Dictionary of Meaning
<<Back
Please select a letter:
A |
B |
C |
D |
E |
F |
G |
H |
I |
J |
K |
L |
M |
N |
O |
P |
Q |
R |
S |
T |
U |
V |
W |
X |
Y |
Z |
0-9
Click here for Shopping
Polish Language
*** Shopping-Tip: Polish Language
{{Infobox Language
|name=Polish
|nativename=język polski
|familycolor=Indo-European
|states=
Poland (38 million), also speakers in the
United States,
Brazil,
Argentina,
Lithuania,
Belarus,
France,
Germany,
Ukraine and other countries.
|speakers=46 million
|rank=25
|fam2=
Balto-Slavic languages Balto-Slavic
|fam3=
Slavic languages Slavic
|fam4=
West Slavic languages West Slavic
|fam5=
Lechitic languages Lechitic
|nation=
Poland,
European Union
|agency=
Polish Language Council
|iso1=pl|iso2=pol|iso3=pol}}
'''Polish''' (''język polski'', ''polszczyzna'') is the
official language of
Poland. Polish is the main representative of the
Lechitic languages Lechitic branch of the
West Slavic languages. It originated in the areas of present-day Poland from several local Western Slavic dialects, most notably those spoken in
Greater Poland and
Lesser Poland.
Polish was once a ''
lingua franca'' in various regions of
Central Europe Central and
Eastern Europe, mostly due to the political, cultural, scientific and military influence of the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Although no longer having as great an influence outside of Poland, due in part to the dominance of the
Russian language, it is still sometimes spoken or at least understood in western border areas of Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania as a
second language. It shares some vocabulary with the languages of the neighboring
Slavic people Slavic nations, most notably with
Ukrainian language Ukrainian,
Belarusian language Belarusian,
Russian language Russian,
Czech language Czech and
Slovak language Slovak.
Classification
The Polish language is the most widely-spoken of the Slavic language subgroup of the
Lechitic languages which include
Kashubian language Kashubian (the only surviving dialect of the
Pomeranian language Pomeranian language) and the extinct
Polabian language Polabian language. The three languages, along with Upper and Lower
Sorbian language Sorbian,
Czech language Czech and
Slovak language Slovak, belong to the West branch of
Slavic languages.
Outside influence
Polish has been influenced by contact with foreign languages (mostly
Latin,
Czech language Czech,
French language French,
German language German,
Italian language Italian,
Old Belarusian,
Russian language Russian). Recently it has been virtually bombarded by
English language English, especially American English language elements.
Many words have been borrowed from the
German language, as a result of heavy contact with neighbouring Germany. This process has been going on since medieval times. Examples include: ''
szlachta'' (from German ''Adelsgeschlecht'', nobility), ''rachunek'' (''Rechnung'', bill/invoice), ''ratusz'' (''Rathaus'', town hall), ''burmistrz'' (''Bürgermeister'', mayor (of a town)), ''handel'' (''Handel'', commerce), ''kac'' (''Katze/Kater'', hangover), ''kelner'' (''Kellner'', waiter) and ''malarz'' (''Maler'', painter; also, the word ''malować'' has entered Polish as the verb "to paint"). This is especially true of the regional
dialects of
Upper Silesia.
There are also several words of French origin in the language, most likely dating from the Napoleon era, such as ''ekran'' (from French ''écran'', screen), ''rekin'' (''requin'', shark), ''meble'' (''meuble'', furniture), ''fotel'' (''fauteuil'', armchair), ''plaża'' (''plage'', beach) and ''koszmar'' (''cauchemar'', nightmare). Some place names have also been adapted from French, such as the two
Warsaw boroughs of
Zoliborz Żoliborz (''joli bord''=beautiful riverside) and
Mokotów (''mon coteau''=my cottage), as well as the suburb of
Zyrardów Żyrardów (from the name
Philippe de Girard Girard, with the Polish suffix -ów attached to form the town's name). Other words are borrowed from other
Slavic languages Slavic languages, for example, ''
sejm'', ''hańba'' and ''brama'' from
Czech language Czech.
When borrowing international words, Polish often changes their spelling. For example, the Latinate suffix that is spelled '-tion' in English, corresponds to ''-cja''. To make the word plural, ''-cja'' becomes ''-cje''. Examples of this include ''inauguracja'' (inauguration), ''dewastacja'' (devastation), ''konurbacja'' (conurbation) and ''konotacje'' (connotations). Also, the digraph ''qu'' becomes ''kw'' (''kwadrant''=quadrant; ''kworum''=quorum).
