Key:Polish pronunciation respelling: Difference between revisions

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As can be expected in an English-language blog about the history of mostly Polish cuisine, you may come across a fair number of Polish words and names here. The Polish language is notoriously tricky for native English speakers to pronounce, which is why I provide pronunciation respelling for some of the Polish words.

As can be expected in an English-language blog about the history of (mostly) Polish cuisine, you may come across a fair number of Polish words and names here. The Polish language is notoriously tricky for native English speakers to pronounce, which is why I provide pronunciation respelling for some of the Polish words.

The scheme I use is a kind of compromise: it's as close to actual Polish pronunciation as you can get while using only those sounds that exist in English. In some cases, two sounds that are distinct to Polish speakers are approximated by the same English sound. The goal here isn't to make you sound like a native Polish speaker; it's just to help you not butcher Polish words beyond recognition. It's meant to be as intuitive to English speakers as possible, but here's an explanation of the symbols anyway.

The respelling scheme I use is a kind of compromise: it's as close to actual Polish pronunciation as you can get while using only those sounds that exist in English. In some cases, two sounds that are distinct to Polish speakers are approximated by the same English sound. The goal here isn't to make you sound like a native Polish speaker; it's just to help you not butcher Polish words beyond recognition. It's meant to be as intuitive to English speakers as possible, but here's an explanation of the symbols anyway.

=== Vowels ===

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|-

| ''ee'' || as in ''b'''ee'''t'', only shorter || ''i'' || [ i ]

|-

| ''eye, ie, i-e'' || as in ''b'''i'''te'' || ''aj'' || [ aj ]

|-

| ''i, ih'' || as in ''b'''i'''t'' or ''nati'''o'''n'' || ''y'' || [ ɨ ]

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|-

| ''oo'' || as in ''b'''oo'''t'', only shorter || ''ó, u'' || [ u ]

|-

| ''wye'' || as the name of the letter Y || ''łaj'' || [ waj ]

|}

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Most Polish consonants are quite easy to pronounce on their own. The trouble is that they tend to cluster in ways in which they never do in English.

Let's take ''wstrząs'' (meaning "shock"), for example. It ~~make~~ look like a mouthful and I'm not going to lie to you; it is one. In our respelling scheme, it becomes {{pron|f s t sh aw n s|link=no}}, which is still rather daunting. It may help to insert very short ''uh'' sounds in between the consonants, as in {{pron|fuh·suh·tuh·shawns|link=no}}. But keep in mind that, ideally, this should be pronounced as only one syllable.

Let's take ''wstrząs'' (meaning "shock"), for example. It may look like a mouthful and I'm not going to lie to you: it is one. In our respelling scheme, it becomes {{pron|f s t sh aw n s|link=no}}, which is still rather daunting. It may help to insert very short ''uh'' sounds in between the consonants, as in {{pron|fuh·suh·tuh·shawns|link=no}}. But keep in mind that, ideally, this should be pronounced as only one syllable.

{| class="wikitable"

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| rowspan=2 | ''ch, tch''

| rowspan=2 | as in '''''ch'''ur'''ch'''''

| ''cz''

| ‎''cz''

| [ t͡ʂ ]

|-

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|-

| ''dz'' || as in ''da'''ds''''' || ''dz'' || [ d͡z ]

|-

| ''dzh''

| as in how the French pronounce ''bu'''dg'''et''

| ''drz''

| [ d̪ʐ ]

|-

| ''f'' || as in '''''f'''oe'' || ''f'' || [ f ]

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| ''R'' || as in how Americans pronounce ''be'''tt'''er'' or how Scots pronounce ''so'''rr'''y'' || ''r'' || [ ɾ, r ]

|-

| ''s, ss'' || as in '''''s'''au'''c'''e'' || ''s'' || [ s̪ ]

| ''s, ss'' || as in '''''s'''au'''c'''e'' || ''s'' || [ s ]

|-

| rowspan=2 | ''sh''

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|-

| ''t'' || as ''s'''t'''ay'' || ''t'' || [ t̪ ]

|-

| ''tch''

| colspan=3 | see ''[[#ch|ch]]''

|-

| ''ts'' || as in ''do'''ts''''' || ''c'' || [ t͡s ]

|-

| ''tsh'' || as in ''ho'''tsh'''ot'' || ''trz~~, tsz~~'' || [ tʂ ]

| ''tsh'' || as in ''ho'''tsh'''ot'' || ''trz'' || [ t̪ ʂ ]

|-

| ''v'' || as in '''''v'''ie'' || ''w'' || [ v ]

