Polish jzyk polski Pronunciation plski Spoken in  Poland.1 Minorities: Belarus Ukraine Lithuania Latvia United Kingdom Germany United States Czech Republic Russia Brazil Argentina Canada France Australia Ireland Israel. Total speakers approximately 40 million up to 48234 Language family Indo-European Balto-Slavic Slavic West Slavic Lechitic Polish Writing system Latin (Polish variant) Official status Official language in  European Union  Poland

Minority language:5  Czech Republic  Slovakia  Romania  Ukraine Regulated by Polish Language Council Language codes ISO 639-1 pl ISO 639-2 pol ISO 639-3 pol Linguasphere 53-AAA-cc < 53-AAA-b...-d (varieties: 53-AAA-cca to 53-AAA-ccu) Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

Polish (jzyk polski polszczyzna) describes a Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages in Central Europe6 and the official language of Poland. Its written standard is the Polish alphabet which corresponds to the Latin alphabet with several additions. Polish-speakers use the language in a uniform manner throughout most of Poland.

Despite the pressure of non-Polish administrations in Poland who have often attempted to suppress the Polish language a rich literature has developed over the centuries and the language is currently the largest in terms of speakers of the West Slavic group. It is also the second most widely spoken Slavic language after Russian and before Ukrainian.78 Contents 1 Geographic distribution 2 Dialects 3 Historical geographic distribution 4 Phonology 5 Orthography 6 Grammar 6.1 Nouns and adjectives 6.2 Verbs 6.3 Word order 6.4 Conjugation 7 Borrowed words 8 Loanwords from Polish 9 See also 10 Notes 11 References 12 External links Geographic distribution Geographical distribution of the Polish language relative to the other Central and Eastern Europe languages and dialects. Dialects Main article: Dialects of the Polish language

The Polish language became far more homogeneous in the second half of the 20th century in part due to the mass-migration of several million Polish citizens from the eastern to the western part of the country after the Soviet annexation of the Kresy in 1939 and the acquisition of former German territory after World War II. This tendency toward a homogeneity also stems from the vertically integrated nature of the authoritarian People's Republic of Poland.

The inhabitants of different regions of Poland stillupdate speak "Standard" Polish somewhat differently although the differences between these broad "dialects" appear slight. First-language speakers of Polish never experience any difficulty in mutual understanding however non-native speakers have difficulty distinguishing regional variations. The differences are slight compared to the variety of dialects in English.

The regional differences correspond to old tribal divisionscitation needed from around a thousand years ago; the most significant of these in terms of numbers of speakers relate to: Greater Polish spoken in the west Lesser Polish spoken in the south and southeast Masovian spoken throughout the central and eastern parts of the country Silesian spoken in the southwest (controversial)

Some more characteristic but less widespread regional dialects include: The distinctive Podhale dialect (Gralski) occurs in the mountainous area bordering the Czech and Slovak Republics. The Gorals (highlanders) take great pride in their culture and the dialect. It exhibits some cultural influences from the Vlach shepherdscitation needed who migrated from Wallachia (southern Romania) in the 14th-17th centuriescitation needed. The language of the coextensive East Slavic ethnic group the Lemkos which demonstrates significant lexical and grammatical commonality with the Gralski dialect and Ukrainian bears no significant Vlach or other Romanian influences. Most urban Poles find it difficult to understand this very distinct dialect.9 The Kashubian language spoken in the Pomorze region west of Gdask on the Baltic Sea a language closely related to Polish has seemed like a dialect to some observers. However it exhibits sufficient significant differences to merit its classification as a separate language; for instance it is not readily understandable to Polish speakers unless written. There are about 53000 speakers according to the 2002 census. The Silesian language spoken in the Silesia region west of Katowice a language related to Polish has seemed like a dialect to some observers. However it exhibits sufficient significant differences to merit its classification as a separate languagecitation needed; for instance it is not readily understandable to Polish speakerscitation needed. There are about 60000 speakers according to the 2002 census. The Poznanski dialect spoken in Poznan and to some extent in the whole region of the former Prussian annexation (excluding upper Silesia); with characteristic high tone melody