Why is the Polish language so difficult?

Lyzko

Jul 9, 11, 15:04 #61

Still, Russian is way more conservative than Polish in its adopting of productive Latin-based verbal prefixes of the 'konstruktować', 'telefonować' variety. Contemporary Polish for instance knows only the Latinate 'literatura', 'restauracja' etc.. whereas Russian employs its own Slavic word base from which to form words that Polish more often than not derives from Latin or Greek. Here though, the influence of Catholicism is evident-:))

alexw68	Jul 9, 11, 15:07 #62
Lyzko: Still, Russian is way more conservative than Polish in its adopting of productive Latin-based verbal prefixes of the 'konstruktować', 'telefonować' variety. I wonder if this isn't a 20th century phenomenon. Go back to the 19th and borrowings not from generic Latinate roots, but very specifically French, are quite common.

Lyzko	Jul 9, 11, 15:28 #63
True, Alex! And yet, Polish typically borrows heavily from non-Slavic word roots. Having said all that, Both Polish and particularly Czech use almost exclusively SLAVIC word roots for both the days of the week as well as the months and seasons, compared say with Russian in the case of the former.

♂

Jul 9, 11, 16:25 #64

FUZZYWICKETS:

what could possibly be confusing about what I wrote. nearly every infinitive form of every verb in Polish ends with a "ch" sound. it adds to the difficulty of the language becuase it's hard for an English speaker to pronounce and is just another reason to make the "ch" sound in an already completely "ch" ridden language. like I said, Polish for most English speakers sounds like a "shoosing" contest, where every word sounds like the last one. it's a uni-dimensional language.

For the record: This was discussed to death in some other thread, where the original poster could not hear a difference between Polish "cz", English "ch", and Polish "ć". So you must have actually meant "ć". All you need to do is to train your ear to start hearing the difference.

So you complain that all Polish infinitives predictably end with "ć". Again, here are the Spanish examples of infinitives: salir, estudiar, comprar, pensar, aceptar, acordar, afirmar, amenazar. Horror, oh horror - they all end with the same letter - "r".

PennBoyThreads: 157 Posts: 3,441 Joined: Dec 7, 08 ♂	Jul 9, 11, 16:41 #65
Lyzko: Russian employs its own Slavic word base Not quite. Russian for tomato -tomato/tomat from Latin, in Polish pomidor from Italian Pomodoro, Russian for family-familia again from Latin, Polish rodzina-Slavic.

Lyzko	Jul 9, 11, 17:06 #66
But, PennBoy, compare once again the Polish/Czech months (two exceceptions!) with Russian-:)

♂

Jul 9, 11, 17:43 #67

Lyzko:

Polish/Czech months (two exceceptions!) with Russian-:)

Ya ne govoryu horosho po russkomu
Czech Polish Russian

January -- leden Styczen Yanvar'
February -- únor Luty Fevral'
March -- březen Marzec Mart
April -- duben Kwiecien Ahprel'
May -- květen Maj Mai
June -- červen Czerwiec Iyoon'
July -- červenec Lipiec Iyool'
August -- srpen Sierpien Avgoost
September -- září Wrzesien Sentyabr'
October -- říjen Pazdziernik Oktyabr'
November -- listopad Listopad Noyabr'
December -- prosinec Grudzien Dekabr'

Lyzko	Jul 9, 11, 18:03 #68
Świetnie pisane, PennBoy! Własnie moim zdaniem-:)

PennBoyThreads: 157 Posts: 3,441 Joined: Dec 7, 08 ♂	Jul 9, 11, 18:34 #69
Lyzko: Świetnie pisane, PennBoy! Własnie moim zdaniem-:) Thanx :) Which language, overall, do you think is closer to Russian? Polish or Czech.

♂

Edited by: gumishu Jul 9, 11, 20:38 #70

Rain33

Rain33:

I discovered that she is Kashubian, so she is probably not the best person to ask to recite something in Polish.

Kashubians speak perfect Polish - they are sort of bilingual

PennBoy:

Ya ne govoryu horosho po russkomu[b][/b]

po ruski - ja toże nie goworiu choroszo chotja ja ucziłsia jego w szkolie - Polish has it's own specific transliteration of Russian which is not completely phonetic but reflects the Russian written forms

Lyzko	Jul 10, 11, 23:26 #71
I would say, PennBoy, either Czech or Slovak. Aside from some essential phonemic differences, i.e. the presence of long as well as short vowels in both Czech and Slovak (non-existent in both Russian and Polish), Czech appears both structurally as well as morphologically similar to written Polish.

