How similar is the Italian accent to the Polish accent (when speaking English)?

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Oct 7, 10, 20:44 #1

Hello, I'm new here!

My friend (who's been to both Poland and Italy) says that Italian people speaking English and Polish people speaking English sound quite similar. Is this true? She also said that when Italian people and Polish people sang English songs they sounded basically identical...

I've never noticed this myself, and wanted to know what actual Polish people thought...so I decided to ask here!

I know this seems like a strange question to ask, but it's become sort of important to me...

Thanks! :)

TeffleThreads: 28 Posts: 2,105 Joined: Aug 26, 10 ♂	Edited by: Teffle Oct 7, 10, 20:46 #2
To me, they don't sound at all similar. Spanish & Italian sound a little similar maybe but I'd still know the difference. Lithuanians, Latvians & Poles all sound a little similar when speaking English though.

Polonius3Threads: 1,005 Posts: 4,833 Joined: Apr 11, 08 ♂	Oct 7, 10, 20:57 #3
Italians tend to add vowels to the end of consonant-ending words... As in: My frienda here, he's a gooda man. Poles would tend to devoice final voiced consonants and drop out articles: My frent, he gut man.

southernThreads: 116 Posts: 10,955 Joined: May 17, 07 ♂	Oct 7, 10, 22:53 #4
No similarity at all.Italian sounds like baby speaking english.They have lots of z etc.Polish sounds like Russians speaking english because they pronounce vowels open and l,r the same like Russians do.So when you hear the sexy accent you don't know if it is Russkaya or Polka.You have to watch her heels and trousers to reach a conclusion.

pgtxThreads: 49 Posts: 6,327 Joined: Feb 14, 09 MEMBER ♀	Oct 7, 10, 22:56 #5
Spaniel: says that Italian people speaking English and Polish people speaking English sound quite similar. well, i don't know... i've never noticed the Italian accent because every time i speak with an Italian, i have to pay attention to this person hands gestures to get out of the discussion with no bruises...

southernThreads: 116 Posts: 10,955 Joined: May 17, 07 ♂	Oct 7, 10, 22:57 #6
Greeks who were born in Italy or studied there for long speak with a fag accent,it is totally ridiculous hearing them although they sound more civilized.

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Edited by: Amathyst Oct 8, 10, 00:12 #7

Spaniel:

My friend (who's been to both Poland and Italy) says that Italian people speaking English and Polish people speaking English sound quite similar. Is this true?

Your friend must be tone deaf because they sound nothing alike.

Teffle:

To me, they don't sound at all similar.

I cant see how they'd sound similar to anyone :D

Spaniel:

She also said that when Italian people and Polish people sang English songs they sounded basically identical...

Are you saying Pavarotti sounded Polish?

Polonius3:

As in: My frienda here, he's a gooda man.

Very bad stereotype...

...	Oct 8, 10, 07:09 #8
Nothing alike at all.. Very bad stereotype... That is what this hick does.

♂

Oct 8, 10, 08:56 #9

Polonius3:

Italians tend to add vowels to the end of consonant-ending words...
As in: My frienda here, he's a gooda man.
Poles would tend to devoice final voiced consonants and drop out articles:
My frent, he gut man.

southern:

Greeks who were born in Italy or studied there for long speak with a fag accent,it is totally ridiculous hearing them although they sound more civilized.

Funny! PF just wouldn't be the same without both of you here :)

Lyzko

Oct 8, 10, 22:27 #10

Poles speaking English, particularly the women, often sound like birds chirping. Italians, both men as well as women, have a sort of undulating rhythm, almost as though on a boat at sea. This rhythm can make one a bit dizzy listening over a period of time. At least that's my impression.

Poles too sound more deliberate when speaking, though not a plodding as Germans, and have more stress on their syllables than Italians.

smurfThreads: 46 Posts: 660 Joined: Sep 8, 09 ♂	Oct 8, 10, 23:59 #11
Get them both to say "pennies" (^_^) it'll be really funny

...	Oct 9, 10, 00:11 #12
Oh, that is good. lmao

Lyzko	Oct 9, 10, 16:46 #13
Italians sound more definite when they speak English, as well as their native language, whereas Poles tend to sound dilatory, non-committal, almost emotional. That's my impression at any rate.