and notable influence of the German language. In the northern and western (formerly German) regions where Poles from the territories annexed by the Soviet Union resettled after World War II the older generation speaks a dialect of Polish characteristic of the Eastern Borderlands which resembles Ukrainian or Rusyn especially in the "longer" pronunciation of vowels. Poles living in Lithuania (particularly in the Vilnius region) in Belarus (particularly the northwest) and in the northeast of Poland continue to speak the Eastern Borderlands dialect which sounds "slushed" (in Polish described as zaciganie z ruska 'speaking with a Russian drawl') and is easily distinguishable. Some city dwellers especially the less affluent population had their own distinctive dialects for example the Warsaw dialect still spoken by some of the population of Praga on the eastern bank of the Vistula. (Praga remained the only part of Warsaw where the population survived World War II relatively intact.) However these city dialects are nowupdate mostly extinct due to assimilation with standard Polish. Many Poles living in emigrant communities (for example in the USA) whose families left Poland just after World War II retain a number of minor features of Polish vocabulary as spoken in the first half of the 20th century but which now sound archaic to contemporary visitors from Poland. Historical geographic distribution Polish population as of 1937

As a result of World War II Poland's borders changed significantly. The change in borders was accompanied by a series of migrations (World War II evacuation and expulsion German expulsions Operation Vistula). Ethnic cleansing of the Poles as a result of the Massacres of Poles in Volhynia also resulted in significant demographic changes. Polish territories annexed by the Soviet Union after the Second World War retained a significant Polish population unwilling or unable to migrate to post-1945 Poland. Phonology Main article: Polish phonology

Polish has six oral and two nasal vowels. The Polish consonant system shows more complexity: its characteristic features include the series of affricates and palatal consonants that resulted from four Proto-Slavic palatalizations and two further palatalizations which took place in Polish and Belarusian. The stress falls generally on the penultimate (second to last) syllable. Orthography Main article: Polish orthography This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support you may see question marks boxes or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. The Polish alphabet derives from the Latin alphabet but uses diacritics such as kreska (graphically similar to the acute accent) kropka (superior dot) and ogonek ("little tail"). The Polish alphabet was one of two major forms of Latin-based orthography developed for Slavic languages the other being Czech orthography. Slovak uses the Czech-based system as do Slovene and Croatian; Kashubian uses a Polish-based system while Sorbian blends the two. Upper case HTML code Lower case HTML code Name of the letter Usual phonetic value Other phonetic values A   a   a a   &#260; &#261; m n B   b   be b p C   c   ce ts dz t &#262; &#263; cie t d D   d   de d t E   e   e e after and between palatalized consonants &#280; &#281; m n F   f   ef f v G   g   gie k H   h   ha x (Eastern Borderlands Silesia) I   i   i i i mute (softens preceding consonant) J   j   jot j i K   k   ka k L   l   el l l in older pronunciation and eastern dialects &#321; &#322; e w in older pronunciation and eastern dialects M   m   em m   N   n   en n &#323; &#324; e   O   o   o   &Oacute; &oacute; "o kreskowane" "o z kresk" or "u zamknite" ("lined o" "o with line" "lined u" or "closed u") u   P   p   pe p b R   r   er r S   s   es s z &#346; &#347; e T   t   te t d U   u   "u" "u zwyke" or "u otwarte" ("simple u" "opened u") u u W   w   wu v f Y   y   igrek   Z   z   zet z s &#377; &#378; ziet &#379; &#380; et Polish orthography also includes seven digraphs: Capitalized HTML code Lower case HTML code Usual phonetic value Other phonetic values Ch   ch   x Cz   cz   t d Dz   dz   dz ts d d-z D D&#377; d d&#378; d t d- D D&#379; d d&#380; d t d- Rz   rz   r-z r or r (in some dialects) Sz   sz   Note the laminal postalveolars t d perhaps most accurately transcribed using the IPA retracted diacritic as s z t d respectively. Also note that Polish (transcribed here as ) is not palatal having the same place of articulation as and . However as the IPA does not have a symbol for a nasal alveolo-palatal consonant a more accurate representation would be n. The letters Q (ku) V (fau) and X (iks) do not exist in the Polish alphabet but they occur in some commercial names and in some foreign words. Some letters such as those listed are used but not that often. In Polish pronunciation there is no need for them. They are replaced with K W and KS/GZ respectively. Some