Language and Culture
Prof. R. Hickey
SS 05/06
The Polish Language
- Oddities -
Berenika Witan
Teilnahmeschein
Erasmus Exchange Student
Contents:


General overview
The Polish alphabet











Vowels
Consonants
Stress pattern
Parts of speech
Gender
Declension
Infinitives
Aspects
Tenses
Negation
Ways of addressing
General Overview






the official language of the Republic of Poland
spoken by more than 41 million people
including 2–3 million in North America and perhaps 1.5
million in the former Soviet Union
(along with Slovak and Czech) belongs to the West
Slavic group of the Slavic subfamily of Indo-European
languages
the earliest continuous text in Polish from the 14th
century
the standard language, formulated in the 16th century
combines features of western and southeastern dialects
Slavic Languages
Alphabet
Polish is written in the Latin alphabet, with the
addition of diacritical marks over some of the
letters.
 32 letters, 23 consonants and 9 vowels
AĄBCĆDEĘFGHIJKLŁMNŃOÓPR
SŚTUWYZŹŻ
 Q, V, X also exist but appear only in loan words.
 CH, CZ, DZ, DŹ, DŻ, RZ, SZ – representations of
single sounds

Vowels
No distinction between long and short vowels
 Single vowels



Nasals


a, e, i, o, u, ó, y
ą, ę
Double vowels – normally pronounced singly but
if i is followed by a vowel, it softens the
preceding consonant e.g. pies ‘dog’

ai, ao, au, ea, ei, eo, eu, oa, oe, oi, oo, ou, ia, ią, ie,
ię, io, ió, iu, ua, ue, ui, uo
Consonants
Consonants
Consonants


Two identical consonants together are each said
separately (Anna, inny, miękki)
Devoicing of voiced consonants



Voicing of voiceless consonants


when standing in front of voiced consonants except w and rz
e.g. także k  ż
Consonant clusters


at the end of a word e.g. chleb b  p
when standing before or after a voiceless consonant e.g. wtorek
w  f z Piotrem z  s
źdźbło, jabłko
No aspiration
Stress
Fixed on the next-to-last syllable e.g. matka,
ulica, rower
 Exceptions



words of Greek and Latin origin: gramatyka,
matematyka, botanika
both forms of past tense verbs in the first and second
person plural: byłyśmy, czytaliście
Tongue Twisters
Chrząszcz brzmi w trzcinie, a Szczebrzeszyn z
tego słynie.
 W czasie suszy, szosa sucha.
 Sasza szedł suchą szosą.
 Pewien wyrewolwerowany rewolwerowiec
wyrewolwerował pewnego wyrewolwerowanego
rewolwerowca.
 Król Karol kupił królowej Karolinie korale koloru
koralowego.

Parts of speech









Verbs: być (to be), mieć (to have), śpiewać (to sing)
Nouns: chłopiec (a boy), drzewo (a tree), córka (a
daughter)
Pronouns: on (he), go (him), jemu (to him), jego (his)
Adjectives: duży (big), tani (cheap)
Prepositions: do (to), od/z (from)
Conjunctions: i (and), ale (but), lub (or)
Numerals: pięć (five), pięcioro (five), piąty (the fifth)
Injections: ach (oh), no (well), ojej (oh dear)
Particles: czy (if), nie (not)
Gender





Grammatical gender
3 genders in singular: masculine, feminine, neuter, 2
genders in plural: ‘men’ and the rest
Each noun has a gender.
Gender seen in nouns, adjectives, numerals, past tense
forms
”Polish has a system of grammatical gender that can
baffle a non-native speaker. In the singular, there are
masculine, feminine and neuter genders. Then, in the
accusative case, the masculine is further divided into
animate and inanimate. Then in the plural, the distinction
is between masculine personal (any group that includes
at least one male) or unmarked gender.”
(BBC Education Languages)
Declension








