Polish declensions. We all love them, right? All the funky case endings, exceptions, and then exceptions to exceptions. Life in Polish is never boring.<\/p>\n
But just when you think you\u2019ve finally managed to master the genitives, datives and accusatives, and you\u2019re no longer kept awake at night by the adjective+noun combinations, you meet Bielsko-Bia\u0142a<\/strong>. Or rather, Bielsko Bia\u0142a<\/strong>. I\u2019m confused, one dictionary I have spells it with a hyphen, the other \u2013 without. At least in the nominative case. Because both of them hyphenate it in all the other cases. And what fabulous cases these are!<\/p>\n I\u2019m sure that Bielsko Bia\u0142a<\/strong> is a great town. But couldn\u2019t the good people of Bielsko Bia\u0142a<\/strong> agree on a little easier way of declining that name?<\/p>\n You see, even though \u201cbielsko<\/strong>\u201d ends in \u201co<\/strong>\u201d, it\u2019s followed by \u201cbia\u0142a<\/strong>\u201d, which is most definitely a feminine adjective. Which results in this:<\/p>\n And as if that wasn\u2019t enough, there\u2019s also an adjective derived from that proper name: bielsko-bialski<\/strong>, but that one I\u2019m not going to touch with a ten foot Pole (or a Hungarian, for that matter).<\/p>\n OK, so with Bielsko Bia\u0142a<\/strong>, it\u2019s logical to assume that both parts of this proper noun would decline, because they are two separate words.<\/p>\n But then how do you explain Bia\u0142ystok<\/strong>? Technically, it\u2019s just one word, right? So why does it do this:<\/p>\n Huh???<\/p>\n Now you can easily guess which two Polish towns I\u2019m definitely not fond of. And we haven\u2019t even covered Bielsk Podlaski<\/strong> yet!<\/p>\n PS. Any funky computer language today?<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Polish declensions. We all love them, right? All the funky case endings, exceptions, and then exceptions to exceptions. Life in Polish is never boring. But just when you think you\u2019ve finally managed to master the genitives, datives and accusatives, and you\u2019re no longer kept awake at night by the adjective+noun combinations, you meet Bielsko-Bia\u0142a. Or…<\/p>\n\n
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