Poles began writing in Polish in the 12th century using the Latin alphabet.^[1] This alphabet, however, was ill-equipped to deal withPolish phonology, particularly thepalatal consonants (now written asś,ź,ć,dź), theretroflex group (nowsz,ż, andcz) as well as the nasal vowels (now written asą,ę). Consequently, Polish spelling in theMiddle Ages was highly inconsistent as writers struggled to adapt the Latin alphabet to the needs of the Polish language. There was no unified system; different writers came up with different systems before the modernPolish orthography was firmly established.

In the earliest documents the letterc could signifyc,cz, ork while the letterz was used forś,z,ź, andż. Writers soon began to experiment withdigraphs (combinations of letters), new letters (ꟁ andſ), and eventuallydiacritics.

Jakub Parkoszowic (Jacobus Parcossii) in 1440 was the first to attempt to introduce an orthographic reform titledTraktat o ortografii polskiej (Treatise on Polish Orthography) that was ultimately failed and wasn't rediscovered until 1830.^[2]

In it he suggests the use of doubling vowels to represent vowel length, a feature of Old and Middle Polish.^[3] He also suggests the use of ꟁ for nasal vowels and ÿ for the phoneme/ɨ/, as well as a number of digraphs and trigraphs.^[4]

Several grammarians attempted to introduce orthographic standards in theMiddle Polish period, with varying success.

Around 1514, Stanisław Zaborowski wroteOrthographia seu modus recte scribendi et legendi Polonicum idioma quam utilissimus (Orthography, that is the most useful way of correct writing and reading in the Polish language). In it, he attempts to fill the gaps left by the writing system used by Latin by including digraphs and diacritics.

Łacinnicy naznaczają liter różniących się między sobą nazwiskiem i postacią 23. Nam Polakom nie potrzeba ich więcey: albowiem i nasz ięzyk niemi obeyjść się może: chociaż co do brzmienia iedna i ta sama litera z innemi połączona (consyllabica) rozmaicie się wymawia: co się i u Łacinków zdarza.

Latin speakers distinguish 23 letters differing from each other by name and shape. We Poles do not need more: because our language can get by without them: however, as to the sound, one and the same letter when combined with others (consyllabica) is pronounced in various ways: which also happens to Latin speakers.

He expresses disdain for the usage ofg for the sound/j/, particularly in native words.

Aby się nie więc mieszały polskie wyrazy, niech się w nich kładziei, ieśliby brzmiało, a nieg, iakoto:moiá, twoiá, moi, twoi, i t. d.

And so in order to not confuse Polish terms, leti be written in them, if it sounds thus, and notg, for examplemoiá, twoiá, moi, twoi, etc.

His decisions were informed by Parkoszowic's attempted reform as well as Czech.

>R.w polskim ięzyku dwoiakie ma brzmienie: iedno łacińskim i polskim wyrazom spólne, drugie niewłaściwé, które pospolicie pisać zwykli tak: rz.Czesi zaś takie rsposobem przyciskowych czyli niewłaściwych liter, kropkę u góry kładąc, znaczyć zwykli tak ṙ(z kropką) co iest daleko iednostayniéy.

R in the Polish language has two sounds: one is common to both Latin and Polish, the other is improper, which is commonly written thus:rz. The Czechs however write thisr in a way of accented, that is, improper letters, placing a dot on top, to mark it usually as thus ṙ (with a dot) which is unchanging.

He proposed the following letters:a, á, ạ, ą, b, b̈, c, c̈, ċ, d, ď, d̈, ḋ, e, ē, f, g, g̈, h, i, ī, k k̈, l, ł, m, m̈, n, n̈, o, ō, p, p̈, r, ṙ, s, s̈, ṡ, t, u, v, v̈, w, ẅ, x, ẍ, ẋ, y, z, z̈, ż.

The orthography was not used in many works, however it influenced works such asRaj duszny printed around 1513 andPoczątek święte Ewanielije podług świętego Jana around 1518/1519.

In 1549Jan Seklucjan (Joannis Seclvcianus) wroteKrótka a prosta nauka czytania i pisania języka polskiego (A short and simple study of reading and writing in the Polish language), in which he laments the difficulty of reading Polish.

Pismo polskie jest trudne ku czytaniu tym ktorzy włosności buchstabow przekreszonych albo pąktowany nie rozumieją.

Polish writing is difficult to read for those who don't understand letters either marked with diacritics or dots.

In this book, he introduced 11 vowel letters,a,â,ą,e,ę,i,o,u,ü,w,y. At this time, the phonemes/i/ and/ɨ/ were still not often distinguished, and in the work itself one can find examples such as "gdi" (modern gdy).

