In this lesson we will get acquainted with the Polish alphabet (alfabet polski), which is the main element in mastering Polish grammar and the language in general. Actually, the Polish alphabet consists of 32 Latin letters of which only 9 are something new for us. In the image below you can see those letters with which there should be no questions, because in one way or another everyone has encountered them in life. Try to read it without looking closely at the bottom line, will you make a lot of mistakes?
(Click on the image to open full screen)
Highlighted in green - Polish letter, below - the corresponding Russian sound(attention, not “a, be, tse”, but “a”, “b”, “c”).
As you can see, there is nothing complicated here, but you still need to make some points:
- E- [e] - just remember that there is a hard “e” here;
- L- [l] - the Poles do not have our hard “l” at all (i.e., at all!), it is always a little soft with them (and in European languages in general). If your goal is to speak without an accent, learn correctly right away;
- G- [g] - in the initial stages, many of my students really wanted to say “ji”. Be careful. For Ukrainians - the letter “ґ”, not “g”!;
- J- [th] - lovers of complexity also try to pronounce it as “ji”. It's just a "th" :)
- Y- [s] - again, many people initially want to say “y”. This sound corresponds to another letter in Polish language(look at the table again).
If everything is clear with this, let's continue.
We are left with 9 symbols that terrified me back in my youth, when I was in Poland on excursions, not knowing the words in this language. But behind the incomprehensible scribbles, to your and my relief, lie monosyllabic sounds, which, if you figure it out, are quite easy to learn!
So, the “golden nine”: Ą, Ę, Ł, Ó, Ż, Ń, Ć, Ś, Ź
Let's look at the first 5 - Ą, Ę, Ł, Ó, Ż:
- Ą - [ou/he] - at the end of a word it is pronounced as “ou”, before a consonant - “he”. It's a matter of practice.
- Ę - [eu/en] - at the end of a word it is pronounced as “eu” (note that Poles often mess around and pronounce it at the end of a word as an ordinary “e”), before a consonant - “en”.
- Ł - [?] - remember that the Poles don’t have a hard “l”? So, where softening is not required, this letter is used (for example: cheerful - wesoły), it is quite difficult to learn it based only on the text, it is something between “l”, “v”, and “u”. Try saying "l" without touching the roof of your mouth, or pucker your lips like you would say "y" but say "v." If you want to speak without an accent, I highly recommend finding the pronunciation on the Internet (perhaps a little later I’ll add it here);
- Ó - [u] - fully corresponds to the Russian “u”. Yes, yes, the Poles have 2 letters per sound, nothing can be done here, “this is how it happened historically”;
- Ż - [zh] - fully corresponds to the Russian “zh”.
Well, the last ones. Have you noticed that there is no soft sign in Polish? As a rule, its role is played by the letter “i” (in fact, as in Russian “i” softens the previous consonant: “ l axis", " l istya"), but there are also 4 completely autonomous soft ones - Ń, Ć, Ś, Ź.
But...the Polish language would not be Polish if everything were so simple.
Actually:
- Ń - [н] - always softened “n”
- Ć - [whose] - here you just need to remember, always if you see a softening of a given letter, you need to read it as “whose”;
- Ś - [sh] - also remember, always “sh”;
- Ź - [zh] - (not to be confused with “Ż”!) and again - remember. Unusual in Russian “zh”.
Without slowing down, congratulations - you have already become acquainted with all the letters in the Polish alphabet.
Let's now think about what happens to the letters “c”, “s” and “z” if they are followed by an “i”, which softens the previous consonant? That's right, exactly the same thing we just learned. Full table:
With the last one, we have already gotten a little into the next section, but still they are, one might say, inseparable, so let’s move on.
Polish reading and pronunciation
If you compare with Russian “shto” instead of “what”, “malako” instead of “milk”, “sevodnya” instead of “today”, “in the soul” and “in the soul”, Polish is still quite monosyllabic.
Let's start with the emphasis. Here, we can consider ourselves lucky - it almost always falls on the penultimate syllable. The only exceptions are some forms and words, which, for a moment, Poles themselves often say with the wrong accent.
In addition, it is worth understanding some other points:
- CZ- [чъ] - look at the plate above (c - ć - ci). "Z" in in this case It just makes the sound hard. Yes, it’s not for nothing that there is a hard sign here, this is because in the Russian language there is no hard “ch” (chai = “chay”), while the Poles in this case pronounce exactly that hard “chъ”. Try saying “čechki” instead of Czechs and you will understand what I am talking about;
- SZ- [w] - look again at the sign above and catch where the legs grow from (s - ś - si);
- RZ- [g] - the same principle, only “r” is used as a catalyst here. As you may have noticed, the sound fully corresponds to that of the letter “ż”. The second case is when the Poles can designate the same sound differently;
- CH- [x] is the most openly hated by me (because it breaks the logic that is already difficult to trace in Polish). But fortunately, learning is quite simple. And yes, the third case is when the Poles write the same sound differently (ch = h);
- DZ- [dz] - added, so as not to lag behind his colleagues in the workshop. In fact, almost no one has any problems with this, but it’s still worth mentioning - dz, dż, dź are always pronounced with the same sound.