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| ''y'' || as in '''''y'''a'''y''''' || ''i, j'' || [ j ]

|-

| ''z'' || as in '''''z'''oo'' || ''z'' || [ z̪ ]

| ''z'' || as in '''''z'''oo'' || ''z'' || [ z ]

|-

| rowspan=2 | ''zh''

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=== Examples ===

See if it gets any easier. If you want to listen to how these ~~example~~ should be pronounced, then [https://translate.google.com/?sl=pl&tl=en&text=~~groch~~%20z%20kapust%C4%85~~%3B~~%0Aciasto%20rabarbarowe%3B%0Apiwo%20z%20sokiem%20malinowym%3B%0Aw%C3%B3dka%20%C5%BCo%C5%82%C4%85dkowa%20gorzka%3B%0A%C5%9Bwi%C4%85teczny%20barszcz%20z%20uszkami%3B%0Achleb%20pszenno-%C5%BCytni%3B%0A%C4%87wik%C5%82a%20z%20chrzanem%3B%0A%C5%BAd%C5%BAb%C5%82o%20%C5%BCubr%C3%B3wki%3B%0AW%20Szczebrzeszynie%20chrz%C4%85szcz%20brzmi%20w%20trzcinie.&op=translate click here] and then on the speaker button on the right.

See if it gets any easier. If you want to listen to how these examples should be pronounced, then [https://translate.google.com/?sl=pl&tl=en&text=baba%20czekoladowa%3B%0Agroch%20z%20kapust%C4%85%0Aciasto%20rabarbarowe%3B%0Apiwo%20z%20sokiem%20malinowym%3B%0Aw%C3%B3dka%20%C5%BCo%C5%82%C4%85dkowa%20gorzka%3B%0A%C5%9Bwi%C4%85teczny%20barszcz%20z%20uszkami%3B%0Achleb%20pszenno-%C5%BCytni%3B%0A%C4%87wik%C5%82a%20z%20chrzanem%3B%0A%C5%BAd%C5%BAb%C5%82o%20%C5%BCubr%C3%B3wki%3B%0AW%20Szczebrzeszynie%20chrz%C4%85szcz%20brzmi%20w%20trzcinie.&op=translate click here] and then on the speaker button on the right.

* ''baba czekoladowa'' (chocolate Bundt cake)

