Poles in America: How do you pronounce your Polish surname?

roughly

voy-cheh-HOF-skee (HOF rhymes with loaf)


helpful as always....

You may also use the text-to-speech tool from ivona.com website. Change the language for Polish and write the name there.

Śkłodówśką

Śkłodówśką-Curie

Very roughly

I would say more like Hof as in David Hasslehoff.

no its more like LOAF if you say it in a German accent. Something between HOFF and LOAF anyway.

That seems pretty contrived. I will be honest, you would want to replace the ff with a v so more like "hov" to rhyme with Hasslehoff. In no way does it rhyme with Loaf...if you have to apply an accent, your pronunciation guide is bad...

No. The "w" is followed by an "s", which is unvoiced, so that it becomes assimilated and is pronounced like an "f".

If you use a Spanish o it will be fine (though the Polish o is a little weird higher and more open simultaneously which is a little weird)

Some Polish family name is Rutkowski. We of course pronounce it the Polish way, but since all throughout school years everybody would botch the pronunciation, we use the Anglicized version when meeting new people. Root-kof-skee for us, Rut-KOW-skee for everyone else.

What? It happens that I am a Spanish speaker and there is almost no difference between Spanish and Polish "o". We short form name Aleksandra (Ola) just like Spaniards say "hi" to eachother (hola)

yes, the key word being 'almost' (and different types of Spanish have vowels that are different).

I remember years ago an American linguist (very fluent in Spanish) heard Polish vowels demonstrated and remarked on the slightly odd nature of the Polish o (not something non-linguists are likely to hear but it's there).

Many Polish Amricans have respelt their Polish surnames to retain the proper pronunciation. Eg Domkoski (Dąbkowski). If they spelt it Dombkowski, non-Polish kids in primary school could well taunt a pupil asking: Does your dumb cow ski?

The "f" sound in your surname is very faint and inaudible in normal colloquial speech. If you told people it was pronoucned root-CUSS-key, even the dumbest Anglo could pronounce it.

Where do you get that idea? The w (phonetically f) in -owski names is perfectly audible in all but the most element-ish speech (element in its Polish meaning).

Years of careful listening. Maybe only TV presenters and speech teachers say domb-RUFF-ski. Usually the F-sound is swallowed up and comes out sounding closer to domb-RUSS-key.

You weren't listening carefully enough, if at all. No one drops the f, except babies and retards. Stop making $hit up.

I've retained the Polish spelling, except for Polish-specific letters, and pronounce more or less the way Americans pronounce it with the Polish spelling. Among Polish people, I pronounce it the correct way, but I see no use in further confusing Americans who already are having enough trouble with my last name as it is.



I have to agree. I have NEVER heard a Pole with an elementary grasp on the Polish language pronounce the w as an "s" or not at all...

Doing some Ancestry for a cousin, I came across a Census name of Satkarski. Can anyone help me on a more likely Polish spelling and pronunciation?

I just found out my Mom's birth name was Zglenicki. How would I pronounce it? Thanks

Why would anyone want to inflict on the innocent Americans the pain of coping with the Polish names like Grzegosz Szczakula? How about changing it to John Green?

If I misspelled my example, keep it a secret because I don't care.

Greg Shacks would be better.....

I see this thread has been inactive for over a year but I am hoping it is still monitored.
My husband is second-generation American born and had almost no influence of being Polish while growing up. His grandfather was born in the village of Bielowy but he can trace his mother's line to original Mayflower settlers. Through genealogical searches, my husband discovered the original spelling of his last name (now mine) was Przybylo. When my father-in-law was in the USArmy they dropped the second 'y'. Once the US military decides something it is impossible to get them to see otherwise so the spelling of Przyblo stuck for the descendants of my husband's father.

In English, we pronounce it as prizz-blow. How would you say it in Polish? Thanks in advance and sorry for the long post!

google.com/search?q=przyblo+t%C5%82umaczenie
(Ignore the translation here - word "przyblo" in Polish don't exist)


More likely Polish Przybyło:
google.com/search?q=przyby%C5%82o+t%C5%82umaczenie

@MrsPriz

Przybylo - a common Polish last name. You'd pronounce it "p-zhy-by-woah" sort of. Thing is, there really isn't an equivalent of the rz sound in English. It's almost like the j in junk but with more of a roll. It's almost like if you combined the "sh" sound with an "z" sound together and a little bit of "r" sound inserted. There isn't really an English equivalent that I can think of.

The "l" is also different. It'd actually be spelled ł and with the o at the end would sound almost like "woah" with a similar w sound but softer o/oah

Google does a good job with the pronunciation - google.com/search?sxsrf=ALeKk00G0o3HCd5DIgN-OoY5OauW0tzBHA%3A1607359806415&ei=Pl3OX8HcGISxtQaM8J6YBQ&q=przybylo+po+polsku&oq=przybylo+po+polsku

...and should be dropped at naturalization - like Ryszard or, worse yet, Grzegosz.

Why should it be dropped at naturalization? The USA is a country that was founded by European immigrants. We built this country and you recommend forcing people to drop their cultural identity - especially a European one?

"should' is not equal to "forced". I have no idea how those are equal in your opinion.

Hello, I stubbled across this thread by chance and wanted to know if anyone could help me. I was adopted at a young age and took on my step-father's last name, but I always wanted to know the correct pronunciation of my Polish last name Jagodowski. In America it was always pronounced Jag-go-DOW-skee, but after reading a couple of posts on here I'm willing to bet that it's nothing close to the actual Polish pronunciation.

In Polish it is Yagodovski. Do you know what it means?