POLISH NAMES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 September 1939, Page 8

POLISH NAMES

PRONUNCIATION DIFFICULTIES. SOME RULES TO OBSERVE. A war waged in a foreign country brings with it certain serious difficulties in the matter of the pronunciation of strange-looking place-names. Nevertheless they have to be 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 io 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.”

iA DIFFICULT LETTER.

The letter “c” offers much difficulty. When it is not followed by “z” it would generally be pronounced as “is.” “Potocki,” for instance, would be “Pototsskee,” but the “o” in each syllable must be pronounced as in “toe.” But if “c” is followed by “z” then the two together are sounded as “tch.” Take the world “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 our own word “measure.”

Polish words often contain the letter “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” and had the same sound as the letter “y” in our 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 very many Polish place-names, and whenever it does 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 “Krah-kov.” The word Orsza is “Orsha.” The leading Polish statesman at the present time, Moscicki, would pronounce his name as “Mostshits-kee.” Another great statesman, Pilsudski, who died a few years ago, would have nronounced bis name "Pill-sood-skee.” In the Great War there was one placename that bafi'led nearly everybody— Przemysl. It gives no great difficulty when it is broken up as follows, "Prshem-ee-sil.” In the opening days of the present war reference has frequently been made to the town of Lwow, and it would be pronounced fairly accurately as “Le-vov.” 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 Narutowicz? 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 be much in the news during the next few days is Lublin, but this is easily handled as “Loob-lin.” GENERAL NATURE OF RULES. It must bo 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 (Beecham) and Cholmondeley (Chumley) to illustrate this point. Names prominent, in the cables arc Bydgoszcz, which may be pronounced as “Seed goshtch"; Rawicz. which becomes ((Rah-vitch"; . and I.eszno, which would be “Leshno.” There remains for final consideration that apparently impossible word "Szczara.” to which reference has already been made. Applying the rules set out above, it becomes “Sh-tch-ara," or, better perhaps, “Shish-tcbara."