WISŁA or VISTULA??

It has to be actually: Scheveningse Schilders Schilderen Verschillende (or Verscheidene) Scheveningenaren :)

Try:

Vingervlugge Virtuoze Violisten Versieren Virtuoos Veertig Virtuoos Vingervlugge, Verlegen Violistes :)

Anyhow, it's a difficult language.

>^..^<

M-G (busy)

ki-um. peace of cake ;)

Bedankt!

Vanaf Vorige Vrijdag Versierden Veertig Vrolijke, Virtuoos Vingervlugge Vlijtige Virtuoze Violisten Vijftig Vreemde, Virtuoos Vingervlugge, Verlegen Violistes.

:)

I know how to pronounce droëwors, braaivleis and potjiekos if that's any help :D lol

As a German speaker, I didn't find Dutch hard at all, only the 'kopschip'-spelling rules with those open vs. closed syllables can be a bit confusing, since the pronunciation's the same, only the way the word's written is different depending on f.e.x. 'een groot man'/'de grote man' etc....

As a Dutch speaker, English must have been much easier than Polish. Then again, Polish writing as well as pronunciation are more regular, not to mention phonetic than either English or Dutch, along with German.

It can be pronounced both "Szikago" and "Czikago" in Poland (Czikago is older way), unless you want to pronounce it "American way", then you have "Szikegoł" or something like that.

About "h" and "ch" in Polish.
Formally there's still advised to make difference in pronouncing them, as "h" is voiced sound and "ch" is voiceless. Of course most Poles pronounce both as voiceless sound b/c it's just easier.

Funny, but the "orthography of h and ch" if formally not an orthographic issue, but... just proper pronunciation problem. Once someone will pronounce them properly, you will have no problem to write them properly down as well ;-)

Still most Poles, when they want to pronounce the Czech word "Praha", they would probably use voiced sound "h" in it.

Because the right bank district of Warsaw is called Praga too, we sometimes use the full name for the Czech capital: "Czeska Praga" (Czech Prague).

As for the geographical names and their Polish equivalents, some of the names are just used in their Slavic forms, popular across many Slavic countries. Others are derived from their Latin forms or are made by using Polish rules for making names of cities etc.

Such names as New York/Orlean/Zealand (in Polish: Nowy Jork/Orlean, Nowa Zelandia) are made by partial Polonization of the name or its phonetic transliteration (just like English "New Delhi" for Indian "Nai Dilli").

Obserwator,

THE "American way" of pronouncing C-H-I-C-A-G-O is solely as it is in Polish, German, or almost any other language I can think of (except of course the French, daring to be different, as usual, will sometimes pronounce it as though the accent were on the first syllableLOL), namely C-H-I-C-A-G-O, and never "Chicego" or some such nonsense-:))

Just for the record!

Curiously enough though, US-city and place names (rivers, mountains etc.) usually remain as they are in the original. Polish is perhaps following in the tradition of certain Romance languages, most notably Spanish, Italian or Pourtuguese, NOT French in this case, which typically 'euopeanize' e.g. 'New York' into 'Nueva York', 'Nuova York'...

In older atlases, German wrote "Chikago" and even "Neu Jork", a practice long since abandoned for obvious reasons. In some maps from the late 30's, Europeam country capital names were in fact Germanized, as they were seen as places the Nazis would clearly conquer, hence, getting used to the 'new' name. LOL

Nowy Jork but Chicago. We don't write Szikago or Czikago.

As far as Hungary, In Middle Ages Hungarian were called in Europe " Ungarians" and Hungary " Ungaria" although some copyists wrote this word with" V " Vngaria or Vngary

Vngary sound very similar to polish " Węgry"

Już wiem, zetigrek. Ale twój PF-kolega jeszcze nie jest tego zdania-:))

Why is Śląsk Silesia?????

Probably because Schlesien was already taken by the GermansLOL

I hope this isn't too far off topic, but ...
I read where the Polish alphabet includes a few letters that are not generally used in Polish but they are included to make it easier to spell foreign words. One of those letters is "V". Polish doesn't need a "V" since it has a perfectly good "W". But "Vistula"?. Is Vistula an exception to the rule or is it a foreign word?

I apologize if this is too far off topic. But I have wondered about this ever since I found that my ancestors lived near Płock and the Vistula.

@Paulwiz
Vistula is the latin name for Wisła

A special letter for Poles cos in communist times it meant victory over communism and people displayed its symbolic rendition with their fingers. .

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