Polish Alpha bet
 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification.(October 2021) |
ThePolish Alpha bet(Polish:alfabet polski,abecadło) is thescriptof thePolish language,the basis for thePolish system of orthography.It is based on theLatin Alpha betbut includes certain letters (9) withdiacritics:theacute accent(kreska;⟨ć, ń, ó, ś, ź⟩); theoverdot(kropka;⟨ż⟩); the tail orogonek(⟨ą, ę⟩); and thestroke(⟨ł⟩).⟨q⟩,⟨v⟩,and⟨x⟩,which are used only in foreign words, are usually absent from the Polish Alpha bet. However, prior to the standardization of Polish spelling,⟨qu⟩was sometimes used in place of⟨kw⟩,and⟨x⟩in place of⟨ks⟩.[1]
Modified variations of the Polish Alpha bet are used for writingSilesianandKashubian,whereas theSorbian languagesuse a mixture of Polish andCzech orthography.
Letters: aspect, name, value
[edit]There are 32 letters in the Polish Alpha bet: 9vowelsand 23consonants.
⟨q⟩,⟨v⟩,and⟨x⟩are not used in any native Polish words and are mostly found in foreign words (such as place names) and commercial names. Inloanwordsthey are usually replaced by⟨k⟩,[a]⟨w⟩,and⟨ks⟩,respectively (as innikab'niqab',kwark'quark',weranda'veranda',sawanna'savanna',ekstra'extra',oksymoron'oxymoron'), although some loanwords retain their original spelling (e.g.,quiz,virga), and in a few cases both spellings are accepted (such asvetoorweto,voltorwolt). In addition, they can occasionally be found in common abbreviations (e.g.,ksiądz'priest' can be abbreviated as either⟨ks.⟩or⟨x.⟩). As a result, they are sometimes included in the Polish Alpha bet (bringing the total number of letters in the Alpha bet to 35); when included, they take their usual positions from theLatin Alpha bet(⟨q⟩after⟨p⟩;⟨v⟩and⟨x⟩either side of⟨w⟩).[2][3][4]
The following table lists the letters of the Alpha bet, their Polish names (see alsoNames of lettersbelow), the Polish spelling Alpha bet name, thePolish phonemeswhich they usually represent (and rough equivalents for them), other possible pronunciations, and letter frequencies. Diacritics are shown for the sake of clarity. For more information about the sounds, seePolish phonology.
| Upper case |
Lower case |
Polish name | Usual value | Rough English (or other) equivalent |
Other values |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | a | a | /ä/ | large | More frontal[a]between palatal or palatalized consonants |
| Ą | ą | ą | /ɔw̃/ | nasalo,as French bon(Depends on where it is in the word) | [ɔn],[ɔŋ],[ɔm];becomes/ɔ/before/w/(seeNasal vowels) |
| B | b | be | /b/ | bed | [p]whendevoiced |
| C | c | ce | /t̪͡s̪/ | pits | [d̪͡z̪]ifvoiced.Forch, ci, czseeDigraphs |
| Ć | ć | cie | /t͡ɕ/ | cheap (alveolo-palatal) | [d͡ʑ]ifvoiced |
| D | d | de | /d̪/ | dog | [d̺]before/d͡ʐ/;[t̪]whendevoiced;[t̺]before/t͡ʂ/.[1]Fordzetc. seeDigraphs |
| E | e | e | /ɛ/ | bed | [e]between palatal or palatalized consonants |
| Ę | ę | ę | /ɛw̃/ | nasale,as French cinq (Also depends on where it is in the word) | [ɛn],[ɛŋ],[ɛm];becomes/ɛ/word-finally and before/w/(seeNasal vowels) |
| F | f | ef | /f/ | fingers | [v]ifvoiced |
| G | g | gie | /ɡ/ | go | [k]whendevoiced.ForgiseeDigraphs |
| H | h | ha | /x/ | Scotsloch | [ɣ]ifvoiced,may be glottal[ɦ]in a small number of dialects. Forchand(c)hiseeDigraphs |
| I | i | i | /i/ | meet | [j]before a consonant; marks palatization of the preceding consonant before a vowel (seeSpelling rules) |
