WISŁA or VISTULA??

Why is it spelled Vistula in English? It's Wisla and not hard to spell or pronounce.

oh yeah...


you tell them!!! lol

because it's from latin?

why in polish we say Londyn instead of London? London isn't hard do pronounce ;)

I think in polish we have far more polish versions of geaografical objects thatn you in english.
Tamiza = Thames
Sekwana = Seine
Dunaj = Danube

It's just the way the English decided to pronounce it.

Praha isn't difficult to pronounce for Poles, so why do Poles call Prague "Praga"? ;) lol

Wrong, it's Wisła! Completely different word!

Anyway, it's just the way it is. Why is Milan (not difficult to say) Mediolan to the Poles? Just is.

Isn't the term "Pekin" still used in Polish too?

Bad example... "H" in the Czech language is the same sound as the "G" in Polish... So the pronunctation of Prague in both languages is similar if not the same...

EDIT:
Ok nevermind me... They're not the same sound :p ,my bad...
though the "H" in Czech is used similarly in words as the "G" in Polish...

no it's not.. Wis£a

So how they read Praha?

Berlin and Chicago stay the same, but Munich and New York change. Is strange :)

How is the proper way of pronouncing Chicago? Szikago or Czikago?

we say "szikago" down south

I think that similar as we with the exception that they read the "H" just as a Ethnic Silesian would spoke our "H". So it's not exactly our "H" but isn't also our "G", I don't think we use such sound in our alphabet.

Anyway... I'm not a linguist and can be wrong on a lot of matters concerning languages. So I corrected myself in my earlier post because I thought that it could be the same sound (as both are close to each other and the Czech use the "H" just as we use "G" in words... Hora - Góra, Praha - Praga, koho/èeho? - kogo/czego? and so on...), but I found out that it's a different sound so I was wrong.

like "gh"?

Yes. Exactly like that.

As well you can ask why Italy=Włochy, Hungary=Węgry, or my personal favorite Niemcy=Germany=Deutschland...

=L'Allemagne

Btw. I see that in England there is used sometimes name Anglia in some institution names. Why's that?

No, not like that at all.

To pronounce it "in Polish", it would have to be written Pracha, not Pragha.

Well in modern Polish, Praha and Pracha would sound the same. But Czech h and ch are very different. The main difference is that h is voiced (llike d, b and g) while ch is unvoiced (like t, p and k).

It's also different from the Ukrainian or Belarussian g (which are like the Greek gamma) or spanish g between vowels.

In summary :

Polish g = voiced velar stop

Ukrainian, Belarussian g = voiced velar fricative (pronounced at the same place in the throat as Polish g but the throat remains open and doesn't close as it does in Polish)

Czech h = voiced glottal (further back in the throat than Polish h or ch) fricative/approximant.

Ok ok guys. You got me :)

szykago

Obaraq for Chicago and Pelosistan for Kaalifornia ;)

Wisła = die Weichsel

Nearly every country nationalizes foreign place names to suit their peculiar pronunciation idiocynracies!

The Dutch used to call the Wisla the Wijsel. But nowadays they use either Weichsel, Vistula or Wisla.

I wonder how Poles would pronounce Tietjerkstradeel or Emmercompascuum.

:)

>^..^<

M-G (tiens)

Tiet-jer-sztra-del?


E-mer-kom-pas-kum?

What's the problem? ;P

What's wrong with Weichsel?

:) actually you would pronounce it like this: Ticzerkstradeel (long e at the end, like in hey; the last S is just a plain S-sound)


Em mer kom pas küum (with the first U as high U like in German Flüstern and the last U as a short e, like in ehm)

Now try to pronounce it :) Really would like to hear you pronounce that high U :)

Edit: now try the following words: verwennerij, verwijdering and tuinarchitekt.

Edit 2: oh and this one is really nasty for non-Dutch: voortschrijdend and zeilzijde :)


Nothing as such, except that it's German - there are also some probs with Warschau instead of Warsaw.

>^..^<

M-G (tiens - there's pasta in the kitchen)

It's easier on the tongue....for me...I think that should count! *pouts*

I said: there's PASTA in the kitchen. Go eat your sadness away.

:)

for Zed Ygrek: schuijne nauwlettendheid schroothoop taaltechnische schaamte rakelt hoedanigheid en hoedanigheden neuzelen negentig nieuwe fietsreuzen :)

>^..^<

M-G (try)

*munches pouting*

;)

Mare,

Scheveningenaar schilders schilderen verschillene Scheveningenaar-:)))

Or let the Dutch tongue attempt

Chrąszcz brzmi w trcicinie..... Oooops, miswrote the last word. Paarden me (he-he!!)