In response to Seklucjan's grammar,Stanisław Murzynowski wrote Ortografija polská.To jest nauka pisániá i czytaniá języka polskié(go), ilé Polákowi potrzebá, niewielem słów dostatecznie wypisaná (Polish orthography, that is learning to read and write the Polish language, as much as Poles need, written in sufficient but few words) in 1551. In it, Murzynowski introduced 51graphemes.

Most notably, the long vowels were distinguished with an acute accent, the so-called slanted (pochylone) vowels (á,é,ó), palatalized consonants were distinguished using a diacriticb̍,p̍, andv̍, modernbi,pi, andwi, the character ċ was also introduced to represent/t͡ɕ/ (modernć), which caused some controversy, as the letter was already used mostly in the digraphċz (moderncz). A special letterɀ was suggested for the sound/ʑ/, and along with it the digraphdɀ for/d͡ʑ/ (moderndź anddzi). The letters̈ for the sound/ɕ/. The ligatureß and the digraphsſſ andſs (modernsz) were suggested for/ʂ/.

Murzynowski also suggested that the letterx be used to represent the sounds/ks/ and/kɕ/ in loanwords.

Before, the sounds/i/ and/j/ were often written using only the graphemei, as in Latin; however, they were at times distinguished, namely in the Polish translation of theNew Testament using the lettersi andy respectively. Murzynowski was the first to suggest the two sounds be systematically distinguished and introduced the letterj, and the usage ofg to represent/j/ dropped. He also suggested the use ofyj for the sound/ɨj/, as is the case in modern Polish, as it was previously unwritten.

przyjdzi, przyjmi. Zaráz to wymáwiáć mamy. Cze(go) drudzy nie wiedząc, pisząprzydzi, przymi miastoprzyjdzi, przyjmi, aboprzéjdzi, przéjmi, ale to oboje nic ku rzeczy, zwłászczaprzéjdzi, przéjmi. Bo inszą rzecz znaczą niżprzyjdzi, przyjmi, jako gdy mowięmprzejdzi przez tę rzékę, przéjmi moje konie rć.

przyjdzi, przyjmi. That is now what we should pronounce. Those who don't know writeprzydzi, przymi instead ofprzyjdzi, przyjmi, orprzéjdzi, przéjmi, but neither is right, especiallyprzéjdzi, przéjmi. Because that means something else thanprzyjdzi, przyjmi, as when I sayprzejdzi przez tę rzékę, przéjmi moje konie rć.

Onufry Kopczyński wrote his grammars on the commission of Towarzystwo do Ksiąg Elementarnych, a department of Towarzystwo do Ksiąg Elementarnych.^[5] He spent several chapters inGrammatyka dla szkół narodowych na klassę 1 andGrammatyka dla szkół narodowych na klassę 2 on what correct punctuation should be, which was not usually discussed in previous orthography books.

Many of the standards introduced in the previous centuries ultimately fell out of use, leading to the reforms of the 19th century.^[6]

In 1816 Alojzy Feliński publishedPrzyczyny używanej przeze mnie pisowni inPisma własne i przekładania wiérszem Aloizego Felińskiego. In it, he suggested the following changes:

1. Removal ofá in favor ofa.
2. The usage ofj for/j/ instead ofi andy, except in foreign words: kray ⟶ kraj, iayko ⟶ jajko, moie ⟶ moje.
3. The usage of-ć,-c,-dz in infinitives: być, piec, módz (modern móc).^[7]

Then in 1830 theWarsaw Society of Friends of Learning publishedRozprawy i wnioski o ortografii polskiej, but it did not reach a wider audience.^[8]

In 1890, the committeeAcademy of Learning was established and composed of linguists and other academics. A year later, they published their resolutions, to whichJan Baudouin de Courtenay,Aleksander Brückner,Antoni Kalina,Jan Karłowicz, andAdam Kryński [pl] protested.^[9] The two groups attempted to reach an agreement through discussions in 1906 led by Jan Baudouin de Courtenay. The following changes were suggested:

1. ja instead ofia,ya in final syllables.
2. gie instead ofge.
3. -im,-ym as well as-imi,-ymi alongside-emi in masculine adjectives ininstrumental andlocative.
4. -c instead of-dz for some infinitives, for examplemóc.
5. Anterior adverbial participles without internalł:rzekszy,zjadszy.

TheProvisional Council of State requested in 1916 that the following changes be implemented, but theLwów Scientific Society voiced opposition, and yet more compromise was to be found in more committees organized in 1917. Finally, in 1918, the following changes were accepted and adopted.

