Polish began to emerge as a distinct language around the 10th century, the process largely triggered by the establishment and development of the Polish state. At the time, it was a collection of dialect groups with some mutual features, but much regional variation was present.[31]Mieszko I, ruler of the Polans tribe from theGreater Poland region, united a few culturally and linguistically related tribes from the basins of theVistula andOder before eventually accepting baptism in 966. With the arrival ofWestern Christianity, Poland also adopted theLatin alphabet, which made it possible to write down Polish, which until then had existed only as aspoken language.[32] The closest relatives of Polish are theElbe andBaltic Sea Lechitic dialects (Polabian andPomeranian varieties). All of them, exceptKashubian, are extinct.[33] The precursor to modern Polish is theOld Polish language. Ultimately, Polish descends from the unattestedProto-Slavic language.
TheBook of Henryków is the earliest document to include a sentence written entirely in what can be interpreted asOld Polish –Day, ut ia pobrusa, a ti poziwai, meaning "let me grind, and you have a rest" highlighted in red.
TheBook of Henryków (Polish:Księga henrykowska,Latin:Liber fundationis claustri Sanctae Mariae Virginis in Heinrichau), contains the earliest known sentence written in the Polish language:Day, ut ia pobrusa, a ti poziwai (in modern orthography:Daj, uć ja pobrusza, a ti pocziwaj; the corresponding sentence in modern Polish:Daj, niech ja pomielę, a ty odpoczywaj orPozwól, że ja będę mełł, a ty odpocznij; and in English:Come, let me grind, and you take a rest), written around 1280. The book is exhibited in the Archdiocesal Museum in Wrocław, and as of 2015 has been added toUNESCO's "Memory of the World" list.[34]
The medieval recorder of this phrase, the Cistercian monk Peter of the Henryków monastery, noted that "Hoc est in polonico" ("This is in Polish").[35][36][37]
The earliest treatise on Polish orthography was written byJakub Parkosz [pl] around 1470.[38] The firstprinted book in Polish appeared in either 1508[39] or 1513,[40] while theoldest Polish newspaper was established in 1661.[41] Starting in the 1520s, large numbers of books in the Polish language were published, contributing to increased homogeneity of grammar and orthography.[42] The writing system achieved its overall form in the 16th century,[33][43] which is also regarded as the "Golden Age of Polish literature".[40] Theorthography was modified in the 19th century and in 1936.[33]
The process of standardization began in the 14th century[46] and solidified in the 16th century during the Middle Polish era.[47] Standard Polish was based on various dialectal features, with theGreater Poland dialect group serving as the base.[48] AfterWorld War II, Standard Polish became the most widely spoken variant of Polish across the country, and most dialects stopped being the form of Polish spoken in villages.[49]
Poland is one of the most linguisticallyhomogeneous European countries; nearly 97% of Poland's citizens declare Polish as theirfirst language. Elsewhere,Poles constitute large minorities in areas which were once administered or occupied by Poland, notably in neighboringLithuania,Belarus, andUkraine. Polish is the most widely used minority language in Lithuania'sVilnius County, by 26% of the population, according to the 2001 census results, asVilnius was part of Poland from 1922 until 1939. Polish is found elsewhere in southeastern Lithuania. In Ukraine, it is most common in the western parts ofLviv andVolyn Oblasts, while inWest Belarus it is used by the significant Polish minority, especially in theBrest andGrodno regions and in areas along the Lithuanian border. There are significant numbers of Polish speakers among Polish emigrants and their descendants in many other countries.
