Polish language

Polish language
West Slavic language of Poland, spoken by more than 41 million people, including 2–3 million in North America and perhaps 1.

5 million in the former Soviet Union. The earliest continuous text in Polish dates from the 14th century. The standard language, formulated in the 16th century, combines features of western and southeastern dialects. Polish is written in the Latin alphabet and utilizes both digraphs (combinations of letters) and diacritics to distinguish its fairly elaborate repertory of consonants. Stress is fixed on the next-to-last syllable.

* * *

Polish  Język Polski 

      West Slavic language belonging to the Lekhitic subgroup and closely related to Czech (Czech language), Slovak (Slovak language), and the Sorbian (Sorbian languages) languages of eastern Germany; it is spoken by the majority of the present population of Poland.

      The modern literary language, written in the Roman (Latin) alphabet, dates from the 16th century and was originally based on the dialects of the area around Poznań, in western Poland. The first written Polish consists of a list of names in the Papal Bull issued in 1136 by Pope Innocent II to the archbishop of Gniezno; the oldest recorded sentence is a gloss translating a quotation in a document from 1270. Extant manuscripts containing any appreciable amount of connected Polish text date back no earlier than the 14th century.

      Polish contains a great number of words borrowed from Latin, Czech, German, Belarusian, and Ukrainian and also some words from Italian, French, and English. Along with the other West Slavic languages, it has a fixed stress accent. In contrast to the others, however, the language has nasalized vowels (spelled ę and ą), indirectly continuing the nasalized vowels of early Slavic. Among the major dialects are Great Polish and Pomeranian, Silesian, Little Polish, and Mazovian. Kashubian (Cassubian), often classified as a Polish dialect, is, historically, a separate language.

* * *


Universalium. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать курсовую

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Polish language — Polski redirects here. For the car brand, see Polski Fiat. Polish język polski Pronunciation [ˈpɔlski] Spoken in …   Wikipedia

  • Polish Language Council — The Polish Language Council ( Rada Języka Polskiego in Polish) is the official language regulating organ of the Polish language. It was formed on September 9, 1996 as an advisory body to the Polish Academy of Sciences. It is composed of 30… …   Wikipedia

  • Dialects of the Polish language — Polish language Language overview · History · Dialects · Pronunciation  …   Wikipedia

  • Evolution of the Polish language — Polish language Language overview · History · Dialects · Pronunciation  …   Wikipedia

  • List of Polish language authors — List of Polish language authorsNotable Polish novelists, poets, playwrights, historians and philosophers, listed in chronological order by year of birth:* (ca. 1465 after 1529) Biernat of Lublin * (1503 1572) Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski *Polish… …   Wikipedia

  • Old Polish language — Old Polish ięzyk Polſki Pronunciation [ˈjɛ̃zɨk ˈpɔlski] Spoken in Central and Eastern Europe Extinct developed into Middle Polish by the 16th century …   Wikipedia

  • Middle Polish language — Middle Polish Pronunciation [ˈjɛ̃zɨk ˈpɔlski] Spoken in Central and Eastern Europe Extinct developed into Modern Polish by the 18th century Language family …   Wikipedia

  • List of Polish language radio stations — There are a number of radio stations broadcasting in the Polish language, both inside Poland and in the United States.Public stations in PolandPolish Radio (Polskie Radio S.A.) public radio broadcaster: * Program 1 (Jedynka) (information and easy …   Wikipedia

  • List of Polish language poets — Note: Names that cannot be confirmed in Wikipedia database nor through given sources are subject to removal. If you would like to add a new name please consider writing about the poet first. Poets who have written much of their poetry in the… …   Wikipedia

  • List of Polish language films — There are two lists of Polish language films: #Organized alphabetically by Polish title #Organized alphabetically by title of English release Alphabetical by Polish title * Austeria * Avalon * Bilans kwartalny * Człowiek z Marmuru * Człowiek z… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”