letters like Y and W are pronounced differently. Note that although the Polish orthography mostly follows phonetic-morphological lines some sounds may appear in more than one written form: x as either h or ch as either or rz (though r denotes a r- cluster) u as either u or soft consonants are spelt either d or ci dzi ni si zi ( etc. are spelled before a consonant or at the end of a word whereas ci ni etc. are used before vowels a e o u; c dz n s z alone are used before i.) The two consonants rz very occasionally reflect the sounds "r z" not as in words "zamarza" (to freeze) "marzn" (to feel cold) or in the name "Tarzan". The pronunciation of geminates (doubled consonants) in Polish always sounds distinct from single consonants. Note that they should not be pronounced in a prolonged manner as in Finnish and Italian but it happens often in informal conversations. In correct pronunciation speakers should articulate and release each of the two consonants separately. The prolongation is therefore rather a repetition of the consonant. For example the word panna (young lady/maiden) is not read the same way as pana (mr.'s/master's) but should be pronounced pan-na with two n. This includes not only native Polish words (like panna or oddech) but also loan-words (lasso attyka). In Polish geminates may appear in the beginning of a word as in czczenie (worshipping) ddownica (earthworm) ssak (mammal) wwz (importation) zstpi (to descend; to step down) and zza (from behind; from beyond) but never appear at the end of a word of Slavic origin. Grammar Nouns and adjectives This section requires expansion. Case declension should be covered as well. A highly inflected language Polish retains the Old Slavic case-system with seven cases for nouns pronouns and adjectives: nominative (mianownik) genitive (dopeniacz) dative (celownik) accusative (biernik) instrumental (narzdnik) locative (miejscownik) vocative (woacz) The vocative is used mainly in formal context as in colloquial speech the nominative is used instead. Janie! 'O John!' is perceived as less familiar than Jan! 'John!'. Interestingly the vocative is almost always used when insulting people: zodzieju 'you thief!' idioto 'you idiot!'. Modern Polish has only two number classes: singular and plural. In the past there was also a dual number which applied only to pairs. This form however vanished around the 15th century and now is present only in few traces. For instance the proverb "Mdrej gowie do dwie sowie" ("Two words are enough for a clever person" literally "clever head") may seem to be not grammatically correct ("Mdrej gowie do dwa sowa") but it is a relict of dual number. Like many other Slavic languages with the exception of Bulgarian and Macedonian Polish uses no definite or indefinite articles. The Polish gender system like that of Russian and of almost all the other Slavic languages appears complex due to its combination of three categories: gender (masculine feminine neuter) personhood (personal versus non-personal) and animacy (animate versus inanimate). Personhood and animacy are relevant within the masculine gender but do not affect the feminine or neuter genders. The resulting system can be presented as comprising five gender classes: personal masculine animate (non-personal) masculine inanimate masculine feminine and neuter. These classes can be identified based on declension patterns adjective-noun agreement and pronoun-antecedent agreement. Gender Nominative singular Accusative singular Nominative plural Meaning Adjective Noun Adjective Noun Adjective Noun Personal masculine nowy student nowego studenta nowi studenci "new student(s)" Animate masculine nowy pies nowego psa nowe psy "new dog(s)" Inanimate masculine nowy st nowy st nowe stoy "new table(s)" Feminine nowa szafa now szaf nowe szafy "new wardrobe(s)" Neuter nowe krzeso nowe krzeso nowe krzesa "new chair(s)" Seemingly then there are many cases that share the same nominal and adjectival endings. For instance in the personal masculine the accusative is identical to the genitive; in the animate masculine the accusative and genitive singulars and the accusative and nominative plurals are the same; in the inanimate masculine the accusative and nominative are identical; the neuter accusative and nominative are the same; and in the feminine the dative and locative singulars and the accusative and nominative plurals are identical. Also of note are the distinctive softening endings on the personal masculine nominative plural; the ending of the animate and inanimate masculine nominative singulars ending in a consonant; and the neuter nominative singular ending in "-o" or "-e" and ending in "-a" in the genitive. The gender classification of masculine nouns does not always match up with their semantic reference (human animate or inanimate). In particular the class of grammatically animate nouns includes a significant number