Polish or any slavic language key to any other slavic languages?

marqozThreads: - Posts: 218 Joined: Feb 4, 10 ♂	Feb 20, 10, 23:34 #91
kubanec: Hanseatic League was mentioned as the reason for spreading of Low German among other languages, I recall. But it's offtopic and I don't know if it was really so. Yes, it was true. There are many borrowings from Low Saxon in Danish, Swedish and Polish, maybe some in English and Flemish. But it was in XII-XIV century and only in limited region.

♂

Edited by: Trevek Feb 21, 10, 21:18 #92

shewolf:

I notice some Polish words are similar to Spanish. Why is that?

Might have a latin/french root.

osiol:

What about English English and Scots English? They have at times been considered seperate languages. Until the two countries became one about 300 years ago, it was considered two seperate languages.

There's also the argument that it is a political thing, declaring Scots a 'dialect' rather than a 'language' somehow diminishes it and puts in under English. It's the old "the difference between a language and a dialect; a language is a dialect with a bigger army".

When I was at Glasgow Uni one lad became the first person in the uni's history to write his degree totally in Scots (apart from the papers he wrote in Gaelic). However, this was only made possible by agreeing to consider Scots as a 'variety of English'.

It's important to consider that up until the printing press each area of England and Scotland used it's own regional dialect. With the printing revolution it became more important to use just one main variety, which ended up being the Oxford dialect.

Juro

Sep 28, 10, 22:21 #93

I can confirm that Polish pronunciation is close to childish Slovak or Czech. In general, children's pronunciation is somehow "softer'' and less clear, what is similiar to Polish accent. E.g. it is difficult to say "L" for little children , so it sounds more like Polish "Ł". It is also difficult to say "S" clearly, so it sounds more like Polish "Ś" (something between SK/CZ "S" and "Š"). The same applies also for some other cosonants.

SeanusThreads: 22 Posts: 30,160 Joined: Dec 25, 07 ♂	Sep 28, 10, 22:24 #94
Crow, please step up to the plate. Please show us how similar Serbian is. I was told by my tour guide that Serbian is harder than its Croatian counterpart. It would make Croatian like Czech and Serbian like Polish.

MEMBER ♀

Edited by: Natasa Sep 28, 10, 23:24 #95

Seanus:

I was told by my tour guide that Serbian is harder than its Croatian counterpart.

That is ONE language according to not politically correct linguists in both countries. They have more than 80 or 90 % of shared lexical fund , so...tourist guide was not informed well.
A woman tried to present her PhD thesis proving that fact few years ago in Zagreb, she was publicly humiliated for having such a blasphemous idea (but I think she proved her point).

Small differences that exist are in the direction tourist guide said. It's sounding sharper (serbian).

I was listening to Polish and I didn't understand a lot. I think I heard word osa (wasp in serbian, in Polish also?)
Maybe it's just me.

The original is unfaithful to the translation

SeanusThreads: 22 Posts: 30,160 Joined: Dec 25, 07 ♂	Edited by: Seanus Sep 28, 10, 23:27 #96
Well, to me Serbo-Croatian is one language. Serbians just have stronger pronunciation. Osa is wasp, yes. Pszczoła is bee.

NatasaThreads: 7 Posts: 2,517 Joined: Jun 6, 10 MEMBER ♀	Sep 28, 10, 23:40 #97
Seanus: Pszczoła is bee. Pčela, I guess it sounds similar ;) The original is unfaithful to the translation

Juro	Jan 15, 11, 03:33 #98
Natasa: Seanus: Pszczoła is bee. Pčela, I guess it sounds similar ;) Or in SK, CZ: včela. Most of these differences between slavic languages are predictable and relatively well described e.g. in this old book zlatyfond.sme.sk/dielo/1246/Safarik_Slovansky-narodopis.

Lyzko	Jan 15, 11, 14:42 #99
A Russian office mate of mine once told me that Polish simply sounds like old-fashioned or stilted, i.e. literary, Russian-:))

Kowalski87

Jan 15, 11, 20:03 #100

spell of bliss:

if i've studied polish, will languages like ukrainian or russian or czech be easier to learn? i wouldn't expect them to function identically to polish but will learning any 1 of them be much easier than sum1 who doesn't speak or know any other slavic language? or not really?