| J | j | jot | /j/ | yes | |
| K | k | ka | /k/ | king | [ɡ]ifvoiced.ForkiseeDigraphs |
| L | l | el | /l/ | light | May be[lʲ]instead in eastern dialects |
| Ł | ł | eł | /w/ | will | May be[ɫ̪]instead in eastern dialects |
| M | m | em | /m/ | men | [ɱ]before labiodental consonants |
| N | n | en | /n̪/ | not | [n̺]before/t͡ʂd͡ʐ/;can be[ŋ]before/kɡ/.ForniseeDigraphs |
| Ń | ń | eń | /ɲ̟/ | canyon (alveolo-palatal) | Can be[j̃]insyllable coda |
| O | o | o | /ɔ/ | (for accents without thecot-caughtmerger) long | [o]between palatal or palatalized consonants |
| Ó | ó | ó,o z kreską,o kreskowaneoru zamknięte | /u/ | boot | [ʉ]between palatal or palatalized consonants |
| P | p | pe | /p/ | spot | [b]ifvoiced |
| (Q) | (q) | ku | /k/ | question | Only in some traditional loanwords asquasi-and recent asquad,quiz. |
| R | r | er | /ɾ/ | American English aroma | Can also sometimes be an approximant, a fricative, and rarely – a trill. SeePolish phonology.ForrzseeDigraphs |
| S | s | es | /s̪/ | sea | Forsz, siseeDigraphs |
| Ś | ś | eś | /ɕ/ | sheep (alveolo-palatal) | [ʑ](cf. Ź) ifvoiced |
| T | t | te | /t̪/ | start | [t̺]before/t͡ʂ/;[d̪]ifvoiced;[d̺]before/d͡ʐ/.[2] |
| U | u | u,u zwykłeoru otwarte | /u/ | boot | [ʉ]between palatal or palatalized consonants, sometimes[w]after vowels |
| (V) | (v) | fał | /v/ | vow | Only in some traditional loanwords asvarsaviana,vel,vide,recent asvan,Vanuatu,vlog,some acronyms asTVP,VATand in artistic forms, asvlepka. |
| W | w | wu | /v/ | vow | [f]whendevoiced |
| (X) | (x) | iks | /ks/ | fox | Only in some loanwords asxenia,also historical letter for native words prior to 19th century, e.g.,xiążę,xięstwo(nowksiążę'prince',księstwo'duchy'), which remains in abbreviations of these words (sometimes usedx.instead ofks.) and some names, as Xymena, Xawery, surnames as Xiężopolski, Axentowicz, Axer and names of some companies in Poland with-exsuffix. |
| Y | y | igrek | /ɨ/[3] | bit | |
| Z | z | zet | /z̪/ | zoo | [s̪]whendevoiced.For digraphs seeDigraphs |
| Ź | ź | ziet | /ʑ/ | vision (alveolo-palatal) | [ɕ]whendevoiced.FordźseeDigraphs |
| Ż | ż | żetorzet z kropką | /ʐ/ | vision | [ʂ]whendevoiced.FordżseeDigraphs |
- ^For English speakers who end the word with a nasal vowel and not a consonant.
- ^Sequences/t.t͡ʂd.d͡ʐ/may be pronounced asgeminates[t͡ʂːd͡ʐː].
- ^/ɨ/is sometimestranscribed phoneticallyas ⟨ɪ⟩, though it is phonetically[ɘ̟].
⟨é⟩was historically used in native words prior to the 1891 spelling reform by theAcademy of Learning,e.g.,cztéry,papiéż(nowcztery'four',papież'pope'). Now it is used in some loanwords, e.g.,attaché,exposé,chargé d’affaires.
Fordigraphsand other rules about spelling and the corresponding pronunciations, seePolish orthography.
Names of letters
[edit]The spoken Polish names of the letters are given in the table underLettersabove.
The names of the letters are not normally written out in the way shown above, except as part of certain lexicalized abbreviations, such asPekao(or PeKaO), the name of a bank, which represents the spoken form of the abbreviation P.K.O. (forPolska Kasa Opieki).
Some letters may be referred to in alternative ways, often consisting of just the sound of the letter. For example,⟨y⟩may be calledy[clarification needed]rather thanigrek(from 'Greek i').
