Posts tagged w/ Ponglish

On News and Ice Tea

Posted by Anna Ikeda
Sep
24
2009

Just the other day I was asked what (if any) Polish equivalents of these words would be, and frankly, I didn’t have a clue.

All the Poles I know refer to ice tea as “ice tea” and news is “news”, or sometimes “nius”. I checked with a couple of dictionaries, and asked a couple of people, and one of those people referred me to “Poradnik Językowy” vol. 5. A practical Polish language handbook, of sorts, published by PWN. In this book a bunch of really smart people (though not as smart as Profesor Miodek, I think) dispense language advice. It’s a compilation of questions asked by ordinary Polish speakers with answers by the very highly educated Polish language experts.

I’m not sure whether I like this book or not. It’s useful, that’s a fact, but some of those very smart people are so traditional and orthodox when it comes to our beautiful language that sometimes it’s hard to take their learned opinion seriously.

But, to my surprise, there was an entry on “ice tea” in there (page 331) and “news” (page 335).

First of all, there’s this misconception in Poland that ice tea is just hot tea that got cold, but that’s OK, I guess. Not everyone in Poland needs to make ice tea the way I make it. The real issue seems not how to make it, but what to call it. There’s “kawa mrożona” (ice coffee) in Poland already, so what’s wrong with “herbata mrożona”? Absolutely nothing, apart from the fact that it sounds a little goofy. And besides, most Poles I know refer to this beverage as “ice tea” anyway.

The author of the entry on “ice tea” agreed that “herbata mrożona” would be an OK Polish “Polish” equivalent and left it at that.

The “news” bit was a little more complicated. Apparently, it’s a Polish word these days, and it’s even been assigned a gender – masculine, to be exact. In plural it’s “newsy”. The author also advocates that the Polish spelling of the word should be “nius”. Because since we already have “mejl”, we might as well have “nius.”

See? That was easy!

Oh, and don’t forget, “news” and “newsy” decline like any other normal Polish noun would. So you’d say “Przeczytałam (I read) ciekawego (interesting) newsa,” if you’re talking about just one bit of news.

 
Posted under Polish Language
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Polish, English or Ponglish?

Posted by Anna Ikeda
May
7
2009

No, I am not talking here about the butchered combination of Polish and English that some of my fellow countrymen, who spent more than two months abroad, are so fond of.

I’m talking about the signs I saw at one of the largest bookstores in Gdańsk. I went to Dom Książki (literally: dom = house, książka = book) in Wrzeszcz to look for some Polish guidebooks (I hate going places without reading a guidebook first). But since I like bookstores and books in general, I thought I might as well browse a little.

And it was then that a big sign caught my attention. “Audiobooki” it said on it. Hmmm… Interesting. A normal printed book is “książka” in Polish, but an audiobook is “audiobook”? I asked one of the ladies working there why it was so. She didn’t really know, she said. She added that while some people say “książki dźwiękowe”, “audiobooki” seems to be a much more popular (and preferred) term. The lady went on to explain that it’s the same with “e-booki” (e-books).
Just stick a Polish plural ending at the end of an English word, and voila, your work here is done.

There are many such “new” Ponglish words in common Polish use these days. Billboards advertise not new “mieszkania” (apartments) but “apartamenty”. Restaurants serve “lunche” (lunches), and lowly “sklepy” have morphed into “shopy”. And of course, all those words are pronounced the Polish way by combining some English sounds and some Polish, or simply – by how people see fit.

These are just the examples I noticed yesterday. I’m sure there’s many, many more. I understand this trend towards appearing worldly and sophisticated, and English is indeed THE language of global communication. But what’s wrong with a Polish equivalent if it’s available? For my part, “sklep” is still “sklep” and real estate firms can advertise all the “apartamenty” they want. To me, they’re still “mieszkania.”

We’ll talk about hard-core Ponglish another time. :)

And what is your opinion on incorporating foreign words into Polish, especially if a Polish equivalent is readily available?

 
Posted under Culture, Polish Language, Vocabulary
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