Paul Ironmonger

1. Paul Ironmonger

2. The Polish Language What makes it special, how it works and why it is perhaps not as difficult as it looks….

3. ……or is it?

4. Languages in Poland • Polish • Kashubian(official regional language) Dialects • Silesian dialect(Śląski) • Podhale dialect(Góralski)

5. Highland and Kashuban dress

6. Some Polish language facts... • Almost 250,000 people in the city of Chicago are Polish-speakers. • 26% of the population of Lithuania’s capital, Vilnius, are Polish speakers. • Until the 14th Century Polish mainly existed in spoken form only, with Latin being the language of literature. • Nearly all ruling members of the Russian Romanov Dynasty (1613 – 1917) were fluent in Polish.

7. Alphabet • Latin alphabet (32 letters) AĄ B C Ć D E Ę F G H I J K L Ł M N Ń 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 o ó p r s ś t u w y z ź ż Note: No Q, V, X

8. dz, cz, sz, rz, dż, dź, ch. But be careful: when an ‘accented’ letter is followed by the letter ‘i’ you don’t write the accent but still pronounce it! For example: Dzień dobry Cicho!

9. Pronunciation Word stress is ALWAYS on the second last syllable! • Kielce • Warszawa • Szczecin • Wrocław • Łódż • Oświęcim

10. Pronunciation Word stress is ALWAYS on the second last syllable! • Kielce kyel-tse • Warszawa var-sha-va • Szczecin shche-cheen • Wrocław vrots-wav • Łódż woodge • Oświęcim osh-fyen-cheem

11. Mam na imię.....

12. Some basic phrases • Jak masz na imię? Mam na imię.... Jestem.... • Miło mi. • Jak sie masz?- dobrze- tak sobie- źle

13. 7, 3, 3, 2 • Polish has 7 cases – nomative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental, locative and vocative. • 3 genders – masculine*, feminine and neuter. • 3 tenses – past, present, future. • 2 verb types – perfective and imperfective. *masculine can be split into three: - personal masculine - animate masculine - inanimate masculine

14. Nouns • When using Polish cases, the adjectives and nouns change according to the case: Nominative: butelka (bottle)Accusative: butelkęDative: butelceGenitive: butelkiLocative: butelceInstrumental: butelkąVocative: butelko

15. This also happens with names!! Nominative: MarekAccusative:MarkaDative: MarkowiGenitive: MarkaLocative: MarkowiInstrumental: MarkiemVocative: Marku

16. Verbs Być = to be (Ja) jestem (Ty) jesteś On jest Ona jest Ono jest (My) jesteśmy (Wy) jesteście Oni są

17. Some funnies….. • My other wife “On my second trip to Poland I was trying to impress my mother-in-law with my improved Polish language skills and express how dear my wife is to me. I addressed my wife by calling her ‘Moja druga żona’. This came as a shock to my mother-in-law and all who were present because they were under the impression that I had never been married before, which was the case. Instead of saying ‘Moja droga żona’, my dear wife, I actually had called her my second wife. Big difference between droga, dear, and druga, second.” Sent by: Gerard

18. “A colleague had told me how to say hello in Polish before I went to Poland a few years ago. In Polish, the word for hello is cześć pronounced "chesh-ch," but I thought my colleague had said teść ("tesh-ch"). As a result, I ended up introducing myself to people by saying "father-in-law" instead of "hello".”

19. Things TO DO and NOT TO DO in Polish... • DO - address elderly people and strangers as ‘Pan’ or ‘Pani’ (Sir or Madam) until they tell you not to. - introduce yourself when you telephone someone “Hello, it’s Paul here, is Tomek around?”. Not doing this is very rude. - when meeting someone for the first time, say your name at the exact moment you are shaking hands. • DON’T - say “thank you” (in any language) when you hand over your money in a bar, café or restaurant, unless you really do mean for the waiter to keep the change!

20. Dziękuję i Do widzenia!