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Why is the Polish language so difficult?


Novichok  5 | 8251
9 Jun 2024   #271
learn to trust one another..

Trusting people die first.
Lyzko  41 | 9657
9 Jun 2024   #272
My, my. If all of us were such cynics, nothing would ever have gotten done.
Better to die innocent than live forever in a perpetual state of rancor.
Novichok  5 | 8251
9 Jun 2024   #273
Nature gave us and every other living creature the Instinct of self-preservation for a reason.
Trusting is the last resort when nothing else is available. Google "ER" if you need help.

Can I borrow 10 grand from you, Lyzko? I promise to pay it back in a year plus 20% interest.

No? What the fvck is the matter with you? Did you just turn into a cynic like that disgusting Novi? You should stop reading his posts...He is a nogoodnik...
Lyzko  41 | 9657
9 Jun 2024   #274
:-) Nice one.
gumishu  15 | 6193
10 Jun 2024   #275
Pol: "są" = "sont": pure coincidence since no explanatio

Polish "są" and French "sont" come from the same source (in ProtoIndoEuropean)
mafketis  38 | 11091
10 Jun 2024   #276
Along with German sind and Spanish son, Portuguese sao and probably others.

fun fact: the very weird present tense of być in Polish (with the combinations of jest and personal endings which are reduced forms of an older version of the verb być) was unsettled and forms like sąśmy used to occur. Personally I rather like sąśmy and sąście and wish they had taken hold....
gumishu  15 | 6193
10 Jun 2024   #277
Personally I rather like sąśmy and sąście and wish they had taken hold..

Silesians and Highlanders still say "my som" instead of "jesteśmy"
mafketis  38 | 11091
10 Jun 2024   #278
instead of "jesteśmy"

There was an album by Piersi called "My już są Amerykany" I've also heard 'my byli' sometimes while I've never heard 'wy byli' that I remember.... I've read that might happen because -śmy contains 'my'
Lyzko  41 | 9657
10 Jun 2024   #279
Goral language and Polish seems nearly as different from the other
as Sicilian and Standard Italian.
jon357  73 | 23223
10 Jun 2024   #280
It was only in the 60s that even half of the Italians spoke in 'standard' Italian (basically Tuscan dialect) at home.

It's refreshing that Górale has remained strong rather than morphed into the rather bland standard Polish. Local dialects and accents aren't cherished in PL.
gumishu  15 | 6193
10 Jun 2024   #281
Local dialects and accents aren't cherished in PL.

Górale dialect is very much cherished in Poland since the earliest times I'm aware of (late Gierek)
Lyzko  41 | 9657
10 Jun 2024   #282
You're right about that, jon.
Recently finished a lengthy piece about modern Italy post-'45
and apparently even by the mid-'60's, in major cities, except for
the professional classes, the majority of Italians, especially
Southern Italian men, couldn't read or write.
mafketis  38 | 11091
11 Jun 2024   #283
Górale dialect is very much cherished in Poland

How much of that is tourism driven? Funny mountain talk is part of the local tourist experience and no one wants to go there and hear them talking like anyone else (though many of them can when they want to).

To me the paralingujistic features (intonantion esp) sound very much like Slovak though I'm told the vocabulary isn't really close...
Paulina  16 | 4338
11 Jun 2024   #284
Personally I rather like sąśmy and sąście and wish they had taken hold...

"Jesteśmy" is easier to pronounce and "sąśmy" sounds a bit funny/outdated, imho.

How much of that is tourism driven?

What do you mean?
gumishu  15 | 6193
11 Jun 2024   #285
"sąśmy"

"my som" is even easier to pronounce ;)

How much of that is tourism driven?

Górale are a stubborn folk and they like sticking to their traditions including their speech - if it was just for a financial incentive I doubt they would retain it
mafketis  38 | 11091
11 Jun 2024   #286
What do you mean?

Just what I wrote... if you go on vacation to the Tatras do you want to hear mountain people talking funny or hear them speaking standard Polish? What fun is that?

It's local color. Maybe not the main reason but.... a contributing factor.
gumishu  15 | 6193
11 Jun 2024   #287
you want to hear mountain people talking funny

Górale speak their dialect every day just like many Silesians do - it's not just for the show
Paulina  16 | 4338
11 Jun 2024   #288
Just what I wrote...

Well, I'm trying to understand what you mean... Do you seriously think that Poles cherish highlander culture and dialect only because they want to have a nice experience as tourists in the mountains? lol

if you go on vacation to the Tatras do you want to hear mountain people talking funny or hear them speaking standard Polish?

Honestly? Personally I don't care... They don't have to use their dialect when talking to me. And it would be easier for me to understand standard Polish anyway.

I'd like them to retain their culture and dialect, but not for "touristy reasons". I'd like them to preserve it, because it's cool and beautiful and part of Polish heritage and what makes Poland more interesting.

It's local color. Maybe not the main reason but.... a contributing factor.

I'm sure the fact that Poles like the culture of Polish highlanders helps them preserve it at least to some extent. Maybe it would be different if people looked down on it.
Paulina  16 | 4338
11 Jun 2024   #289
Górale speak their dialect every day just like many Silesians do - it's not just for the show

Yup, just like their weddings aren't meant for tourists :):





"Hej piykne dziywcyny i śfarne chłopoki" :D
Atch  24 | 4335
12 Jun 2024   #290
Even today you have roomfuls of academics discussing what a mobile phone should be called. ..

It's the same with Irish :) Welcome back Roz, you haven't been here for ages. Hope you're keeping well 🥰
gumishu  15 | 6193
12 Jun 2024   #291
Yup, just like their weddings aren't meant for tourists :):

so you claim they speak literary Polish when no tourists are around? if so please somehow back up this claim
Paulina  16 | 4338
12 Jun 2024   #292
@gumishu, um... no... My comment was actually conveying the opposite... (= I actually agreed with you) o_O Drink some coffee, maybe you didn't wake up yet :P
jon357  73 | 23223
12 Jun 2024   #293
Górale speak their dialect every day just like many Silesians do - it's not just for the show

If your first language is a dialect you keep it but use it to different degrees with different people and according to contexts.

I don't know much about górale, however Ślązacy certainly code switch just as I do in English according to circumstances.
Novichok  5 | 8251
12 Jun 2024   #294
just as I switch to English according to circumstances.

...or Arabic...
jon357  73 | 23223
12 Jun 2024   #295
Arabic

Sometimes
Alien  24 | 5900
12 Jun 2024   #296
@jon357
Allahu akbar?
jon357  73 | 23223
12 Jun 2024   #297
No more or less than the same sort of thing in Polish or English.
Lyzko  41 | 9657
12 Jun 2024   #298
Polish is no more difficult than English as difficulty's relative anyhow!
For Poles, English is a nightmare as is Polish for the average Anglophone:-)
Miloslaw  21 | 5132
12 Jun 2024   #299
Polish is no more difficult than English

You really are very funny and very stupid sometimes.....
Yes, English is not straight forward because it breaks the rules all the time and is a mixture of several languages.
Polish has 18 declensions, English has 3.
Go figure!
Lyzko  41 | 9657
12 Jun 2024   #300
Difficulty's relative, as I said.
English orthography and pronunciation are nightmarishly
chaotic, whereas Polish is relatively transparent in that regard.

Poles might not admit it, but English looks easy at first glance
yet grows ever more "difficult" by the tense.

Anglophones struggle with Polish verbal aspects, while
Polonaphones have to contend with English idioms and
spoken vs. written register.

It all evens out in the long run, Milo, like it or not.

English doesn't have declensions, at least Modern English doesn't.


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