of nouns referring to inanimate entities (e.g. zoty "zloty" cukierek "candy" papieros "cigarette") as well as nouns used figuratively to refer to people (geniusz "genius" orygina "original"). In the plural personal masculine forms are used for referring to groups of males or mixed groups of males and females. To determine correct adjective-noun agreement only four genders need to be distinguished in the singular (classes 1 and 2 can be combined) and only two genders are needed in the plural (class 1 contrasting with 2-3-4-5 combined). For correct pronoun selection the gender system can be further simplified to three classes in the singular and two in the plural. The following table shows which 3rd person nominative pronoun corresponds to nouns of each gender class: Gender of antecedent Singular Plural Personal masculine on oni Animate masculine one Inanimate masculine Feminine ona Neuter ono Verbs Polish inflects verbs according to gender as well as person and number but the tense forms have been simplified through elimination of three old tenses (the aorist imperfect and past perfect). The so-called Slavic perfect is the only past tense form used in common speech. In Polish one distinguishes between three tenses (present past and future) three moods (indicative imperative and conditional) three voices (active passive and reflexive). Aspect a grammatical category of the verb affects almost all Polish verbs in their two aspects in each tense: imperfective (often translated as a progressive tense in English with -ing for example 'was going' 'is going' "will be going") perfective (often translated as a simple tense in English for example 'went' 'will go' - there is no present tense in this aspect). The tenses include: construction (for perfective verbs) (for imperfective verbs) example imperfective example perfective verb+ infinitive infinitive robi zrobi verb+suffix future simple tense present tense robicie zrobicie past participle+suffix past perfective tense past imperfective tense robilicie zrobilicie (this suffix can be moved) cocie robili / co robilicie cocie zrobili / co zrobilicie Movable suffixes (those of the past tenses) usually attach to the verb or to the most accented word of a sentence like question preposition. The fifth Polish tense the future imperfective expressed in analytic form consists of the simple future form of the auxiliary verb by to be (bd bdziesz...) and either infinitive or past participle (imperfective). The choice between bdziecie robi and bdziecie robili is free and both forms have the same meaning. Sometimes the sentence may be emphasised with a particle -e- (-). So what have you done can be: Co zrobilicie Cocie zrobili Co ecie zrobili (mostly informal; this form is considered incorrect by linguists if used in formal language10) (It is also well worth noticing that the two latter forms"cocie zrobili" and "co ecie zrobili" often carry a negative emotional load a possible translation of these examples being "what (the hell) have you done!" The third form using "ecie" would be even strongerfitting for situations involving desperation etc. (and indeed being a little archaic or regional)) All the above examples show inflected forms of the verb "zrobi" for the subject "you" informal plural ("wy"). However it is worthy of notice that none of the above examples includes the subject itself. The inclusion of the subject is not necessary here because Polish is a pro-drop language. This means that with an inflected verb the subject does not need to be mentioned. Instead the reader or listener can tell by the ending on the verb which is different for each person singular and plural what is the implied subject. Because the subject can be dropped using it with an inflected verb signals emphasis. Of the above three examples a native speaker would not include the subject in the middle sentence and would be unlikely to include the subject in the last one. The past participle depends on number and gender so the third person past perfect can be: - singular zrobi (he made/did) zrobia (she made/did) zrobio (it made/did) - plural zrobili (they made/did men people of both sexes) zrobiy (they made/did women children) Word order Basic word order in Polish is SVO however as it is a synthetic language it is possible to move words around in the sentence and to drop the subject object or even sometimes verb if they are obvious from context. These sentences mean more or less the same ("Alice has a cat") but different shades of meaning are emphasized by selecting different word orders. "Alicja ma kota" ("Alice has a cat") standard order "Alicja kota ma" emphasis and accent on "ma" ("has"). Used in an argumentative response to a statement maintaining the opposite: "Alicja nie ma kota." ("Alice doesn't have a cat"). Ale ona kota ma!" ("She does too!" or "Yes she does!") "Kota Alicja ma" similar to the word order above. "Kota ma