1. The usage ofj in non-initial syllables was accepted.
2. -em,-emi were to be differentiated from-ym,-ymi for instrumental and locative according to an adjective's nominative ending.
3. ke andge were to be written in loan words, andkie andgie were to be written in native and nativized words.
4. -c for some infinitives was kept.
5. Anterior adverbial participles were to be written with an internalł:zjadłszy.^[10]

However, despite all this, the proposed orthographic changes were not widely accepted, which led to the final reform, which took place in 1936.

In 1935, thePolish Academy of Arts and Sciences initiated the final major orthographic reform.^[11] The following changes were proposed and implemented:

1. Strings of consonants +ja (e.g.Marja) would now be written withi instead ofj, except afterc,s,z (e.g.Francja,pasja,diecezja).
2. Removal of the distinction of-ym,-ymi and-em,-emi in adjectives, leaving only-ym and-ymi.
3. Foreignke would be writtenkie, but foreignge asge.
4. A preference for writing adverbialized prepositional phrases separately (e.g.na razie).^[12]

The article also concerns capitalization and punctuation. The changes were met with disapproval. However, through government regulation and implementation in schools, the changes eventually became standard. Since then, only minor changes regarding the spelling of foreign words have been implemented.

In May 2024, thePolish Language Council announced that there will be changes implemented to the Polish orthography.

Namely:^[13]

1. Capitalization ofdemonyms but allowing alternative case spellings of unofficial ethnic names, mostly colloquial synonyms, e.g.Warszawianin;kitajec orKitajec.
2. Capitalization of the names of companies and brands of industrial products, but also products of these companies and brands.
3. Conjunctions and the particles -bym, -byś, -by, -byśmy, -byście spelled with a space, e.g.Zastanawiam się, czy by nie pojechać w góry.
4. Exceptionless spaceless spelling ofnie- + participles/gerunds, e.g.niegotujący,niegotowanie.
5. Lower case spelling of adjectives ending in-owski derived from personal names, regardless of meaning, e.g.miłoszowski. Those formed with-ów,-owy,-in, and-yn may be spelled with either an uppercase letter or lowercase letter, e.g.jacków dom orJacków dom.
6. Spaceless spelling for the prefixpół-, e.g.półzabawa,półnauka,półżartem,półserio,półspał,półczuwał, except with proper nouns referring to a single person, e.g.pół-Polka,pół-Francuzka.
7. Terms that sound similar or identical, usually appearing together now allow for three spelling versions: with a hyphen, e.g.tuż-tuż;trzask-prask;bij-zabij, with a comma, e.g.tuż, tuż;trzask, prask;bij, zabij, or with a space, e.g.tuż tuż;trzask prask;bij zabij.
8. Change in the use of capital letters in proper names include:
   1. Writing all elements with a capital letter in the names of committees.
   2. Capital letters for all parts of multi-word geographical and place names whose second part is a noun in the nominative case, e.g.Morze Marmara.
   3. Capital letters in the names of public spaces, including the termsaleja, brama, bulwar, osiedle, plac, park, kopiec, kościół, klasztor, pałac, willa, zamek, most, molo, pomnik, cmentarz, but notulica, e.g.ulica Józefa Piłsudskiego, Aleja Róż, Brama Warszawska, Plac Zbawiciela, Park Kościuszki, Kopiec Wandy, Kościół Mariacki, Pałac Staszica, Zamek Książ, Most Poniatowskiego, Pomnik Ofiar Getta, Cmentarz Rakowicki.
   4. Capital letters for all elements except prepositions and conjunctions in multi-word names of service and catering establishments.
   5. Capital letters of all elements in the names of orders, medals, decorations, awards and honorary titles.
9. Change in the writing of prefixes include:
   1. Prefixed words, of native or foreign origin alike, should be written together, except if the base word is capitalized, in which case a hyphen is added after the prefix.
   2. Allowing of spellings either with a space or together for the termssuper-, extra-, eco-, wege- mini-, maxi, midi-, mega-, macro-, which can also appear as independent words, e.g.miniwieża ormini wieża.
   3. Words modified withniby- andquasi- should be written together, unless they start with a capital letter.
10. Adjectives and adjectival adverbs, regardless ofdegree, prefixed withnie- should be written without a space.

