Going on and on about “-ciąg-”

The Polish learner in the early stages of extensive listening cannot fail to encounter and remark upon this rather interesting phoneme, which is apt to first appear in the common word ciągle constantly, continuously, the expression w ciągu in the course of, or the noun pociąg train. As can be seen from these two examples, the -ciąg­- root both connotes an abstract idea of duration or ‘stretching out’ in time, and describes objects conceived of as extending, stretching forth, or being drawn out by force. Fundamentally we might say it encapsulates a general sense of “linear conveyance.” This post collects a good portion of the words arising from this root.

Nouns

ciąg – stretch, course, sequence, string or chain (of events, numbers, etc.)

ciąg dalszy – sequel, follow-up, continuation

ciągłość - continuity

ciągnik – tractor

ciągota – itch, urge, pull (toward), lust for

naciąg – tension (belt, string, etc.); instrument stringing

naciągacz – con man (i.e. someone who ‘drags’ someone along)

pociąg – train; ~ do czegoś, inclination toward something

podciąg – girder; subsequence (mathematics)

powściągliwość – temperance, moderation, restraint (an interesting one; with prefix po- having the idea of ‘continuance’ or ‘duration’, -w- meaning ‘inward’, and ‘ściąg’ having a sense of ‘to pull in’ or ‘retract’).

przeciąg – period, interval, lapse; draft (breeze)

przyciąganie – attraction

rozciągłość – expanse

rozciągnięcie – expansion, extension

rurociąg - pipeline; ruro- (pipe-) might be replaced by a conveyable substance, e.g. wodociąg waterpipe, gazociąg gas pipeline, naftociąg oil pipeline, etc.

wyciąg* – as related to this root, it can mean “in traction” in the medical sense. However, in most instances, this word appears not to be related to this root; rather, it typically means “excerpt” or “extract,” and more likely derives from ciąć (to cut).

wyciągarka – hoist, lift

zaciąg – recruitment, enlistment; pull

Verbs

ciągać (impf) - pull, drag, draw along

pociągnąć / ciągnąć - pull, drag, haul, etc.; continue doing sth.; ~ się, stretch, extend

dociągnąć / dociągać - drag to, last until, tighten

naciągnąć / naciągać - tighten, strain, pull muscle, tug (on)

nadciągnąć / nadciągać - approach, draw near

obciągnąć / obciągać - + instr. cover, draw sth over sth; hitch. 

ociągnąć / ociągać - skin, flay. ~ się, delay, put off, procrastinate, linger (that is, ‘draw out’ idle time)

odciągnąć / odciągać - pull away, draw away, divert

pociągnąć / pociągać - attract, pull, tug; swig (drink); ~ za - tug at; ~ za sobą - entail, result in

podciągnąć / podciągać – pull up ~ się oneself; to call up (aid); pod ~ to subsume under; podciągnięcie, chin-up

przeciągnąć / przeciągać – protract, prolong; over-tighten. ~ się, stretch out, drag on

przyciągnąć / przyciągać – draw toward, pull toward, attract

rozciągnąć / rozciągać się – stretch, extend, sprawl

ściągnąć / ściągać – pull down, pull off; collect; tap (phone); download; to draw in; to cheat (this is highly multivalent verb)

uciągnąć / uciągać – pull, drag, draw out

wciągnąć / wciągać – drag in; soak up; pull (cigar, etc.); enlist in

wyciągnąć / wyciągać – pull out, draw out, extract, extend (hand); wyciągnąć wnioski, to draw conclusions

zaciągnąć / zaciągać – drag/pull/tug; draw curtain; recruit, enlist; drawl. ~ się, enlist; pull (cigar, etc.)

Adjectives/Adverbs

ciągły – constant, continuous (adj. form of ciągle)

ciągliwy – ductile

naciągany – far-fetched, strained, stretched

nieściągalny – unrecoverable (i.e. can’t be ‘pulled back in’).

pociągający – enticing, appealing, attractive (also przyciągający)

pociągły – oblong, elongated

powściągliwy – moderate, temperate, restrained

przeciągły – protracted, lengthy, drawn-out

rozciągliwy – expandable, extensible, ductile

rozciągły – wide open (space)

ściągnięty – contracted

wyciągnięty – elongated, outstretched

We also have the commonplace word wciąż still, continually, which is one of the few words that have replaced “g” with “ż” but which retain this sense of “continuation.” Most other -ciąż- have the connotation described below.