Alicja" emphasis on Alicja the owner of the cat: "Kasia ma kota." ("Kathy has a cat"). "Nie kota ma Alicja." ("No Alice has a cat." or "No it's Alice who has a cat.") "Ma Alicja kota" rarely useful and often awkward but still correct. Precise meaning is context- and pronunciation-dependent. This order is often used as a question in spoken / informal language. "Ma kota Alicja" similar to the word order above Note that each word order could carry a slightly different meaning which may be difficult for a non-native speaker to completely grasp. There are no rules governing this and even the emphases listed above could be easily changed with proper pronunciation. Sometimes if apparent from context the subject object or even the verb can be dropped: "Ma kota." ("has a cat") can be used if it is obvious who the subject is "Ma." ("has") a short answer for "Czy Alicja ma kota" ("Does Alice have a cat") as in "Yes" or "Yes she does." "Alicja." answer for "Kto ma kota" ("Who has a cat") as in "Alice does" "Kota." ("a cat") answer to "Co ma Alicja" ("What does Alice have") as in "A cat" "Alicja ma." ("Alice has") as in "Alice does" - answer to "Kto z naszych znajomych ma kota" ("Who among our acquaintances has a cat") ("Alice does."). Note the interrogative particle "czy" which is used to start a yes/no question much like the French "est-ce que". (See also tag question.) The particle is not obligatory and sometimes rising intonation is the only signal of the interrogative character of the sentence: "Alicja ma kota" (see above). There is a tendency in Polish to drop the subject rather than the object as it is uncommon to know the object but not the subject. If the question were "Kto ma kota" (Who has a/the cat) the answer should be "Alicja" alone without a verb. In particular personal pronouns are almost always dropped much like the respective Italian and Spanish pronouns. This is because other language aspects define the subject easily for example the verb I ("to go"): Id - I go Idziesz - you (singular) go Idzie - he / she / it goes - in this case (if not known from the context) personal pronoun should be used for clarification Idziemy - we go Idziecie - you (plural) go Id - they go - same rule apply as for "idzie" Conjugation This section requires expansion. Conjugation of "by" (to be) in the present tense: Informal forms: Ja jestem I am Ty jeste You are (familiar singular) On/ona/ono jest He/she/it is My jestemy We are Wy jestecie You are (plural) Oni/one s They are (masculine/feminine) Formal forms: Pan/Pani jest You are (masculine/feminine singular polite) Pastwo s You are (plural both sexes together polite) Panowie s You are (plural masculine polite) Panie s You are (plural feminine polite) Conjugation of "by" (to be) in the past tense: Informal form: Ja byem/byam I (masculine/feminine) was Ty bye/bya You (masculine/feminine) were On by/ona bya/ono byo He/she/it was My bylimy/byymy We (masculine/feminine) were Wy bylicie/byycie You (masculine/feminine) were (plural) Oni byli/one byy They (masculine/feminine) were Formal form: Pan by/Pani bya You were (masculine/feminine singular polite) Pastwo byli You were (plural both sexes together polite) Panowie byli You were (plural masculine polite) Panie byy You were (plural feminine polite) Past tense for verbs is usually made this way by replacing the infinitive final "-" with "-(+V)". Conjugation of "by" (to be) in the future tense: Informal form: Ja bd I (masculine/feminine) will be Ty bdziesz You (masculine/feminine) will be On/ona/ono bdzie He/she/it will be My bdziemy We (masculine/feminine) will be Wy bdziecie You (masculine/feminine) will be (plural) Oni/one bd They (masculine/feminine) will be Formal form: Pan/Pani bdzie You will be (masculine/feminine singular polite) Pastwo bd You will be (plural both sexes together polite) Panowie bd You will be (plural masculine polite) Panie bd You will be (plural feminine polite) Conjugation of "i" ("to go walk" in the present tense): Informal form: Ja id I am going Ty idziesz You are going (singular) On/ona/ono idzie He/she/it is going My idziemy We are going Wy idziecie You are going (plural) Oni/one id They are going ("oni" masculine personal "one" feminine neuter masculine animate or masculine inanimate) Formal form: Pan/Pani idzie You are going (masculine/feminine singular polite) Pastwo id You are going (plural both sexes together polite) Panowie id You are going (plural masculine polite) Panie id You are going (plural feminine polite) Conjugation of "i" ("to go walk" in the imperfect): Informal form: Ja szedem (masculine) Ja szam (feminine) - I was going Ty szede (masculine) Ty sza (feminine) - you were going On szed (masculine) Ona sza (feminine) Ono szo (neuter) He/she/it was going My szlimy (inf mymy szli) (masculine masculine + feminine masculine + neutral)- We were going My szymy (inf mymy szy) (feminine + feminine) We were going Wy