Since
1945, as a result of the mass education and mass
migrations that affected several countries (particularly Poland), standard Polish has become far more homogeneous, although regional dialects persist, especially in the south in the mountaineous areas bordering the Czech and Slovak Republics. In the western and northern regions that were largely resettled by
Poles from the territories annexed by the
Soviet Union, the older generation speaks a dialect of Polish characteristic of the former eastern provinces.
Geographic distribution
Polish is mainly spoken in
Poland. In fact, Poland is one of the most
homogenous European countries in terms of its mother tongue, as close to 97% of Polish citizens declare Polish as their
mother tongue. After the
Second World War the previously Polish territories annexed by the
USSR retained a large amount of the Polish population that was unwilling or unable to migrate toward the post-1945 Poland and even today ethnic Poles in
Lithuania,
Belarus, and
Ukraine constitute large minorities.
In Lithuania 9 percent of the population declared Polish to be their mother tongue. It is by far the most widely used minority language in the
Vilniaus Apskritis Vilniaus Apskritis (Vilnius region) (26% of the population, according to the 2001 census results), but it is also present in other
apskritis. In Ukraine, Polish is most often used in the
Lwów and
Å?uck regions. Western Belarus has an important Polish minority, especially in the
Brest, Belarus Brześć and
Grodno regions.
There are also significant numbers of Polish speakers in
Argentina,
Australia,
Austria,
Azerbaijan,
Brazil,
Canada,
Czech Republic,
Estonia,
Finland,
Germany,
Greece,
Hungary,
Israel,
Ireland,
Kazakhstan,
Latvia,
New Zealand,
Romania,
Russia,
Slovakia,
United Arab Emirates UAE, the
United Kingdom UK and the
United States.
In the U.S. the number of people of Polish descent is over 9 million, ''see:''
Polish American Polish language in the United States, but most of them do not use Polish in their everyday communications.
According to the
United States 2000 Census, 667,414 Americans of age 5 years and over reported Polish as language spoken at home, which is about 1.4% of people who speak languages other than English or 0.25% of the U.S. population.
Dialects
It has several dialects that correspond in the main to the old tribal divisions; the most significant of these (in terms of numbers of speakers) are
Great Poland Great Polish (spoken in the west),
Lesser Poland Lesser Polish (spoken in the south and southeast),
Mazovian language Mazovian (
Mazur) spoken throughout the centre and east of the country, and
Silesian language Silesian spoken in the southwest. Mazovian shares some features with the
Kashubian language, whose remaining speakers (53.000, according to 2002 Census) live around the city of
Gdańsk near the
Baltic Sea, predominantly to the west of the city. There are also several, now mostly extinct, regional dialects of Polish, including the
Warsaw dialect.
Small numbers of people in Poland also speak
Belarusian language Belarusian,
Ukrainian language Ukrainian, and
German language German as well as several varieties of
Romany language Romany.
Phonology
{{main|Polish phonology}}
Orthography
{{main|Polish orthography}}
{{IPA notice}}
The
Polish alphabet is based on the
Latin alphabet but uses
diacritics such as kreska (graphically similar to
acute accent), superior dot and
ogonek.
{| class="wikitable"
!Upper
case
!HTML
code
!Lower
case
!HTML
code
!Usual
phonetic value
!Other
phonetic values
|-
|'''A'''
|
|a
|
|{{IPA|[a]}}
|
|-
|'''
Ä„'''
|Ą
|Ä…
|ą
|{{IPA|[ɔ̃]}}
|{{IPA|[ɔ]}}, {{IPA|[ɔm]}}, {{IPA|[ɔn]}}, {{IPA|[ɔŋ]}}, {{IPA|[ɔɲ]}}
|-
|'''B'''
|
|b
|
|{{IPA|[b]}}
|{{IPA|[p]}}
|-
|'''C'''
|
|c
|
|{{IPA|[ʦ]}}
|{{IPA|[ʣ]}}, {{IPA|[ʨ]}}
|-
|'''
Ć'''
|Ć
|ć
|ć
|{{IPA|[ʨ]}}
|{{IPA|[Ê¥]}}
|-
|'''D'''
|
|d
|
|{{IPA|[d]}}
|{{IPA|[t]}}
|-
|'''E'''
|
|e
|
|{{IPA|[É›]}}
|
|-
|'''
Ę'''
|Ę
|Ä™
|ę
|{{IPA|[ɛ̃]}}
|{{IPA|[ɛ]}}, {{IPA|[ɛm]}}, {{IPA|[ɛn]}}, {{IPA|[ɛŋ]}}, {{IPA|[ɛɲ]}}
|-
|'''F'''
|
|f
|
|{{IPA|[f]}}
|{{IPA|[v]}}
|-
|'''G'''
|
|g
|
|{{IPA|[g]}}
|{{IPA|[k]}}
|-
|'''H'''
|
|h
|
|{{IPA|[x]}}
|{{IPA|[É£]}}
|-
|'''I'''
|
|i
|
|{{IPA|[i]}}
|{{IPA|[i̯]}}, mute (softens preceding consonant)
|-
|'''J'''
|
|j
|
| {{IPA|[j]}}
|
|-
|'''K'''
|
|k
|
|{{IPA|[k]}}
|{{IPA|[g]}}
|-
|'''L'''
|
|l
|
|{{IPA|[l]}}
|
|-
|'''
Å?'''
