What is your biggest problem with Polish language?

It's that damn Polish rolling r.

Like Italian, Spanish, and Bavarian:-)

True.

And Scots, plus West Country English

@Lyzko
@jon357
Are you both talking about second-last syllable?

About rhoticity and the alveolar trill (as in krok) and the alveolar flap (as in który).

@jon357
I found out that Welsh is also a language with the second-last syllable stress. Well, that sort of explains, why I found every song sung in Welsh a bit "off".

Welsh poetic (and lyrical) metrics can be very complicated and unique; that does sometimes lead to a very specific sound.

With Polish, there are also unique issues, specifically about prosody; linguists are split into different camps about how to classify it. I'm in the 'third' camp; the existing terms "syllable timed" and "stress timed" aren't adequate for categorising some languages, including Polish.

Most Polish uninflected nouns are stressed on the first syllable, if I'm not mistaken.

Ok, but can you be more specific about the issue you're talking about?

Polish isochrony. A decades' long debate which is still ongoing.

So, they are basically arguing about, how where the syllable stress should lie, isn't it?
In music, it should be liberal.
@jon357

More about how to classify the language. Stress-timed, syllable-timed or a third, harder to define, category that has aspects of both.


Indeed it should.

Syllable timed - every vowel receives its full value and the time it takes to say a sentence depends on how many syllables there are

Stressed timed - unstressed vowels are severely reduced (or maybe even disappear) and the time it takes to say a sentence depends on the number of _stressed_ syllables there are.

Polish is traditionally syllable timed (with Spanish, Greek, Italian, French) English is stressed timed (along with other Germanic languages)

Sometimes different varieties of the same language differ, European Portuguese is stressed timed and Brazilian more syllable timed, Mexican Spanish is becoming more stress timed (devoicing or eliminating many unstressed syllables).

The harder to define languages have elements of both, maybe because of long and short vowels (Czech, Hungarian) or maybe because vowel reduction occurs wihtout shortening (Russian).

Hence dozens of doctoral theses about Polish isochrony, most of them vehemently disagreeing with each other.

The jury's still out on this one.

At the phonetic level (as in measurable in a lab) there's little to no difference, but perceptually there is.

Compare Polish pronunciation of the name Biden (bajden with two clear vowels) and the American pronunciation [ˈbaɪdn] with a syllable n

english speakers speaking Polish tend to reduce some vowels too much pronouncing Marek as ['marək] instead of ['marek] (for example)

Very much so. The same goes for Polish speakers when speaking English; to a British ear it can sound over-enunciated.

My biggest problem with Polish are those weird words that look made up by old people trying to be cute. Like buziuchna, nozenka - or is it nozeczka - and s**t like this. Real fun when you have been away for a while. How about twarz and noga. Too simple? No kid has ever become a serial killer because he was not exposed to cutetalk.

Therefore, Poles often have a chirping quality to their English speech, partly because of the lack of a schwa [backwards "e" in the IPA] in theír language.

Poles' biggest problem with English is that they speak it only when they absolutely have to and never at home. On top of that, many translate P to E as they speak.

All that sound analysis is pure bull.

It's that, as with many foreigners, Poles think in their native language, but speak in English.

I speak English all the time, at home, because I prefer the sound of it, over Polish.

How then do you communicate successfully with educated English native speakers in a language not your own? Do you catch our irony, double entendre, constant puns?

An addendum, DuszaStracona. How do you know which mistakes you're making? Who corrects your English at home? :-)

It's "ZagubionaDuszyczka", actually. LOL


Ordinarily.


No, because I have Aspergers. I don't catch the Polish irony, either.

I learned something, Thought "zgubiona

Simple. Just listen to the natives and repeat. How do you think kids learn? Studying and dissecting? They have no clue what pronoun means but use them correctly.

That is why the first step upon arrival should be to avoid other immigrants - aka leaving the ghetto. That's what we did. Second step: removed Polish from our lives.


That response was as good as it gets. Like walking and biking.

zgubiony = I can't find it (something physical like your phone or watch)

zagubiony = more metaphoric, someone who has lost their way, a place that can't be found etc

Lost


Lost

How did the US manage to survive all these years without a separate word for zagubiony other than disoriented? Hmm...Maybe it's the context?

Me speaking English
voca.ro/1oWw4uSh3wos
@Lyzko

Hair splitting, but "zgubiony" still sounds odd to my non-native Polish ears.