Polish verbs are confusing/I get many results when I look them up in an online dictionary

And vice versa in Polish language .

Monia, I concur to a large degree with what you're saying. Furthermore, as a trained multi-linguist, I'm aware as well of the development of a number of languages in addition to my own, including Polish! The influx of Latin and Greek is indeed enriching in a variety of fields. This is not to say though, that in a language such as Polish, German or Icelandic, using native word stock rather than foreign borrowings does tend to make communication of more complicated material much more transparent to the general public.

Give me just one english word and I will find you several Polish synonyms.

threadbare -

ostentatious -

melifluous -

strict -

I know you said only ONE word, I just wanted to test your theory LOL

I do not take any serious position in this discussion, but - curious as I am - I run your examples through google translate, and back - all works well.

Threadbare:
wyświechtany
banalny
kiepski
oklepany
przechodzony
wyszarzały

ostentatious:

ostentacyjny
okazały
wystawny
huczny
pokazowy

These are just examples, many more are possible depending on the context.
Anyway, Lyzko, as a linguist you are probably very well aware that even if there existed a natural language consisting of 100 words only, the speakers od that language would invent other ways to convey myriads of meanings - it could be through syntax, word order, intonation, suffixes, subtle phoneme changes and so on. The number of words is just one of the factors operating within a language. Just look at the Polish and English verbs, Polish has more verbs but English has more tenses, we need a separate verb where you just use an appropriate tense, these things operate interchangeably between languages.

From my classes in linguistics I seem to remember that all natural languages are equally capable to fully describe the speakers' world, but they obtain this end by different means, so arguing about the number of words is dangerously close to a p*ssing contest.

"-uje się nie kreskuje"
A rhyme used to teach children proper spelling. You don't put 'ó' in the ending -uje of conjugated verbs and similar -uj,-ujesz, -uję. So the correct form is spróbuj even if the infinitive form is "spróbować". Hope you don't mind :)

A youth would even say "suchy" ;-)

What does this sentence? I do not understand. Just try to get to rewrite your article in Polish (Google translate) ????


650,000 in the Oxford English Dictionary alone.


By natives or foreigners?

I think "suchy" isn't used in that context anymore. At least I haven't heard it in 7 or 8 years LOL

Dzięki, Koalu!

As far as the translations of the aforementioned words, I think they'll do quite nicely for the time being.

While no translation is ever "exact", a closest approximation is all that can be hoped for-:) Was recently editing a German translation from German into English and was shocked at the opening blooper, and from an experienced translator no less, many years my senior. She translated an article about certain tribes in Southeast Asia as 'half-sendentary'! Even though English is her mother tongue and has an academic German background similar to my own, she completely missed the obvious 'SEMI-NOMADIC', when referring to tribespeople with no permanent settlement!

Ah, the perilous pitfalls of literal (non-)senseLOL

^^
Surprise, surprise! :-)
seminomadic - 1,420,000 Google entries
semisedentary - 267,000 Google entries
(The results vary - depending on how you spell those words: with hyphen, or as two words)


britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/534141/semisedentary-society

Semi-Sedentary Villages - Baka Pygmies

pygmies.org/baka/villages.asp

In Polish: półosiadły - «niezupełnie osiadły, częściowo koczowniczy».

You attempt to joke is suchy, i.e., "Pozwoliłeś sobie na taki trochę suchy żarcik' ;-)

The German 'halbsesshaft', lit. 'half sedentary' was really the issue with my colleague's translation. A perfect example when going from ANY language to another of the dangers in giving a word-for-word rendering, perhaps especially when languages are closely linked!

Oh, I missed the word "half" by instantaneously substituting it by the word "semi". Now I understand what you mean. Google, however, also shows some references to half-sedentary and "half sedentary", as in

Hmm, I'd have guessed that the Google writer ought to have used 'semi-nomadic'. 'Half-sedentary' is awkward English though, isn't it? I presume you're a native speaker-:)

The meaning of 'sedentary' is 'liking to sit', 'not requiring moving around' etc... A person's job can be sedantary as can the person themselves, though I'd scarcely describe either as 'nomadic':)) lol

One of the meanings, yes. :-)

But "sedentary" also means
- Remaining in one area; not migratory - in reference to animals, especially birds
- A term applied to human groups leading a settled, non-migratory lifestyle.
- Refers to animals or organisms that remain or live in one area. Attached to a surface and not moving freely, such as a barnacle.

I already cited an entry example from Encyclopedia Britannica (post #48).

Google shows 13,000 entries for the phrase "sedentary tribes", and 3000 more for "sedentary tribe", such as
- The second group of Plains Indians (sometimes referred to as Prairie Indians) were the semi-sedentary tribes …
- Nomadic vs. Sedentary Tribes

There are about 700 scholarly references to "sedentary tribes" found on google
- Mental fatigue of Indians of nomadic and sedentary tribes.
- Handbook of the nomads, semi-nomads, semi-sedentary tribes of Syria
- Acculturative stress in nomadic and sedentary tribes of Bihar, India

I saw somewhere a picture of a man on bicycle, and he described himself as nomadic. :-)

In Poland, in Silesia I think, people are likely referred to as either "ptoki" or "krzoki" (birds or bush). That would loosely translate to nomadic vs. sedentary. I am a nomad. :-)

I stand corrected, much obliged Boletus!

Merged:

Polish grammar question

Hi all! Why some verbs look like "rozumiem" (-em) and others end in -ę ("akceptuję")? How do I know the difference (in Czech snd Slovak they all end in -em).

Polish is a strange illogical language
no they don't all end in -em in Czech (for example diekuji, piszi and probably others)

This is the III (or IV according to another classification) conjugation (having verbs like: jem, umiem, śmiem, wiem).

The famous Lech Wałęsa's saying: 'nie chcem, ale muszem' was grossly incorrect (correct forms: chcę, muszę).