survival glossary

Polish language belongs to the Slavic languages group, along with Russian, Ukrainian, Czech or Serbian.

The first known full sentence in Polish comes from “Księga Henrykowska” from 1270 and relates to the description of daily life at that time. The husband says to his wife: "Daj, ać ja pobruszę, a ty poczywaj" (loosely translated: "Relax Honey, today I will do the dishes.").

The Polish alphabet (like most European alphabets) is based on the Roman alphabet and consists of 32 letters. 9 of them, however, you won’t find in any other alphabet. They are: ą, ć, ę, ł, ń ó, ś, ż, ż. And although it is these "rustling" letters that keep foreigners awake at night, Poles have clearly weakness for them. The ranking from 2010 for the most beautiful Polish word may serve as a proof of this. It was won by... "źdźbło" (blade of grass). Other words which were also taken into account were: "szept" (whisper), "brzdęk" (plunk) and ... "szeleścić" (to rustle). :)

In addition to the "rustling" letters, there is another torture device for foreigners - the "digraphs", i.e.: cz, ch, sz, rz, dz, dż and dź. Compiled in different combinations, they create tongue twisters such as "Chrząszcz brzmi w trzcinie w Szczebrzeszynie". Don’t worry, even Poles have a problem to pronounce it correctly. :)

Information taken from: Varia Polish Language Centre

 

Here are some definitions or explanations of some basic terms used in Polish language.