Berenika Witan Teilnahmeschein Erasmus Exchange Student 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 Stress pattern 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 A Ą B C Ć D E Ę F G H I J K L Ł M N Ń O Ó P R S Ś T U W Y Z Ź Ż 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 a, e, i, o, u, ó, y Nasals 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 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 Voicing of voiceless consonants when standing in front of voiced consonants except w and rz e.g. także k  ż Consonant clusters 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 Past, Simple Future, Future, Conditional 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 Plural robię, czytam, wiem, myję robimy, czytamy, wiemy,myjemy robisz, czytasz, wiesz, myjesz robicie, czytacie, wiecie, myjecie robi, czyta , wie, myje 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 będziemy robi(li)/(ły) będziecie robić będziecie robi(li)/(ły) będą robić 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_languages/languages/polish.shtml http://www.transparent.com/languagepages/polish/overview.htm

Thank you for your attention ;) DZIĘKUJĘ ZA UWAGĘ! Thank you for your attention ;)