Comments on: Welcome to Hel!

By: Justin B.

Justin B. — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 04:56:37 +0000

There is a simliar issue with The Ukraine. in Russian, the word Край/ Kraj, means something like ‘edge’ or ‘far region’ and the grammar rule for Russian for Kraj is to use the preposition ‘на/na’ when referring to ‘kraj.’

However, The Ukraine, Украина/U-kra-in-a, in Russian, felt that it was inappropriate to refer to itself as the ‘edge’ of something, especially after the split with the Soviet Union and Russia, and consequently has demanded that the preposition “в/v/w” be use when referring to the country, thus making it “В Украине(у)/ V Ukrainye(u)” depending on case.

This is very similar to the debate over “Hel” that is how do you decline it, which preposition do you use, and what is right?

Well, they are both right, it just depends what the speaker mean, and most of the time, the speaker thinks nothing of it, as this isn’t the most important issue in his/ her thought process.

By: Mchl

Mchl — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 10:56:19 +0000

You’re probably right, that in everyday use people will almost exclusively use ‘na Helu’. I guess ‘w Helu’ is used on the website, to underscore, that it is about the town itself.

By: Anna

Anna — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 09:01:34 +0000

Mchl, I understand the difference, but ask anyone who’s going to Hel (the town) where they are going and what you will hear? “Na Hel”. In normal speech, people just don’t see any difference.
And it’s also interesting if you ask people who live there about where they live (meaning the town). They will tell you “na Helu” (sometimes in a heavy Kashubian accent).
So, explanations “swoje”, and the everyday language “swoje”.

By: Gabriel

Gabriel — Sun, 31 May 2009 23:37:27 +0000

Hel’s website is very cool!

By: Mchl

Mchl — Sun, 31 May 2009 22:44:06 +0000

It’s ‘Witamy na Helu’ in the first example above of course. A typo on my side.