|Ł
|Å‚
|ł
|{{IPA|[w]}}
|{{IPA|[É«]}} in eastern dialects
|-
|'''M'''
|
|m
|
|{{IPA|[m]}}
|
|-
|'''N'''
|
|n
|
|{{IPA|[n]}}
|{{IPA|[ŋ]}}, {{IPA|[ɲ]}}
|-
|'''
Ń'''
|Ń
|Å„
|ń
|{{IPA|[ɲ]}}
|
|-
|'''O'''
|
|o
|
|{{IPA|[É”]}}
|
|-
|'''
Ó'''
|Ó
|ó
|ó
|{{IPA|[u]}}
|
|-
|'''P'''
|
|p
|
|{{IPA|[p]}}
|{{IPA|[b]}}
|-
|'''R'''
|
|r
|
|{{IPA|[r]}}
|
|-
|'''S'''
|
|s
|
|{{IPA|[s]}}
|{{IPA|[z]}}, {{IPA|[É•]}}
|-
|'''
Åš'''
|Ś
|Å›
|ś
|{{IPA|[É•]}}
|{{IPA|[Ê‘]}}
|-
|'''T'''
|
|t
|
|{{IPA|[t]}}
|{{IPA|[d]}}
|-
|'''U'''
|
|u
|
|{{IPA|[u]}}
|{{IPA|[u̯]}}
|-
|'''W'''
|
|w
|
|{{IPA|[v]}}
|{{IPA|[f]}}
|-
|'''Y'''
|
|y
|
|{{IPA|[ɨ]}}
|
|-
|'''Z'''
|
|z
|
|{{IPA|[z]}}
|{{IPA|[s]}}, {{IPA|[Ê‘]}}
|-
|'''
Ź'''
|Ź
|ź
|ź
|{{IPA|[Ê‘]}}
|{{IPA|[É•]}}
|-
|'''
Å»'''
|Ż
|ż
|ż
|{{IPA|[Ê?]}}
|{{IPA|[ʃ]}}
|-
|}
Polish orthography also includes seven
Digraph (orthography) digraphs:
{| class="wikitable"
!Capitalized
!HTML
code
!Lower
case
!HTML
code
!Usual
phonetic value
!Other
phonetic values
|-
|'''Ch'''
|
|ch
|
|{{IPA|[x]}}
|{{IPA|[É£]}}
|-
|'''Cz'''
|
|cz
|
|{{IPA|[tʂ]}}
|{{IPA|[ʤ]}}
|-
|'''Dz'''
|
|dz
|
|{{IPA|[Ê£]}}
|{{IPA|[ʦ]}}, {{IPA|[ʥ]}}, {{IPA|[d-z]}}
|-
|'''Dź'''
|DŹ
|dź
|dź
|{{IPA|[Ê¥]}}
|{{IPA|[ʨ]}}, {{IPA|[d-ʑ]}}
|-
|'''Dż'''
|DŻ
|dż
|dż
|{{IPA|[dÊ?]}}
|{{IPA|[ʧ]}}, {{IPA|[d-ʒ]}}
|-
|'''Rz'''
|
|rz
|
|{{IPA|[Ê?]}}
|{{IPA|[ʃ]}}, {{IPA|[r-z]}}
|-
|'''Sz'''
|
|sz
|
|{{IPA|[Ê‚]}}
|{{IPA|[Ê’]}}
|-
|}
Note that although the Polish orthography is mostly phonetic, some sounds may be written in more than one way:
* {{IPA|[x]}} as either '''h''' or '''ch'''
* {{IPA|[Ê?]}} as either '''ż''' or '''rz''' (though '''rż''' denotes a {{IPA|[r-Ê’]}} cluster)
* {{IPA|[u]}} as either '''u''' or '''ó'''
* some soft consonants as either '''ć''', '''dź''', '''ń''', '''ś''', '''ź''', or '''ci''', '''dzi''', '''ni''', '''si''', '''zi'''
Unlike in English, doubled consonants indicate
gemination, or the doubling of pronunciation time. Gemination is distinctive; for example: ''panna'' {{IPA|['panːa]}} and ''pana'' {{IPA|['pana]}}; ''motto'' {{IPA|['mÉ”tːÉ”]}} and ''moto'' {{IPA|['mÉ”tÉ”]}}.
Grammar
Polish is often said to be one of the most difficult languages for non-native speakers to learn; of course, this depends on one's native language. While difficult for English speakers, it is relatively easy for speakers of Russian and other Slavic languages. It has a complex
grammatical gender gender system with five genders: neuter, feminine and three masculine genders (personal, animate and inanimate). There are seven cases (
nominative,
genitive,
dative,
accusative,
instrumental,
locative and
vocative) and two numbers (singular and plural).
Nouns,
adjectives and
verbs are inflected, and both
noun declension and
Grammatical conjugation verb conjugation are highly irregular. Aspect is a grammatical category of the verb, and every verb is either imperfective or perfective, usually the imperfective form with a prefix, although there are many perfective verbs with different prefixes derived from single imperfective words, sometimes with unrelated meanings.
The tenses include:
{| style="border-collapse:collapse"
|-
! construction
! (for perfective verbs)
! (for imperfective verbs)
! example imperfective
! example perfective
|-
| verb+''ić''
| infinitive
| infinitive
| robić
| zrobić
|-
| verb+suffix
| future simple tense
| present tense
| robicie
| zrobicie
|-
| past participle+suffix
| past perfect tense
| past imperfect tense
| robiliście
| zrobiliście
|-
| (this suffix can be moved)
| colspan="2" |
| coście robili
| coście zrobili
|}
Movable suffix is usually attached to verb or to the most accented word of sentence, like question preposition.
Sometimes the sentence may be emphasised with a particle ''-że-'' (''-ż'').
So ''what have you done ?'' can be:
* Co zrobiliście?
* Coście zrobili?
* Cóżeście zrobili? (a form that could be derived from ''Cóż zrobiliście?'' which actually sounds archaic and is not used, except for eg. biblical usage)
All the above examples show inflected forms of the verb "zrobić" for the subject "you" informal plural ("wy"). However, it is of note that none of the above examples include the subject itself. The inclusion of the subject is not necessary here because Polish is a
pro-drop language. This means that a subject does not need to be used with an inflected verb. Instead, the reader or listener can tell which subject is implied through the type ending on the verb, which is different for each person, singular and plural. Because the subject can be dropped, using it with an inflected verb signals emphasis. Of the above three examples, a native speaker would not include the subject in the middle sentence and would be unlikely to include a subject in the last one. The below examples show how the subject could be included in such sentences, where possible:
* Co wy zrobiliście?
* Coście zrobili? (a native speaker would not use a subject here)
* Co wyście zrobili? (this example emphasizes the pronoun -- "wy"+ście)
* Co żeście zrobili? (this example emphasizes the ''że-'' particle, but it is not correct in a written form)
The
past participle depends on number and gender, so third person, singular past perfect tense can be:
* zrobił (he made/did)
* zrobiła (she made/did)
* zrobiło (it made/did)
Word order
Basic word order in Polish is
Subject Verb Object SVO, however it is possible to move words around in the sentence, and to drop subject, object or even sometimes verb, if they are obvious from context.
These sentences mean more or less the same ("Alice has a cat"), but different shades of meaning are emphasized by selecting another word order. In increasing order of sophistication:
* Ala ma kota - Alice has a cat
* Ala kota ma - Alice does have (own) a cat (and has not borrowed it)
* Kota ma Ala - Alice has just the cat (and not another animal)
* Ma Ala kota - Alice really does have a cat
* Kota Ala ma - It is just the cat that Alice really has
* Ma kota Ala - The relationship of Alice to the cat is one of ownership (and not temporary possession)
However, only the first three examples sound natural in Polish, and others should be used for special emphasis only, if at all.
If a question mark is added to the end of those sentences they will all mean "does Alice have a cat?"; an optional 'czy' could be added to the beginning (but native speakers do not always use it).
If apparent from context, you can drop the subject, object or even the verb:
* Ma kota - can be used if it is obvious who is the person talked about
* Ma - short answer for "Czy Ala ma kota?" (as in "Yes, she does")
* Ala - answer for "Kto ma kota?" (as in "Alice does")
* Kota - answer for "Co ma Ala?" (as in "The cat")
* Ala ma - answer for "Kto z naszych znajomych ma kota?" (as in "Alice does (have one)")
Note the marker "czy" which is used to start a yes/no question, much like the French "est-ce que".
