EPTWhat this blog is going to cover:
- basic reading of polish words (not that hard really, it's our grammar that kills)
What this blog is NOT going to cover:
- understanding polish words (you don't have to understand to read correctly)
NOTE: If you can't see the polish letters I write in here, you could try and set your character encoding in the browser to either: Central European ISO-8859-2, Windows-1250 or UTF-8.
Part 1 - General Information
Most of you probably believe that polish pronounciation is a tongue killer and reading some words written in our language is all but impossible. You can't be further from the truth. It's easier to learn to read in polish than it is in english because we're using WYSIWYG system with basically just 1 exception (more on this later). Basically, all you need to learn is our alphabet and a couple of other things I'm going to cover here to read polish words or even whole sentences (most likely with bad accent but that's not what it's all about).
So, let's get on with it.
Part 2 - The Alphabet
Here is something I managed to scavenge on YouTube:
There are just 3 mistakes there:
- the guy pronounces "ń" wrong as a standalone letter but gets it right in a word
- word "późno" is written wrong (póśno) but pronounced right
- city name "Kraków" is both written and pronounced wrong
Since we have the basics covered it's time for the next step.
Part 3 - Advanced Polish Writing
Like I mentioned before, polish is WYSIWYG language when it comes to writing/reading. There are however some special letter combinations that change the way you're reading them (just like in english).
So in polish we have the bi-letters:
-ci
-cz - read just like english "ch" as in "check"
-dz
-dź
-dż - read just like english "g" as in "George"
-ch (it's an extended form of h, not c) - read justy like "h"
-ni
-rz
-si
-sz - read just like english "sh" as in "shoe"
-zi
And tri-letter:
-dzi
They're used to soften/prolong etc. certain sounds and may cause some trouble.
The most common are "cz", "sz" and "rz" (and they seem to cause the most trouble).
"cz" and "sz" are really easy (as you can see above).
"rz" is more of a problem as it can be read in 2 ways:
- either as "sz" - soft, always when it appears after the consonat
- or as "ż" - hard, when it appears after a vowel or it's on the beginning of a word
Since it's hard (impossible) to write english counterparts for some of the other stuff, I'll just show you a song that uses a lot of them and a transcript from it's text.
+ Show Spoiler [Polish text] +
Bo chodzi o to by od siebie
nie upaść za daleko
Jak te dwa łyse kamienie nad rzeką
Chodzi o to
By pierwsze chciało słuchać
Co mu to drugie
powiedzieć chce do ucha:
Że po mej głowie ?
czasem się ich boję -
Chodzą słowa nie do powiedzenia...
Nie-do-powiedzenia
Dzień dobry
Kocham cię
Już posmarowałem tobą chleb
Dzień dobry
Kocham cię
Nie chcę cię z oczu stracić więc
Jeszcze więcej dzień dobry
Kocham cię
Podzielimy dziś ten ogień na dwoje
Dzień dobry
Kocham cię
To zapyziałe miasto niech o tym wie
Tu chodzi o to by od siebie
nie upaść za daleko
Kiedy długo drugie
nie widzi pierwszego
Bo gdy siedzi człek samemu
z czarnymi myślami
Człowiek rzuca słuchawkami
Rzuca słuchawkami
Bo chodzi o to by od siebie
nie upaść za daleko
Nawet jeśli czasem między nami wykipi mleko
Choćbyś nawet i wieczorem zasypiała zdołowana
Chciałbym ci zaśpiewać z rana
Móc ci zaśpiewać z rana
Kochana...
Dzień dobry
Kocham cię
Już posmarowałem tobą chleb
Dzień dobry
Kocham cię
Nie chcę cię z oczu stracić więc
Jeszcze więcej dzień dobry
Kocham cię
Podzielimy dziś ten ogień na dwoje
Dzień dobry
Kocham cię
To zapyziałe miasto niech o tym wie
Dzień dobry
Kocham cię
Już posmarowałem tobą chleb
Dzień dobry
Kocham cię
Nie chcę cię z oczu stracić więc
Jeszcze więcej Jeszcze więcej Jeszcze więcej
DZIEŃ DOBRY
Kocham cię
Podzielimy dziś ten ogień na dwoje
Para-moje
Para-twoje
Onomatopeiczne
Paranormalne
Paranoje
We Dwoje
+ Show Spoiler [English translation] +
Note: it's very hard to translate this text as it's basically a sung poetry so some words are just...
It's about not falling too far away from each other
Like this two bald stones near the river
It's about
First person wanting to hear
What the other
Wants to say to his/her ear:
That in my head,
sometimes I'm afraid of them -
are words best not spoken...
Innuendos.
Good morning
I love you
I've already smeared you all over the bread
Good morning
I love you
I don't want to lose you from my sight so
Even more good morning
I love you
We're going to split this fire in two today
Good morning
I love you
Let this crappy town know about it
It's about not falling too far from each other
When the second doesn't see the first for long
Because when people sit alone
with dark thoughts
People are throwing headphones
Throwing headphones
It's about not falling too far from each other
Even if sometimes the milk will boil over between us
Even if you would fall asleep feeling down in the evening
I'd like to sing for you in the morning
Could sing for you in the morning
Beloved...
Good morning
I love you
I've already smeared you all over the bread
Good morning
I love you
I don't want to lose you from my sight so
Even more good morning
I love you
We're going to split this fire in two today
Good morning
I love you
Let this crappy town know about it
Good morning
I love you
I've already smeared you all over the bread
Good morning
I love you
I don't want to lose you from my sight so
Even more Even more Even more
GOOD MORNING
I love you
We're going to split this fire in two today
Para-mine
Para-your
Onomatopeic
Paranormal
Paranoias
Two of us
I hope it helps. If you have any questions just post them here.
Edit:
Brief summary for english speakers:
polish -> english pronounciation
a - like the beginning of "halleluyah"
ą - ohm (will be the closest one I can find)
cz - check
e - check
g - Gregory
i - finger (always, even if at the end of the word)
j - halleluyah
ó and u - shorter version of oo (pool)
sz - shop
w - video
y - a bit like very
You can always just speak all of the ą, ć, ś, ń, ź, ż etc. as normal a, c, s... (won't offend anyone) with the exception of ó which is always the same as polish u.
Edit 2:
Part 4 - Exercise
Just got this crazy idea that might make all this knowledge sink in and provide a lot of amusement.
Your task is to write an english sentence in polish (write a phonetic transcription for poles).
Sentence: I am trying to write this sentence in a way every pole can read.
Example: Finders - keepers. Fajnders - kipers.
although there's still long road ahead of you ![[image loading]](http://www.ephotobay.com/image/screenshot357.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://www.ephotobay.com/image/screenshot360.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://www.ephotobay.com/image/screenshot358.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://www.ephotobay.com/image/screenshot362.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://www.ephotobay.com/image/screenshot359.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://www.ephotobay.com/image/screenshot361.jpg)
