Polish
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Witajcie (Welcome)!
Polish is one out of several Western Slavonic languages in the Indo-European language group which also includes (among others) Czech and Slovakian, Lower Sorbian and Upper Sorbian (languages of a Slavic minority in Lusatia, Germany). The foundation of the Polish language as one distinct language lies in the foundation of a Polish state by the Slavs in the valleys of the Vistula (Wisła) and Oder (Odra) rivers in the 10th century. (a Polish legend tells about the three brothers Lech, Czech and Rus, with Lech being the founder of Poland). The name for Poland comes from ‘Polonia’ which ultimately stems from ‘Polanie’, a tribe of Slavs that lived in the region of the contemporary Poland.
The institution that gives opinions concerning the proper use of Polish is Rada Języka Polskiego.
Some characteristics of the Polish language:
- inflected,
- 5 genders,
- 7 cases,
- 4 tenses: czas przeszły 'past tense', teraźniejszy 'present', przyszły prosty 'future simple', and przyszły złożony 'future compound'; sometimes, rarely in the modern Polish though, the fifth tense is used - czas zaprzeszły ('past perfect tense'),
- 3 moods,
- aspects,
- nasal vowels,
- fixed stress on the last but one syllable (yet there are exceptions to this rule).
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Articles in other languages
Italian: Lingua polacca
Portuguese: Língua Polaca
languages >> Slavic languages >> Polish
