A group of fellow bloggers and I (a mixture of cultures) have set up a co-operative blog posting on Poland and Polish culture. We will post subjects that we don’t put on our regular blogs, so if you like what I write here, please be sure to check in on the co-op blog from time-to-time.
I’ve [...]
Archive for the ‘Language’ Category
Top 10 Polish Books in English
Posted in Books, Language, Poland, tagged Literature, Poland, Polish Books on February 23, 2008 | 5 Comments »
Daft Polish Laws don’t get passed
Posted in Language, Poland, tagged Polish Language, Polish Politics on February 18, 2008 | 3 Comments »
Sometimes an error in an article can be quite appropriate. For example “Polskie Radio’s” the News.pl reported that the new Government has been lazy since coming to office and that the oppositions legislative submissions of ‘draft’ laws were not accepted. The article actually made an error and said the oppositions initiatives were ‘daft laws’ – [...]
Polish Communication – say that again!
Posted in Language, Poland on February 10, 2008 | 5 Comments »
My best man at our wedding, well actually she was not exactly a man – Ewa, my best woman, at our wedding has a wonderful saying “nie rób wiochy” which translates to “don’t make a village”.
In English this sounds quite strange, the saying’s translation does not quite explain what Ewa means when she’s [...]
Polish pronunciation of words with ‘Th’
Posted in Language, Observations, Poland, tagged Language, Poland, Polish on February 3, 2008 | 5 Comments »
I called this blog ‘dat blog’ because I noticed whenever Polish people pronounce the word ‘that’ they always say ‘dat’. Of course this does not stop at the word dat it spreads to all English words which contain the letters ‘th’.
Month becomes ‘monf’
Something becomes ’somefing’
English Office Jargon
Posted in Language, Observations on January 28, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Office Angels a UK recruitment firm have released a list of 2007 office sayings. So the next time you plan to ‘think outside the box’, think again. Using the phrase in front of colleagues instantly marks you out as past your office sell-by date.
Here are the top five ‘must-use buzzwords’ designed to impress in 2007, [...]
Totally Useless and Superfluous Expressions
Posted in Language, Observations, tagged polish idioms on January 26, 2008 | 9 Comments »
The English have many idioms for uselessness – perhaps this reflects a cultural concern with functionality, or ability? Often the commonest English idioms about uselessness seems to deal with non-functional nipples. Among the variants are:
Useless as tits on a boar
Useless as tits on a bull
Maybe this has something [...]
EU appoints single European swearword
Posted in Language, Observations, tagged European swearword on January 17, 2008 | 1 Comment »
The Berlay Monster reported that EU law mongers have approved draft plans for a Central European Swearword, in order to allow grievances to be aired in a harmonised fashion across the bloc’s borders.
The ‘euxpletive’ eventually settled on is ‘kuñardocz’.
It has been hailed by EU governments as “the ejaculation European citizens deserve.”
But one experienced pottymouth called [...]
International words
Posted in Language, Music, Poland on January 15, 2008 | 8 Comments »
My manuscript for the book is full of words and sentences I can only best describe as belonging in the Polglish language. Most of which I learn when having lengthy discussions with Polish people.
I’ve started reading a book, The Meaning of Tingo and Other Extraordinary Words from Around the World by Adam Jacot de Boinod. [...]
Polish Pigs don’t fly
Posted in Language, Poland, tagged idioms, Poland, Polish Proverbs on January 10, 2008 | 15 Comments »
There are many figurative phrases and proverbs in the English language which refer to animals e.g. ‘it will happen when pigs fly’ which is an idiomatic way of saying that something will never happen. This set me off on a train of thought (strumień myśli) about similar expressions in Polish involving animals, and how [...]
New Words in the Oxford English Dictionary – Blogorrhea
Posted in Language on January 7, 2008 | 12 Comments »
The Oxford English Dictionary released a list of new words that have recently been accepted into the ‘English Language’. Here’s a sample that I find interesting:
