Bits of Polish » Pronunciation

Pronunciation: the digraphs

Alicja — Thu, 20 May 2010 08:18:32 +0000

Or, the most intimidating part of the Polish sound system. Seriously, even writing about them – and I’ve been able to pronounce them for years, so I pretty much take them for granted – feels intimidating.

So let’s all face them and get intimidated.

CH – chodnik, chemia
pavement, chemistry

In modern standard Polish, ch is pronounced identically to h. It obviously makes the pronunciation aspect easier while messing up the simplicity of the spelling at the same time… For most Polish schoolkids, learning when to use ch and h is a painful process involving hours of writing mind-bogglingly boring dictations. The same goes for rz and ż, and for u and ó.

CZ – czas, czerwony
time, red

This sound is pronounced similarly to the English ch in chalk. It’s not exactly the same sound, though, and you should try not to confuse it with ć, which sounds softer.

DZ – dzwon, dzban
bell, jug

This is a voiced variant of c. The letters this digraph comprises give a clue as to how it’s pronounced: as an affricate (a plosive and a fricative in rapid succession) of /d/ and /z/. Take an English word with these sounds – for example sounds – and focus on the final consonants. Try to pronounce them one after the other very quickly, so that they no longer sound as /d/ and /z/ but rather as one sound.

DŹ – dźwięk, dźwig
sound, crane (machine)

This is a voiced variant of ć. Try not to confuse it with ć or dż!

DŻ – dżem, dżdżownica
jam, earthworm

This is a voiced variant of cz. It sounds more or less like the English j in Joe.

RZ – rzecz, rząd
thing, row

You pronounce it identically to ż – practically the same as the s in leisure or pleasure.

SZ – szary, szpilka
gray, pin

This is a voiceless variant of rz or ż. It’s easily confusable with ś.

Pronunciation – the consonants

Alicja — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 16:39:41 +0000

In today’s overview of Polish consonants, we’ll only go through those written with one letter. That’s the easy part. No tricky digraphs – at least for now, though they are, of course, yet to come.

Listen and enjoy!

B – banan, beczka
banana, barrel

C – córka, cebula
daughter, onion

D – dom, dym
house, smoke

F – fajka, flet
smoking pipe, flute

G – góra, gniew
mountain, anger

H – hałas, herbata
noise, tea

J – jajko, jesień
egg, autumn

K – kot, kawa
cat, coffee

L – lato, lipa
summer, linden tree

Ł – łazienka, ławka
bathroom, bench

M – mama, mleko
mom, milk

N – noc, nigdy
night, never

Ń – koń, dłoń
horse, hand

P – pies, park
dog, park

R – rower, rana
bicycle, wound

S – sok, seks
juice, sex

Ś – świeca, świnia
candle, pig

T – tata, teatr
dad, theatre

W – woda, wojna
water, war

Z – zebra, zawsze
zebra, always

Ź – źrebak, źródło
foal, source

Ż – żaba, żona
frog, wife

Pronunciation: the vowels

Alicja — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 05:02:34 +0000

Polish pronunciation is easy – at least when you consider the letter-to-sound relationships. After you’ve learned how the specific sounds are articulated, you’ll be able to pronounce every word you come across. That’s the good news. The bad news is, well, that some sounds are more difficult than others. Most of those traps, I think, crop up in the consonant department; the vowel system is relatively easy, but the sounds still differ from their English counterparts. The best way to get used to them is through listening, so lower down you’ll find a little sample of the vowels and example words they appear in.

Some notes on the vowels:

All the vowels are of the same length – Polish doesn’t make a distinction between long and short vowels.

The nasal sounds ą and ę never appear in the beginning of a word. Remember that while the letter ę represents a nasal e, the letter ą is in fact pronounced as a nasal o (it used to be a nasal a sound at earlier stages of the development of the language). The hook under the letters is called an ogonek, literally a “small tail”.

The letters u and ó represent the same sound, thus being the bane of primary school students exploring the fantastic world of Polish spelling. Get used to such letter pairs, there’ll be more of them coming when we get to consonants.

Listen to the sounds:

A – ananas, alkohol
pineapple, alcohol

Ą– mąka, książka
flour, book

E – Europa, echo
Europe, echo

Ę – ręka, gęś
hand, goose

I – igła, imigracja
needle, immigration

O – osa, owoc
wasp, fruit

Ó – córka, chór
daughter, choir

U – ucho, udo
ear, thigh

Y – mysz, ryż
mouse, rice