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Polish words that sound funny?


dolnoslask 6 | 2,934
10 Aug 2018 #151
if they sound the same the person is dominant in English and if they sound different they're dominant language is Polish...

Interesting because I am constantly feeling the need to prove to myself that my pronunciation of some words is correct, I often think I am wrong but I am often told by native poles I am correct, but when they say the same word it sounds different to me, any ideas are they just being polite
Ironside 53 | 12,364
11 Aug 2018 #152
or equally bilingual it doesn't bother them if they're dominant

Hmm... define 'can' and 'can't stand' - I 'can' watch movies both ways, but I 'would rather' not either way. I prefer the original language of a movie.

Wait a sec, Polish movies came with subtitles, English language movies are being talked over by a lector. eh,,, whatever maybe you can make a tail or a head out of it.
Lyzko 45 | 9,346
11 Aug 2018 #153
There, I actually agree with you!

When I first started learning Polish, I watched Polish movies exclusively in the target language, without foreign subtitles, typically (when available), with Polish-language captions below so that I could see as well as hear what the actors were saying sans interference.

"Pet" and "pat" though, are COMPLETELY different vowel sounds, I must remain adamant about that.
Ironside 53 | 12,364
11 Aug 2018 #154
Pet" and "pat" though, are COMPLETELY different vowel sounds,

Are you high? I have never claimed otherwise.
Lyzko 45 | 9,346
11 Aug 2018 #155
What was your point then? No, I'm not "high" as you so indelicately put it, but your rebuff sure makes me "low".
Ironside 53 | 12,364
11 Aug 2018 #156
What was your point then?

go back to the original post, I was contesting maf's claim.
mafketis 36 | 10,700
11 Aug 2018 #157
ime Poles can distinguish pet and pat (na przykład) when they are presented as a pair or in very slow speech. In native speed their ability to hear difference tends to weaken or disappear, similarly it's difficult for Polish native speakers to hear differences in stress (like Reagan vs ray gun)
Ironside 53 | 12,364
11 Aug 2018 #158
ime Poles can distinguish

Well, I wouldn't know, I have no reason to talk to Poles in English. All I can say that I can do what you say Poles cannot do. I see no reason why other Poles wouldn't be able to do the same.
Lyzko 45 | 9,346
11 Aug 2018 #159
Typical Polish errors in similar-sounding, but foreign words with long vs. short distinction, would be e.g. "cheap" vs. "chip" etc.
As to that, I'd swear on a stack of Bibles:-)
mafketis 36 | 10,700
11 Aug 2018 #160
I can do what you say Poles cannot do

How long have you lived in an English language environment? I'm talking about otherwise fluent people who live in Poland.
Lyzko 45 | 9,346
11 Aug 2018 #161
Spot on there, Maf!

Ironside's up to his old tricks once again, trying to convince us as always that he along might well be the valiant exception to Polish native speakers who've taken up the cause of the English language.

As to his pronunciation, we've only his word to go on:-)
Ironside 53 | 12,364
12 Aug 2018 #162
WTF are you on about? YOU self evidently have a huge problem with comprehension of the written English. Sorry I don't know dickish your native tongue to translate it to you.
Lyzko 45 | 9,346
12 Aug 2018 #163
Quit projecting, dude, it's getting tiresome already.
mafketis 36 | 10,700
12 Aug 2018 #164
If you watch a bunch of tv shows and/or movies with fan made subtitles you can get a feel for things that the translators mis-hear.

Just today I saw how "regional" was translated as "oryginalne" and Sudafed was misheard as "sue the fed"
Lyzko 45 | 9,346
12 Aug 2018 #165
People often hear words incorrectly on a regular basis, even in their own language.
Chemikiem
16 Aug 2018 #166
It is the 'ć' and 'tch' that make the real difference here.

That is also my opinion. I can hear a difference in how być and b!tch are pronounced but to my ears it is this ending that makes the difference and not the 'y'. Pronunciation of być is softer. To me, the 'tch' in b1tch is more like the cz in czekolada.
Lyzko 45 | 9,346
18 Aug 2018 #167
Exactly, Chemikiem!!

The c sound of "byc" is comparatively much more palatalized.
Dirk diggler 10 | 4,585
20 Aug 2018 #168
Saw a funny one from my cousin - lajkujem, lajkujesz, etc. - polish endings onto a english word especially those related to tech
Rich Mazur 4 | 3,053
24 Aug 2018 #169
The words that do not sound funny: kurwa, kurwa mac, and pierdole.
Today, my wife went to see an eye doctor. So, here I am waiting for her and what do I hear from the guys painting behind a sheet of plastic? Polish language. How nice. Couldn't understand any of it but just enough to realize that every single sentence (if you can call them sentences) had at least two kurwas or kurwa mac.