In theUnited States,Polish Americans number more than 11 million but most of them cannot speak Polish fluently. According to the2000 United States census, 667,414 Americans of age five years and over reported Polish as the language spoken at home, which is about 1.4% of people who speak languages other thanEnglish, 0.25% of the US population, and 6% of the Polish-American population. The largest concentrations of Polish speakers reported in the census (over 50%) were found in three states:Illinois (185,749),New York (111,740), andNew Jersey (74,663).[50] Enough people in these areas speak Polish thatPNC Financial Services (which has a large number of branches in all of these areas) offers services available in Polish at all of theircash machines in addition toEnglish andSpanish.[51]
According to the 2011 census there are now over 500,000 people inEngland andWales who consider Polish to be their "main" language. InCanada, there is a significantPolish Canadian population: There are 242,885 speakers of Polish according to the 2006 census; in particular, there are concentrations of Polish speakers inToronto (91,810 speakers) andMontreal.[52]
The geographical distribution of the Polish language was greatly affected by theterritorial changes of Poland immediately after World War II andPolish population transfers (1944–46). Poles settled in the "Recovered Territories" in the west and north, which had previously been mostlyGerman-speaking. Some Poles remained in the previously Polish-ruled territories in the east that were annexed by theUSSR, resulting in the present-day Polish-speaking communities in Lithuania, Belarus, and Ukraine, although many Poles were expelled from those areas to areas within Poland's new borders. To the east of Poland, the most significant Polish minority lives in a long strip along either side of theLithuania-Belarus border. Meanwhile, theflight and expulsion of Germans (1944–50), as well as theexpulsion of Ukrainians andOperation Vistula, the 1947 migration of Ukrainian minorities in the Recovered Territories in the west of the country, contributed to the country's linguistic homogeneity.
Geographic language distribution maps of Poland from pre-WWII to present
Geographical distribution of the Polish language (green) and other Central and Eastern European languages and dialects. A large Polish-speaking diaspora remains in the countries located east of Poland that were once theEastern Borderlands of theSecond Polish Republic (1918–1939).
Knowledge of the Polish language within parts ofEurope. Polish is not a majority language of any nation outside of Poland, though areas that speak and are majority Polish are present in some neighboring countries.
The oldest printed text in Polish –Statuta synodalia Episcoporum Wratislaviensis printed in 1475 inWrocław by Kasper Elyan.The Polish alphabet contains 32 letters. Q, V and X are not used in the Polish language.
The inhabitants of different regions of Poland still[update] speak Polish somewhat differently, although the differences between modern-dayvernacular varieties and standard Polish (język ogólnopolski) appear relatively slight. Most of the middle aged and young speak vernaculars close to standard Polish, while the traditional dialects are preserved among older people in rural areas.[53] First-language speakers of Polish have no trouble understanding each other, and non-native speakers may have difficulty recognizing the regional andsocial differences. The modernstandard dialect, often termed as "correct Polish",[53] is spoken or at least understood throughout the entire country.[23]
Polish has traditionally been described as consisting of three to five main regional dialects:
Kashubian contains a number of features not found elsewhere in Poland, e.g. nine distinct oral vowels (vs. the six of standard Polish) and (in the northern dialects) phonemic word stress, an archaic feature preserved fromCommon Slavic times and not found anywhere else among theWest Slavic languages. However, it was described by some linguists as lacking most of the linguistic and social determinants of language-hood.[56]
Many linguistic sources categorize Silesian as a regional language separate from Polish,[57] while some consider Silesian to be a dialect of Polish.[58] Many Silesians consider themselves a separate ethnicity and have been advocating for the recognition of Silesian as aregional language in Poland. The law recognizing it as such was passed by theSejm andSenate in April 2024, but was vetoed by PresidentAndrzej Duda in late May 2024.
According to the last official census in Poland in 2011, over half a million people declared Silesian as their native language. Many sociolinguists (e.g.Tomasz Kamusella,[59] Agnieszka Pianka, Alfred F. Majewicz,[60]Tomasz Wicherkiewicz)[61] assume that extralinguistic criteria decide whether a lect is an independent language or a dialect: speakers of thespeech variety or/and political decisions, and this is dynamic (i.e. it changes over time). Also, research organizations such asSIL International[62] and resources for the academic field of linguistics such asEthnologue,[63]Linguist List[64] and others, for example theMinistry of Administration and Digitization[65] recognized the Silesian language. In July 2007, the Silesian language was recognized byISO, and was attributed an ISO code of szl.
Some additional characteristic but less widespread regional dialects include:
The distinctive dialect of theGorals (Góralski) occurs in the mountainous area bordering theCzech Republic andSlovakia. The Gorals ("Highlanders") take great pride in their culture and the dialect. It exhibits some cultural influences from theVlach shepherds in the 14th–17th centuries.[66]
In the northern and western (formerly German) regions where Poles from the territories annexed by theSoviet Union resettled after World War II, the older generation speaks a dialect of Polish characteristic of theKresy that includes a longer pronunciation of vowels.
