Polish pronunciation guide

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is meant to express Polish pronunciation to English speakers (not necessarily native) by simple means, using comparison and logical relations while not using SAMPA or IPA.

letter or digraph	pronounced like
a	English star, smart, under.
ą	French Gascoigne, Bon voyage, DuPont. No such sound in English, but can be approximated as on or om.
b	As in English.
c	Italian or German z. No such sound in English, but can be roughly approximated as ts. Polish c is to English s like English ch to English sh.
ch	German machen or Scottish loch. Harder than English 'h' and never silent.
cz	English cherry, rich. Hard.
ć	No such sound in English or other common western language. Can be approximated as a very, very soft ch.
d	As in English.
dż	English pager, jazz.
dź	No such sound in English or other common western language. Can be approximated as a very, very soft g or j.
e	English seldom.
ę	French Petain. No such sound in English, but can be approximated as en or em.
f	As in English.
g	English mango, good, Italian spaghetti.
h	German machen or Scottish loch. Harder than English 'h' and never silent.
i	Depends on position. See below.
j	English yellow, yaw, eye.
k	As in English.
l	As in English let, never as in fool.
ł	English wood, lawnmower, but unlike new. Alternatively dark L as in fool
m	As in English.
n	As in English.
ń	English new.
o	English walk, honor, rock, but unlike no or phone.
ó	English good, moor, but not necessarily as long.
p	As in English.
r	Trilled, as in Spanish or Italian. Similar to Scottish 'r'.
rz	English vision, French Jean (with very rare exceptions).
s	English stork, size, mass, but unlike laser. Never voiced.
sz	English sharp, shell, Washington.
ś	No such sound in English or other common western language. Can be approximated as a very, very soft sh. Comparable to German ich in some dialects.
t	As in English.
u	English good, moor, but not necessarily as long.
w	English never, vision.
y	Like English ship, but even harder and not necessarily as short.
z	As in English.
ź	No such sound in English or other common western language. Can be approximated as a very, very soft French j.
ż	English vision, French Jean.

[edit] Letter i

Pronunciation of i depends on its position.

If i is:

between consonants, like kino (cinema)
at the beginning of a word, like iskra (spark)
at the end of a word, like wydatki (expenses, plural)

then it is pronounced like English ee, but not necessarily so long. Additionally, if i is before c, n, s or z, the consonant it becomes softened (c becomes ć, n becomes ń and so on).

If i is before vowel, then certainly it is after a consonant, and then its pronunciation depends on this consonant.

If this consonant is c, n, s or z, the consonant it becomes softened (c becomes ć, n becomes ń and so on) and i is dropped (becomes silent).
If this consonant is not c, n, s or z, the consonant remains as is and the i blends with the following vowel forming a diphthong.

[edit] Random notes

The only diphthongs in Polish are: these beginning with i and these ending with u. All other vowel clusters (like aorta, koercja, meteor) are pronounced vowel-by-vowel.

Length of vowels has no meaning.

h/ch, u/ó, rz/ż are pronounced the same in modern Polish.

With a few excpetions, the stress falls on the penultimate syllable. However, stress in Polish is irrelevant; misplaced stress never changes the meaning of a word, and is merely a stylistic error.