• Polish orthography
• Cyrillization of Polish under the Russian Empire
• Old Polish language
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• History of Polish language
• Polish phonology
• Help:IPA/Polish

• Kochanowski, Jan; Januszowski, Jan; Górnicki, Łukasz (1594).Nowy karakter polski y orthographia polska. Kraków. [a scan]
• Kochanowski, Jan; Januszowski, Jan; Górnicki, Łukasz (1594).Nowy karakter polski y orthographia polska. Kraków. [a scan in the DjVu format]
• Kochanowski, Jan; Januszowski, Jan; Górnicki, Łukasz (1594).Nowy karakter polski y orthographia polska. Kraków. [a transcription]
• Kochanowski, Jan; Januszowski, Jan; Górnicki, Łukasz (1594).Nowy karakter polski y orthographia polska. Kraków. [a transcription]
• Ziemkiewicz, Maksymilian (1852).Ortografia czyli pisownia polska, dziełko praktyczne dla użytku i wygody szkół elementarnych, tak polskich jak i niemieckich, tak miejskich jak i wiejskich. Gniezno.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Rychlicki, Franciszek (1852).Sprawa ortografii polskiej w Galicy. Lwów.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Kudasiewicz, Adolf (1861).Przeszłość i teraźniejszość ortografii polskiej ocenione ze stanowiska zasad wymowy. Warszawa.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Winkler, Leopold (1862).Gramatyka języka polskiego, obejmująca naukę o częściach mowy i ich odmianach oraz ortografię. Cz. 1. Warszawa.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Antoni, Małecki (1868).O naturze spółgłoski j i praktycznych stąd następstwach dla ortografii polskiej. Lwów.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Łukowski, Michał (1886).Elementarny przewodnik gramatyczny zawierający najważniejsze prawidła języka polskiego : do użytku w szkole i w domu. Dz. 2, Składnia i ortografia. Gniezno.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Borkowski, Antoni (1888).Teoretyczna poprawa grafiki polskiej oraz praktyczne rozwiązanie niektórych trudności naszej ortografii. Z. 1. Warszawa.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Pisownia polska : 50 praw grafiki, ortografii i gramatyki do użytku piszących po polsku. Warszawa. 1889.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Gąsiorowski, Wacław (1924).Ortografja polska : podręcznik do nauki pisowni polskiej opracowany, według głównych podstaw, uchwalonych przez Akademję Umiejętności w Krakowie. Chicago.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Schreiber, Ignacy (1933).Ortografja polska : (elementy psychotechniczne). Częstochowa.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Malinowski, Maciej (2011).Ortografia polska od II połowy XVIII wieku do współczesności. Kodyfikacja, reformy, recepcja (rozprawa doktorska). Katowice.

• Parkoszowic, Jakub (1907) [1440].Jakóba syna Parkoszowego Traktat o ortografii polskiej. Kraków: Jan Łoś.
• Zaborowski, Stanisław (1825) [c. 1514].Księdza Stanisława Zaborowskiego Ortografija polska z przydaniem uwag tłómacza, tudzież Ortografii Seklucyana i spisu bibliograficznego grammatyk i Słowników polskich.
• Seklucjan, Jan (1549).Catechismvs to iest Krotka a prosta starey wiary chrzescianskiey nauka powtore.
• Kopczyński, Onufry (1803) [1778].Grammatyka dla szkół narodowych na klassę 1.
• Kopczyński, Onufry (1802) [1780].Grammatyka dla szkół narodowych na klassę 2.
• Kopczyński, Onufry (1804) [1778].Grammatyka dla szkół narodowych na klassę III : przedrukowana.
• Kopczyński, Onufry (1785).Układ gramatyki dla szkół narodowych z dzieła już skończonego wyciągniony.
• Seroczyński, Grzegorz (2014–2018).Jakub Parkoszowic Traktat o ortografii polskiej. Uniwersytet Warszawski.ISBN 978-83-64006-99-9.{{cite book}}:|website= ignored (help)
• Winiarska-Górska, Izabela (2014–2018).Jan Seklucjan (Joannis Seclvcianus) Krótka a prosta nauka czytania i pisania języka polskiego. Uniwersytet Warszawski.ISBN 978-83-64006-99-9.{{cite book}}:|website= ignored (help)
• Winiarska-Górska, Izabela (2014–2018).Stanisław Murzynowski z Suszyc Ortografija polská. To jest nauka pisániá i czytaniá języka polskié(go), ilé Polákowi potrzebá, niewielem słów dostatecznie wypisaná. Uniwersytet Warszawski.ISBN 978-83-64006-99-9.{{cite book}}:|website= ignored (help)
• Kresa, Monika (2014–2018).Onufry Kopczyński Grammatyka dla szkół narodowych. Uniwersytet Warszawski.ISBN 978-83-64006-99-9.{{cite book}}:|website= ignored (help)
• Wanda, Decyk-Zięba (2014–2018).Stanisław Zaborowski Orthographia seu modus recte scribendi et legendi Polonicum idioma quam utilissimus1 Ortografia, czyli sposób poprawnego pisania i czytania języka polskiego jak najużyteczniejszy. Uniwersytet Warszawski.ISBN 978-83-64006-99-9.{{cite book}}:|website= ignored (help)

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