Poles living inLithuania (particularly in theVilnius region), in Belarus (particularly the northwest), and in the northeast of Poland continue to speak theEastern Borderlands dialect, which sounds "slushed"[clarification needed] (in Polish described aszaciąganie z ruska, "speaking with a Ruthenian drawl") and is easily distinguishable.
Some city dwellers, especially the less affluent population, had their own distinctive dialects – for example, theWarsaw dialect, still spoken by some of the population ofPraga on the eastern bank of theVistula. However, these city dialects are now[update] mostly extinct due to assimilation with standard Polish.
Many Poles living in emigrant communities (for example, in theUnited States), whose families left Poland just after World War II, retain a number of minor features of Polish vocabulary as spoken in the first half of the 20th century that now sound archaic to contemporary visitors from Poland.
Polish linguistics has been characterized by a strong strive towards promotingprescriptive ideas of language intervention and usage uniformity,[67] along with normatively oriented notions of language "correctness"[53] (unusual by Western standards).[67]
Polish has six oral vowels (seven oral vowels in written form), which are allmonophthongs, and twonasal vowels. The oral vowels are/i/ (spelledi),/ɨ/ (spelledy and also transcribed as /ɘ/ or /ɪ/),/ɛ/ (spellede),/a/ (spelleda),/ɔ/ (spelledo) and/u/ (spelledu andó as separate letters). The nasal vowels are /ɛw̃/ (spelledę) and /ɔw̃/ (spelledą). Unlike Czech or Slovak, Polish does not retain phonemic vowel length — the letteró, which formerly represented lengthened /ɔː/ in older forms of the language, is now vestigial and instead corresponds to /u/.
Polish oral vowels depicted on a vowel chart. Mainallophones (in black) are in broad transcription, whereas positional allophones (in red and green) are in narrow transcription. Allophones with red dots appear in palatal contexts. The central vowel[ɐ] is an unstressed allophone of/ɛ,ɔ,a/ in certain contexts
The Polishconsonant system shows more complexity: its characteristic features include the series ofaffricate andpalatal consonants that resulted from fourProto-Slavic palatalizations and two furtherpalatalizations that took place in Polish. The full set of consonants, together with their most common spellings, can be presented as follows (although other phonological analyses exist):
Neutralization occurs betweenvoiced–voiceless consonant pairs in certain environments, at the end of words (where devoicing occurs) and in certain consonant clusters (whereassimilation occurs). For details, seeVoicing and devoicing in the article on Polish phonology.
Most Polish words areparoxytones (that is, thestress falls on the second-to-last syllable of a polysyllabic word), although there are exceptions).
Polish permits complex consonant clusters, which historically often arose from the disappearance ofyers. Polish can have word-initial and word-medial clusters of up to four consonants, whereas word-final clusters can have up to five consonants.[68] Examples of such clusters can be found in words such asbezwzględnyⓘ[bɛzˈvzɡlɛndnɨ] ('absolute' or 'heartless', 'ruthless'),źdźbłoⓘ[ˈʑd͡ʑbwɔ] ('blade of grass'),wstrząsⓘ[ˈfstʂɔw̃s] ('shock'), andkrnąbrność[ˈkrnɔmbrnɔɕt͡ɕ] ('disobedience'). A popular Polishtongue-twister (from a verse byJan Brzechwa) isW Szczebrzeszynie chrząszcz brzmi w trzcinieⓘ[fʂt͡ʂɛbʐɛˈʂɨɲɛˈxʂɔw̃ʂt͡ʂˈbʐmifˈtʂt͡ɕiɲɛ] ('InSzczebrzeszyn a beetle buzzes in the reed').
The predominantstress pattern in Polish is penultimate stress – in a word of more than one syllable, the next-to-last syllable is stressed. Alternating preceding syllables carry secondary stress, e.g. in a four-syllable word, where the primary stress is on the third syllable, there will be secondary stress on the first.[70]
Each vowel represents one syllable, although the letteri normally does not represent a vowel when it precedes another vowel (it represents/j/, palatalization of the preceding consonant, or both depending on analysis). Also the lettersu andi sometimes represent only semivowels when they follow another vowel, as inautor/ˈawtɔr/ ('author'), mostly in loanwords (so not in nativenauka/naˈu.ka/ 'science, the act of learning', for example, nor in nativizedMateusz/maˈte.uʂ/ 'Matthew').