Extended meaning: sense of “heaviness”

This root, in a slightly modified form, also occurs in words denoting weight, burdens, etc. My sense is that often what one “pulls” or “drags” can be heavy, and so the meaning extends to the burden which must be moved.

Just a few examples:

ciąża – pregnancy. Jestem w ciąży, I am pregnant.

ciążenie – gravity, gravitation

ciężar – weight, burden

ciężarowiec – weight-lifter

ciężarówka - truck

obciążenie – burden, load

uciążliwość - inconvenience

uciążliwy – burdensome, onerous

zaciążyć – to weigh down, have negative effect on

Dźwięki brzmiący w trzcinie - Initial Consonant Clusters

One thing I love about Polish is how permissible it is with sound combinations compared to English. In Polish you find a more diverse array of sounds, which can be evidenced by the consonant clusters that it permits at the beginning of words. Many of these are fun and awkward to pronounce for English speakers.

In his book on the Polish language, Stanisław Westfal considers some sound changes over the course of the language history that occurred due to syllables becoming impractical to pronounce. For example, the verb ufać (to trust) descends from medieval Polish pwać. Because Polish obliges voiced consonants to become voiceless if the preceding consonant is voiceless, the word was pronounced pfać and eventually became just fać for ease of pronunciation. Finally, because Polish has traditionally been uncomfortable with single-syllable verbs (dać having been the sole exception – modern Polish now has bać się, from earlier bojać się, dziać się from dziejać się, etc.), the surviving form became the derivative with the u- prefix: ufać.

Another interesting earlier consonant quandary occurred with the early Polish word for “path,” *stĭdza, which by the Middle Ages had lost the short i to make stdza, as found in the Puławy Psalter “Świece nogam moim słowo twoje, i światłość stdzam moim” (“Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my paths”). This cluster ultimately proved too uncomfortable to survive, simplying first into śdza and then, owing to a preference for the diminutive, modern-day ścieżka.

Despite these adaptations in the interest of pronunciation efficiency, Polish nevertheless retains a fair amount of initial double, triple, and (rarely) quadruple consonant clusters. The learner first delving into Polish will immediately run into such foreign combinations as przepraszam “Excuse me/sorry” (prz- being very common), gdzie “where” and dnia “day” (gen), while in my case I had a great time driving to work repeating chciałbym “I would like” over and over until I got that initial sound down. Once you do, you recognize what a smooth elocution it actually is. 

For the love of Polish phonotactics, I’ve decided to make a list of all the notable initial clusters I’ve come across in my studies, which provides a good sample of tricky ones for the English (or pretty much any non-Slavic language) speaker. In most of these examples, the initial sounds only occur in the given word or derivations of it. Note, of course, that ch, ci, cz, rz, dź, dż, sz, trz, and zi represent single sounds, so should be counted as single consonants.  

brzdęk – clink

brzmieć – to sound

chrześcijanin - Christian

czcić – to revere, worship
na czczo - on an empty stomach
drzwi - door (pl.)

dzbanek – pitcher; tea kettle
dzwon – bell

dźwięk – noise, sound

dżdżisty - rainy/drizzly

grzbiet – spine, ridge

klnij – curse (imper.)

krnąbrny - defiant

krtań – larynx

krwi – blood (gen.)
krzyk - scream

lśnić - to glitter, shine 
lżejszy – lighter (than)

łgarz - liar

łkać – to sob
łzy - tears

mgła - fog, mist

w mgnieniu oka - in the blink of an eye

mścić - to avenge

pchła – flea 

pchnąć – to push
płci - gender (gen.)

pszczoła – bee

ssak - mammal

szczegół – detail (a rather common pair)

rtęć – mercury (element)

rwać – to tear

tchnąć - to breathe

tkać - to weave 

tknąć – to touch

tlen – oxygen

trwać – to endure, continue

trzcina – reed
wdech - inhalation
wrzask – noise, racket

wschód - east

współpracować – to collaborate

wwóz - importation

wzrok - sight, vision

wzgląd – look, regard (a favorite of mine: bez względu, regardless)

zdmuchnąć – to puff/blow out

źdźbło – blade of grass

zgniły – rotten

zza - beyond

zziębnąć – to be cold
zżyty - accustomed to

One thing that makes these relatively easy to form is the tendency to prefix words with w- (connoting "in/into") and z- ("with" or "from"), and so I'm sure there are several interesting ones I've missed. Please feel free to add to this list in the comments!