I speak Polish fluently and I am now a second year Russian language student. It helps a lot at first sight and also grammar will be easier for you to learn since the manner of learning is the same for all Slavic-languages. So for example with Russian you will have a advantage, I guess for Czech and Ukrainian also - these languages are more alike Polish than Russian.

MEMBER ♀

Jan 15, 11, 20:11 #101

Kowalski87

Did you have some problems with mixing those shared characters which are referring to different consonants in Cyrillic alphabet?

да ли ме разумеш када ти причам на српском, интересује ме пошто знаш и пољски и руски да ли ти то помаже да боље разумеш српски?

поздрав!

The original is unfaithful to the translation

PennBoyThreads: 148 Posts: 3,274 Joined: Dec 7, 08 ♂	Jan 15, 11, 20:13 #102
spell of bliss: Polish or any slavic language key to any other slavic languages? It's good knowing Polish if you wanna learn Czech, Ukrainian, Slovak.

♂

Jan 15, 11, 20:45 #103

Matyjasz:

I’ve met few Ukrainians, very friendly people, but what was really striking for me, that they only spoke Russian. It's kind of sad.

It's not sad, it's a fact of life. Those who live "v selo" speak Ukrainian, and those who live in a city, speak Russian. That's how it always was, even before the Soviets.

In the Western part, the more educated Ukrainians spoke Polish back in the day.

But it always was assumed that speaking Ukrainian means "selo". It was taught (mandatory) in schools, but you know how that goes... I don't speak Ukrainian (OK, I speak, but very very badly) because I could only effectively practice it when visiting some relatives "v selo". Even my mother didn't speak it, and she was only one generation away from selo :)

I believe now that the Russian was banned from TV and newspapers, more people are starting to speak Ukrainian. So maybe things will change.

Anyhow, I live overseas now, so that doesn't matter to me anymore. Just wanted to clarify the situation.

Kowalski87

Jan 15, 11, 20:52 #104

Natasa, no I didn´t, I guess.. The most difficulties I had were the pronouncal of Russian verbs and words in general, because of the changing accents - and reduction and stuff. Russian is the only slavic language which has that characteristic. Serbo-Croatian is also a beautiful language! I would love to learn it someday, and indeed I understand what you just said hehe. I have some friends from Serbia and former Yugoslavia, really great people.

Lyzko

Jan 16, 11, 23:16 #105

Indeed, neither Polish, nor Serbo-Croatian, Czech etc.. have the vocalic reduction, shifting syllablic stress along with the extreme palatalization issues of Russian! I struggle to this day with Russian pronunciation, live in a Russian-speaking neighborhood for fifteen years as I have, even though I began to study it seriously at around the same time as Polish (..and that wasn't exactly yesterday, people!!-:)) Polish pronunciation was a piece of cake for me, the grammar was, i.e. still remains, the challenge. Russian is virtually the opposite: transparent grammar, even the verbal aspects, difficult pronuncation.

MEMBER ♀

Jan 16, 11, 23:34 #106

значи овде могу да користим ћирилицу и српски језик и ви ме разумете??

Јеееееееееееј :)))

Одакле сте Lyzko и Kowalski87?

Иначе не користим ћирилицу, само латиницу.

I had Russian in school, 8 years that torture lasted, and when in opportunity to talk to Russians, it was always more useful and practical to talk in Serbian and hope that they will understand me.
Difficult language for me too.

The original is unfaithful to the translation

Lyzko

Jan 18, 11, 23:23 #107

Natasha, it's quite common to speak in a related tongue when among those whose mother tongue you don't speak; French in Italy (a Romance tongue too, after all), German in Holland, Swedish in Norway, Russian in Serbia, Bulgaria, Italian in Romania etc... Sure beats having to attempt broken English with everyone else' broken English. At least in your case, Serbians of a certain age and education can actually communicate in Russian and not sound sub-human-:)

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