A formal-tone informative sign in Polish, with a composition of vowels and consonants and a mixture of long, medium and shortsyllables
Someloanwords, particularly from theclassical languages, have the stress on the antepenultimate (third-from-last) syllable. For example,fizyka (/ˈfizɨka/) ('physics') is stressed on the first syllable. This may lead to a rare phenomenon of minimal pairs differing only in stress placement, for examplemuzyka/ˈmuzɨka/ 'music' vs.muzyka/muˈzɨka/ – genitive singular ofmuzyk 'musician'. When additional syllables are added to such words throughinflection orsuffixation, the stress normally becomes regular. For example,uniwersytet (/uɲiˈvɛrsɨtɛt/, 'university') has irregular stress on the third (or antepenultimate) syllable, but the genitiveuniwersytetu (/uɲivɛrsɨˈtɛtu/) and derived adjectiveuniwersytecki (/uɲivɛrsɨˈtɛt͡skʲi/) have regular stress on the penultimate syllables. Loanwords generally become nativized to have penultimate stress.[71] In psycholinguistic experiments, speakers of Polish have been demonstrated to be sensitive to the distinction between regular penultimate and exceptional antepenultimate stress.[72]
Another class of exceptions is verbs with the conditional endings-by, -bym, -byśmy, etc. These endings are not counted in determining the position of the stress; for example,zrobiłbym ('I would do') is stressed on the first syllable, andzrobilibyśmy ('we would do') on the second. According toprescriptive authorities, the same applies to the first and second person plural past tense endings-śmy, -ście, although this rule is often ignored incolloquial speech (sozrobiliśmy 'we did' should be prescriptively stressed on the second syllable, although inpractice it is commonly stressed on the third aszrobiliśmy).[73] These irregular stress patterns are explained by the fact that these endings are detachableclitics rather than true verbal inflections: for example, instead ofkogo zobaczyliście? ('whom did you see?') it is possible to saykogoście zobaczyli? – herekogo retains its usual stress (first syllable) in spite of the attachment of the clitic. Reanalysis of the endings as inflections when attached to verbs causes the different colloquial stress patterns. These stress patterns are considered part of a "usable" norm of standard Polish - in contrast to the "model" ("high") norm.[74]
Some common word combinations are stressed as if they were a single word. This applies in particular to many combinations of preposition plus a personal pronoun, such asdo niej ('to her'),na nas ('on us'),przeze mnie ('because of me'), all stressed on the bolded syllable.
ThePolish alphabet derives from theLatin script but includes certain additional letters formed usingdiacritics. The Polish alphabet was one of three major forms of Latin-based orthography developed for Western and some South Slavic languages, the others beingCzech orthography andCroatian orthography, the last of these being a 19th-century invention trying to make a compromise between the first two.Kashubian uses a Polish-based system,Slovak uses a Czech-based system, andSlovene follows the Croatian one; theSorbian languages blend the Polish and the Czech ones.
The diacritics used in the Polish alphabet are thekreska (graphically similar to theacute accent) over the lettersć, ń, ó, ś, ź and through the letter inł; thekropka (superior dot) over the letterż, and theogonek ("little tail") under the lettersą, ę. The lettersq, v, x are used only in foreign words and names.[17]
Polish orthography is largelyphonemic—there is a consistent correspondence between letters (ordigraphs andtrigraphs) and phonemes (for exceptions see below). The letters of the alphabet and their normal phonemic values are listed in the following table.
TheJakub Wujek Bible in Polish, 1599 print. The letters á and é were subsequently abolished, but survive in Czech.
Voiced consonant letters frequently come to represent voiceless sounds (as shown in the tables); this occurs at the end of words and in certain clusters, due to the neutralization mentioned in thePhonology section above. Occasionally also voiceless consonant letters can represent voiced sounds in clusters.