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-As can be expected in an English-language blog about the history of mostly Polish cuisine, you may come across a fair number of Polish words and names here. The Polish language is notoriously tricky for native English speakers to pronounce, which is why I provide pronunciation respelling for some of the Polish words.
+As can be expected in an English-language blog about the history of (mostly) Polish cuisine, you may come across a fair number of Polish words and names here. The Polish language is notoriously tricky for native English speakers to pronounce, which is why I provide pronunciation respelling for some of the Polish words.
-The scheme I use is a kind of compromise: it's as close to actual Polish pronunciation as you can get while using only those sounds that exist in English. In some cases, two sounds that are distinct to Polish speakers are approximated by the same English sound. The goal here isn't to make you sound like a native Polish speaker; it's just to help you not butcher Polish words beyond recognition. It's meant to be as intuitive to English speakers as possible, but here's an explanation of the symbols anyway.
+The respelling scheme I use is a kind of compromise: it's as close to actual Polish pronunciation as you can get while using only those sounds that exist in English. In some cases, two sounds that are distinct to Polish speakers are approximated by the same English sound. The goal here isn't to make you sound like a native Polish speaker; it's just to help you not butcher Polish words beyond recognition. It's meant to be as intuitive to English speakers as possible, but here's an explanation of the symbols anyway.
 === Vowels ===
@@ Line 16: / Line 16: @@
 |-
 | ''ee'' || as in ''b'''ee'''t'', only shorter || ''i'' || [ i ]
+|-
+| ''eye, ie, i-e'' || as in ''b'''i'''te'' || ''aj'' || [ aj ]
 |-
 | ''i, ih'' || as in ''b'''i'''t'' or ''nati'''o'''n'' || ''y'' || [ ɨ ]
@@ Line 22: / Line 24: @@
 |-
 | ''oo'' || as in ''b'''oo'''t'', only shorter || ''ó, u'' || [ u ]
+|-
+| ''wye'' || as the name of the letter Y || ''łaj'' || [ waj ]
 |}
@@ Line 27: / Line 31: @@
 Most Polish consonants are quite easy to pronounce on their own. The trouble is that they tend to cluster in ways in which they never do in English.
-Let's take ''wstrząs'' (meaning "shock"), for example. It make look like a mouthful and I'm not going to lie to you; it is one. In our respelling scheme, it becomes {{pron|f s t sh aw n s|link=no}}, which is still rather daunting. It may help to insert very short ''uh'' sounds in between the consonants, as in {{pron|fuh·suh·tuh·<u>shawns</u>|link=no}}. But keep in mind that, ideally, this should be pronounced as only one syllable.
+Let's take ''wstrząs'' (meaning "shock"), for example. It may look like a mouthful and I'm not going to lie to you: it is one. In our respelling scheme, it becomes {{pron|f s t sh aw n s|link=no}}, which is still rather daunting. It may help to insert very short ''uh'' sounds in between the consonants, as in {{pron|fuh·suh·tuh·<u>shawns</u>|link=no}}. But keep in mind that, ideally, this should be pronounced as only one syllable.
 {| class="wikitable"
@@ Line 37: / Line 41: @@
 | rowspan=2 | ''ch, tch''
 | rowspan=2 | as in '''''ch'''ur'''ch'''''
-| ''cz''
+| <span id="ch">‎''cz''</span>
 | [ t͡ʂ ]
 |-
@@ Line 46: / Line 50: @@
 |-
 | ''dz'' || as in ''da'''ds''''' || ''dz'' || [ d͡z ]
+|-
+| ''dzh''
+| as in how the French pronounce ''bu'''dg'''et''
+| ''drz''
+| [ d̪ʐ ]
 |-
 | ''f'' || as in '''''f'''oe'' || ''f'' || [ f ]
@@ Line 81: / Line 90: @@
 | ''R'' || as in how Americans pronounce ''be'''tt'''er'' or how Scots pronounce ''so'''rr'''y'' || ''r'' || [ ɾ, r ]
 |-
-| ''s, ss'' || as in '''''s'''au'''c'''e'' || ''s'' || [ s̪ ]
+| ''s, ss'' || as in '''''s'''au'''c'''e'' || ''s'' || [ s ]
 |-
 | rowspan=2 | ''sh''
@@ Line 100: / Line 109: @@
 |-
 | ''t'' || as ''s'''t'''ay'' || ''t'' || [ t̪ ]
+|-
+| ''tch''
+| colspan=3 | see ''[[#ch|ch]]''
 |-
 | ''ts'' || as in ''do'''ts''''' || ''c'' || [ t͡s ]
 |-
-| ''tsh'' || as in ''ho'''tsh'''ot'' || ''trz, tsz'' || [ tʂ ]
+| ''tsh'' || as in ''ho'''tsh'''ot'' || ''trz'' || [ t̪ ʂ ]
 |-
 | ''v'' || as in '''''v'''ie'' || ''w'' || [ v ]
@@ Line 111: / Line 123: @@
 | ''y'' || as in '''''y'''a'''y''''' || ''i, j'' || [ j ]
 |-
-| ''z'' || as in '''''z'''oo'' || ''z'' || [ z̪ ]
+| ''z'' || as in '''''z'''oo'' || ''z'' || [ z ]
 |-
 | rowspan=2 | ''zh''
@@ Line 126: / Line 138: @@
 === Examples ===
-See if it gets any easier. If you want to listen to how these example should be pronounced, then [https://translate.google.com/?sl=pl&tl=en&text=groch%20z%20kapust%C4%85%3B%0Aciasto%20rabarbarowe%3B%0Apiwo%20z%20sokiem%20malinowym%3B%0Aw%C3%B3dka%20%C5%BCo%C5%82%C4%85dkowa%20gorzka%3B%0A%C5%9Bwi%C4%85teczny%20barszcz%20z%20uszkami%3B%0Achleb%20pszenno-%C5%BCytni%3B%0A%C4%87wik%C5%82a%20z%20chrzanem%3B%0A%C5%BAd%C5%BAb%C5%82o%20%C5%BCubr%C3%B3wki%3B%0AW%20Szczebrzeszynie%20chrz%C4%85szcz%20brzmi%20w%20trzcinie.&op=translate click here] and then on the speaker button on the right.
+See if it gets any easier. If you want to listen to how these examples should be pronounced, then [https://translate.google.com/?sl=pl&tl=en&text=baba%20czekoladowa%3B%0Agroch%20z%20kapust%C4%85%0Aciasto%20rabarbarowe%3B%0Apiwo%20z%20sokiem%20malinowym%3B%0Aw%C3%B3dka%20%C5%BCo%C5%82%C4%85dkowa%20gorzka%3B%0A%C5%9Bwi%C4%85teczny%20barszcz%20z%20uszkami%3B%0Achleb%20pszenno-%C5%BCytni%3B%0A%C4%87wik%C5%82a%20z%20chrzanem%3B%0A%C5%BAd%C5%BAb%C5%82o%20%C5%BCubr%C3%B3wki%3B%0AW%20Szczebrzeszynie%20chrz%C4%85szcz%20brzmi%20w%20trzcinie.&op=translate click here] and then on the speaker button on the right.
 * ''baba czekoladowa'' (chocolate Bundt cake)