Pouring in Polish

Liquids

*lać – pour, rain heavily

oblać / oblewać – pour on, drench; celebrate with drink; ~ się potem be drenched in sweat

chlać – swill, guzzle; get drunk; cp. łyknąć / łykać– to swallow

dolać / dolewać – add by pouring

nalać / nalewać – pour (drink)

odlać / odlewać – cast, mold; pour off, decant; with się, take a piss

polać / polewać – pour over, douse

wlać / wlewać – pour in

wylać / wylewać – pour out; with się, overflow

ulać / ulewać – to cast, pour off

zalać / zalewać – pour over; submerge, swamp, overflow, inundate

zlać / zlewać – pour down/over; wet, decant; with się, be soaked in

Also lunąć – to pour, rain; pada deszcz – It’s raining; burza, sztorm storm, tempest, squall

Granular substances/objects

*sypać/sypnąć / *pospywać – to pour, sprinkle, scatter, strew; with się, to fall apart

Czasem życie się sypie. – Sometimes everything (lit. life) falls apart.

obsypać / obsypywać – strew over; sprinkle with (+ Inst.)

odsypać / odsypywać – pour off

osypać / osywywać – sprinkle (dust, snow, etc.)

posypać / posypywać – sprinkle with (+ Inst.)

rozsypać / rozsypywać – scatter about, strew (objects)

usypać / usypywać – heap up

wsypać / wsypywać – to pour in (granular substance)

wysypać / wysypywać – strew, scatter, pour out

zasypać / zasypywać – cover, strew; bombard, besiege

wysypisko, zsypisko – garbage dump

nasyp – embankment

wsyp, zsyp - chute

wsypa – betrayal

wysyp – inundation

-JRZE- and -GLĄD- - Terms relating to seeing and watching

The roots -jrze- (perf.) and -gląd- (impf.) form a number of common verb pairs related to manners of seeing, from watching, looking, glancing, observing, overlooking, etc.

dojrzeć / doglądać – inspect, oversee, tend to (+ gen.)

naoglądać – watch too much of (+ gen.)

obejrzeć (or oglądnąć)  / oglądać - examine, glance at, view, watch (film); ~ się za + instr, look around at

podejrzeć / podglądać - spy on, peep at

przejrzeć / przeglądać - look through; ~ się, look at oneself (mirror)

przyrzeć się / przyglądać się – observe, examine, peer at, watch carefully (+ dat.)

rozejrzeć się / rozglądać się – with za + instr., have a look around (for)

spojrzeć / spoglądać – look, look up, glance

ujrzeć - glimpse, catch sight of, behold

wejrzeć / wglądać – glance into, look into, examine

wyglądać – look, appear (to someone)

wyjrzeć / wyglądać – look out, peer out

zajrzeć / zaglądać – with do + gen., look in on, glance at

Nouns

oglądalność – viewership

podgląd – critical observation/examination, monitoring

podglądacz – peeping Tom

przegląd – survey, review, inspection

przeglądarka – viewer, web browser

wgląd – insight

wygląd – appearance

wzgląd – consideration, regard (bez względu na + acc., without regard for, regardless of; ze względu na + acc., considering, out of consideration for)

światopogląd – worldview, outlook

Mądrej głowie dość dwie słowie - Two Words to the Wise

Browsing the stacks of my former university's library, I came across this enlightening book of essays by Robert A. Rothstein which I think will be of interest to anyone fascinated by the Polish language.

This volume (which has a successor, More Words to the Wise) contains seventy short essays collected from the author's column in the Boston-based biweekly Biały Orzeł (White Eagle) beginning in 2004. Rothstein earned a Ph.D. from Harvard in Slavic Languages and Literatures and is currently professor of Polish and Director of the Slavic Studies program at Umass Amherst. 

Here, Rothstein explores Polish language and culture through detailed examinations of words, phrases and proverbs as well as poems and songs. In fact, there are so many examples of the latter two in here that it could serve as a mini-anthology of Polish verse. He frequently draws etymological and phrasal connections between Polish and and its linguistic neighbors/influences (French, German, Latin, Italian, Russian) and manages to work in a few tangential facts about those languages, such as how the English terms "genitive" and "dative" derive from Latin misinterpretations of the original Greek words (see p. 137, "Cases"). 

