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Which language is easier for Poles?


grubas 12 | 1,384
8 Aug 2011 #31
Maybe I can't write in Czech.And yes, Czech does sound funny to me but I don't lough AT them,I lough WITH them.
Seanus 15 | 19,674
8 Aug 2011 #32
Lough? Krk is Krakow's airport probably. Known to Poles :)

Yup, Czechs know Polish better than the other way around. The Poles are not that strong generally when it comes to other Slavic languages.
grubas 12 | 1,384
8 Aug 2011 #33
Lough?

Laugh.Happy now?
Ironside 53 | 12,363
8 Aug 2011 #34
1. Silesian
?. Wendish
2. Slovak
8. Kasubian
4. Ukrainian
3. Belarusian
7. Czech
6. Russian

f stop 25 | 2,507
8 Aug 2011 #35
Ukrainian. Seems closest. And they have a sweet way of pronouncing their l/ł's.
Oh, wait, did I say sweet? I meant the most attrocious.
Nathan 18 | 1,349
8 Aug 2011 #36
Oh, wait, did I say sweet? I meant the most attrocious.

Interesting :) I couldn't ever understand why in Polish one uses £ if there is W. For instance:
£opata sounds like Wopata. You either have L or W - why mix their sounds up? ;)
shinga
8 Aug 2011 #37
You're thinking in English, Nathan. In Polish "w" is always pronounced as English "v", so writing wopata would make no sense.
Seanus 15 | 19,674
8 Aug 2011 #38
Nathan, do you pronounce £ as L? I know that Poles based in Lithuania pronounce it that way. She kept saying ladny instead of ładny. It's this way in the east of Poland too, I think.
plgrl
8 Aug 2011 #39
do you pronounce £ as L?

it's called "dark L"
Nathan 18 | 1,349
8 Aug 2011 #40
You're thinking in English, Nathan.

Actually, this is Ukrainian thinking ;) We have sounds similar to L and V, but not £, which for me (I am not a linguist) is a mixture of two or even better to English W.

Nathan, do you pronounce £ as L?

I try to pronounce it correctly, but it sounds a bit funny to me, as if I am not able to pronounce "L".

She kept saying ladny instead of ładny

You know, Seanus, when I read this, I realized that is exactly how I say it :)
dr_rabbit 5 | 90
8 Aug 2011 #41
Slavic languages are mutually intelligible if both sides put an effort.You see it all the time when there is interest

I really think this is the key. My Polish is still rather basic but I enjoy watching Czech and Russian (and even Serbian) films to pick up the similarities. It makes me think about the language system and rules, and then you realise that a lot of the differences are systematic and a lot of Czech and Russian is highly intelligible. My wife often doesn't need to subtitles, and thats mostly just familiarity rather than systematic learning.
southern 74 | 7,074
8 Aug 2011 #42
I am sure that Poles in Czeszyn and Czechs in Cesky Tesin communicate without dictionary.Western Ukrainians virtually understand polish for example the ones doing business in the borders.
Lyzko
8 Aug 2011 #43
Spoke a little bit of Polish to a Ukrainian woman who was visiting New York the other day and she understood everything I said, yet couldn't respond in Polish. I understood her Ukrainian, yet was equally tongue-tied to say anything back in Ukrainian. She said she was from Kh'iiv, by the way-:)


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