POLISH NAMES

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20040, 12 September 1939, Page 10

POLISH NAMES

AIDING THE PUBLIC PEONUNOTATION 'RULES A war waged in a foreign country brings with it certain serious difficul.ics in the matter of the pronunciation :>f strange-looldng place-names, states die Auckland Herald. Nevertheless, they have to bo pronounced in one way or another ,and it becomes necessary, to make some attempt to acquire a reasonable degree of mastery over words that look utterly forbidding. The mere sight of a Polish placename, however, is sufficient to prompt one to abandon the effort altogether. What could one possibly make out of such a name as “Szczara"? It may be better to leave this word to its own fate until a few of the rules have been examined.

The letter “a” is not pronounced as in our word “day,” but as the sound of “a” in “path.” The vowel “i” at the end of a word is not given the sound of “i” in “time,” but is pronounced as “ee” in “feet.” When one encounters the letter “u” there is a tendency to say it as “u” in "cup,” but to give it its correct value in a Polish word it must be pronounced as “oo” in “boom.” A Difficult Letter The letter “c” offers considerable difficulty. When it is not followed by it would generally be pronounced as “Is.” “Potocki,” for instance, would be “Pototskee,” but the “o” in each syllable must be pronounced as “toe.” But if “c” is followed by “z,” then the two together are sounded as “tch.”, Take the word “Czech” for example. The easiest way to pronounce this is to say it as “cheque.” The letters “sz” when found together are pronounced as if they were “sh,” but the letters “rz" are given the same sound as “j” in the French words “je suis,” or as the letter “s” in cur own word “measure.” Polish words often contain the let f cr “j” either as the first letter in the word or as the first letter in some syllable in the word. In either case it would be best to pronounce it as if it were “y” in our own word “you.” For example, the word “Jaronski” would not be pronounced as if the first syllable were the same as “jar” (a jar of jam), but it would be pronounced as if the word were written “Yar-on-skee.” It is also common to find the letter “w” in many Polish place-names, and wherever it docs occur it should be pronounced as if it were “v.” A few illustrations may help in the application of the foregoing rules. The Town of Cracow The well-known town Cracow is sometimes written as Krakow, and it would be fairly correctly rendered as “Krahkov.” The word Orsza is “Orsha.” The leading Polish statesman at the present time, Mosclcki, would pronounce his name as “Mos-shits-kee.” Another great statesman, Pilsudski, who died a few years ago, would have pronounced his name as “Pill-sood-skee." In the Great War there was one place-name that baffled nearly everybody—Przemesl. It gives no great difficulty when it is broken us as follows: “Pshom-ee-sil.”

In the opening days of the presentwar reference has frequently been made to the town of Lwow, and it would be pronounced fairly accurately as “Levov.” But the “e” in "Le” must hardly be sounded at all. It is to be very soft as in the French word “le.” What would one do with such a word as Nanriowicz? Here again there is not much difficulty when the foregoing rules are applied and the word is broken up as follows: "Nah-roo-to (as in "toe”)-vitch.” A town which may bo much in the news* during the the next few days is Lublin, but this is easily handled at. “Loob-lin.” General Nature of Rules It must be understood that the foregoing rules and examples are somewhat general in their nature. They cannot be applied with uniform strictness. One needs only to refer to such classic examples in our own language as Beauchamp (Beechnm) and Cholmondeley (Chumley) to illustrate this point.

Other names prominent in the cables are Bydgoszcz, which may be pronounced as “Beed-goshtch”; Rawicz, which becomes “Rah-vitch”; and Leszno, which would be “Leshno.” There remains for final consideration that apparently impossible word "Szezara,” to which reference has already been made. Applying the rules set out above, it becomes "Sh-tch-ara,” or, better perhaps, “Shishtchara.” /