7 cases
Nominative - a subject
Genitive – possession, direct objects of negative verbs,
in expression of quantity
Dative – as an indirect object
Accusative – as a direct object
Instrumental – the predicate of the verb ‘to be’, how an
action occurs
Locative – to specify position after certain prepositions
Vocative – to address people by name
Declension
an oncle
a woman a child
N.
wujek
kobieta
dziecko
G.
wujka
kobiety
dziecka
D.wujkowi
kobiecie
dziecku
A.
wujka
kobietę
dziecko
I.
wujkiem
kobietą
dzieckiem
L.
wujku
kobiecie
dziecku
V.
wujku
kobieto
dziecko
 five masculine, six feminine and six neuter
declensions
 nouns, pronouns and adjectives are inflected.
 alterations
Infinitive
 Different
endings, the last letter –ć brać,
słyszeć, być, odpocząć, kupować, płynąć,
iść or –c móc, piec, pomóc
Aspect



Fewer tenses than in English
Imperfective vs. perfective verbs, showing perpetual
action and action that is completed.
A variety of prefixes help create perfective verbs
which convey shades of meaning that frequently
require several words in an English translation
Imperfective
Perfective
robić (do) , kupować (buy)
zrobić, kupić
pomagać (help), pisać (write)
pomóc, napisać
Present, Past, Composite
Future, Conditional
Past, Simple Future,
Conditional
Imperfective Aspect
indeterminate aspect – frequent, habitual or repetitive
action  chodzić (go)
Chodzę do kina. (I go to the cinema.)
 determinate aspect – action in progress
 iść Idę do kina. (I’m going to the cinema)
 actual aspect – habitual action/action in progress 
czytać (read)
Czytam książkę/książki. I’m reading a book. /I read books.
 frequentative aspect – repetitive action (regular/
irregular)  czytywać
Często/rzadko Czytuję książki. I often/rarely read books.

Tenses - Present

Present tense (habitual/repeated action, action in
progress)


only with imperfective verbs
different types of conjugation
Singular
robię, czytam, wiem, myję
robisz, czytasz, wiesz, myjesz
robi, czyta , wie, myje
Plural
robimy, czytamy, wiemy,myjemy
robicie, czytacie, wiecie, myjecie
robią, czytają, wiedzą, myją
Tenses - Past

Past tense
with perfective and imperfective verbs
 distinction between the three genders in the
singular and between masculine ‘men’ nouns
and all other nouns in the plural
Singular
Plural
Masc.
Fem. Neut. Men
other nouns
byłem byłam
byliśmy
byłyśmy
byłeś
byłaś
byliście
byłyście
był
była było byli
były

Tenses - Future
with imperfective verbs – the future tense of być (to be) +
infinitive or past tense
robić – to do
Singular
masc./fem.
będę robić
będę robił/a
będziesz robić
będziesz robił/a
będzie robić
będzie robił/a

Plural
będziemy robić
będziecie robić
będą robić
będziemy robi(li)/(ły)
będziecie robi(li)/(ły)
będą robi(li)/(ły)
Tenses - Future
with perfective verbs
zrobić (to do)
Singular
Plural
zrobię
zrobimy
zrobisz
zrobicie
zrobi
zrobią

Negation
Verbs without direct object
Chodzę do kina. I go to the cinema.
Nie chodzę do kina. I don’t go to the cinema.
 Verbs with direct object
Lubię jabłka (Acc.). I like apples.
Nie lubię jabłek (Gen.). I don’t like apples.
* Czy jest (is) chleb? Is there any bread?
Nie ma (has) chleba. There isn’t any bread.

Double Negation
Double negatives
Nikt nie przyszedł. No one came
Nic się nie zmieniło. Nothing has changed
Nie chcę niczego. (Gen.) I don’t want anything.
On nigdy nie palił. He has never smoked.
Nie mogę go nigdzie znaleźć. I can’t find him anywhere.
Nie mam żadnych książek. I don’t have any books.
 Combination of negatives
Nikt mnie nigdy nie odwiedził. No one has ever visited me.

Ways of addressing
ty – you
 Pani, Pan (sing.) – Madame, Sir + verb 3rd
person singular
 Panie – Ladies + verb 3rd person plural
 Panowie – Gentlemen + verb 3rd person plural
 Państwo (pl., both men and women) – Ladies
and gentlemen + verb 3rd person plural

Summary

some general facts about the Polish
language and its speakers

some information about the system of the
Polish language and how it works
References
Bielec Dana, 1997. Polish: An Essential
Grammar. London and New York: Routledge.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/european_langua
ges/languages/polish.shtml
http://www.transparent.com/languagepages/polish/
overview.htm
DZIĘKUJĘ ZA UWAGĘ!
Thank you for your attention ;)