When giving the spelling of words, certain letters may be said in more emphatic ways to distinguish them from other identically pronounced characters. For example,⟨h⟩may be referred to assamo ha('h alone') to distinguish it from⟨ch⟩(ce ha).⟨ż⟩may be calledżet z kropkąorzet z kropką('z with an overdot') to distinguish it from⟨rz⟩(er zet).⟨u⟩may be calledu otwarte('open u', a reference to its graphical form) oru zwykłe('normal u') to distinguish it from⟨ó⟩,which is sometimes calledu zamknięte('closed u') oró kreskowane,o kreskowane,o z kreską('dashed ó', 'dashed o', 'o with a dash').
Alphabetical order
[edit]PolishAlpha betical orderinguses the order of letters as in the table underLettersabove.
Note that (unlike in languages such asFrench,Spanish,andGerman) Polish letters withdiacriticsare treated as fully independent letters in Alpha betical ordering. For example,byćcomes afterbycie.The accented letters also have their own sections in dictionaries (words beginning with⟨ć⟩are not usually listed under⟨c⟩).
Digraphs are not given any special treatment in Alpha betical ordering. For example,⟨ch⟩is treated simply as⟨c⟩followed by⟨h⟩and not as a single letter as inCzech.
Computer encoding
[edit]There are several systems forencodingthe Polish Alpha bet for computers. All letters of the Polish Alpha bet are included inUnicode,and thus Unicode-based encodings such asUTF-8andUTF-16can be used. The Polish Alpha bet is completely included in theBasic Multilingual Planeof Unicode. The standard 8-bit character encoding for the Polish Alpha bet isISO 8859-2(Latin-2), although bothISO 8859-13(Latin-7) andISO 8859-16(Latin-10) encodings include glyphs of the Polish Alpha bet. Microsoft's format for encoding the Polish Alpha bet isWindows-1250.
The Polish letters which are not present in theEnglish Alpha bethave the followingHTMLcodes andUnicodecodepoints:
| Upper case | Ą | Ć | Ę | Ł | Ń | Ó | Ś | Ź | Ż |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HTML entity | Ą Ą |
Ć Ć |
Ę Ę |
Ł Ł |
Ń Ń |
Ó Ó |
Ś Ś |
Ź Ź |
Ż Ż |
| Unicode | U+0104 | U+0106 | U+0118 | U+0141 | U+0143 | U+00D3 | U+015A | U+0179 | U+017B |
| TexPL | 129 | 130 | 134 | 138 | 139 | 211 | 145 | 153 | 155 |
| Result | Ą | Ć | Ę | Ł | Ń | Ó | Ś | Ź | Ż |
| Lower case | ą | ć | ę | ł | ń | ó | ś | ź | ż |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HTML entity | ą ą |
ć ć |
ę ę |
ł ł |
ń ń |
ó ó |
ś ś |
ź ź |
ż ż |
| Unicode | U+0105 | U+0107 | U+0119 | U+0142 | U+0144 | U+00F3 | U+015B | U+017A | U+017C |
| TexPL | 161 | 162 | 166 | 170 | 171 | 243 | 145 | 177 | 185 |
| Result | ą | ć | ę | ł | ń | ó | ś | ź | ż |
For other encodings, seePolish code pages,but alsoCombining Diacritical MarksUnicode block.
A common test sentence containing all the Polish diacritic letters is the nonsensicalZażółć gęślą jaźń('Yellow the ego with/of agusle').
See also
[edit]Notes
[edit]- ^The digraph⟨qu⟩is typically replaced by⟨kw⟩.
References
[edit]- ^As on the picture"GDL Statute".Wikimedia Commons.Retrieved4 November2015.
- ^"Witamy w PORADNI JĘZYKOWEJ".
- ^"Q, V, X – Poradnia językowa PWN".
- ^"Niesubordynowany korespondent – Poradnia językowa PWN".
Further reading
[edit]- Sadowska, Iwona (2012).Polish: A Comprehensive Grammar.Oxford;New York City:Routledge.ISBN978-0-415-47541-9.
External links
[edit]- Polish Alphabet & Pronunciation
- Polish Pronunciation Audio and Grammar Charts
- Online editor for typing Polish characters
- A Foreigner's Guide to the Polish Alphabet,interactive listen-along guide from Culture.pl