Re: Polish Surnames........
Polish "a" is always pronunced like "ah" - doctor says open your mouth and say ahhhhh.
Polish "e" is always pronounced like "eh" - the sound of e in let.
Polish "i" is always pronounded like "ee" - the sound of e in be.
Polish "o" is usually pronounced like "oh" - the sound of o in go, but there are some regional pronounciations that sound like "aw" - the sound of ou in ought.
Polish "u" is always pronounced like "oo" - the sound of oo in hoop, but never like the sound yu in unit.
Letter "y" is always pronounced like soft i - the sound of i in it.
Polish "cz" is the equivalent of ch in English.
Polish "sz" is the equivalent of sh in English.
Polish "j" is the equivalent of y in English - the sound of y in yet, not the y sound in my.
Polish "l" sounds the same as English l, but there is a Polish l with a cross bar on it (³), and it has the sound of English w. In the 2 names above, even though it is not spelled with the crossed l, it is that letter, and pronounced as w. If the letter comes out properly here, it looks like: ³, and capital: £
The stress in Polish is always on the second from the last syllable.
mee-koh-WHY-chock
ah-DAHM-chock
ah-DAHM-chick
CHEH-keye
CHEYE-kah
foo-YARR-chook
mah-DIE-chick
MY-chick
nyeh-doe-YAHD-wo
Most European languages only have one sound for each letter, unlike English which may have 4 or more!
vote up1vote down

Messages

Polish Surnames........  ·  Cassandra113  ·  4/9/2007, 9:38 PM
Re: Polish Surnames........  ·  Roger Z  ·  4/16/2007, 4:49 AM
Re: Polish Surnames........  ·  RZ  ·  4/16/2007, 5:42 AM
Re: Polish Surnames........  ·  Jim Young  ·  4/13/2007, 6:10 AM
Re: Polish Surnames........  ·  Jim Y  ·  4/13/2007, 6:20 AM
Re: Polish Surnames........  ·  Erin  ·  4/10/2007, 5:05 AM