There is a tendency in Polish to drop the subject rather than the object and you rarely know the object but not the subject. If the question was "Kto ma kota?" (who has a cat?), the answer should be "Ala" alone, without a verb.
In particular, "ja" (I) and "ty" (you, singular), and also their plural equivalents "my" (we) and "wy" (you, plural), are almost always dropped.
Conjugation
Conjugation of "iść" ("to go, walk" in the present tense):
*Ja idę – I am walking
*Ty idziesz – You are walking
*On/ona/ono idzie – He/she/it is walking
*My idziemy – We are walking
*Wy idziecie – You are walking (Plural)
*Oni/one idą – They are walking ("Oni" masculine personal, "one" feminine, neuter, masculine animate or masculine inanimate)
Brief vocabulary
Singular:
ja - I
ty - you
on - he
ona - she
ono - it
Plural:
my - we
wy - you (Plural)
oni - they (mixed group, both men and women)
one - they (group of only women and children or things)
słoń - elephant
kot - cat
pies - dog
krowa - cow
świnia - pig
mucha - fly
osa - wasp
pszczoła - bee
drzewo - tree
kwiat - flower
Anglia - England
Szkocja - Scotland
Walia - Wales
Irlandia - Ireland
Wielka Brytania - Great Britain
Zjednoczone Królestwo - United Kingdom
Niemcy - Germany
Japonia - Japan
Stany Zjednoczone Ameryki - The United States of America
Francja - France
Hiszpania - Spain
Wenezuela - Venezuela
Polska - Poland
Polak (m)/ Polka (f) - Pole
polski - Polish
Notes
1 You can hear the voice samples by clicking on the Polish example (
ogg format).
See also
*
Slavic languages
*
Slavic peoples
*
Poland
*
Common phrases in various languages#Polish (Slavic) Common phrases in Polish
*
Polish Swadesh list Swadesh list of Polish words
*
Wenedyk
*
Wiktionary:Polish language
*
Wikibooks:Basic Polish language course
*
Swietokrzyskie Sermons
External links
{{InterWiki|code=pl}}
{{Wikibookspar||Polish}}
{{Wikiquote}}
-
1,000 free multi-choice Polish grammar drills online
-
Basic English-Polish Dictionary
-
Articles about Polish Language
-
Polish language on Ethnologue
-
Learn Polish online
-
PWN Polish-Polish Dictionary
-
Webster's Online Polish-English Dictionary
-
Polish-English dictionary
-
Free Polish Translation
-
Online translation Polish<->English
-
Polish language course
-
Language exchange - Practise Polish
-
Polish On-line
-
A Concise Polish Grammar, by Ronald F. Feldstein (110-page 600-KB pdf)
-
Univ. of Pittsburgh: Polish Language Website
-
Type any text with Polish characters - an online editor
{{Official EU languages}}
Category:Languages of Poland
Category:West Slavic languages
af:Pools
ang:Polisc sprǣc
ar:لغة بولندية
ast:Polacu
be:ПольÑ?каÑ? мова
bg:ПолÑ?ки език
ca:Polonès
cv:ПолÑ?к чěлхи
cs:Polština
cy:Pwyleg
da:Polsk (sprog)
de:Polnische Sprache
et:Poola keel
el:Πολωνική γλώσσα
es:Idioma polaco
eo:Pola lingvo
fr:Polonais
ga:Polainnis
gl:Lingua polaca
ko:�란드어
hr:Poljski jezik
id:Bahasa Polandia
ia:Lingua polonese
is:Pólska
it:Lingua polacca
he:×¤×•×œ× ×™×ª
ka:პ�ლ�ნური ენ�
kw:Polonek
la:Lingua Polonica
lv:Poļu valoda
lt:Lenkų kalba
li:Pools
hu:Lengyel nyelv
mk:ПолÑ?ки јазик
nl:Pools
ja:�ーランド語
no:Polsk språk
nn:Polsk språk
oc:Polonés
pl:Język polski
pt:LÃngua polaca
ro:Limba poloneză
ru:ПольÑ?кий Ñ?зык
se:Polskkagiella
sq:Gjuha Polake
simple:Polish language
sk:Poľština
sl:PoljÅ¡Ä?ina
sr:ПољÑ?ки језик
fi:Puolan kieli
sv:Polska
th:ภาษาโป�ลนด์
tr:Lehçe (dil)
zh:波兰è¯
see
Polish language
*** Shopping-Tip: Polish Language