The spelling rule for the palatal sounds/ɕ/,/ʑ/,/tɕ/,/dʑ/ and/ɲ/ is as follows: before the voweli the plain letterss, z, c, dz, n are used; before other vowels the combinationssi, zi, ci, dzi, ni are used; when not followed by a vowel the diacritic formsś, ź, ć, dź, ń are used. For example, thes insiwy ("grey-haired"), thesi insiarka ("sulfur") and theś inświęty ("holy") all represent the sound/ɕ/. The exceptions to the above rule are certain loanwords from Latin, Italian, French, Russian or English—wheres beforei is pronounced ass, e.g.sinus,sinologia,do re mi fa sol la si do,Saint-Simon i saint-simoniści,Sierioża,Siergiej,Singapur,singiel. In other loanwords the voweli is changed toy, e.g.asymilacja.
The following table shows the correspondence between the sounds and spelling:
Similar principles apply to/kʲ/,/ɡʲ/,/xʲ/ and/lʲ/, except that these can only occur before vowels, so the spellings arek, g, (c)h, l beforei, andki, gi, (c)hi, li otherwise. Most Polish speakers, however, do not consider palatalization ofk, g, (c)h orl as creating new sounds.
Except in the cases mentioned above, the letteri if followed by another vowel in the same word usually represents/j/, yet a palatalization of the previous consonant is always assumed.
The reverse case, where the consonant remains unpalatalized but is followed by a palatalized consonant, is written by usingj instead ofi: for example,zjeść, "to eat up".
The lettersą andę, when followed by plosives and affricates, represent an oral vowel followed by a nasal consonant, rather than a nasal vowel. For example,ą indąb ("oak") is pronounced[ɔm], andę intęcza ("rainbow") is pronounced[ɛn] (the nasal assimilates to the following consonant). When followed byl orł (for exampleprzyjęli,przyjęły),ę is pronounced as juste. Whenę is at the end of the word it is often pronounced as just[ɛ].
Depending on the word, the phoneme/x/ can be spelth orch, the phoneme/ʐ/ can be speltż orrz, and/u/ can be speltu oró. In several cases it determines the meaning, for example:może ("maybe") andmorze ("sea").
In occasional words, letters that normally form a digraph are pronounced separately. For example,rz represents/rz/, not/ʐ/, in words likezamarzać ("freeze") and in the nameTarzan.
Doubled letters are usually pronounced as a single,lengthened consonant, however, some speakers might pronounce the combination as two separate sounds.
There are certain clusters where a written consonant would not be pronounced. For example, theł in the wordjabłko ("apple") might be omitted in ordinary speech, leading to the pronunciationjapko.
Nouns belong to one of threegenders: masculine, feminine and neuter. The masculine gender is also divided into subgenders: animate vs inanimate in the singular, human vs nonhuman in the plural. There are sevencases: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental, locative and vocative.
Adjectives agree with nouns in terms of gender, case, and number.Attributive adjectives most commonly precede the noun, although in certain cases, especially in fixed phrases (likejęzyk polski, "Polish (language)"), the noun may come first; the rule of thumb is that generic descriptive adjectives normally precede (e.g.piękny kwiat, "beautiful flower") while categorizing adjectives often follow the noun (e.g.węgiel kamienny, "black coal"). Most short adjectives and their derivedadverbs formcomparatives andsuperlatives by inflection (the superlative is formed by prefixingnaj- to the comparative).
Verbs are of imperfective or perfectiveaspect, often occurring in pairs. Imperfective verbs have a present tense, past tense, compound future tense (except forbyć "to be", which has a simple futurebędę etc., this in turn being used to form the compound future of other verbs), subjunctive/conditional (formed with the detachable particleby), imperatives, an infinitive, present participle, present gerund and past participle. Perfective verbs have a simple future tense (formed like the present tense of imperfective verbs), past tense, subjunctive/conditional, imperatives, infinitive, present gerund and past participle. Conjugated verb forms agree with their subject in terms of person, number, and (in the case of past tense and subjunctive/conditional forms) gender.
Passive-type constructions can be made using the auxiliarybyć orzostać ("become") with the passive participle. There is also an impersonal construction where the active verb is used (in third person singular) with no subject, but with the reflexive pronounsię present to indicate a general, unspecified subject (as inpije się wódkę "vodka is being drunk"—note thatwódka appears in the accusative). A similar sentence type in the past tense uses the passive participle with the ending-o, as inwidziano ludzi ("people were seen"). As in other Slavic languages, there are also subjectless sentences formed using such words asmożna ("it is possible") together with an infinitive.