szlicie (inf. wycie szli) (masculine masculine + feminine masculine + neutral)- You were going Wy szycie (inf. wycie szy) (feminine + feminine) You were going Oni szli (masculine masculine + feminine masculine + neutral)- They were going One szy (feminine + feminine) They were going Formal form: Pan szed (masculine) Pani sza (feminine) You were going (polite) Pastwo szli (masculine masculine + feminine masculine + neutral)- You were going (polite) Panie szy (feminine + feminine) You were going (polite) In Polish the use of personal pronouns to mark the subject is not necessary because flexed word contains such information. Therefore one may omit the personal pronouns as follows while retaining the same meaning: Id ( I am going) Idziesz ( You are going) Idzie ( She/He/It is going) Idziemy ( We are going) Idziecie ( You are going) Id ( They are going) Borrowed words Polish has over the centuries borrowed a number of words from other languages. Usually borrowed words have been adapted rapidly in the following ways: Spelling was altered to approximate the pronunciation but written according to Polish phonetics. Word endings are liberally applied to almost any word to produce verbs nouns adjectives as well as adding the appropriate endings for cases of nouns diminutives augmentatives etc. Depending on the historical period borrowing has proceeded from various languages. Recent borrowing is primarily of "international" words from the English language mainly those that have Latin or Greek roots for example komputer (computer) korupcja (corruption) etc. Slang sometimes borrows and alters common English words e.g. lukn (to look). Concatenation of parts of words (e.g. auto-moto) which is not native to Polish but common in e.g. English is also sometimes used. When borrowing international words Polish often changes their spelling. For example Latin suffix '-tion' corresponds to -cja. To make the word plural -cja becomes -cje. Examples of this include inauguracja (inauguration) dewastacja (devastation) konurbacja (conurbation) and konotacje (connotations). Also the digraph qu becomes kw (kwadrant quadrant; kworum quorum). Other notable influences in the past have been Latin (9th-18th century) Czech (10th and 14th-15th century) Italian (15th-16th century) French (18th-19th century) German (13-15th and 18th-20th century) Hungarian (14th-16th century) and Turkish (17th century). The Latin language for a very long time the only official language of the Polish state has had a great influence on Polish. Many Polish words (rzeczpospolita from res publica zdanie for both "opinion" and "sentence" from sententia) were direct calques from Latin. Many words have been borrowed from the German language as a result of being neighbours for a millennium and also due to a sizable German population in Polish cities since medieval times. The regional dialects of Upper Silesia and Masuria (Modern Polish East Prussia) have noticeably more German loanwords than other dialects. Latin was known to a larger or smaller degree by most of the numerous szlachta in the 16th to 18th centuries (and it continued to be extensively taught at secondary schools until World War II). Apart from dozens of loanwords its influence can also be seen in somewhat greater number of verbatim Latin phrases in Polish literature (especially from the 19th century and earlier) than say in English. In the 18th century with rising prominence of France in Europe French supplanted Latin in this respect. Some French borrowings also date from the Napoleonic era when the Poles were enthusiastic supporters of Napoleon. Examples include ekran (from French cran screen) abaur (abat-jour lamp shade) rekin (requin shark) meble (meuble furniture) baga (bagage luggage) walizka (valise suitcase) fotel (fauteuil armchair) plaa (plage beach) and koszmar (cauchemar nightmare). Some place names have also been adapted from French such as the two Warsaw boroughs of oliborz (joli bordbeautiful riverside) and Mokotw (mon coteaumy hill) as well as the town of yrardw (from the name Girard with the Polish suffix -w attached to point at owner/founder of a town). Other words are borrowed from other Slavic languages for example sejm haba and brama from Czech. Some words like bachor (an unruly boy or child) bajzel (slang for mess) belfer (slang for teacher) ciuchy (slang for clothing) cymes (slang for very tasty food) geszeft (slang for business) kitel (slang for apron) machlojka (slang for scam) mamona (money) menele (slang for oddments and also for homeless people) myszygine (slang for lunatic) pinda (slang for girl pejorativelly) plajta (slang for bankruptcy) rejwach (noise) szmal (slang for money) trefny (dodgy) were borrowed from Yiddish spoken by the large Polish Jewish population before their numbers were severely depleted during the Holocaust. Typical loanwords from Italian include pomidor from pomodoro (tomato) kalafior