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Language Information

Polish is spoken by almost all of the 35 million inhabitants of Poland, by about 700,000 people in the United States, and by smaller groups in the Lithuania, Ukraine, Canada, Brazil, and other countries. It is one of the Slavic languages and thus part of the Indo-European family.

Polish is written in the Roman alphabet, with q, v, and x missing, and with j pronounced y, w pronounced v, and c pronounced ts. However, there are a bewildering number of diacritical marks, including acute accents, dots, hooks, and, in the case of the 1, a bar (l).

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Polish vocabulary naturally resembles that of the other Slavic languages. Such Polish words as bez (without), most (bridge), cena (price), and zima (winter) are identical in Russian, Czech, Bulgarian, and Serbo-Croatian. But "peace," which is mir in Russian and mír in Czech, in Polish is pokój, while "island" (ostrov in Russian and Czech) in Polish is wyspa. The Polish words for "north," "south," "east," and "west" are respectively pólnoc (which also means "midnight"), poludnie (noon), wschód (rising), and zachód (setting). Some Polish words seem unpronounceable to one who has never studied the language (e.g., przemysl— industry, szescziesiat—sixty, wszeehs'wiat—universe, szczs'liw)—happy; lucky). Equally formidable are the names of the Polish cities Szczecin, Bydgoszcz, and Swietochiowice.

Wiadyslaw Reymont, the Polish novelist and short-story writer, was the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1924.

Brazil, Canada, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine, United States of America.

Family: Indo-European
Subgroup: Slavic
Branch: Western

Writing Sample

Translation

Matthew sprang instantly at him, but before he knew what happened Antek pounced upon him like a crazed wolf. With one hand he clutched his collar, stifling both his breath and voice, with the other he grabbed his belt and tore him from his place as one roots out a bush. He kicked open the door, rushed with him beyond the sawmill to the river fence, and hurled him with such fury against the fence that four of the posts snapped like straws, and Matthew fell into the water like a heavy log.

—WLADYSLAW REYMONT, The Peasants