11 Key Facts about the Polish Language
Here’s all you need to know (for starters) about one of the most exciting languages out there.
2. …and 32 letters!
The Polish language uses the Latin alphabet, which, however, has substantially more letters (32) than say the English alphabet (23). The nine additional modified letters have been added through history to best reflect the phonology of Polish sounds. As a result you’re bound to get acquainted with a set of seemingly strange letters, all with diacritic signs on them, like Ą, Ć, Ę, Ł, Ń, Ó, Ś, Ź, Ż.
3. Ancient nasals
Polish is the only Slavic language to have preserved ancient nasal vowels – Ą and Ę. Their sounds can be approximated as similar to those of the French on and en, respectively. The little hook which you see under the letter is called ogonek (‘a little tail’) in linguistics – it makes for a Polish loanword in the English lexicon.
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standardowy [760 px]
Illustration by Magdalena Burdzyńska for the video animation "Pani Twardowska", part of the Quarks, Elephants & Pierogi franchise. Photo: Culture.pl
4. This terrible Polish orthography...
Polish orthography (rules of spelling) can be quite frustrating and it’s something that makes Polish spelling bees a real challenge. Apart from the 9 typically Polish letters mentioned above, Polish uses 7 digraphs (CH, CZ, DZ, DŹ, DŻ, RZ, SZ) and even one trigraph: (DZI). These, combined with the fact that Polish has retained historical, that is not phonemic, orthography, makes it a real scare for Polish school children learning how to spell.
5. ...and these terrible cnsnant clsters!
Combined together, Polish letters and digraphs can form the so–called consonant clusters, like ones you see in źdzbło or bezwzględny. These clusters, which can amount to as much as five consonant sounds in a row, are a real phenomenon specific to the Polish language – something which is definitely bound to give you a headache, tongue-ache, or perhaps even an eye-ache…
6. Tongue (and Eye) Twisters
Consonant clusters appear readily in the most popular of Polish tongue twisters, like W Szczebrzeszynie chrząszcz brzmi w trzcinie. (As you can see Polish tongue twisters can also be eye–twisters!). But no worries there’s something much more simple too: Stół z powyłamywanymi nogami – and we’re sure you’ll find your favourite!
7. Easy accent
Some things are easier though. Polish has no tones or other insurmountable difficulties. The word accent falls almost universally on the penultimate syllable – simple as that: TRZCI-na, so–li–DAR–ność, pol–sko–ję–ZYCZ–ny.
8. Not only kielbasa and pierogi…
Mixing words of Slavic, Latin, Germanic and other origin, Polish has quite an impressive vocabulary of its own. You can find Polish language outside Polish in some loanwords which have entered other languages. In the case of English, these would be words like gherkin, quark, mazurka – and many more. Polish on its part has absorbed from many other languages, like German, French, Turkish (via Ukrainian), or Yiddish.
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standardowy [760 px]
Illustration by Magdalena Burdzyńska for the video animation 'Pani Twardowska', part of the 'Quarks, Elephants & Pierogi' franchise. Photo: Culture.pl
9. The first Polish sentence is feminist…
Polish has one of the longest recorded histories in the region – with a continuity going up to the present. The earliest known Polish sentence to be recorded in writing appears in 1270: Day, ut ia pobrusa, a ti poziwai – it means roughly ‘Let me, I shall grind, and you take a rest’ – these were the words spoken by a husband to his wife. It can be considered quite a feminist statement considering the times.
10. Polish literature is… old!
Polish literary tradition dates back to the 14th century, which makes literature in Polish much older than most national literatures in the region. The classic Polish literary language, almost perfectly comprehensible for contemporary Poles, goes back to the 16th century, when it was forged almost single-handedly by Jan Kochanowski, the Renaissance author of Laments, Psalms and Epigrams – the all-time classics of Polish literature. Let us add: Kochanowski was an older contemporary of Shakespeare!