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How do people mispronounce your Polish names?


PolishLatina 2 | -  
16 Nov 2007 /  #1
Almost all my cousins have Polish names and they all get pronounced wrong by people who don't know the language so lets hear your name and how people say it wrong!
yagda  
17 Nov 2007 /  #2
My name is Jadzia. someone pronounced it NINJA :)
Polson 5 | 1,768  
17 Nov 2007 /  #3
My mother's name is Ewa (quite easy). But some people pronounce it in an English way -> Eła...LoL

:)
Mufasa 19 | 357  
17 Nov 2007 /  #4
Doesn't only happen with polish names. I'm not going to give mine away here, but you have no idea how many versions I have heard ;)
Polson 5 | 1,768  
17 Nov 2007 /  #5
Oh, good you're here Mufasa, i can ask you a question about Dutch (if it's the same pronounciation as Afrikaan). How do you pronounce the letter "w" ? Like in English or like in Polish ?

"ij" makes the sound [aj], or [ej] ?...
Peter 3 | 248  
17 Nov 2007 /  #6
Of course you could live in a part of the world where they don't even bother to try and pronounce your name, even if you say it for them.............my surname is Konasiewicz and I've had teachers say it as sonofabitch
Mufasa 19 | 357  
17 Nov 2007 /  #7
In Afrikaans

"w"

Sometimes like English na przykład

twee: two - Crooked polish fonetics: tłiy with i and y flowing into each other, almost like ej in Polish becomes one sound.

Sometimes like Polish na przykład

weet: know - Crooked polish fonetics: wiyt

This is nothing official - just my humble attempt - so please.

I'm sure a dutch person might be able to give a dutch example, but I am not clued up enough to think up one myself. There was a dutchman here a day or so ago. I'll check my threads.

"ij" makes the sound

"ej" in dutch

In Afrikaans, it became "ei" or "y" - the "y" being an eventual combination of the "ij" written cursively :)
Polson 5 | 1,768  
17 Nov 2007 /  #8
my surname is Konasiewicz and I've had teachers say it as sonofabitch

Aha !! They suck... :)

Thanks Muff ;) There are 2 Dutch football clubs i would like to say correctly : Twente and Walwijk (i think it's written like that)

:)
Mufasa 19 | 357  
17 Nov 2007 /  #9
Twente

I'm not sure which 'w' sound would twente have - it may be either one.

Better to ask a dutchman :)
Patrycja19 62 | 2,688  
17 Nov 2007 /  #10
my surname is Konasiewicz and I've had teachers say it as sonofabitch

lmao.. Peter you crack me up.. that is classic..

they dont even get to the first three letters of my dads name and its over with
but of course the only Polish names that are easy is the ones are the ones that
sound like they look..

like milewski etc.
Wyspianska  
17 Nov 2007 /  #11
ha they call me so funny always
my name is ewelina and Nate for example always just says 'lina' :D cant say full name

btw: i never knew how to write my name the best way for foreigner, to make him know how to pronounce it. so all i can do is call them and say it on my own at first

can someone write it?
Patrycja19 62 | 2,688  
17 Nov 2007 /  #12
can someone write it?

eva is nice for american version or shorter version of you name.
Wyspianska  
17 Nov 2007 /  #13
thx pati but i wanted to know how write polish way of pronounce 'ewelina'
hope u know what i mean :)
Patrycja19 62 | 2,688  
17 Nov 2007 /  #14
I always thought it was spelled Polish as Ewalina and not Ewelina

so the way you would pronounce it was (eva-lina) because the W has a V sound to it
am I correct?

I dont know, I think there is better name experts then I on this forum.. I am still
learning myself.. but I do know some of the Americanized versions of Polish names'

:)
Vincent 9 | 892  
17 Nov 2007 /  #15
can someone write it?

in the UK it would be Eveline or evelyn.

If i tried to proununce your name, I would get Ava-le-na, but I guess I would be miles wrong.
Patrycja19 62 | 2,688  
17 Nov 2007 /  #16
you know whats funny I never thought there was a Polish way of spelling my name
which is spelled Patricia aka Patrycja.. but once I seen that there was it made me
like my name a whole lot more. :)))

hey vincent, your name in Polish is Wincenty :) that is my dads name..

ok his real name was Wincenty Pawel
Wyspianska  
17 Nov 2007 /  #17
hah so funny
pati is close about my name... not EwAlina but EwElina :)

thank u anyway :)
Vincent 9 | 892  
17 Nov 2007 /  #18
Ah nice one. I always thought my name would be the same , as there is no "V" in the Polish alphabet. Thanks
okruch - | 3  
17 Nov 2007 /  #19
perhaps Eveleenah?
Patrycja19 62 | 2,688  
17 Nov 2007 /  #20
Ah nice one. I always thought my name would be the same , as there is no "V" in the Polish alphabet. Thanks

I always like the meaning of the names..
Wyspianska  
17 Nov 2007 /  #21
perhaps Eveleenah?

could be :)

thank u
Mufasa 19 | 357  
17 Nov 2007 /  #22
Eveleenah

probably the closest you're gonna get wsp ;)

I speak Afrikaans though, and it would have been no problem for me to pronounce.
Bartolome 2 | 1,085  
17 Nov 2007 /  #23
They rarely attempt to say my surname. There are however bold ones who try, but it usually comes out awfully :)
beckski 12 | 1,617  
17 Nov 2007 /  #24
Ever since kindergarten, my surname has been slaughtered.
Peter 3 | 248  
17 Nov 2007 /  #25
my surname has been slaughtered

That's a precise way to describe it..................

lmao.. Peter you crack me up.. that is classic

Here's another one then...............

My friend's surname is Kaczmarek and his boss pronounces it (at the end of the month when they are getting paid) as "cash my cheque"
pudddddin 7 | 48  
17 Nov 2007 /  #26
I think it happens all the time when people don't speak the same language. I'm a british teacher in Poland and I have never heard a polish person pronnounce my name correctly and that includes my Polish boyfriend who i ahve been with for 2 and a half years (his pronnunciation of my name IS getting better though!)
osiol 55 | 3,921  
17 Nov 2007 /  #27
i never knew how to write my name the best way for foreigner, to make him know how to pronounce it

Try something like just 'EVIL'.
Just a thought. Not the best one though.

Here's a question:
Guess what Cud & House Key is supposed to be.
Davey 13 | 388  
18 Nov 2007 /  #28
My mom's maiden name is 'Trzop' and there is no chance in hell anybody who isn't Polish would be able to pronounce that....
Maat - | 21  
18 Nov 2007 /  #29
thanks to my mom I got both my dad and my oms names as second name, since the millitary dosnt allow highfination in second names my name tag is Haigkardasiewicz [instead of Haig Kardasiewicz], most people call me H16, biggest problem is that almost all my working uniforms have name tags, so wherever I go I got 50000 people asking me "how do you prononce your name", after two weeks its kinda hard not to punch anybody...
JohnP - | 210  
18 Nov 2007 /  #30
Same here...last name has been murdered since I was young, and in boot I was one of the first guys to get "assigned" a nick-name.

My last name is Pokrzywa- however I've heard people add "r" in the middle, and a whole lot of other things not even remotely there. Even had one instructor just call me "Smitty".

I don't even blink anymore when someone murders it...my last outfit had a guy of Indian descent with maybe 8 syllables in his name. Yes, as you may have already guessed...he had a nickname too, or people just shortened his name to "Karim".

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