from cavolfiore (cauliflower) pomaracza from pomo (pome) and (l')arancio (orange) etc. Those were introduced in the times of queen Bona Sforza (the wife of Polish king Sigismund the Old) who was famous for introducing Poland to Italian cuisine especially vegetables. Another interesting word of Italian origin is autostrada (from Italian "autostrada" highway). The contacts with Ottoman Turkey in the 17th century brought many new words some of them still in use such as: jar (deep valley) szaszyk (shish kebab) filianka (cup) arbuz (water melon) dywan (carpet) kiebasa (sausage)11 etc. The mountain dialects of the Grale in southern Poland have quite a number of words borrowed from Hungarian (e.g. baca gazda juhas hejna) and Romanian from historical contacts with Hungarian-dominated Slovakia and Wallachian herders who travelled north along the Carpathians. Thieves' slang includes such words as kima (to sleep) or majcher (knife) of Greek origin considered then unknown to the outside world. Direct borrowings from Russian are extremely rare in spite of long periods of dependence on tzarist Russia and the Soviet Union and are limited to few internationalisms as sputnik or pieriestrojkacitation needed. There are also few words borrowed from Mongolian language those are dzida (spear) or szereg (a line column). Those words were brought to Polish language during wars with Genghis Khan's armies. Loanwords from Polish The Polish language has influenced others. Particular influences show in German and in other Slavic languages due to their proximity and shared borders. Examples of loanwords include German Grenze (border) Dutch and Afrikaans Grens from Polish granica German Peitzker from Polish piskorz (weatherfish) German Zobel French Zibeline Swedish Sobel English Sable from Polish sobl or ogonek ("little tail") the word describing a diacritic hook-sign added below some letters in various alphabets. Also "spruce" ("z Prus" "from Prussia") in English. Quite a few culinary loanwords exist in German and in other languages some of which describe distinctive features of Polish cuisine. These include German and English Quark from twarg (a kind of cheese; see: quark (cheese) and German Gurke English gherkin from ogrek (cucumber). The word pierogi (Polish dumplings) has spread internationally as well as pczki (Polish donuts). See also The School of Polish for Foreigners Slavic languages Slavic people Swadesh list of Slavic languages Wiktionary:Polish language Wikibooks:Basic Polish language course Holy Cross Sermons Adam Mickiewicz Institute A Translation Guide to 19th-Century Polish-Language Civil-Registration Documents Notes "Polish language - Britannica Online Encyclopedia". Britannica.com. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/467443/Polish-language. Retrieved 2009-05-06.  http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/features/dictionary/DictionaryResults.aspxlextype3&searchpolish http://www.cactuslanguagetraining.com/us/english/view/the-importance-of-polish-as-a-language-today/ http://www.ethnologue.org/ethnodocs/distribution.aspbysize European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages Britannica Encyclopaedia "Lekhitic languages also spelled Lechitic group of West Slavic language composed of Polish Kashubian and its archaic variant Slovincian and the extinct Polabian language. All these languages except Polish are sometimes classified as a Pomeranian subgroup. In the early Middle Ages before their speakers had become Germanized Pomeranian languages and dialects were spoken along the Baltic in an area extending from the lower Vistula River to the lower Oder River." http://www.cactuslanguagetraining.com/us/english/view/the-importance-of-polish-as-a-language-today/ http://www.ethnologue.org/ethnodocs/distribution.aspbysize Magosic Paul Robert (2005). "The Rusyn Question". http://litopys.org.ua/rizne/magocie.htm. Retrieved 2008-01-30.  http://poradnia.pwn.pl/lista.phpid9760 2 "kielbasa. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000". Bartleby.com. http://www.bartleby.com/61/68/K0056800.html. Retrieved 2009-05-06.  References Swan Oscar E. (2002). A Grammar of Contemporary Polish. Bloomington IN: Slavica. ISBN 0-89357-296-9.  Bisko Wacaw; translated and adapted by Stanisaw Kryski (1966) (DTBook) Mwimy po polsku. A beginner's course of Polish Warszawa: Wiedza Powszechna http://www.archive.org/details/mwimypopolskub00bisk  External links Polish language edition of Wikipedia the free encyclopedia Wikibooks has a book on the topic of Polish Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Polish language Polish language edition of Wikisource the free-content library Polish language edition of Wiktionary the free dictionary/thesaurus University of Pittsburgh: Polish Language Website "A Touch of Polish" BBC A Concise Polish Grammar by Ronald F. 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