- in 1938 cardinal Initzer of Vienna said something positive about Nazis and he was immediately forced to correct it publicly.
- in January 1940 Pope made an instruction for Vatican Radio to show horrible excesses of uncivilized tyranny against Jews and Poles . "Jewish Advocate" - newspaper of Boston wrote about this broadcast as an open condemnation of German crimes made by Nazis in Poland stating that they were insulting moral conscience of the mankind.

The fact is that Catholic clergymen and Catholic laymen saved more Jews than any other institution, organization or state. And the clergyman paid the price. Thousands were imprisoned even archbishops and bishops, many died - 20% of Polish clergymen were executed or killed in Konzentrationlagers (in some Western Polish bishoprics more than 50%) and Polish bishops Kozal & Goral died in KZ.

History / Books on the Partitions of Poland? [5]


You can start with:
- Robert Howard Lord's The second partition of Poland: a study in diplomatic, 1915 - I know it, it's good indeed but some remarks on the first partition I disagree.

- Herbert H. Kaplan's The first partition of Poland, 1962 - I haven't read it yet.
- Baron George Shaw-Lefevre Eversley's The partitions of Poland, 1915 - some way old
- Jerzy Lukowski's The partitions of Poland: 1772, 1793, 1795, 1999 - not read

... and then maybe something in Polish.

or feel free to ask for some details here.

History / Books on the Partitions of Poland? [5]


Beware with details from Davies - he's missing and outing some balls in his Playground.

Genealogy / Are there other ways of finding records that exist further back than 1826? [22]

Have you tried with Archwium Główne Akt Dawnych (General Archives of Old Records)?: agad.archiwa.gov.pl

There are some information about parish files form different bishoprics secured in AGAD: agad.archiwa.gov.pl/metodyka/akta_parafii.pdf

And by the way your family name is good noble name, have you tried with any heraldry book?

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


1527, in Actis terrestribus Zamboviensibus. Albertus Perka de Magno Ducatu Lithuaniae scribit se.
1544, in Actis terrestribus Surasensis. Mathias et Georgius filii olim Felicis Golk de Perki scribunt se.

Former Perka, later Perkowski from Perki in Bielsk Land, Podlachia Voyevodship.

Genealogy / If your ancestors were in the "Wehrmacht"... [217]


American have an irritating habit to admonish other nations. Want you to be a World Teacher as you have some troubles with being World Policeman? I'm afraid you need to work on this.

History / The relations: Church and III Reich (Kosciol-NS Niemcy) [16]

So how will it be, Stefanos?
Will you still distribute anticatholic memes and factoids?
Or will you respond or comment to the facts I presented to you in my post?

History / The relations: Church and III Reich (Kosciol-NS Niemcy) [16]


Prove it, please, even slightly.


That's true. Laymen as well as clergymen have their own conscience and political opinions. There were fascist sympathizers, nazi sympathizers, socialism sympathizers, communism sympathizers - and even switching between these mental mistakes. In fact I have no idea how they managed to put it together with Catholicism. But it was their moral problem and intellectual dilemma, not mine.

But to blame the whole organization for some members in minority is a far reaching abuse. Especially when the official statements were unambiguously against that minority. That's my point.

History / The relations: Church and III Reich (Kosciol-NS Niemcy) [16]

I'm not a specialist in this area, so I even won't try to play the wisest.

In Wikipedia I've found:
The existence of Draganović's [Croat Franciscan who created Roman ratline] ratline has been confirmed by a Vatican historian, Fr. Robert Graham: "I've no doubt that Draganović was extremely active in syphoning off his Croatian Ustashe friends." However, Graham insisted that Draganović was not officially sanctioned in this by his superiors: "Just because he's a priest doesn't mean he represents the Vatican. It was his own operation.

I suppose there were some blind eye turning or even unofficial help to escape some figures from the Soviet eye. They knew about the fates of many persons persecuted and falsely accused of Nazi collaboration by Soviets. However I supposed men who - as Draganovic, Hudal - pretended to save only the innocents while providing shelter and escape route for war criminals.

Once again Wiki: The Vatican, which was involved in helping over twelve million refugees and expellees in post-war Europe, was at that point less concerned with the political views of each individual who was participating in the gigantic effort to save millions of people from certain starvation and death. The ratline was possible in the context of the enormity of this task and the resulting general confusion at several levels.

But I'm open to learn more about it.

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


The Borderland regional accent preserved H(voiced)/CH(unvoiced) distinction. I've heard it from my grandfather in HERBATA - CHERLAK. In H the larynx vibrated clearly.

In many Polish words H was borrowed from Czech for example:
HAŃBA (dishonor) was till XIV century GAŃBA in Old Polish.