Oh yes, do you see the large cell on the right in the tablet? This is exactly the indicative case of how one can (at least approximately) write this or that letter. Lost "ch - h". Our “x” is more consistent with the Polish “ch”: bread - chleb, chemistry - chemia, etc.
Well, taking this all to its logical conclusion, here are some rules that make life a little easier:
1. Which is easier to say - przeprash or psheprash? Tjista or tshista? The Poles too. After the letters “t” and “p” - “rz” is read as “sz” [w];
2. The letter “i” softens not only the previous consonant, but also the next vowel, which makes it possible to compensate for our sounds “e”, “yu” and “ya”.
If you are getting acquainted with the alphabet for the first time, most likely nothing has been absorbed in your head from all the information above :) A summary table was made especially for this purpose, in which you can see all the patterns in the Polish alphabet and pronunciation. To consolidate the material, it is advisable to go through all the words from it without looking in the “Sounds in Russian” column.
P.S.: the table contains frequently used words, so it is not limited to nouns. 
Good luck in learning Polish!
If you want to copy the material to yourself, please leave a link to the original.
Learning Polish is quite easy. The Russian-Polish phrasebook will help you without any problems if you find yourself in Poland. But before you start using full-fledged phrases, try to learn the following rules regarding vowels and consonants of the Polish alphabet, as well as the specifics of stress in words. The learning process will be facilitated by the fact that the pronunciation of letters in Polish is often identical to Russian.
Pronunciation Polish letters often the same as Russian. The vowel letters listed below, which are in the Polish alphabet, are pronounced like this:
- [A] – substressed [A];
- [O] – substressed [O];
- [U] – U (in addition, this letter is depicted as double: [U]-);
- [E] – shock [E].
- [E] in Russian transcription has the following Polish analogues:
- - ie (at the beginning and middle of a word). In this case, the vowel [i] is pronounced like [i] in Russian.
- [Y] – [Y].
Remember that [i] is written in transcription after letters such as [ш], [ш], [ж].
[A] and [E] are nasal vowels inherent in the Polish language. They are written in transcription in the same way as they are pronounced before such types of letters as:
- [e"], [o"] – before such as capital letters k, z, s’, s, g, f, z’, ch, w;
- [en], [he] - d, t, dz, c, dz’, сz;
- [em], [ohm] - b, p;
- [en], [on] - dz, s.’
In pronunciation [A] fluctuates between [ON] and [OU]. Please note that [N] is not pronounced the same as the English ending [-ing].
It is read as [EN] after soft consonants, and as [OH] after hard ones. These variations retain the nasal character of word endings.
[E] in sound fluctuates between [EN] and [EU]. The same rules apply for this letter as for the letter [A]. How [E] this letter is pronounced in colloquial speech.
Consonants
The letters “B”, “P”, “D”, “T”, “G”, “K”, “W”, “F”, “M”, “N” are characterized by the same reading as for the letters . But with one nuance in the form of the letter [G]. It is pronounced as [G], and is not softened.
- [S], [Z], [S], which are located before a, e, o’ u y, are equivalent in pronunciation to Ts, Z, S in the Russian alphabet.
- [H] is equal to , and is read as [X].
- sounds similar to the letters [U] and [B].
- [L] – [L]
- [Z], – [zh]
- – [SH]
- – [C]
- [J] – [Y]
- , – [H]
The Polish language is rich in combinations of consonants such as . They are designated in transcription as [Ш]. In the pronunciation of such combinations, dividing them into separate sounds is excluded. They are pronounced smoothly and firmly.
Russian-Polish phrasebooks will help you better navigate pronunciation. They are good for beginners.
Accent
In a language like Polish, there is a concept of reduction in the rules of stress. Reduction is a change in sounds in syllables. Reduction is typical for vowel unstressed sounds.
The rules of accents themselves are easy to learn. In Polish, the stress always falls on a specific syllable – the penultimate one. And if a word should be read with stress on another syllable, then in Polish it will always be indicated by stress.
But there is room for exceptions. They tend to be quite blurry. The difficulty is that they are constantly changing.
In pictures for children
Very good method One that is suitable for children is learning Polish in pictures. This will not only allow you to better assimilate information and facilitate the memorization process. Learning the Polish alphabet in pictures significantly delays the moment when children's interest in learning the language begins to fade.
