@Poland100 I'm afraid kontra is not used like that in Polish. With Ela and śnieg it's getting even more confusing. From what I have seen it's like a list of expenses (probably) understandable to the person who wrote it but not necessarilly to everyone.
It's weird. Polish is the only Slavic language (I think) that doesn't use wy (second person plural) as a polite form in the singular. I've heard it's sometimes used or even common in Eastern dialects but I can't say I've ever heard it.
In the PRL it was routinely used in the civil service, police (and I assume military) and of course among party members.
What's also unusual (not related to the PRL AFAIK) is the mixing of forms, that is using pan/pani with second person verbs, like "Co pan robisz?" or "Co pan robicie?"
I've also heard of using third person plural forms as a form of respect, a co-worker told me of an acquaintance who sometimes says things like "Ojciec kupili" (My father bought (it))
Yeah I find the Polish polite forms interesting. In Bulgaria it's very rarely used in restaurants (Will the mister/miss want sth?) and usually it's used with irony or when addressing little children (Will the little mister want ice scream?). The standard for polite addressing is plural "Do you (pl) want?" Of course many workers in shops now use the "ty" forms to sound informal and thus supposedly friendlier. If I go to PL maybe I will feel like ppl are acting like I'm a child ;)
@mafketis I think it was used in certain dialects -perhaps still is-not necessarilly Eastern ones. There's this funny article about the Silesian dialect about three boys from the same neighbourhood that I can't find right know. But the whole point was to show the differences within the dialect like calling grandma babcia, oma and starka but also addressing their grandparents. I can't remember the exact examples but it was something like:
Polish is the only Slavic language (I think) that doesn't use wy
Russian uses 'wy' as a polite form of addressing another person much more than Polish and it is in standard Russian and not only dialects - focus mafketis, focus
heh I should now say gumishu focus, focus man - I entirely misread your post mafketis - sorry
I might be wrong but I sting the first two are both commonly used in standard Polish (often by the same person to the same babcia...)
The use of a common noun as a form of address goes beyond Pan Pani of course. I got funny looks once years ago when I was introduced to a priest (I was visiting a friend when kolęda happened) and I used Pan rather than ksiądz with him.
A friend in healthcare says some (mainly older) patients use Siostra to nurses (I tend to use Pani) And of course its very common in families. Interestingly when that happens a common pattern in Polish (and in some other cultures) is to address the person from the point of view of the youngest member of the family - so an elderly man might call his wife 'babcia' (from the point of view of their grandchildren rather than from his point of view as her husband).
Thanks. Yes, but I can not make it to "wysiadły", the written text does not really support it as I see it. But, both "Karolyfery and "wyzucenia" are misspelled so maybe it makes sense in a wrong way.
Could you please help me with the translation of this 18th-century sentence?
Cięzko a raczey niepodobna zapęd zułci i passyi wstrzymać. Co zas w istocie te dwa szczęscia, choc mowic nieszczęscia są nadto z sobą spoione by medium znaleść iakby ie rozłączyć.
Which book does this quotation come from? It would be best to translate it into modern Polish first before translating it to English.
The word 'żułć' (moderrn form is' żółć) means something like 'złość, nienawiść' here. The word 'medium' means 'sposób'. Here is my translation into modern Polish:
Ciężko, a wręcz niepodobna, skłonność [pęd] do nienawiści i pasji [miłości] powstrzymać. Te dwa szczęścia, a raczej nieszczęścia, są tak ze sobą spojone, że nie ma sposobu by je rozłączyć.
In other words, the author says that hate and love are the two sides of the same coin and if a person is inclined to follow one path, they will be equally inclined to follow the other as well.
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