Hailing from largely Eastern European heritage
hi, nancyk! I've been following this thread with great interest. My mother and her family is Slovak and always made traditional foods...stuffed cabbage; stuffed peppers;
paska (for Easter);
bobalky (baked bread rolls with sauerkraut or poppyseed and honey) and special rolled cookies filled with lekvar or apricot called
rushky(sp?) for Christmas; and, of course colbasse, pronounced coal-bäs (kielbasi): if you don't eat ham and colbasse, and stuffed cabbage, for the holidays, even if you're a vegetarian, it's an insult--tradition, you know!...and, BTW, she called stuffed cabbage
halupki-- and I'm also half Hunky [Hungarian] on my father's side...not to mention that the pronunciation of my board name WO'N seems to be in synch with the thread (hmmm). (and nobody mentioned Won-Ton Soup!
...One Ton soup would be pretty heavy soup, wouldn't it?
). But here's a list of Polish pronunciations and words I came across that may help add something to this conversation:
Polish Language
Polish language is one of the slovian language group, Indo-European language family. It's one of the most difficult languages in the world; so, if you're not slovian it will be hard to learn the spelling and grammar. Older people rarely speak a foreign language; the most popular among them is German. Adults often speak Russian, and youth speaks English. But Polish people are very polite and helpful if you want to get any information. It will be good for you to know some basic words. It could help you a lot.
Spelling:
1- like French "on"
c- never like "k", always "ts"
a- soft "tsh"
ci- soft "tshe"
cz- hard "tsh"
e- like french "un"
ch- the same as "h"
j- like English "y"
l- soft l, spelled like "w"
n- like "ni"
ó, u- like English "oo"
o- soft "sh"
si- soft "she"
sz- like "sh"
w- like "v"
q, v- rarely in use, only in foreign words
z, rz- like "j"
Some useful words:
expensive/ cheap- drogi/ tani
cold /hot- zimny/ goracy
day/ night- dzien/ noc
Good morning, good afternoon- dzien dobry
Good evening - dobry wieczór
Good night - dobranoc
Good bye - do widzenia
Where/ when/ how - Gdzie/ kiedy/ jak
Sorry- przepraszam
thank you- dziekuje
please- prosze
I love you - Kocham cie
left/ right- lewo/ prawo
I don't understand- nie rozumiem
what time is it? - która godzina?
do you speak English? - czy mówisz po angielsku?
Yes/ no - tak/ nie
One, first- jeden; pierwszy [yeah-den; pyervshee]
2- dwa; drugi [dva; droogee]
3- trzy; trzeci [tshee; tshetsi]
4- cztery; czwarty [tshteree; tshvartee]
5- piec; piaty [pyeuci; pyontee]
6- szesc; szosty [shesh'; shoostee]
7- siedem, siodmy [shiedem; shioodmee]
8- osiem
9- dziewiec [djevieutsh]
10- dziesiec [djeshieutsh]
11- jedenascie [yedenashtshie]
14- czternascie [tshternashtshie]
15- pietnascie [pytnashtshie]
16-szesnascie
19- dziewietnascie
20- dwadziescia
30- trzydziesci
40- czterdziesci
50- piecdziesiat
60- szescdziesiat
100- sto
200- dwiescie
300- trzysta
500- piecset
1000- tysiac
1000000- milion
from
http://www.katowice.aiesec.pl/Incoming/Booklet.htm