Yes–no questions (both direct and indirect) are formed by placing the wordczy ("whether") at the start, although it's often omitted in casual speech. Negation uses the wordnie, before the verb or other item being negated;nie is still added before the verb even if the sentence also contains other negatives such asnigdy ("never") ornic ("nothing"), effectively creating adouble negative.
Cardinal numbers have a complex system of inflection and agreement. Zero and cardinal numbers higher than five (except for those ending with the digit 2, 3 or 4 but not ending with 12, 13 or 14) govern thegenitive case rather than the nominative or accusative. Special forms of numbers (collective numerals) are used with certain classes of noun, which includedziecko ("child") andexclusively plural nouns such asdrzwi ("door").
Polish has, over the centuries, borrowed a number of words from other languages. When borrowing, pronunciation was adapted to Polish phonemes and spelling was altered to matchPolish orthography. In addition, word endings are liberally applied to almost any word to produceverbs,nouns,adjectives, as well as adding the appropriate endings for cases of nouns, adjectives,diminutives, double-diminutives,augmentatives, etc.
Depending on the historical period, borrowing has proceeded from various languages. Notable influences have beenLatin (10th–18th centuries),[77]Czech (10th and 14th–15th centuries),Italian (16th–17th centuries),[77]French (17th–19th centuries),[77] German (13–15th and 18th–20th centuries),Hungarian (15th–16th centuries)[77] andTurkish (17th century). Currently, English words are the most common imports to Polish.[78]
Loanwords make up 26.2% of the Polish vocabulary, with 36.3% originating from Latin, 19.7% from German, 15.9% from French, 7.1% from Czech, 3.8% from Greek, 3.5% from English, 3.1% from Italian, 1.9% from Ukrainian and Belarusian, 1.4% from Russian, and 1.5% from other languages; 5.9% are artificial borrowings (usuallycompound words of undetermined origin).[79]
The Latin language, for a very long time the only official language of the Polish state, has had a great influence on Polish. Many Polish words were direct borrowings or calques (e.g.rzeczpospolita fromres publica) from Latin.Latin was known to a larger or smaller degree by most of the numerousszlachta in the 16th to 18th centuries (and it continued to be extensively taught at secondary schools untilWorld War II). Apart from dozens of loanwords, its influence can also be seen in a number of verbatim Latin phrases inPolish literature (especially from the 19th century and earlier).During the 12th and 13th centuries, Mongolian words were brought to the Polish language during wars with the armies ofGenghis Khan and his descendants, e.g.dzida (spear) andszereg (a line or row).[78]
Words fromCzech, an important influence during the 10th and 14th–15th centuries includesejm,hańba andbrama.[78]
In 1518, the Polish kingSigismund I the Old marriedBona Sforza, the niece of the Holy Roman emperor Maximilian, who introduced Italian cuisine to Poland, especially vegetables.[80] Hence, words from Italian includepomidor from "pomodoro" (tomato),kalafior from "cavolfiore" (cauliflower), andpomarańcza, a portmanteau from Italian "pomo" (pome) plus "arancio" (orange). A later word of Italian origin isautostrada (from Italian "autostrada", highway).[80]
In the 18th century, with the rising prominence of France in Europe,French supplanted Latin as an important source of words. Some French borrowings also date from the Napoleonic era, when the Poles were enthusiastic supporters ofNapoleon. Examples includeekran (from French "écran", screen),abażur ("abat-jour", lamp shade),biuro ("bureau",office),biżuteria ("bijou",jewelry),rekin ("requin",shark),meble ("meuble", furniture),bagaż ("bagage", luggage),walizka ("valise", suitcase),fotel ("fauteuil", armchair),plaża ("plage", beach) andkoszmar ("cauchemar",nightmare). Some place names have also been adapted from French, such as theWarsaw boroughs ofŻoliborz ("joli bord" = beautiful riverside),Marymont ("Marie mont" = Mary's hill) as well as the town ofŻyrardów (from the nameGirard, with the Polish suffix -ów attached to refer to the founder of the town).[81]
Many words were borrowed from theGerman language from the sizable German population in Polish cities during medieval times. German words found in the Polish language are often connected with trade, the building industry, civic rights and city life. Some words were assimilated verbatim, for examplehandel (trade) anddach (roof); others are pronounced similarly, but differ in writingSchnur—sznur (cord). As a result of being neighbors with Germany, Polish has many German expressions which have become literally translated (calques). The regionaldialects ofUpper Silesia andMasuria (Modern PolishEast Prussia) have noticeably more German loanwords than other varieties.
