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.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m talking about the signs I saw at one of the largest bookstores in Gda\u0144sk<\/strong>. I went to Dom Ksi\u0105\u017cki<\/strong> (literally: dom<\/strong> = house, ksi\u0105\u017cka<\/strong> = book) in Wrzeszcz<\/strong> 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.<\/p>\n And it was then that a big sign caught my attention. \u201cAudiobooki<\/strong>\u201d it said on it. Hmmm\u2026 Interesting. A normal printed book is \u201cksi\u0105\u017cka<\/strong>\u201d in Polish, but an audiobook is \u201caudiobook\u201d? I asked one of the ladies working there why it was so. She didn\u2019t really know, she said. She added that while some people say \u201cksi\u0105\u017cki d\u017awi\u0119kowe<\/strong>\u201d, \u201caudiobooki<\/strong>\u201d seems to be a much more popular (and preferred) term. The lady went on to explain that it\u2019s the same with \u201ce-booki<\/strong>\u201d (e-books). There are many such \u201cnew\u201d Ponglish words in common Polish use these days. Billboards advertise not new \u201cmieszkania<\/strong>\u201d (apartments) but \u201capartamenty<\/strong>\u201d. Restaurants serve \u201clunche<\/strong>\u201d (lunches), and lowly \u201csklepy<\/strong>\u201d have morphed into \u201cshopy<\/strong>\u201d. And of course, all those words are pronounced the Polish way by combining some English sounds and some Polish, or simply \u2013 by how people see fit.<\/p>\n These are just the examples I noticed yesterday. I\u2019m sure there\u2019s many, many more. I understand this trend towards appearing worldly and sophisticated, and English is indeed THE language of global communication. But what\u2019s wrong with a Polish equivalent if it\u2019s available? For my part, \u201csklep<\/strong>\u201d is still \u201csklep<\/strong>\u201d and real estate firms can advertise all the \u201capartamenty<\/strong>\u201d they want. To me, they\u2019re still \u201cmieszkania<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n We\u2019ll talk about hard-core Ponglish another time. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n And what is your opinion on incorporating foreign words into Polish, especially if a Polish equivalent is readily available?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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\u2019m talking about the signs I saw at one of the largest bookstores in Gda\u0144sk. I went to Dom Ksi\u0105\u017cki (literally: dom = house…<\/p>\n
\nJust stick a Polish plural ending at the end of an English word, and voila, your work here is done.<\/p>\n