English borrowings in Polish

Hi! I'm writing a research paper on Poles' attitudes towards English borrowings. For that I'm planning to conduct a little survey/ a questionnaire and that's why I'm looking for a Polish text that would contain loooots of Anglicisms. Does any one of you know of anything like that? Thx in advance! :) Gośka

Hi Goska,

I think you need to buy a Polish newspaper publised in Chicago and you'll notice a lot of strange Polish/English words ;).

I have no access to Chicago papers, I'm affraid :( G.

Try the Polish News of Chicago (in Polish language version) at polishdailynews.com

Agnieszka Otwinowska-Kasztelanic had two books published as spin-offs of her Ph.D. thesis on English borrowings in the language of Polish youth. Ever heard of her?

Sure I have! (my BA was on borrowing :) ). I'm just about to lay my hands on them - again - and maybe I'll make use of her questionnaire. I was hoping though that maybe there exists something like a Polish text with English borrowings written specially with the intention of including in it as many borrowings as possible. Thx anyway! G.

I know a couple of them ;):

samochod (auto) - "kara"
dociekac - "inwestigowac"

Can anyone help me? I bought what I thought was a Polish Christmas ornament - it says Wesotych Swiat. Is this a Polish saying?

- it means: "Merry Christmas"

doga ("dog") - psa

How about "brejka" ("break"), like in this sentence:

"masz teraz brejka?" - "do you have a break now?"

Could you send me more borrowings from american to polish language for example "break" - brejka becauce i'm writhing about this and I will be very appreciate .

Not sure if it's from the English language but my friends say "On hajtnal sie" which means "He got married" (in this case "hajtnal sie" means "got married").

Also "szyfta" (zmiana) - from the English "shift" like "work shift".

Yep, and what about polish to english? Kielbasa and pierogi only?

If you come from the airport in Warsaw and drive in towards the town centre, you will see loads of bill boards with advertisements for cars ect. It is interesting to see how the Polish people have so successfully destroyed their language since the fall of Communism. Why does someone need to do a BA or Phd to see the corruption in the language? There is no 'przepraszam' only the English word 'sorry'-very, very strange. I wonder what the reaction would be in Guildford if I go in to shops and say 'przepraszam'!! There is the English word 'marketing' and 'leasing', I am sure that I could think of hundreds of other examples if I had the time to think about it. After all I speak very good English-ja jestem nativespeakerem!!!!!! The Poles never had much pride in their language or culture.

I wouldn't call it corruption, I would say it's foreign companies investing in Poland and advertising in English.
Poland is very proud of their culture in the US. There are many older Polish people who came here at the turn of the century, many cities are named after Poland, there's a Krakow, Warszawa, Poland, Pulaski etc. just to name a few.

The US has sister cities in Poland and each year many towns celebrate Polish Fests, Polish masses, etc. In my town alone there is a Koziczkowski Park and a Pulaski Park. We have Polish dance groups and singers, and a Polish Newspaper company.

Many Poles felt homesick when leaving their country but their traditions and culture is going strong in the US.

The fact is, the Polish Language must adapt its languages to embrace new needs-otherwise it will end up like Latin and it will not be able to adjust to new technology and social needs. There is an institute in France, of course, which tries to see that the French Language is kept pure. Maybe Poland will have to do more on the same lines. Polish dance groups and singing is very nice but the decay in the Polish Language is seen everywhere in Poland now. First generation emigrees will have lubs ect but it is the third and fourth generations that go their own way-and I suppose that it is natural for them to do so. There used to be a thriving community of Polish in Sheffield but their club now looks very sad indeed. Not a word of Polish is spoken, if fact out of all the drinkers there now I doubt if one could even point out on a map where Poland is! When you have time , watch a programme like to M jak Milosc! The English words that have come in to the language 'casting' is just one that springs to mind.

Okay, so there is too much English in Polish nowadays. Surely the majority of people read these words found in computer games (for example) as if they are Polish words, but languages will change. Almost half of English is borrowed French, pronounced wrongly.

The only English word that has come from Polish, I think, was 'horde', and that was originally a Turkish anyway. I had always thought kiosk was Polish, but that was Turkish as well.

You could look at the London Polish magazine, 'Cooltura' .

A Russian translator friend commented all the strange Polish/English words

I love this one: "antycypowac" :D instead of przewidywac...
For football: offside, "korner", "koucz"

Hi!

I'm writing my BA paper on borrowing "english expressions in everyday Polish" .So i wonder if you guys could be any help to me, if so, please send me some useful materials to marseb@o2.pl. It's very important to me so i would appreciate it greatly, thanx p.s. sorry for any mistakes :P

Are you joking?

jointki - spliff

as in 'im just rolling a maly jointki'

I've heard 'sorki'


You might find it a bit more common than you think. Lots of whiter kids in Black areas use Jamacian patois phrases (for example) and only a few years ago half the kids in UK were talking about "barbies this arvo" and "chundering" because of Australian soap operas. At one time a lot of British soldiers used German based words in their language because they'd been in Germany.


Sorry, but that is typical Polish self-flagellation. You seem to have an idea that no other country has that. Every foreigner seems to think that every british schoolkid is taught keats, Milton, Chaucer and Shakespeare in the cradle. Nope, we all thought it was boring too, just like Polish kids being force-fed Sienkiewicz and Mickiewicz at school think it's boring.

But watch when a local theatre does a crap version of Słowacki, Mickiewicz, or something like Wesele, and the theatres will be full. How many films have been made recently based on old classics (Ogniem i Mieczem, Pan Tadeusz etc) and have been very successful?

How often are visitors reminded Sienkiewicz won a nobel, or that Czesław Miłosz or Kapuścinski were internationally famous writers, or that Conrad (OK, he was writing in English) was the first major novelist of the 20th century?

No, he just thick. Some people are so stupid they cannot even begin to comprehend what that are saying.

Its just been proven that those less tolerant of other nationalities are less intelligent than average.

Just to interject,

Maybe the fact that British schoolkids find Chaucer et al. boring and so forth, much less know the slightest about Gilbert & Sullivan, indicates are far deeper and more disturbing malaise worldwide: Culture is associated with bare minimum income, even, (horrors!!) with a hint of homosexuality, the opposite of the tough, cool male rake of 007-fame.

Lack of pride in things of cultural value is an international phenomenon, not just European breast beating. Asian kids, especially Japanese, now laugh at their Samurai past and bare even have heard the names Mishima, Kurasawa, Ozu etc...

There's a general coarsening of society, fallout from which is evident in our love affair with military might vs. human empathy, infinitely less "costly", yet infinitely more rewarding.

A good point. Mind you, as far as Chaucer and Shakespeare are concerned, most British kids can't understand modern English, let alone Middle English or 17th century English.

Shame, cos Chaucer's pretty racey!

And the Bard too often spoke " o' cuntry matt'rs, standin' on the prick of time....."

Too bad more Shakespeare teachers don't teach the racey part. That'd get those bored British brats interested sure:-))

Exactly. For me what bored me was all these teachers ranting on about how great some writers were but not actually being able to show us how and why.

I remember one guy ramming it down our necks how Dylan Thomas was so great but I couldn't see it the way he preached. A few years later....

......same with singing to the praises of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe to a bunch of inner city Turks from Marzahn or the wonders of Walt Whitman and Emily Dickenson to Chicago crack addicts etc.. IT JUST AIN'T GONNA WORK!

Education starts at home....NOT at school:-)