Well, we have all noticed that the Antimoon’s webmaster is from Poland…But let’s forget about him :)
What do you really know about Poland and Polish language? Since Poland joined the EU, Poland is considered one of the Biggest and influential EU state moving the EU’s gravitation point and somehow balancing the Western-Eastern EU.
Besides; Chopin, Copernicus, Pope Juan Paul, can you name others famous people ?
It’s very important to me to see Poland / Polish in your eyes !
Thank you !
Marie Curie, Lech Valesa...
Ignacy Paderewski, Roman Polanski. I know that Hanna Schygulla was born in Poland, but I don't know whether she's associated more with Poland or Germany.
Zbygnew Brzerzinski (not sure about the spelling)
Polish nouns -
Unlike in the English language, nouns do change in different contexts. A noun depends on it's case which again depends on the gender, number and position of the noun.
The three genders are: masculine, feminine and neuter. There are all together 7 cases in Polish: nominative, vocative, accusative, genitive, locative, instrumental and dative. Unfortunately there is a number of nouns that are declined irregularly.
Diminutives:
This feature denotes the smallness or fondness of a person or object.
For ordinary nouns:
Nouns whose stem is not ending k add "ek" for masculine, "ka" for feminine and "ko" for neuter nouns.
Nouns whose stem is ending in k or c add "czek" for masculine, "eczka" for feminine and "eczko" for neuter nouns while the k or c disappears. These endings can also be used to form the diminutive of a diminutive. In some cases the noun turns out to be not pronounceable, then you use the endings "szek", "szka" and "szko" instead.
Masculine nouns in c, cz, rz, sz add "yk" - for further diminutives use "yczek"
Masculine nouns in d, j, ł and t add "ik" - for further diminutives use "iczek"
For proper names:
Here you add "ątko", "cia", "ina", "la", "unia", "sia" or "zia". Male proper names take usually "ek", "io", "iu" or "uś". The form "ocha" is only used colloquially and pejoratively.
Gender:
masculine: these nouns don't have a ending as such, they usually end with a consonant, a few also with a vowel. Some nouns and with an "a", these are declined as feminine in singular but as masculine in plural.
feminine: these end with "a", some also with "i" or "ść" - but there are some others that end with a consonant as well.
neuter: these have the endings: o, e, ię, ę and um
Masculine nouns denoting a profession, relationship or an animal can be changed in a feminine form:
nouns not ending "k" add "ka" or "anka"
nouns ending "k": "ca" or "czka"
But some nationalities' feminine forms are formed by adding "owa" or "ewna".
Some feminine nouns end also in "yni"
A few nouns can't be changed, so you have to add "pani" to that noun.
http://lightning.prohosting.com/~popolsku/Nouns.htm
<<Besides; Chopin, Copernicus, Pope Juan Paul, can you name others famous people ?>>
Gabriel Fahrenheit, Arthur Rubenstein, Joseph Conrad, Pola Negri, Zbigniew Cybulski
Actually, Lithuania has very much Polonized history. Poland once had a common state with Lithuania. Polish language was spoken in Lithuania by the nobility, while Lithuanian was only spoken by uneducated peasants and was considered to be the language of lower classes. This situation lasted even after the Polish-Lithuanian state ceased to exist after the partition of Polish-Lithuanian state in 1794. However, towards the end of XIX century the Lithuanian language regained its rights and as time went on Polish was less and less a "prestige" language here. But even now I meet people, especially older, who can still remember that when they were kids, they used to speak Polish in their families or their grandparents spoke Polish etc. I think the overall situation might be somewhat similar to that of Irish Gaelic, the only difference is that we managed to revive our language, and the Irish failed.
Another interesting feature is that Lithuanian language had lots and lots of Polish loanwords from those old times. That was because as i mentioned, Polish was "prestige" language, so everyone in Lithuania who considetred themselves at least a little "educated" or "noble" tried to add to their speah as many polonizms as possible. And on the other hand, the more uneducated the people were, the purer their Lithuanian speech was...
And of course, Adam Mickiewicz was Lithuanian, everyone knowas that. And John-Paul the Second was half Lithuanian. From his mother's side...
Hey-ho for Vytautis The Great - the knight on the coat of arms!
Illegal immigrants.... ;)
JJM,
Actually, Vytautas the Great was Lithuanian great Duke, during the hight his rule Lithuanian territory stretched from the Baltic sea to the Black sea. It was only afer him that Jogaila (Polish Jagiello) who made this pact with Poland which led to the hundreds of years of common statehood and gradual diminishing of Lithuanian language and influence...
What I find most interesting about Poland is the fact that so much of today's Poland: East Prussia, Pomerania, Silesia etc. was settled by Poles (from provinces in the east that Poland had to cede to the Soviet Union) as recently as after 1945, when the Germans living there were driven away. Is there some kind of settler spirit in those areas? Like in the American Midwest when it was being settled?
Poland was part of Russian Empire, before this country wanted to conquer Russia, but Russia won. In 20th century it was Russian satelitte country, Warsaw pact, you heard about that. Now Poland is an ordinary ex-socialist country, rather poor unfortunately......
Famous people - writers: Stanislaw Lem, Boleslaw Prus, Chmelewska (is spelling right? and i fogot the name....)
Actors: Boguslaw Linda (polish Rembo LOL), Barbara Brylska (she acted in some soviet movies), actually polish films were popular in USSR, but it seems to me that all cinema industry is in ruins now :( I remember good comedy "Killer", drama "Panna Nikt", then "Znachar", any new polish films?
I think Poland is Eastern Europe and not Central Europe.