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Polish orthography is the system of writing the Polish language. The language is written using the Polish alphabet, which derives from the Latin alphabet, but includes some additional letters with diacritics. The orthography is mostly phonetic, or rather phonemic – the written letters (or combinations of them) correspond in a consistent manner to the sounds, or rather the phonemes, of spoken Polish. For detailed information about the system of phonemes, see Polish phonology.
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Poles adopted the Latin alphabet in the 12th century. However that alphabet was ill-equipped to represent certain Polish sounds, such as the palatal consonants and nasal vowels. Consequently, Polish spelling in the Middle Ages was highly inconsistent, as different writers used different systems to represent these sounds, For example, in early documents the letter c could signify the sounds now written c, cz, k, while the letter z was used for the sounds now written z, ż, ś, ź. Writers soon began to experiment with digraphs (combinations of letters), new letters (φ and ſ, no longer used), and eventually diacritics.
The Polish alphabet was one of two major forms of Latin-based orthography developed for Slavic languages, the other being Czech orthography, characterized by carons (háčeks), as in the letter č. The other major Slavic languages which are now written in Latin-based alphabets (Slovak, Slovene and Croatian) use systems similar to the Czech. However a Polish-based orthography is used for Kashubian and usually for Silesian, while the Sorbian languages use elements of both systems.
The diacritics used in the Polish alphabet are the kreska (graphically similar to the acute accent) in the letters ć, ń, ó, ś, ź; the stroke in the latter ł; the kropka (overdot) in the letter ż; and the ogonek ("little tail") in the letters ą, ę. The letters q, v, x are often not considered part of the Polish alphabet; they are used only in foreign words and names.
The following table lists the letters of the alphabet, their Polish names (written out using Polish spelling), the Polish phonemes which they usually represent, rough English (or other) equivalents to the sounds of those phonemes, and information on alternative pronunciations.
| Upper case |
Lower case |
Polish name | Usual value | Rough English (or other) equivalent |
Other values |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | a | a | /a/ | between cat and cut | |
| Ą | ą | ą | /ɔ̃/ | nasal o as French bon | /ɔn/, /ɔm/ (see Nasal vowels) |
| B | b | be | /b/ | bed | /p/ when devoiced |
| C | c | ce | /t͡s/ | pits | For ch, ci, cz see Letter combinations |
| Ć | ć | cie | /t͡ɕ/ | cheap (alveolo-palatal) | |
| D | d | de | /d/ | dog | /t/ when devoiced. For dz etc. see Letter combinations |
| E | e | e | /ɛ/ | bed | |
| Ę | ę | ę | /ɛ̃/ | nasal e | /ɛn/, /ɛm/ (see Nasal vowels) |
| F | f | ef | /f/ | fat | |
| G | g | gie | /ɡ/ | go | /k/ when devoiced. For gi see Letter combinations |
| H | h | ha | /x/ | Scots loch | For ch and (c)hi see Letter combinations |
| I | i | i | /i/ | meet | /j/, or palatization (see Spelling rules) |
| J | j | jot | /j/ | yes | |
| K | k | ka | /k/ | scant | /ɡ/ if voiced. For ki see Letter combinations |
| L | l | el | /l/ | light | |
| Ł | ł | eł | /w/ | will | |
| M | m | em | /m/ | men | |
| N | n | en | /n/ | not | For ni see Letter combinations |
| Ń | ń | eń | /ɲ/ | canyon (alveolo-palatal) | |
| O | o | o | /ɔ/ | British English long | |
| Ó | ó | o (or u) z kreską | /u/ | boot | |
| P | p | pe | /p/ | spot | /b/ if voiced |
| R | r | er | /r/ | trilled r | For rz see Letter combinations |
| S | s | es | /s/ | sea | For sz, si see Letter combinations |
| Ś | ś | eś | /ɕ/ | sheep (alveolo-palatal) | /ʑ/ (cf. Ź) if voiced |
| T | t | te | /t/ | start | /d/ if voiced |
| U | u | u | /u/ | boot | Sometimes /w/ after vowels |
| W | w | wu | /v/ | vow | /f/ when devoiced |
| Y | y | igrek | /ɨ/ | between fit and put | |
| Z | z | zet | /z/ | zoo | /s/ when devoiced. For digraphs see Letter combinations |
| Ź | ź | ziet | /ʑ/ | vision, alveolo-palatal | /ɕ/ when devoiced. For dź see Letter combinations |
| Ż | ż | żet | /ʐ/ | vision | /ʂ/ when devoiced. For dż see Letter combinations |
The letters Q, V and X, though not considered regular Polish letters, appear in their usual places (i.e. after P, U and W respectively) in alphabetical listings. The Polish names for these letters are ku, fau, iks.
For methods of coding the Polish letters in computing, see Polish alphabet and Polish code pages.