Some interesting things I learned from this book include:

- the word płaz (amphibian) is related to pełzać (to crawl, creep, slither). 

- the word zima (winter) is related (via Proto-IE) to the Latin word hiems (winter), from which the English word "hibernation" eventually derived. Likewise, ząb (tooth) is distantly related to English "comb" (a 'toothed' object). 


- the rather curious term for "moon," księżyc, used to mean "son of a ksiądz (now, priest; formerly, prince/ruler)", and stems from a 15th ct. association with the moon as a "lesser prince" in comparison to the "greater prince" of the sun. This term is curious because it breaks with the moon/month association found in most (possibly all?) Indo-European languages (e.g. English, German (Mond/Monat), Russian (месяц (miesyats)) and every Slavic language except Bulgarian), arising from the ancient usage of lunar phases to measure time. 

- Polish words beginning with h (e.g., hałas noise, hodować raise/cultivate) are usually, but not always, of Ukrainian origin. Some exceptions are historia (Latin), hala (Slovak; mountain meadow), herb (Czech, coat-of-arms), hejnał (Hungarian, trumpet call), modern English borrowings. Non-initial h Ukrainian borrowings include jar (ravine, orig. Turkish) and krynica (water spring). 

- the word deszcz (rain) is the modern form of the earlier deżdż, stemming in turn from a Proto-Slavic root. This earlier form survives in such current fun-to-say words as dżdżysty (rainy, drizzly) and dżdżownica (earthworm). 

- There exists a rhyming couplet to tease those who have trouble rolling their Rs, or test children trying to master it: Czarna krowa w kropki bordo / Gryzła trawę, kręcąc mordą ("A black cow with claret-colored spots / Was chewing on the grass, shaking its face"). 

- the word tlen (oxygen) was coined by a student of the physician and chemist Śniadecki (1768 - 1838), who himself coined other words for elements based on Polish/Slavic roots, such as wodór (hydrogen), węgiel (carbon; coal), krzem (silicon) and siarka (sulphur). I've always found tlen interesting because the tl- phoneme is quite rare, at least among European languages, and calls to mind Meso-American languages like Nahuatl. Rothstein here tells how it was derived from the verb tleć/tlić się (to smoulder, burn without flame). Outside of related words in these contexts, the tl- phoneme only appears elsewhere in Polish (so far as I can tell) in the locative singular of tło, such as in, Widziałeś tę postać w tle? (Did you see that figure in the background?). 
 
I like that this text serves an under-serviced niche, that is of popular philology, detailed language exposition for the layman. It can easily be enjoyed by a non-Polish speaker, just as an insight into the language and culture while not being too technical or dense. Rothstein is clearly passionate about Polish and inspires the reader to embark on his own research. I absolutely cannot recommend this book highly enough, check it out!

RWAĆ – Tearing, rending, ripping

The root (*)rwa- is found in words which generally denote tearing, ripping, pulling away or otherwise forceful separation of one thing from another. In most cases, -rwa- is the perfective root, while the imperfective counterpart is –rywa-. Note, however, an important exception is the word rwać itself, which is imperfective (niedokonany). I have not been able to find a clear perfective (dokonany) counterpart, but it seems like this function is taken up by one or more of the other words in this semantic field.

rwać – tear, rip, run (stocking); dash, rush forth; with się, tear; rwać (się) do + GEN, to strive eagerly toward

dorwać / dorywać – get, catch, find, flush out (of hiding); with się do + GEN, to break or tear through to; get to (after effort)

naderwać / nadrywać – to tear slightly, strain (muscle)

oberwać / obrywać – tear off, peel off, pick (fruit); to get shot/hit/beaten up

oderwać / odrywać – tear off, tear up, break away; od + GEN, break away/off from; oderwać kogoś od czegoś- distract (or, wean) someone from something

poderwać / podrywać  - lift violently; hit on, pick up (i.e., for sex)

porwać / porywać – abduct, kidnap; grab, snatch

przerwać / przerywać – stop, interrupt, break (something in progress); przerwać milczenie, to break the silence; przerwać ciążę, to terminate a pregnancy

rozerwać / rozrywać – tear up/apart, break apart (rozrywać na strzępy, to tear to pieces); with się, amuse, divert, entertain (ref. rozrywka, entertainment)

urwać / urywać – sever, break off, tear off; with się, be severed/broken off; urwać mu głowę, to rip his head off

wyrwać / wyrywać – tear out, tear away, extract; with się, get away, extract oneself from; wyrwać się z matni, lit. ‘to free oneself from a snare/trap,’ to get out of an impasse/dead-end situation.

