{"id":535,"date":"2009-04-23T15:05:53","date_gmt":"2009-04-23T19:05:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/?p=535"},"modified":"2009-04-23T15:05:53","modified_gmt":"2009-04-23T19:05:53","slug":"about-the-mammas-and-the-pappas-in-polish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/about-the-mammas-and-the-pappas-in-polish\/","title":{"rendered":"About the Mammas and the Pappas – in Polish"},"content":{"rendered":"

The other day I was discussing motherhood with one of my friends. No, I am not planning to have a baby, I have two cats and I\u2019m quite happy with them for the time being. However, my friend has a baby and we were going over the joys and perils of motherhood and the problems of fatherhood. And then we started to marvel at just how gloriously illogical this language of ours is.<\/p>\n

Because take a look at this:<\/p>\n

Motherhood is \u201cmacierzy\u0144stwo<\/strong>\u201d. But fatherhood is not \u201ctacierzy\u0144stwo<\/strong>\u201d but \u201cojcostwo<\/strong>\u201d.
\nMaternity leave is \u201curlop macierzy\u0144ski<\/strong>\u201d. And what about paternity leave? Until very recently there wasn\u2019t even such animal in Poland. But now that there is (and will be officially official at all places of employment beginning next year for all new fathers who want to take advantage of it) what do we call it in Polish? Urlop tacierzy\u0144ski<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not all. That\u2019s just the beginning of problems with dads.
\nOk, mom and dad are two of the first words that a child learns, or so I hear. In Polish those words are easy: mama<\/strong> and tata<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

You\u2019d think that it must be pretty hard to screw up something to easy and so basic that every Pole older than 9 months knows it, right? Wrong! Because in reality it\u2019s not that easy, trust me.<\/p>\n

While the plural of \u201cmama<\/strong>\u201d is of course \u201cmamy<\/strong>\u201d \u2013 every child knows that, what is the plural of \u201ctata<\/strong>\u201d? Automatically, we wanted to say \u201ctaty\u201d. We even called a friendly elementary school teacher to see what she had to say. How does she tell the kids to ask their moms and dads to come to the meeting, for example? She tried to cheat and said: \u201cmamy i ojcowie<\/strong>\u201d (moms and fathers).<\/p>\n

But how do you say \u201cdads\u201d in plural without cheating and using \u201cfathers\u201d instead? Does \u201ctata<\/strong>\u201d even have a plural form? Yes, it (he? LOL) does.<\/p>\n

The correct plural of \u201ctata<\/strong>\u201d is \u201ctatowie<\/strong>\u201d. I know, you don\u2019t have to tell me. I don\u2019t see any logic in it either. The plural of \u201cmama<\/strong>\u201d is \u201cmamy<\/strong>\u201d but the plural of \u201ctata<\/strong>\u201d is \u201ctatowie<\/strong>\u201d. Apparently, that noun follows the same pattern as \u201cdziadek \u2013 dziadkowie<\/strong>\u201d (grandfather \u2013 grandfathers) and \u201cwujek \u2013 wujkowie<\/strong>\u201d (uncle \u2013 uncles). Yes, but those masculine nouns don\u2019t end in \u201ca<\/strong>\u201d. And those masculine nouns that do end in \u201ca<\/strong>\u201d, such as kierowca<\/strong> (driver) or doradca<\/strong> (advisor) have plural forms eerily resembling those of \u201cmamy<\/strong>\u201d \u2013 kierowcy<\/strong> (drivers) and doradcy<\/strong> (advisors).<\/p>\n

So, let\u2019s review:<\/p>\n