Thecontacts with Ottoman Turkey in the 17th century brought many new words, some of them still in use, such as:jar ("yar" deep valley),szaszłyk ("şişlik" shish kebab),filiżanka ("fincan" cup),arbuz ("karpuz"watermelon),dywan ("divan" carpet),[82] etc.
From the founding of the Kingdom of Poland in 1025 through the early years of thePolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth created in 1569, Poland was the most tolerant country of Jews in Europe. Known as the "paradise for the Jews",[83][84] it became a shelter for persecuted and expelled European Jewish communities and the home to the world's largest Jewish community of the time. As a result, many Polish words come fromYiddish, spoken by the largePolish Jewish population that existed until theHolocaust. Borrowed Yiddish words includebachor (an unruly boy or child),bajzel (slang for mess),belfer (slang for teacher),ciuchy (slang for clothing),cymes (slang for very tasty food),geszeft (slang for business),kitel (slang for apron),machlojka (slang for scam),mamona (money),manele (slang for oddments),myszygene (slang for lunatic),pinda (slang for girl, pejoratively),plajta (slang for bankruptcy),rejwach (noise),szmal (slang for money), andtrefny (dodgy).[85]
The mountain dialects of theGórale in southern Poland, have quite a number of words borrowed fromHungarian (e.g.baca,gazda,juhas,hejnał) andRomanian as a result of historical contacts with Hungarian-dominatedSlovakia and Wallachian herders who travelled north along theCarpathians.[86]
Thieves' slang includes such words askimać (to sleep) ormajcher (knife) of Greek origin, considered then unknown to the outside world.[87]
In addition, Turkish and Tatar have exerted influence upon the vocabulary of war, names of oriental costumes etc.[77] Russian borrowings began to make their way into Polish from the second half of the 19th century on.[77]
Polish has also received an intensive number of English loanwords, particularly after World War II.[77] Recent loanwords come primarily from theEnglish language, mainly those that haveLatin orGreek roots, for examplekomputer (computer),korupcja (from 'corruption', but sense restricted to 'bribery') etc. Concatenation of parts of words (e.g.auto-moto), which is not native to Polish but common in English, for example, is also sometimes used. When borrowing English words, Polish often changes their spelling. For example, Latin suffix '-tio' corresponds to-cja. To make the word plural,-cja becomes-cje. Examples of this includeinauguracja (inauguration),dewastacja (devastation),recepcja (reception),konurbacja (conurbation) andkonotacje (connotations). Also, the digraphqu becomeskw (kwadrant = quadrant;kworum = quorum).
There are numerous words in both Polish andYiddish (Jewish) languages which are near-identical due to the large Jewish minority that once inhabited Poland. One example is thefishing rod,ווענטקע (ventke), borrowed directly from Polishwędka.
