Polish orthography
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The Polish alphabet is based on the Latin alphabet but uses diacritics, such as kreska (graphically similar to acute accent), kropka (superior dot) and ogonek. It was one of the few Latin-character Slavic languages that did not adopt a version of the Czech orthography.
| Upper case |
HTML code |
Lower case |
HTML code |
Usual phonetic value |
Other phonetic values |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | a | [a] | |||
| Ą | Ą | ą | ą | [ɔɰ̃] | [ɔ], [ɔm], [ɔn], [ɔŋ], [ɔɲ], [ɔj̃] |
| B | b | [b] | [p] | ||
| C | c | [ʦ] | [ʣ], [ʨ] | ||
| Ć | Ć | ć | ć | [ʨ] | [ʥ] |
| D | d | [d] | [t] | ||
| E | e | [ɛ] | [e] after palatalized consonants | ||
| Ę | Ę | ę | ę | [ɛɰ̃] | [ɛ], [ɛm], [ɛn], [ɛŋ], [ɛɲ], [ɛj̃] |
| F | f | [f] | [v] | ||
| G | g | [g] | [k] | ||
| H | h | [x] | [ɣ] | ||
| I | i | [i] | [i̯], mute (softens preceding consonant) | ||
| J | j | [j] | |||
| K | k | [k] | [g] | ||
| L | l | [l] | |||
| Ł | Ł | ł | ł | [w] | [ɫ] in older pronunciation and eastern dialects |
| M | m | [m] | |||
| N | n | [n] | [ŋ], [ɲ] | ||
| Ń | Ń | ń | ń | [ɲ] | |
| O | o | [ɔ] | |||
| Ó | Ó | ó | ó | [u] | |
| P | p | [p] | [b] | ||
| R | r | [r] | |||
| S | s | [s] | [z], [ɕ] | ||
| Ś | Ś | ś | ś | [ɕ] | [ʑ] |
| T | t | [t] | [d] | ||
| U | u | [u] | [u̯] | ||
| W | w | [v] | [f] | ||
| Y | y | [ɨ] | |||
| Z | z | [z] | [s], [ʑ] | ||
| Ź | Ź | ź | ź | [ʑ] | [ɕ] |
| Ż | Ż | ż | ż | [ʐ] | [ʂ] |
Note that Polish [ʂ], [ʐ], [t͡ʂ], [d͡ʐ] are laminal postalveolar and may perhaps be most accurately transcribed using the IPA retracted diacritic as [s̠], [z̠], [t͡s̠], [d͡z̠] respectively. Also note that Polish ń (transcribed here [ɲ]) is not palatal; it has the same articulation place as [ɕ] or [ʑ]. However, as the IPA does not have a symbol for a nasal alveolo-palatal consonant, it would perhaps be more accurately transcribed as [nʲ].
Polish orthography also includes seven digraphs:
| Capitalized | HTML code |
Lower case |
HTML code |
Usual phonetic value |
Other phonetic values |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ch | ch | [x] | [ɣ] | ||
| Cz | cz | [t͡ʂ] | [d͡ʐ] | ||
| Dz | dz | [ʣ] | [ʦ], [ʥ], [d-z] | ||
| Dź | DŹ | dź | dź | [ʥ] | [ʨ], [d-ʑ] |
| Dż | DŻ | dż | dż | [d͡ʐ] | [t͡ʂ], [d-ʐ] |
| Rz | rz | [ʐ] | [ʂ], [r-z] | ||
| Sz | sz | [ʂ] | [ʐ] |
Note that although the Polish orthography is mostly phonetic-morphological, some sounds may be written in more than one way:
- [x] as either h or ch
- [ʐ] as either ż or rz (though rż denotes a [r-ʐ] cluster)
- [u] as either u or ó
- soft consonants are spelt either ć, dź, ń, ś, ź, or ci, dzi, ni, si, zi (the difference is purely orthographic: ć, ń etc. are spelt before a consonant or word-finally while ci, ni etc. are spelt before a vowel; simple c, dz, n, s, z are spelt before i.)
Two consonants rz are very rarely read as "r z", not [ʐ], as in words "zamarzać" (to get frozen), "marznąć" (to feel cold) or in the name "Tarzan".
The pronunciation of geminates (doubled consonants) in Polish is clearly prolonged, as in Italian. For example, the word panna (young lady) is not pronounced the same as pana (man's). When pronouncing a word slowly and carefully, Polish speakers articulate and release each of the two consonants separately. The prolongation is therefore rather a repetition of the consonant. Thus, panna 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), dżdżownica (earth-worm), ssak (mammal), wwóz (importation), zstąpić (to descend; to step down), and zza (from behind; from beyond).
