Polish (język polski [jɛ̃zɨk ˈpɔlskʲi]) is a Slavic Language spoken by some 55 million people, primarily in Poland, where it is an official language, but also used by minority communities throughout the world. Although the Austrian, German and Russian administrations exerted much pressure on the Polish nation (during the 19th and early 20th centuries) following the Partitions of Poland, which resulted in attempts to suppress the Polish language, a rich literature has regardless developed over the centuries.

Linguistics

As a Slavic Language, Polish is related to other languages such as Russian and Czech, as well as their more distant cousins Irish and Hindi. More specifically, as a Western Slavic language, it is closely related to languages such as Silesian, Kashubian, Upper Sorbian and Lower Sorbian

Classification

Polish's full classification is as follows:

Indo-European (Proto-Indo-European) > Balto-Slavic (Proto-Balto-Slavic) > Slavic (Proto-Slavic) > West Slavic > Lechitic > Polish

Phonology and Phonotactics

Polish has eight different vowel phonemes, distinguishing six oral vowels, /i ɛ ɨ a u ɔ/ and two nasal ones, partially preserved from Proto-Slavic, /ɛ̃ ɔ̃/.

Polish has either 28 or 31 consonant phonemes, depending on whether the palatalized velars are considered phonemic or not. Polish has a set of retroflex consonants that may be described as palato-aveolar, but are probably better described as retroflex. These retroflex consonants are also lamial, a feature they share with Chinese retroflexes.

Polish consonants experience a decent degree of allophony due to various processes. Among these is voicing and devoicing, which has served to neutralize the voicing distinction on consonants in certain positions. Polish, like other Slavic languages, is known to allow complex consonant clusters, such as in the word bezwzględny [bɛzˈvzɡlɛndnɨ].

Stress in Polish is predominantly on the penultimate syllable, with secondary stress appearing on alternating syllables before it. Therefore a five syllable word would have stress on the fourth syllable, with a secondary stress on the second. There are, however, exceptions to this rule, such as some borrowings from Classical languages.

Morphology and Syntax

Polish is a highly inflected language, with a relatively free word order, though the default is Subject-Verb-Object.

Polish nouns inflect for seven cases, nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental, locative and vocative. Nouns also decline for two numbers, singular and plural (the dual is seen in some relics, but was mostly lost in the 15th century), as well as three genders or noun classes, masculine, feminine and neuter. However, among these genders, the masculine is further subdivided into personal, animate or inanimate categories.

The full declension pattern of three nouns in the singular can be seen below. They are klub ('club', masculine animate), mapa ('map', feminine) and mięso ('meat', neuter).

Case	klub	mapa	mięso
Nominate	klub	mapa	mięso
Accusative	klub	mapę	mięso
Genitive	klubu	mapy	mięsa
Dative	klubowi	mapie	mięsu
Vocative	klubie	mapo	mięso
Locative	klubie	mapie	mięsie
Instrumental	klubem	mapą	mięsem

Polish has 13 different pronomial forms, contrasting several persons and genders, as well as a T-V distinction based on politeness that corresponds to gender. The full set of pronouns, in the nominative, can be seen below

Pronoun	Meaning
ja	1st singular
ty	2nd singular informal
pan	2nd singular formal masculine
pani	2nd singular formal feminine
on	3rd singular masculine
ona	3rd singular feminine
ono	3rd singular neuter
my	1st plural
wy	2nd plural informal
panowie	2nd plural formal masculine
panie	2nd plural formal feminine
oni	3rd plural masculine personal
one	3rd plural other

Adjectives in Polish inflect to agree with the noun in gender, case and number. Polish has no definite or indefinite article, either.

Polish verbs conjugate for two numbers, three persons, three tenses, two aspects and four moods. Because of the extensive conjugation paradigm of Polish verbs, the pronoun is often dropped as the information is given in the verb itself, thus making Polish a pro-drop language similar to Spanish.

Polish's two aspects are the imperfective aspect and the perfective aspect, though these two aspects can only be utilized in the past and future tenses; all conjugations in the present must use the imperfective as they are ongoing, repeated or habitual. The perfective is used only with structures where an action has ended or will have ended, such as entire, uninterrupted action just after the moment of speech or just before it. To create a perfective verb from an imperfective one, Polish adds a prefix. Some verbs, including all motion verbs, have two forms of the imperfective aspect. The other is the frequentative form, which is used to emphasize repetition and describe habits.

The four moods that Polish can express are the indicative, imperative, conditional and subjunctive moods. The three tenses are the past, present and future. Polish verbs come in one of four conjugation paradigms, often based on how the verb ends. Polish also allows for verbal nouns to be derived from the verb and used in certain cases.

Miscellany

The Book of Henryków (Polish: Księga henrykowska, Latin: Liber fundationis claustri Sancte Marie Virginis in Heinrichau), contains the earliest known sentence written in the Polish language: Day, ut ia pobrusa, a ti poziwai (pronounced originally as: Daj, uć ja pobrusza, a ti pocziwaj, modern Polish: Daj, niech ja pomielę, a ty odpoczywaj or Pozwól, że ja będę mełł, a ty odpocznij, English: Come, let me grind, and you take a rest), written around 1270.
Polish was used as a lingua franca in Central Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries due to the influence of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
Old Polish is an attested ancestral form of the language, with Middle Polish being used from the 16th to the 18th centuries and Modern Polish being used from then on.

Samples

Spoken sample:

Newscast

Lullaby

Talkshow

Written sample:

Wszyscy ludzie rodzą się wolni i równi w swojej godności i prawach. Są obdarzeni rozumem i sumieniem i powinni postępować wobec siebie w duchu braterstwa.

Sources

Wikipedia pages on Polish
Iwona Sadowska, Polish: A Comprehensive Grammar

Previous LotWs

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Cześć - This week's language of the week: Polish

Linguistics

Miscellany

Samples

Sources

Previous LotWs

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