In one of my many posts on this subject, I wrote that after leaving Poland I made every reasonable (that excluded a lobotomy) effort to erase my Polish experience right along with the language. Well, today, I realized that I have failed and that I still understand this bloody language and the scum that does not know what is proper at a medical center and what is not.

Here is the funny part. After I made the manager aware of what was going on, he told the Polish crew to knock it off. They grumbled for a minute and then they stopped talking altogether. I mean total silence. I guess, in the Polish macho culture, if they can't swear they don't converse.

Never f****** again.
Lyzko 45 | 9,346
24 Aug 2018 #170
"If they can't swear, they don't converse."

Sounds to me a lot like Sicilian culture, from what I've heard:-)
Lyzko 45 | 9,346
25 Aug 2018 #171
If truth be told, the first time I heard the word "niedzwiedz", I couldn't stop laughing:-)
Ziemowit 14 | 4,278
28 Aug 2018 #172
After I made the manager aware of what was going on, he told the Polish crew to knock it off.

It is beyond comprehesion that the manager did that rather than kick you and your wife in the ar$e.

What is so funny about the word "niedźwiedź", Łyżko? Originally the world replaced the PIE "ursus" when this one became a sort of taboo word for Proto-Slavs.
Rich Mazur 4 | 3,053
28 Aug 2018 #173
It is beyond comprehension that the manager did that rather than kick you and your wife in the ar$e.

Yes, it is beyond the comprehension of a moron like you to figure it out who was the problem there: the patients or a couple of Polaks throwing "kurwa" into every sentence. Let me help you with that. It's because we were in the US where we know what is and what is not proper behavior when you are hired to paint a room. In Poland, being vulgar on the job is normal. And drunk looking what to steal.

Never again.

BTW, can you explain why that manager should kick my wife out, you f***** Polish idiot?
Lyzko 45 | 9,346
28 Aug 2018 #174
Ziemowit, the whole point of this thread is that certain Polish words sound odd aka "funny" to foreigners for no apparent reason!
A Polish acquaintance once confessed that when travelling, encountered the term "water closet" and found himself chuckling audibly for quite some time:-)

What's the bleedin' difference then between me finding "niedzwiedz" amusing and my friend chortling over "water closet"?
mafketis 36 | 10,700
28 Aug 2018 #175
why that manager should kick my wife

cause she married you? a punishable offence (I'm sure she's paid for her mistake many times over)

Stick to the subject of the thread please
dolnoslask 6 | 2,934
28 Aug 2018 #176
"niedzwiedz

Please explain why bear is funny , is it funny to germans, like swingus dingus is funny to english

you f***** Polish idiot?

Don't forget you Polish too, no number of blood transfusions can change your DNA structure.

polskie boy
mafketis 36 | 10,700
28 Aug 2018 #177
Please explain why bear is funny

Compared with other Slavic languages it's a little weird... it should be miedźwiedź (the etymology is honey knower or honey eater, opinions vary) not sure how the m turned into an n (I assume kind of consonant harmony)
dolnoslask 6 | 2,934
28 Aug 2018 #178
honey knower or honey eater,

Damn now you explained it i understand it mied miod honey zwiedz fetch? bit like karo noze stick carrier that the mountain ranfe is named after.
mafketis 36 | 10,700
29 Aug 2018 #179
Damn now you explained it i understand it mied miod honey zwiedz fetch?

More like
miód -> miedź (through softening of the kind widely used in Slavic languages)

the second part is trickier, but probably

wiad -> wiedź (as in wiedzieć)

some think the root was jad (eat) but I'm not sure where the w cam from in that case

Germanic peoples also developed a taboo about the original word for bear and replaced with with words related to the meaning 'the brown one'.

Romance speakers never did develop such a taboo so in Romanian it's just urs... (Hungarian borrowed the name from Slavic - medve)
Lyzko 45 | 9,346
29 Aug 2018 #180
As I posted yesterday, dolno, the point is not why any given Polish word sounds amusing to foreigners. Surely the entire issue is relative anyhow as no language holds the monopoly on "strange-sounding" words!

Apropos Smygus Dingus, the latter sounds a lot like the Dutch word "dinges" with a similar pronunciation as the Polish, or the older American slang word for random object

"dingus", e.g. in "The Maltese Falcon", when the Sam Spade character refers to the mysterious falcon as "the dingus".


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