The Polish language has influenced others. Particular influences appear in other Slavic languages and inGerman — due to their proximity and shared borders.[88] Examples of loanwords include GermanGrenze (border),[89]Dutch andAfrikaansgrens from Polishgranica; GermanPeitzker from Polishpiskorz (weatherfish); GermanZobel, Frenchzibeline,Swedishsobel, and Englishsable from Polishsoból; andogonek ("little tail") — the word describing a diacritic hook-sign added below some letters in various alphabets. The commonGermanic wordquartz comes from the dialecticalOld Polishkwardy. "Szmata," a Polish, Slovak andRuthenian word for "mop" or "rag", became part ofYiddish. The Polish language exerted significant lexical influence uponUkrainian, particularly in the fields of abstract and technical terminology; for example, the Ukrainian wordпанствоpanstvo (country) is derived from Polishpaństwo.[90] The Polish influence on Ukrainian is particularly marked on western Ukrainian dialects in western Ukraine, which for centuries was under Polish cultural domination.[90][23][77][91]
There are a substantial number of Polish words which officially became part of Yiddish, once the main language of EuropeanJews. These include basic items, objects or terms such as abread bun (Polishbułka, Yiddishבולקעbulke), afishing rod (wędka,ווענטקעventke), anoak (dąb,דעמבdemb), ameadow (łąka,לאָנקעlonke), amoustache (wąsy,וואָנצעסvontses) and abladder (pęcherz,פּענכערpenkher).[92]
Quite a few culinary loanwords exist in German and in other languages, some of which describe distinctive features of Polish cuisine. These include German and EnglishQuark fromtwaróg (a kind of fresh cheese) and GermanGurke, Englishgherkin fromogórek (cucumber). The wordpierogi (Polish dumplings) has spread internationally, as well aspączki (Polish donuts)[93] and kiełbasa (sausage, e.g.kolbaso inEsperanto). As far aspierogi concerned, the original Polish word is already in plural (sing.pieróg, pluralpierogi; stempierog-, plural ending-i; NB.o becomesó in a closed syllable, like here in singular), yet it is commonly used with the English plural ending-s in Canada and United States of America,pierogis, thus making it a "double plural". A similar situation happened with the Polish loanword from Englishczipsy ("potato chips")—from Englishchips being already plural in the original (chip +-s), yet it has obtained the Polish plural ending-y.[b]
It is believed that the English wordspruce was derived fromPrusy, the Polish name for the region ofPrussia. It becamespruce because in Polish,z Prus, sounded like "spruce" in English (transl. "fromPrussia") and was a generic term for commodities brought to England byHanseatic merchants and because the tree was believed to have come from Polish Ducal Prussia.[94] However, it can be argued that the word is actually derived from theOld French termPruce, meaning literally Prussia.[94]
Wszyscy ludzie rodzą się wolni i równi pod względem swej godności i swych praw. Są oni obdarzeni rozumem i sumieniem i powinni postępować wobec innych w duchu braterstwa.
Article 1 of theUniversal Declaration of Human Rights in English:[96]
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
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^Prokop-Janiec, Eugenia (2013).Pogranicze Polsko-żydowskie(PDF) (in Polish). Kraków: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego. p. 20.ISBN978-83-233-3507-8.Archived(PDF) from the original on 21 January 2021. Retrieved18 January 2021.
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^Henryk Jaroszewicz (2022).Zasady Pisowni Języka Śląskiego - Written Rules of the Silesian Language. Silesia Progress
^Robert A. Rothstein (1994). "Polish".The Slavonic Languages, edited byBernard Comrie and Greville G. Corbett. Routledge. Pp. 754–756.
^"Silesia and Central European Nationalisms", 2007. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University PressISBN978-1-55753-371-5
^["Języki świata i ich klasyfikowanie"] (en: "Languages of the world and their classification"),Polish Scientific Publishers, Warszawa 1989
^"Ekspertyza naukowa dr Tomasza Wicherkiewicza", Language Policy and the Laboratory for Research on Minority, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, 2008
^Magosic, Paul Robert (2005)."The Rusyn Question".Archived from the original on 11 October 2007. Retrieved30 January 2008.
^abMiklós Kontra, ed. (2000)."Special issue book reviews".Multilingua.19 (1–2Language contact in East–Central Europe). Mouton Publishers: 193.ISSN1613-3684.Archived from the original on 11 March 2020. Retrieved6 September 2019.
^Towarzystwo Miłośników Języka Polskiego (2006).Język polski (in Polish). Vol. 86. p. 228.Archived from the original on 7 April 2023. Retrieved20 April 2021.
^"kielbasa".The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (fourth ed.). Houghton Mifflin Company. 2000. Archived fromthe original on 30 June 2008. Retrieved6 May 2009.
^Dziubalska-Kołaczyk, Katarzyna; Walczak, Bogdan (28 November 2018). "Polish".Revue belge de philologie et d'histoire.88 (3):817–840.doi:10.3406/rbph.2010.7805.S2CID240815177.
^Brian D. Joseph (1999).Historical Linguistics. Ohio State University, Department of Linguistics. p. 165.Archived from the original on 27 April 2024. Retrieved13 November 2019.
Dubisz, Stanisław (2020).Najnowsze dzieje języka polskiego. Rozwój polszczyzny w latach 1918-2018. Warsaw: Dom Wydawniczy Elipsa.ISBN978-83-8017-348-4.
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