{"id":521,"date":"2009-04-03T07:17:01","date_gmt":"2009-04-03T11:17:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/?p=521"},"modified":"2009-04-03T07:17:01","modified_gmt":"2009-04-03T11:17:01","slug":"diminutives-of-proper-names","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/diminutives-of-proper-names\/","title":{"rendered":"Diminutives of Proper Names"},"content":{"rendered":"

Are you ready for more zdrobnienia<\/strong> (diminutives)? I\u2019m not\u2026 But I thought I\u2019d give them a shot anyway.<\/p>\n

I told you already that I\u2019m not particularly fond of diminutives. And if there is a thing I dislike even more, that will be diminutive forms of proper names. Hate the stuff. Really.<\/p>\n

Lucky are the people whose names don\u2019t lend themselves to casual diminution. That would be Jacek, Andrzej, Pawe\u0142, Micha\u0142<\/strong>, for example. Yes, you can say \u201cJacu\u015b, Andrzejek, Pawe\u0142ek and Micha\u0142ek<\/strong>\u201d but chances are you wouldn\u2019t do it when talking to grown men. And the ladies? Agnieszka, Sylwia, Beata, Iwona<\/strong> come to mind. Agnieszki<\/strong> are truly lucky. Their name stays as is. Frankly, I can\u2019t even think of what its diminutive form would be. If that\u2019s the case, then this must be the proverbial exception that only goes to prove the general rule \u2013 that most Polish names are not even used in their \u201cbirth certificate\u201d forms.<\/p>\n

Take my name, for example. Anna<\/strong>. Simple enough, right? Not when, as Barb very helpfully pointed out, you can also have Ania, Anka, Anusia<\/strong> (or Aniusia<\/strong>), Aneczka, Andzia, Anula, Anulka, Anunia<\/strong> and probably a couple of others that I\u2019d rather forget about.<\/p>\n

My sister\u2019s name is equally simple in its basic form \u2013 Maria<\/strong>. But I\u2019ve never met a Polish person who would call her \u201cMaria<\/strong>\u201d – \u201cit\u2019s just too churchy,\u201d as one lady explained. Instead, she\u2019s Marysia, Marysie\u0144ka, Mania<\/strong>, Ma\u0144ka<\/strong>, and so on.<\/p>\n

Diminutive name forms are so ingrained into out collective Polish psyche that even professional men and women don\u2019t see anything odd with introducing themselves as \u201cMagda<\/strong> so-and-so\u201d (really: Magdalena<\/strong>) and \u201cDarek<\/strong> so-and-so\u201d (really: Dariusz<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

And so Barbara<\/strong> becomes \u201cBasia<\/strong>\u201d and Jolanta<\/strong> \u2013 \u201cJola<\/strong>\u201d, Joanna<\/strong> \u2013 \u201cAsia<\/strong>\u201d, Izabella<\/strong> \u2013 \u201cIza<\/strong>\u201d, Zofia<\/strong> \u2013 \u201cZosia<\/strong>\u201d, Aleksandra<\/strong> \u2013 \u201cOla<\/strong>\u201d, and so on. There\u2019s no rhyme and reason to it. This is something that you will need to learn on a case by case basis.<\/p>\n

Guys\u2019 names are easier, but just a little. Most of the traditional Slavic names are simply impossible to use in everyday conversations in their proper forms \u2013 Zbigniew, S\u0142awomir, Jaros\u0142aw, Mieczys\u0142aw<\/strong>, etc. They morph into: Zbyszek, S\u0142awek, Jarek<\/strong> and Mietek<\/strong>. Other male names, especially when talking to adults you\u2019re not all that familiar with, stay pretty much the same: Maciej, Piotr, Krzysztof<\/strong> (though you can say \u201cKrzysiek<\/strong>\u201d if you feel you know the dude well enough and he won\u2019t mind), Mateusz, \u0141ukasz, Janusz<\/strong>, etc\u2026<\/p>\n

As for my own name, I will tolerate \u201cAnia<\/strong>\u201d. The other diminutives of Anna<\/strong> \u2013 even my own family doesn\u2019t use them. And what about my sister? My dad calls her \u201cMarie.\u201d When I asked him why, he simply said \u201cit\u2019s shorter.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Are you ready for more zdrobnienia (diminutives)? I\u2019m not\u2026 But I thought I\u2019d give them a shot anyway. I told you already that I\u2019m not particularly fond of diminutives. And if there is a thing I dislike even more, that will be diminutive forms of proper names. Hate the stuff. Really. Lucky are the people…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[7375,7407,7546,7628],"class_list":["post-521","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-culture","tag-diminutives","tag-first-names","tag-proper-names","tag-zdrobnienia"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}