PennBoyThreads: 157 Posts: 3,441 Joined: Dec 7, 08 ♂	Jul 10, 11, 23:33 #72
Lyzko: Czech appears both structurally as well as morphologically similar to written Polish. But which is closer to Russian? Polish or Czech. Through words used and sound?

MagdalenaThreads: 5 Posts: 1,389 Joined: Aug 15, 07 ♀	Jul 11, 11, 00:17 #73
PennBoy: Which language, overall, do you think is closer to Russian? Polish or Czech. Neither of them. Belarussian or Ukrainian would be better choices if you are interested in a language "close to Russian".

PennBoyThreads: 157 Posts: 3,441 Joined: Dec 7, 08 ♂	Jul 11, 11, 00:25 #74
Magdalena: Neither of them. Belarussian or Ukrainian would be better choices if you are interested in a language "close to Russian". Almost every Czech person I've met spoke Polish well so I never really heard them speak it to make a judgement if it's similar to Polish or not.

Rain33Threads: 15 Posts: 24 Joined: Jul 5, 11 ♀	Jul 11, 11, 05:49 #75
Lyzko: True, Alex! And yet, Polish typically borrows heavily from non-Slavic word roots. Having said all that, Both Polish and particularly Czech use almost exclusively SLAVIC word roots for both the days of the week as well as the months and seasons, compared say with Russian in the case of the former. So, in other words, Russian is easier than Polish?

urszulaThreads: 2 Posts: 362 Joined: Aug 31, 07 ♀	Jul 11, 11, 05:54 #76
Rain33: So, in other words, Russian is easier than Polish? Lol. It depends if you like to learn Russian letters, instead of the ones you already know.

RebirthThreads: 7 Posts: 161 Joined: Jun 20, 11 ♂ [Suspended]	Jul 11, 11, 05:54 #77
Polish grammar is harder than English grammar. English writing/reading is harder than Polish writing/reading. Both languages have their difficult and easier aspects. Enough said.

gumishuThreads: 17 Posts: 3,943 Joined: Apr 6, 09 ♂	Jul 11, 11, 08:07 #78
PennBoy: Russian for family-familia familia is more like a family name in Russian than the family itself and Russian also have a different word for family 'sjemja' ('syem'ya') which I guess is Slavic (maybe it comes from 'seed' - compare archaic Polish 'siemię' = 'seed')

♂

Jul 11, 11, 08:16 #79

Rain33:

Lyzko:
True, Alex! And yet, Polish typically borrows heavily from non-Slavic word roots. Having said all that, Both Polish and particularly Czech use almost exclusively SLAVIC word roots for both the days of the week as well as the months and seasons, compared say with Russian in the case of the former.

So, in other words, Russian is easier than Polish?

Russian grammar is a bit simpler than the Polish one but it still has good couple of noun cases and comparable difficulty of verb aspects (perfective/imperfective)
Russian phonetics is a bit simpler than Polish - but hardly any Westerner masters their 'soft consonants' and most pronounce these as their plain variants (it hardly sounds Russian anymore then)
the different alphabet is not a big problem - you can read it pretty fast after some practice (I learned it almost instantly as a kid in school) - the only problem is some sounds behind the alphabet

MagdalenaThreads: 5 Posts: 1,389 Joined: Aug 15, 07 ♀	Jul 11, 11, 09:12 #80
gumishu: Russian grammar is a bit simpler than the Polish one Yeah, sure. Especially noun inflections. Piece of cake. I guess you didn't have a very demanding teacher. Russian is difficult, people.

greglobyThreads: 1 Posts: 6 Joined: Sep 7, 10 ♂	Edited by: gregloby Jul 11, 11, 11:51 #81
Polish is NOT the hardest language in the world!

Lyzko

Jul 11, 11, 15:04 #82

Russian has one fewer cases (6) than Polish (7), Polish on the other hand has a slightly more "phonetic" pronunciation than Russian in the sense of fixed (Polish) vs. movable word stress (Russian) plus less extreme palatalization. Russian also has numerous examples of unstressed schwa sounds, making it actually much closer to American English! For this reasons, many younger, 'hip' Russians have a much easier time than most Poles in developing an American-style, especially a "Noo Yaawwwk", accent. Polish has equal weight/stress given to each letter, i.e. zero schwa sounds, as well as only ONE sound per every consonant cluster!

Put it all together and you have the proverbial six of one, half a dozen of the other-:)

POLAND . The Unofficial Guide	Unanswered \| Archives
POLAND . The Unofficial Guide	Poland for Expats and Tourists	Witamy, Guest \| PF Members \| Gold Members

Home \| Unanswered \| Archives \| Random \| Statistics	Time in Poland: 15:50 / May 26
About Us \| Contact Us \| Rules, Privacy \| Poland Advertising	© 2005-12 PolishForums.com