Learning with pictures also develops associative thinking. By associating a letter or phrase of the Polish alphabet with a specific image, the child remembers them faster.
Almost always [Ш] is pronounced as [Ш].
Polish cities
In Poland there are cities such as:
- Szczecin;
- Krakow;
- Gdansk;
- Warsaw;
- Poznan;
- Wroclaw;
- Lodz.
These cities included in the list above have a population of more than four hundred thousand people. Cities from these seven are not only the most populated, but also the most attractive.
These are the cities with the most developed infrastructure. Tourists and students most often come to such cities. In addition to them, these cities are often visited by businessmen of various levels.
Cities in Poland have crossed the mark of nine hundred and thirteen.
Polish surnames in alphabetical order
Surnames with endings –skiy became the most numerous. Surnames with this ending used to mean belonging to the area in which its owners were born. Since ancient times, such surnames were exclusively among the nobility. In the 15th and 16th centuries, surnames with this ending spread among ordinary people.
Last name ending in –skiy Although quite common in Poland, such surnames can be worn by people who are not related to Poles. Surnames derived from crafts or other occupations have become a kind of indicator of their prevalence and popularity in the old days.
The list includes surnames most common in Poland:
- Vishnevs(y)ky
- Wozniak
- Wojciechowski
- Wujcik
- Dombrovsky
- Kozlovsky
- Zeli(e)sky
- Kamin(s)ski(s)
- Kaczmarek
- Kvya(i)tkovsky
- Kowalski(s)
- Kowalczyk
- Krawczyk
- Lewandowski
- Mazur
- Novak
- Shimansky
- Yankovsky
How to read the inscriptions?
The following rule applies to verbs in Polish: there is no ending after letters such as [T]. Besides this, there is one more universal rule: in almost all cases the ending [-s] is read as [-uv]. For example, "Krakow" would be pronounced "Krakow".
The Polish language has a lot in common with Russian. Both the rules of phonetics and grammar are quite similar. Russian-Polish transcription easily perceived. In addition, Russian-Polish phrase books are sold in many stores. Russian-Polish phrase books or tutorials will make your trip to Poland much easier.
Lesson 1 - Alphabet
The Polish alphabet is based on the Latin writing system with the addition of diacritics such as kreska, graphically similar to an acute accent (ć, ń, ó, ś, ź) , dot kropka (ż), "tail" - ogonek (ą, ę) and the devil (ł) . It should be noted that the Polish and Czech alphabets are the two main forms of writing systems based on the Latin alphabet and developed for the Slavic languages. Slovak, Slovenian and Croatian languages use a writing system based on the Czech alphabet. The writing of the Kashubian language is based on the Polish writing system, and the writing of Serbian combines the latter two.
The Polish alphabet consists of 32 letters: 9 vowels and 23 consonants.
There are no letters in the Polish alphabet q(ku), v(faw) and x(x), which sometimes still appear in the names of companies, trademarks, as well as in some words of foreign origin. These letters are rarely used in writing. They are not necessary due to the features Polish pronunciation. In borrowings they are most often replaced by letters and letter combinations kw, w, ks/gz accordingly (for example: kwarc- quartz, veranda- veranda, extra- extra). Letters y And w They are pronounced differently in different positions.
The written language of the Polish language also includes seven digraphs: ch, cz, dz, dź, dż, rz, sz.
Despite the fact that the orthography of the Polish language is mostly based on the phonetic-morphological principle, some sounds in writing can have more than one form:
- [x]- either h, or ch;
- [and]- either ż , or rz(Although rż stands for group );
- [y]- either u, or ó ;
- softly pronounced or ć, dź, ń, ś, ź, or ci, dzi, ni, si, zi(ć, ń and others before a consonant or at the end of a word, while ci, ni and others are used before vowels a, ą, e, ę, o, u; letters c, dz, n, s, z- exclusively before i).
Sometimes a combination of consonants rz are used to convey " rz"along with sound [and].
The pronunciation of double consonants in Polish differs from the pronunciation of single consonants. It should be noted that lengthening of the sound should not occur, as in Finnish and Italian, however, this is acceptable in informal communication. According to the rules, the speaker must articulate and pronounce each of the two sounds separately, that is, instead of lengthening, the consonant is repeated. For example, the word panna(young girl) should not be read in the same way as pana (master, master - genitive case), but should be pronounced like this: pan-na. This applies not only to the original Polish words(such as panna or oddech), but also borrowing (lasso, attyka). In Polish, double consonants can appear at the beginning of a word, for example: czczenie(worship), dżdżownica(earthworm), ssak(mammal), wwóz(import, import), zstąpić(go down) and zza(because of, thanks), but never appear at the end of words of Slavic origin.
