Polish (polski)

Polish is a West Slavonic language spoken mainly in Poland. There are about 36.5 million speakers of Polish in Poland, and about 4 million Polish speakers in other countries, including Germany, the UK, Lithuania, the USA, France, Canada, Ireland, Israel, the Russian Federation, Czechia and Austria.

Polish is closely related to Kashubian, Lower Sorbian, Upper Sorbian, Czech and Slovak.

Polish at a glance

Native names: polski, język polski, polszczyzna
Language family: Indo-Europea, Balto-Slavic, Slavic, West Slavic, Lechitic
Number of speakers: c. 40 million
Spoken in: Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Ukraine and many other countries.
First written: 1136
Writing system: Latin script
Status: official language in Poland, recognized minority language in Czechia, Slovakia, Romania and Ukraine

Written Polish

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).

Polish alphabet and pronunciation

Download an alphabet chart for Polish (Excel)

Hear a recording of the Polish alphabet by Pawel Klosinski

Notes

The letter ó is also known as o z kreską
a is a low central vowel for which there is no symbol in the IPA
ą = [o] before l or ł. When followed by plosive or affricate consonants, ą is pronounced [ɔn], [ɔŋ] or [ɔm]. E.g. dąb = [dɔmp].
ę = [e] before l or ł or at the end of a word. When followed by plosive or affricate consonants, ę is pronounced [ɛn], [ɛŋ] or [ɛm]. E.g. tęcza = [tɛnt͡ʂa].
The i in ci, dzi, ni, si and zi is not pronunced when they are followed by another vowel, e.g. dzień
u sometimes = [w] in loanwords like auto [awtɔ] 'car'
Voiced consonants can become unvoiced at the end of words, end in clusters with unvoiced consonants. E.g. klub = [klup].
Unvoiced consonants can become voiced in clusters with voiced consonants. E.g. także = [ˈtaɡʐɛ].
The letters q (ku), v (fau) and x (iks) are also used, but only for foreign names or words.

Notes on pronunciation provided by Grzegorz Jagodziński

Hear the Polish alphabet, with example words and phrases:

Polish alphabet learning game
Hear all the letters of the Polish alphabet pronounced

Sample text in Polish

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.

Translation

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)

Sample videos in Polish

Links

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
https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Język_polski
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Polish-language
https://www.optilingo.com/blog/polish/everything-about-polish-language/

Online Polish lessons
http://www.apronus.com/learnpolish/
https://www.fluentpolish.com/
http://lingohut.com/en/l63/learn-polish
http://www.polishpod101.com/ [affiliate link]
http://www.linguashop.com/polish-courses [affiliate link]
Learn Polish with Glossika [affiliate link]

Polish phrases
http://www.polish-translator.net/polish_phrases.html
http://www.linguanaut.com/english_polish.htm

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/

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/

Online Polish news
http://www.gazeta.pl/

Slavic languages

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: 26.07.26

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