zarwać / zarywać – break through; stay up late; blow off (appointment); get/court (e.g. a girl); with się, collapse under the weight of something

zerwać / zrywać – break up (relationship); get out (prison); break/rip/tear up; with się, move, start or begin suddenly/violently.

Many of these terms are flexible, and have other meanings in certain contexts not described here. One thing to note is that the common verbs trwać (to continue, last, endure, go on) and przetrwać (to survive) do not appear to be related to this root.

According to Wiktionary, these latter words derive from Proto-Slavic *trajati meaning ‘to last, continue,’ derived from an older Indo-European root meaning ‘to cross.’ Rwać and its derivatives, however, descend from Proto-Slavic rŭvati, meaning ‘to tear.’

POSTRACH PO POLSKU - Words related to Halloween

As far as I’ve read, Poles don’t quite go as crazy about Halloween as Americans, but some people do celebrate it. Poland of course has a native festival of the dead that coincides with that time called Dziady. Check out the linked words for in-depth articles on Culture.pl. 

Because Halloween has always been my favorite holiday, and I love creepy stuff, I’ve compiled this list of words related to horrible and fearsome things. This list is (as always) not exhaustive. 

jesień - autumn

październik – October

ciemno, ciemność, mrok - dark, darkness, obscurity, gloom

cień - shadow

czarnoksięstwo - witchcraft, black magic

czarownica - witch

czaszka – skull

demon - demon

duch - spirit, ghost

dynia – pumpkin

fantom – phantom

groza - horror, terror (also used for literary/film genre: polska groza, Polish horror)

grób - grave
koszmar - nightmare

krzyk – scream

liście - leaves

loch - dungeon

mgła - fog, mist

nawiedzony - haunted

niesamowity - strange, weird, uncanny; incredible
obrzydliwy - abominable, disgusting
ohydny - horrible, hideous, revolting, execrable

ponury żniwiarz - grim reaper

postrach  - fear; bogeyman

potwór, maszkara – monster, creature

przerażający – frightening

strach, lęk, obawa, przestrach - fear
straszny - dreadful, terrible, horrible, spooky, creepy

strzyga – female vampire of folklore (masc. strzygoń)

Szatan - Satan

szkielet - skeleton

tajemniczy - mysterious

trup – corpse

trumna – coffin

wampir, wąpierz, upiór – vampire, malicious living dead

widmo, zjawa - spectre, wraith, ghost, phantom; statek widmo, ghost ship

wiedźma - witch

wiedźmin - warlock, "witcher"

zamek - castle

zło - evil

BONUS: 

One of the best ways to break out of the "intermediate plateau" and really start internalizing vocabulary and grammatical structures is through side-by-side reading. In my experience, it really only took a few months of it until I felt comfortable diving straight in to native texts. 

This October, why not ramp up your Polish study with some dual-language reading? 

One thing I recommend is Ghosts - Parallel Text short stories. This has seven supernatural stories by English writers, simplified and translated into Polish. It is formatted so that the English follows just below the Polish, paragraph-by-paragraph. The stories themselves are sort of a mixed bag, but the translations are clear and generally accurate. You can see my review on the Amazon page (I just had to!). 

If you're a more advanced student and up for the challenge, check out this story by one of Poland's earliest writers of dark and supernatural fiction, Stefan Grabiński. Here you can find his story "Zez" ("Strabismus") in Polish and English. 

Print them out and read along with your pen(cil) of choice, noting expressions and useful words/structures. Grabiński can be challenging because of his literary and antiquated language, but this story is probably one of his more accessible, and also has notes glossing some of his terms for modern readers.

If you enjoy this, you can find more Grabiński stories in Polish at Wikiźródła. Several collections exist in English, and I'd estimate about half of his total literary output has been translated, though you can only find a couple of stories in English for free online due to copyright.