Thread: Polish language learning links

Please, post the links to Polish learning sites that you think are the best. Also mention why people should go (or not go ) and see the site.

The best place to start with is the Polish Alphabet.

This one seems like a good site for beginners:

http://golem.umcs.lublin.pl/users/pp...ns/lessidx.htm

i always wanted to learn a lil polish!

Originally Posted by pookie123

i always wanted to learn a lil polish!

So you've got your chance now!
BTW It was a great idea to create all these lounges! But how can I find the time to start learning the languages. I'm desperate

Originally Posted by pookie123

i always wanted to learn a lil polish!

A few years ago I sailed with a Polish crew for 4 months and had the opportunity to visit Gdynia every week.

On board we just played darts non-stop (I hadn't really played before) but by the end of the 4 months I was playing darts in Polish. Even now, if I play darts, I confuse most people because I still shout out my scores in Polish and then have to translate.

I wish I could write in Polish through...

I can't seem to get the polish alphabet to work on my computer either((

Originally Posted by Anonymous

I can't seem to get the polish alphabet to work on my computer either((

i thought the polish language had letters like english...i guess im wrong...i learned something new ttoday!

Polish uses a modified form of the Roman alphabet(which is letters like English). So in other words, we share most of our letters, but they have some we don't which they use to express the sounds of their language.

Hello
I'm from Poland I can try to answer to some of your quiestons. My e-mail jilseponie@o2.pl
About Polish letters: well most of them are like in English, but there are also some which are only in Polish (?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?). Besides that in Polish are some dubble-letters, u write 2 letters but u read them like one: for example "sz" is like "sh" in mushroom.
Ok, as I wrote, if u want write to me: jilseponie@o2.pl

Good luck in learning Polish

Aggie

Originally Posted by aggie

About Polish letters: well most of them are like in English, but there are also some which are only in Polish (?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?). Besides that in Polish are some dubble-letters, u write 2 letters but u read them like one: for example "sz" is like "sh" in mushroom.

The encoding was broken — at least for me. But then, in case someone's wondering, here's the Polish alphabet:

[i]a, ą, b, c, ć, d, e, ę, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, ł, m, n, ń, o,

Originally Posted by PsiLord

According to a Polish friend of mine, some relationships might be paralled between Polish and Russian as follows:



c' = ць
s' = сь
z' = зь
cz = ч

Your friend is mostly correct, but in these sounds, he is a bit off.
"c'" sounds very much like Russian "ч"
"cz" has no exact match in Russian; there is a similar sounds in Bielorussian, though - this is "hard" (not palatalized) "ч" (For those who heard Lukashenko speaking on TV, imagine him pronouncing "чай").

s' is softened "ш" - it sounds very much like a short "щ"
z' is a voiced ("звонкий") counterpart of "s'"

I can't insert Polish characters here, so I used c' instead of c with an "accent mark" above etc.

And ł is roughly pronounced as 'wh' in 'where', 'what', etc.

Now ą and ę... First one in most cases sounds like French 'on', as in 'bon', a nasal sound. Second is like French 'in', as in 'fin', again nasal. There are exceptions, and here is a little table:

Code:

Pronuciation of ą and ę before certain consonants
Spelling 	Pronunciation 	Before
ą, ę        om, em           b, p
ą, ę        on, en           d, t, dz, c, dż, cz
ą, ę        oń, eń           dź (dzi), ć (ci)
ą, ę        o, e             ł, l

Originally Posted by al

And ł is roughly pronounced as 'wh' in 'where', 'what', etc.

One might say I'm being picky here, but, since there are English speakers who pronounce those with an aspiration, I thought it might be useful to point they shouldn't in Polish — like 'w' in 'window'.

Yeah right, sound in 'window' is closer to it. Btw, does anyone know why English speakers like to change ł into l and drop accents when transliterating city names, for example? I.e. Ł

Originally Posted by al

And ? is roughly pronounced as 'wh' in 'where', 'what', etc.

Sorry for nitpicking

But from what I know, part of Poles (about 30% or so) pronounce it as Russian hard "л". I am not sure about the figures, though, since I don't have that book anymore.

I actually heard a record of a Pole (an actor of a Warsaw theater) who pronounced it this way.

Originally Posted by PsiLord

Originally Posted by aggie

About Polish letters: well most of them are like in English, but there are also some which are only in Polish (?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?). Besides that in Polish are some dubble-letters, u write 2 letters but u read them like one: for example "sz" is like "sh" in mushroom.

The encoding was broken — at least for me. But then, in case someone's wondering, here's the Polish alphabet:

a, ?, b, c, ?, d, e, ?, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, ?, m, n, ?, o, ?, p, r, s, ?, t, u, w, y, z, ?, ?

And the double-letter combinations aggie mentioned:

ch, cz, dz, d?, d?, rz, sz


Yes, I also see only "?", I don't know why, some problems with encoding.
Yes, this alphabet is good and this double-letter too
And ? is like w in window. I dont know how to explain a pronounce dz, d?, d?. I think that that sounds have only Poland. hmm.. maybe "d?" is like "j" in "jar" but say it harder.

I was searching for webs which links I could add here. And I find that:
http://eleaston.com/polish.html
There are many useful link. I hope someone finds this site is good for him

Aggie = Agnieszka?

Yes, my name is Agnieszka
And yours? Coz i can't think any sensible one only from your nickname