Polish is a West Slavonic language spoken mainly in Poland. In 2012 there were about 36.5 million speakers of Polish in Poland. There are about 4 million Polish speakers in other countries, including Germany (867,000), the UK (660,000), Lithuania (615,138), the USA (575,816), France (275,288), Canada (181,710), Ireland (135,895), Israel (125,000), the Russian Federation (67,400), Czechia (52,710) and Austria (30,598).
Sources: Ethnologue and Wikipedia
Polish is closely related to Kashubian, Lower Sorbian, Upper Sorbian, Czech and Slovak.
Polish first appeared in writing in 1136 in the "Gniezno papal bull" (Bulla gnieźnieńska), which included 410 Polish names. The first written Polish sentence was day ut ia pobrusa a ti poziwai (I'll grind [the corn] in the quern and you'll rest), which appeared in Ksiega henrykowska in 1270. In Modern Polish spelling that sentence is daj ać ja pobruszę, a ty poczywaj.
Great Polish poets include Jan Kochanowski (1530-84) and Adam Mickiewicz (1798-1855), the 'national bard' and author of an epic entitled "Pan Tadeusz". The most famous writer of Polish orgin is Joseph Conrad or Konrad Korzeniowski (1857-1924), who wrote in English and started out as a sailor.
Literary Polish is based on the dialects of Gniezno, Cracow and Warsaw, though there is some dispute about this.
The native name for Polish is polski (Polish), język polski (the Polish language), or more formally, polszczyzna (Polish).
Hear a recording of the Polish alphabet by Pawel Klosinski
Hear the Polish alphabet, with example words and phrases:
Notes on pronunciation provided by Grzegorz Jagodziński
Download an alphabet chart for Polish (Excel)
Wszyscy ludzie rodzą się wolni i równi w swojej godności i prawach. Są obdarzeni rozumem i sumieniem i powinni postępować wobec siebie w duchu braterstwa.
A recording of this text by Marcin K.
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They
are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another
in a spirit of brotherhood.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)
Information about Polish | Phrases | Numbers | Time | Terms of endearment | Tongue twisters | Tower of Babel | Learning materials
Information about Polish
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_language
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_alphabet
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_orthography
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_phonology
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Polish
http://www.polishlanguage.biz
http://www.skwierzyna.net/learn_polish.htm
https://www.clozemaster.com/blog/topics/language-learning/learn-polish/
Online Polish lessons
http://www.apronus.com/learnpolish/
http://grzegorj.w.interia.pl/kurs/
http://www.oneness.vu.lt/pl/
http://www.kurspl.com
https://www.repeto.org/learn/polish
http://lingohut.com/en/l63/learn-polish
https://www.twinkl.pl/resources/english-as-an-additional-language-eal/english-as-an-additional-language-eal-translated-resources/english-as-an-additional-language-eal-translated-resources-polish
http://www.polishpod101.com/
- Learn Polish online with PolishPod101
- Learn Polish with Glossika
- Polish learning software
Polish phrases
http://www.polish-translator.net/polish_phrases.html
http://www.meetpoland.com/useful-polish-words-and-phrases.html
http://onestoppolish.com/useful_polish_phrases.htm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A2982314
http://www.linguanaut.com/english_polish.htm
http://www.learnpolishfeelgood.com/travelpolish/index.html
Online Polish dictionaries
http://www.polish-dictionary.com
http://sjp.pwn.pl/
http://www.staropolska.gimnazjum.com.pl
http://www.leksyka.pl/translator
https://slowniki.lingea.pl/
Polish spell checker
http://www.pisownia.com
Old Polish Literature - online texts in Polish
http://www.staropolska.gimnazjum.com.pl/
Ririo - folk tales and children's stories in Polish with recordings
https://ririro.com/pl/
Online Polish Radio
http://www.radio.com.pl/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/polish/
http://www.abcradio.ca
Online Polish news
http://www.gazeta.pl/
Polishbuzz - a site for the Polish community in Chicago and the USA
http://www.polishbuzz.com
Belarusian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Goral, Kashubian, Knaanic, Macedonian, Montenegrin, Old Church Slavonic, Polish, Russian, Rusyn, Serbian, Silesian, Slovak, Slovenian, Sorbian, Ukrainian, West Polesian
Languages written with the Latin alphabet
Page last modified: 24.02.23
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