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De-diacriticalisation of Polish?


Polonius3 994 | 12,367
12 Aug 2012 #1
I notice Polish texters and even e-mailers ignoring Polish accented letters or even upper case ones for the sake of speed and convenience. In the long run -- after one or two more geenrations of this -- could this not lead to the disappearance of Polish diacritics altogether?

What do you thinjk of a reform of Polish orthography. Some say Polish should emualte the Czech and other Slavic models of using the haczyk instead of sz, cz and rz.

Others suggest spelling things phoenticallly: bende jutro o piontej or simply dropping the accents: bede jutro o piatej.
Co o tym sądzicie?
Szlachcic - | 36
12 Aug 2012 #2
They're simply lazy as hell.

Just like those who use English words rather than Polish in daily speech.

I look down upon such individuals!

Our symbols make our language unique, and it must NEVER be changed!

EVER.
Magdalena 3 | 1,837
12 Aug 2012 #3
Jeez. Lazy as hell? Most mobiles don't have diacritical marks, at least not ones you could easily access. Nobody's gonna change the orthography, it's been discussed before by smarter people than us, and it simply wouldn't work. Czechs don't have the sz, cz, rz (which BTW are NOT diacritics) but they have the ě š è ř ž ý á í é ú ů - as much as I love Czech, I couldn't call this an improvement on Polish spelling, diacritics-wise... ;-)
OP Polonius3 994 | 12,367
12 Aug 2012 #4
I agree. a, ć, ę, ń, ł, ó, ś, ź and ż is what makes a text recognisable as Polish. Every language and nation should protect their cultural uniqueness. If I were German, I would have resented the replacement several years ago of the ß (es-zet) in many cases with ss.
Magdalena 3 | 1,837
12 Aug 2012 #5
a, ć, ę, ń, ł, ó, ś, ź and ż is what makes a text recognisable as Polish

That's not the actual function of these marks, though. Their function is to actually MAKE the text intelligible. £aska and laska, lud and lód are just the most obvious examples that spring to mind. You cannot replace them with a system designed for another language precisely because it had been designed for another language. And it would be mind-shatteringly costly in terms of money, education, and national identity to create a completely new system from scratch. So don't worry, Polish spelling definitely isn't going anywhere anytime soon.
Szlachcic - | 36
12 Aug 2012 #6
I agree. a, ć, ę, ń, ł, ó, ś, ź and ż is what makes a text recognisable as Polish.

exactly.

same goes for Slovak and Czech, with their accented long vowels, as oppose to Croatian/Slovenian, etc.

I can easily identify any written Slavic language, whether it be using latin or cyrillic alphabet... even languages like Kaszubski . :))
teflcat 5 | 1,032
12 Aug 2012 #7
And it would be mind-shatteringly costly in terms of money, education, and national identity to create a completely new system from scratch.

I basically agree, but don't forget Ataturk, who did precisely this, and he recreated a nation.
Magdalena 3 | 1,837
12 Aug 2012 #8
"Re-created" is the key word here. He forced the whole nation to change completely - starting with the political system and ending with fashion. Spelling reform (AFAIK, it was more than spelling reform - was it not the introduction of a new script altogether?) would have been just a part of the Turkish National Makeover. I can see how the historical context enabled him to pull it off at that time and place. However, I cannot see this happening in contemporary Poland.
teflcat 5 | 1,032
12 Aug 2012 #9
"Re-created" is the key word here

Recreated is indeed the key word! Yes, he replaced Arabic script with Roman letters, some with diacritics.


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