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LEKCJA 1 - O JĘZYKU POLSKIM I WYMOWIE
(LESSON 1 - ABOUT THE POLISH LANGUAGE AND PROUNUNCIATION)

Polish is a West-Slavic language. It’s the official language of Poland. It is spoken by aprox. 44 milion people worldwide. The alphabet is based on Latin with a few extra letters and a few used only in words borrowed from other languages. In the past, in times of conquests, the Polish were forbidden to speak their own language. However, this fired them up all the more to make Polish survive. This also is the reason why some words, that are the same in most Indo-European languages, e.g. names of the months, are different in Polish.
Like in many other languages, there are several dialects in Polish.
- Greater Polish (Wielkopolski)
- Lesser Polish (Małopolski)
- Masovian (Mazowiecki, the one I speak)
- Silesian (Śląski)
- Kashubian (Kaszubski) – this a very peculiar dialect, it’s very likely it won’t be understood by a native Polish speaker when spoken; some even consider it a separate language.
- Podhalanian/Highlandian (Podhalański/Góralski)
There’s also different dialects in the Borderlands – lands which are near the border of Ukraine and Belarus. In lands which border Germany the speech is a little different as well.

Influences from other languages
In Polish there are influences from:
- Latin
- German
- Czech
- Belarussian and Ukrainian
- Russian
- Turkish
- Italian
- French
- Yiddish;
Nowadays English has a great influence on Polish as well. English words are used in slang relatively often.

Polish Alphabet
A Ą B C Ć D E Ę F G H I J K L Ł M N Ń O Ó P Q R S Ś T U V W X Y Z Ź Ż
The letters which are violet are only used in words borrowed from other languages. You will not meet them in native Polish words.

Consonants
Ch Cz Dz Dź Dż Rz Sz

Palatalization characters
Ci Ni Si Zi Dzi

Pronounciation
Polish pronounciation is highly based on Latin and medieval European pronunciation.
Here is a video in which you can hear the pronounciation of all letters.
(Not by me, but I couldn't record it by myself while writing this part, sorry.)

Ortography
When it comes to ortography, you can either learn forumals to know which letter to use or learn the words by heart. Here are some examples of words which in normal-paced speech are spelled a little differently than they're written.
chwast - weed, proununced "hvahst". Although in most languages "ch" is read as it is in English, in Polish it's read as "h". The Polish equivalent for the English "ch" is "cz", and "sh" is "sz". When said slowly, the "w" can be heard, but in fast speech it will sound as "f".
ciężki - heavy, pronunced "tsyenshkee". "Ż" when said fast will sound as "sz", and "ę" as "en".
krzesło - chair, proununced "kshehswoh". "Rz", which is read the same a "ż" in slow speech, will turn to "sz" in fast speech.
There's many more examples, these are only a few. Basically, when you're talking with someone in Polish it will be a little different than in written text, so don't always write words as you hear them.
Recordings for pronunciation of all words here.

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- Ancient_Butterfly
- Puuya

All right, you've been added to the students list. 3nodding

WoW the File you were Uploaded was very good(Was it your own voice?)
and I'm fine with the next Lessons!

In this lessons you'll learn the basic numbers and how to creat higher ones. I wanted this lesson at first to be about information and warning since but I figured numbers should go first, since you use them while talking about your age or birthday.

0 - zero
1 - jeden
2 - dwa
3 - trzy
4 - cztery
5 - pięć
6 - sześć
7 - siedem
8 - osiem
9 - dziewięć
10 - dziesięć

Following numbers are created by adding "-naście" to the end of the word, but there are some changes in some of them...
14 - czternaście ("y" was removed)
15 - piętnaście ("ć" changed to "t")
16 - szesnaście ("ś" changed to "s" and "ć" was removed)
19 - dziewiętnaście (again, "ć" was changed to "t")
Try to form the rest of the numbers by yourself!

Now, higher numbers created by adding "-dzieścia", "-dzieści" or "-dziesiąt" to the end of the word. Just like it was with the previous numbers, also here there are some changes. I think you can spot them by yourself.
20 - dwadzieścia
30 - trzydzieści
40 - czterdzieści
50 - pięćdziesiąt
60 - sześćdziesiąt
70 - siedemdziesiąt
80 - osiemdziesiąt
90 - dziewięćdziesiąt
If you want create a number like "27", the rule for it is the same as in English. So, if you'd like to write "27", it would dwadzieściasiedem. Simple, right? And so it will be with all the higher numbers. Simple, right? Let's move on, then.

100 - sto
200 - dwieście
300 - trzysta
400 - czterysta
500 - pięćset
600 - sześćset
700 - siedemset
800 - osiemset
900 - dziewięćset

1000 - tysiąc
2000 - dwa tysiące
3000 - trzy tysiące
4000 - cztery tysiące
5000 - pięć tysięcy
6000 - sześć tysięcy
7000 - siedem tysięcy
8000 - osiem tysięcy
9000 - dziewięć tysięcy

...And so on! You know the rules for creating numbers already, so let's do some excercises. You can PM your answers to me if you want them to be checked!

Task 1.
Change to numbers to written text and the other way round.
a) 42
b) 134
c) 2010
d) osiemdziesiąt siedem
e) pięćset sześćdziesiąt dziewięć
f) trzy tysiące trzysta pięćdziesiąt dwa

Now you should also be able to say how old are you! Do you remember how to say it from the previous lesson? Try to say it by yourself.
Saying when's your birthday might be a little more tricky, because that's when GRAMMAR CASES come in. In English there are only 4, but in Polish there are 7. Also, every noun has a different article (masculine, feminine or neuter). But we'll get to that after we learn the names of the months!

Styczeń - January
Luty - February
Marzec - March
Kwiecień - April
Maj - May
Czerwiec - June
Lipiec - July
Sierpień - August
Wrzesień - September
Październik - October
Listopad - November
Grudzień - December

For talking about the date of your birthday. When someone asks you "Kiedy masz urodziny?" (When's your birthday?), you would reply by simply saying the date, for example - "drugiego marca", which means "[my birthday is] on the 2nd of march" or "Mam urodziny drugiego marca". Now, you're not going to learn cases. Not just yet. Just know they're definitely not an easy thing, so you'll just have to memorize a lot of phrases. The case that's used in this sentence is dopełniacz -- the accusative case.
Some examples of inflected numbers and months, so that you can get the overall rule. It's hard for me to explain, since it's my native lanaguage and I use cases without thinking which one do I have to use.
Mam urodziny osiemnastego listopada.
Mam urodziny trzydziestego maja.
Mam urodziny piątego sierpnia.
Mam urodziny czternastego grudnia.
Mam urodziny dwudziestegoszóstego września.
But! There is way to tell someone about yourbirthday without using the accusative case, yay! It sounds a bit unnatural but... It sounds like this: "Data moich urodzin to __________". So I recommend to use this one.

Recording here.


That's it! I hope you learned something from this. Next lesson most likely be about what this one was suppose to be, meaning signs.

I would like to join. My family speaks Polish, but unfortunately I do not. So I will try my best to learn it!!

Yup! I already have the basics down and can read and write. It's hard to talk to my family because I don't see them everyday (Well, the parts of my family that speak Polish -- My family that I live with don't either ;^_^) But I'm good at learning languages. Can't wait to see the next lesson!