Polish orthography uses the following digraphs:
| Digraph | Usual value | Rough English equivalent |
Other values |
|---|---|---|---|
| ch | /x/ | See H above | |
| cz | /t͡ʂ/ | chat | |
| dz | /d͡z/ | bids | /t͡s/ when devoiced (cf. C above) |
| dź | /d͡ʑ/ | jeep | /t͡ɕ/when devoiced (cf. Ć above) |
| dż | /d͡ʐ/ | jump | /t͡ʂ/ when devoiced (cf. cz) |
| rz | /ʐ/ | See Ż above | /ʂ/ when devoiced (cf. sz) |
| sz | /ʂ/ | shock |
There are also digraphs and trigraphs in which the letter i is used to denote that the preceding consonant is palatal or palatized: ci, dzi, gi, (c)hi, ki, ni, si, zi (see below).
In occasional words, letters that normally form a digraph are pronounced separately. For example, rz represents /rz/, not /ʐ/, in words like zamarzać ("freeze") and in the name Tarzan.
The sections below describe some further points concerning the spelling of Polish sounds. For more information about the sounds themselves, see Polish phonology. For rules concerning inflections, see Polish grammar.
Voiced consonant letters frequently come to represent voiceless sounds (as shown in the above tables). This is due to the neutralization that occurs at the end of words and in certain consonant clusters; for example, the b in klub ("club") is pronounced like a p, and the rz in prze- sounds like sz. Less frequently, voiceless consonant letters can represent voiced sounds; for example, the k in także ("also") is pronounced like a g. The conditions for this neutralization are described under Voicing and devoicing in the article on Polish phonology.
The spelling rule for the alveolo-palatal sounds /ɕ/, /ʑ/, /t͡ɕ/, /d͡ʑ/ and /ɲ/ is as follows: before the vowel i the plain letters s, z, c, dz, n are used; before other vowels the combinations si, zi, ci, dzi, ni are used; when not followed by a vowel the diacritic forms ś, ź, ć, dź, ń are used. For example, the s in siwy ("grey-haired"), the si in siarka ("sulphur") and the ś in święty ("holy") all represent the sound /ɕ/.
Similar principles apply to the palatalized consonants /kʲ/, /ɡʲ/ and /xʲ/, except that these can only occur before vowels. The spellings are thus k, g, (c)h before i, and ki, gi, (c)hi otherwise. For example, the k in kim ("whom", instr.) and the ki in kiedy both represent /kʲ/.
Except in the cases mentioned in the previous paragraph, the letter i if followed by another vowel in the same word usually represents /j/. For example, pies ("dog") is pronounced /pjɛs/. In fact i is the usual spelling of /j/ between a preceding consonant and a following vowel; the letter j normally appears in this position only if the i would have the palatalization effect described above (as in presja "pressure" and the common suffix -acja "-ation").
The endings -ii and -ji, which appear in the inflected forms of some nouns of foreign origin, are pronounced /i/. For example, Anglii (genitive etc. of Anglia "England") is /ˈanɡli/, and presji (genitive etc. of presja "pressure") is /ˈprɛsi/.
The letters ą and ę, when followed by plosives and affricates, represent an oral vowel followed by a nasal consonant, rather than a nasal vowel. For example, ą in dąb ("oak") is pronounced /ɔm/, and ę in tęcza ("rainbow") is pronounced /ɛn/ (the nasal assimilates with the following consonant). When followed by l or ł (and in the case of ę, often at the end of words) these letters are pronounced as just /ɔ/ or /ɛ/.
Apart from the cases resulting from the sections above, there are three sounds in Polish that can be spelt in two different ways, depending on the word:
Occasionally the letter u represents /w/ (pronounced [u̯]) after a vowel, For example, autor ("author") is [ˈau̯tɔr].
Notice that doubled letters represent separate occurrences of the sound in question; for example Anna is pronounced /ˈanna/ in Polish. In practice a doubled consonant is often realized as a single sound pronounced in a prolonged manner.
There are certain clusters where a written consonant would not normally be pronounced. For example, the ł in the words mógł ("could") and jabłko ("apple") is omitted in ordinary speech.
Names are generally capitalized in Polish as in English. Polish does not capitalize the months and days of the week, nor adjectives and other forms derived from proper nouns (for example, angielski "English").
Names of administrative units are not capitalized when they contain the type of unit, for example województwo łódzkie (but Łódzkie alone), powiat obornicki (but Obornicki alone), gmina Czersk. Similarly the ulica (abbrev. ul.) in street names is not capitalized.
Titles such as pan ("Mr"), pani ("Mrs/Ms"), doktor etc. and their abbreviations are not capitalized, except in polite address. Pronouns (chiefly those of the second person) are often capitalized out of politeness when they refer to the person one is writing to.
Polish puntuation is similar to that of English. However there are more rigid rules concerning use of commas – subordinate clauses are almost always marked off with a comma, while it is normally considered incorrect to use a comma before a coordinating conjunction with the meaning "and" (i or oraz).
Abbreviations (but not acronyms or initialisms) are followed by a period when they end with a letter other than the one which ends the full word. For example, dr has no period when it stands for doktor, but takes one when it stands for an inflected form such as doktora.
Apostrophes are used when necessary to separate foreign-spelt stems from Polish inflected endings, as in Tony'ego (genitive of "Tony").