Lyzko	Oct 9, 10, 16:49 #14
Italian: I-ah, am ah-stahdeeing-a law in-a my-a kaunntree -a. Pole: Aj em stahdeeink lau een maj kahntrii. Sort of similar, I guess-:))

SpanielThreads: 2 Posts: 16 Joined: Oct 7, 10 ♀	Oct 19, 10, 01:59 #15
...: Nothing alike at all.. Thank you all! That's what I thought, but I didn't have the heart to say it to my friend's face.

Lyzko	Oct 20, 10, 13:53 #16
If they're a true friend however, they'll understand and even thank you-:)))LOL

Janm20	Dec 22, 10, 17:19 #17
Poles and Italians speaking English sounds pretty different from eachother. However, when they speak their respective own language, the pronunciation sounds pretty similar. I'm half-Polish (speaking Polish) and when I lived (temporarily) for a month in Italy I noticed this.

peterwegThreads: 35 Posts: 1,992 Joined: Feb 16, 07 ♂	Edited by: peterweg Dec 22, 10, 21:33 #18
I sometimes think Poles are speaking Italian, obviously its not just me..

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Edited by: isthatu2 Dec 23, 10, 00:26 #19

That could be closer to the truth,Ive often heard Dutch people speaking Dutch and thought they were speaking english with a Yorkshire accent(and vice versa,coming home to yorkshire in the way you have to adapt back to the traffic for a while I often dismiss background chatter as being Dutch when its my native language and adopted accent being spoken), so the leap isnt too hard to make,I certainly cant hear any similarity tho between Poles and Italians speaking english.......

TeffleThreads: 28 Posts: 2,105 Joined: Aug 26, 10 ♂	Dec 23, 10, 10:42 #20
peterweg: I sometimes think Poles are speaking Italian I'm sure it's the intonation rather than the sound of the language. Polish tends to rise during a sentence and then fall at the end - a bit like Italian.

southernThreads: 116 Posts: 10,955 Joined: May 17, 07 ♂	Dec 23, 10, 11:50 #21
Teffle: Polish tends to rise during a sentence and then fall at the end It is exactly the same in Russian.All Slavs talk with this intonation except the Czechs who use syncopated tones.(to the amusement and fun of Poles).

Lyzko	Dec 24, 10, 21:01 #22
Yorkshire lingo's kinda like Norse-English anyway: 'to lake' = to play etc...., not to mention those grand old Nordic names, such as Grimthorp, Brisby and so forth. Scotish Norn, now extinct, was a purely Nordic, not Celtic, language. In fact, only the river Humber which traverses the Yorkshire dales, recalls non-Germanic ancestors-:)

LeopejoThreads: 6 Posts: 154 Joined: Sep 16, 09 ♂	Jan 3, 11, 09:57 #23
Polish and Italian both use quite open vowels and are mostly stressed on the penultimate syllable. I find both very "normal", "prose" languages, as opposed to the more poetic/emphatic Russian and French respectively.

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Jan 3, 11, 11:58 #24

Not at all. I lived in Poland 3 years; had a grandmother who spoke Italian, and her mom was born in Italy:

The only thing that seems similar when a Pole and and an Italian both speak English, are their FACES. They are both so sincerely earnest; they try so hard for the perfect sound, that they over-enunciate and speak too loudly as they do. But this attention to detail and getting it exactly right, always made me stop and REALLY pay attention to what they were saying.

Which helped them and helped me, because Poles and Italians tend to speak VERY fast in their native tongues, and also when attempting English. The words slurred together.

As far as the accents sounding alike, for me, an American, Italian sounds more like Spanish (definitely NOT like French), and Polish sounds almost exactly like Czech--but maybe in the way accents are stressed, even a little like Swedish or Danish. The cadence, rhythm, whatever it is.

I can't back any of that up with linguistics.

Lyzko	Jan 5, 11, 17:38 #25
Yet, oddly enough, Poles and Italians DON'T really seem to 'slur' or garble their words when speaking in their native tongue the way we Anglos 'eat' our words to the ears of many Europeans, e.g. the French, the Italians, the Poles, the Hungarians etc... Oddly enough, I've yet to hear such a complaint from Scandinavians, Dutch or German speakers (Swiss-German and Austrians excluded)-:)

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