Introduction

Welcome to The Polish Student!

I am an American who likes to study Polish. I've had a lot of exposure to the language via media (music, reading) over the past 10 years, but only started systematically studying it around the beginning of 2017. I come from a monolingual English background, with previous/ongoing study also of French, Portuguese and Spanish.

I find Polish a great pleasure to read, as the learner is constantly encountering new, phonological and orthographically interesting words. Polish is a very rhythmic language, and very pleasing to read out loud and pronounce once you get the hang of that (which is possible for a non-native, I guarantee it!). I am also interested in morphology, or the way that Polish words are assembled. Part of the intention of this blog is to have entries on Polish word roots, as well as explore the Polish system of prefixes. I also intend to have discussions of both modern urban slang as well as archaic uses, including Latin's influence on Polish in the Middle Ages. 

To a foreigner first hearing Polish, it's hard to place the language. It sounds unmistakably Slavic, but to me it is "cleaner" than Russian, more smooth, due to the uniform short vowels. There are suggestions of Romance influence in pronunciation and word formation, it having of course been in close contact with Latin, French and Italian. But sometimes it rung to me with a sound almost Arabian, with the heavily-trilled rs and breathy ch often coming before consonants or at the end of words. In terms of Eastern contact, Polish notably has had Turkish influence which is evident in a number of modern words, e.g. dywan rug, torba bag, buława mace, etc.

Love of the language has naturally sparked an interest in Polish literature, and in Polish culture in general. I am especially interested in all the untranslated genre fiction (about which see here and here and here) gradually becoming available to me. One of my Polish literature goals, which I hope to achieve in the winter of 2018, is to read Jacek Dukaj's Lód in the original (since, of course, it hasn't been translated-- yet). As I work toward that goal I will read shorter works and continue to expose myself to Polish vocabulary (I use Clozemaster daily as "calydzien"), while also doing short translations and occasional excursions into philological research.

Overall, my goal with this blog is to have a forum to explore the above and create a resource which will be useful to others. Although this is gradually changing, there has often been a dearth of materials for the interested Polish learner, and Polish does not seem terribly popular among the majority of language enthusiasts; I would certainly say it is underrated. Also, somehow it has become such that "Slavic Studies" in American universities are primarily dedicated to Russian, while the number of programs offering doctorates in Polish Studies specifically can likely be counted on one hand. A state university like Rutgers, for example, has more than 65,000 French-language books and journals in its library holdings, yet hardly over 1000 in Polish. It would be nice to see more people become interested in Polish language and culture, so hopefully I can do my part to further that.