Polish used to have G where Russian has G and Czech H:
GRÓD - GOROD - HRAD (castle, city)
G£ĘBOKI - G£UBOKIJ - HLUBOKI (deep)
GĘŚ - GUŚ - HUS' (goose)

H is present in borrowings from Czech, Germanic, Greek...

History / Have Poles blood on their hands? :) [496]


It's factoid.
- Not 1,600 but 200-300.
- Not all Poles but dozen or so criminals and hooligans which provoked a tumult and terrorize part of citizens. It was easier to agitate them since just week or less the Soviets from secret police (all of Jewish origin) arrested and deported to Białystok prison some locals accused of anti-proletarian and capitalist attitude (where they probably were executed during the chaos just before Nazis got the town).

- Not alone but under auspices of German special commando which initiated such pogroms in Radziłów, Jedwabne and Wąsosz in the no-man's land after Russian troops and secret police withdrew and before German troops officially took over and before any police order was established.

- Not unpunished but ringleader were charged and convicted.

But with all these exceptions - you're perfectly right!

Genealogy / Bachor surname (from around Zapalow) / Nieckarz [9]


Possibly Nieckarz, Neckarz:

History / Have Poles blood on their hands? :) [496]

Sorry! Just action-reaction syndrome.

Language / Polish and Hungarian, how similar? [53]


There were Hucułs, Bojkos, £emkos and Szlachtowa Ruthenians on the Polish side of Carpatian ridge and Rusnaki on the Hungarian (Slovakian) side.

It was a dialectal continuum from the South-East (more Eastern Slavonic and Rumanian elements) to the West (more Western Slavonic, Hungarian, German elements, while still with East-Slavonic core).

They were always called Rusini/Rusnaki since many of them didn't undergo to Ukrainian national identity. They even preferred to go in closer ties with Moscow and apostate Greek-Orthodox denomination to Moscow Orthodox - only to protect their own way of live.

Language / Polish and Hungarian, how similar? [53]


No sane scientist could say they were speaking Polish dialect. What the ethnologist tried to do was to diminish that very fact and expose other cultural aspects as more important. And some aspects were indeed of Polish or Slovakian origin as the substratum and adstratum of £emko culture.

But there were also some nationalist politicians who wanted to protect £emkos from Ukrainian nationalist propaganda. However what they say, I think, isn't so important scientifically.

2 facts you put together don't fit together. The pretext for expulsion of £emkos was that they give shelter and support to UPA rebels, what wasn't generally true.

It was sad and unjust for £emkos.

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


It's bureaucratic disease. Some kind of fashion or fad. There were no dysortography 20 years ago. It was a trick to make better exam results (as the dyslectics or as you say dysortographers have more time to resolve tests and write essays), so some lazy or unproductive teachers can be proud of better learning effects.

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


Exact spelling Płonka-Strumianka. In 1879 it was in £omża governorate.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C5%82onka-Strumianka

18-100 Płonka-Strumianka, Powiat Białystok, Woj. Podlaskie
maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=pl&geocode=&q=P%C5%82onka-Strumianka&sll=54.385376,18.57051&sspn=0.006598,0.013733&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=P%C5%82onka-Strumianka,+Bia%C5%82ostocki,+Podlaskie,+Polska&ll=53.003628,22.83474&spn=0.109085,0.219727&z =12

Language / Polish Swear Words [1242]

Once again Krawczuk missed the point. If it was from Mur/Mauer, why is it so popular in all Slavonic languages, even in these having no contact with German.

According to Linde (1808) is quite the opposite: murwa is to soften the word (or to replace a taboo word kurwa).
He cited funny proverbs:
Ożenił się kołodziey, pojął murwę sam złodziey. (A wheelwright married one, took a whore while himself a thief.)
Póty murwa miłuie, póki w mieszku czuie. (Whore loves till she sniffs out money).

History / Adam Mickiewicz. What is his motherland: Poland or Lithuania? [93]


Good point! We should say them it's all from Tusk Donald. They'll stop.

The Lithuanian emancipation started in late 1860s just after the failure of the last Polish rebellion (January Insurgence) in which 3,5 'languages' fought together against Muscovy. They were all Lithuanians but spoke 3 or 4 languages: Polish, Lithuanian, White-Ruthenian and few Yiddish. Lithuanian speakers had simply enough. They started to develop his own national identity. They even resigned from Polish alphabet to write his language and borrowed New-Czech one. Polish society was baffled and counterattacked stating it's a treason against common Homeland. Treason breeds treason and new Lithuanian irredenta started to make public happenings bringing before the tribunal of the Lithuanian people the old traitor Jogaila (king Władysław II Jagiełło).