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Polish

POL-skee
Also Known As polski
Slavic Languages

Polish is a West Slavic language and the official language of Poland, written in the Latin alphabet with a set of diacritics that mark sounds the plain Latin letters do not cover. It preserves a system of nasal vowels and a fixed penultimate stress that most of its Slavic relatives have lost.

Facts
ISO 639-3 Code
pl 6
Speaker Count
40,000,000 6
Figure is for first-language speakers in Poland; a substantial diaspora, chiefly in the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany, adds several million more heritage speakers of varying fluency not counted here.
Status
Living 6
Attested From (Year)
from 1136 7
Region
Poland (official); minority communities in Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine; diaspora in Canada, Argentina, Brazil, Israel, Australia, United Kingdom, United States 8
Browse and compare
Word Order
SVO 3
Tone
Not Tonal 4
Difficulty for an English Speaker
Category IV 5
Classification
Language Kind
Safe 1
Official Status
Official Language 2
Polish
Filter Results1 entry
Connections

Associated With

Latin, Languages

This source names Latin directly: "language of Poland, written in the Latin alphabet with a set of diacritics that mark sounds the plain Latin letters do not cover."

Source The Cambridge Encyclopedia of LanguageDavid Crystal (editor)

In Family

Source The Cambridge Encyclopedia of LanguageDavid Crystal (editor)
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica

Written In

Latin Script, Scripts
Source Omniglot: The Online Encyclopedia of Writing Systems and Languages
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Same As

Also in Divinity Atlas: the same subject.

Original Language Of

Also in Film and Media Atlas: a work originally in this language.

Also in Film and Media Atlas: a work originally in this language.

Also in Film and Media Atlas: a work originally in this language.

Also in Film and Media Atlas: a work originally in this language.

Also in Film and Media Atlas: a work originally in this language.

Also in Film and Media Atlas: a work originally in this language.

Also in Film and Media Atlas: a work originally in this language.

Also in Literature Atlas: a work originally in this language.

Also in Literature Atlas: a work originally in this language.

Source Czesław Miłosz (Wikipedia)Lead, language of poetry
Quote, Lead, language of poetry
His poetry was primarily written in Polish

Also in Literature Atlas: a work originally in this language.

Also in Literature Atlas: a work originally in this language.

Also in Literature Atlas: a work originally in this language.

Also in Literature Atlas: a work originally in this language.

Also in Literature Atlas: a work originally in this language.

Also in Literature Atlas: a work originally in this language.

Also in Literature Atlas: a work originally in this language.

Also in Literature Atlas: a work originally in this language.

Also in Literature Atlas: a work originally in this language.

Found In

Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject is found.

Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject is found.

Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject is found.

Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject is found.

Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject is found.

Sources
1. Glottolog: Polish (Glottolog languoid poli1260)
GlottologEndangerment, AES status
Quote, Endangerment, AES status
AES status: not endangered
View the Source
2. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language
David Crystal (editor), Cambridge University Press, 2010
  • Official status, Polish entity page
    Polish is a West Slavic language and the official language of Poland, written in the Latin alphabet with a set of diacritics that mark sounds the plain Latin letters do not cover.
  • In Family: Slavic
3. WALS Online (World Atlas of Language Structures): Polish / Order of Subject, Object and Verb (WALS datapoint)
WALS Online (World Atlas of Language Structures)Datapoint page
Quote, Datapoint page
Feature: Order of Subject, Object and Verb by Matthew S. Dryer Value: SVO
View the Source
4. WALS Online (World Atlas of Language Structures): Polish / Tone (WALS datapoint)
WALS Online (World Atlas of Language Structures)Datapoint page
Quote, Datapoint page
Feature: Tone by Ian Maddieson Value: No tones
View the Source
5. Effective Language Learning: Language Difficulty Ranking
Effective Language LearningForeign Service Institute categories list
Quote, Foreign Service Institute categories list
Category IV: 44 weeks (1100 hours) Languages with significant linguistic and/or cultural differences from English Albanian Amharic Armenian Azerbaijani Bengali Bosnian Bulgarian Burmese Croatian Czech * Estonian * Finnish * Georgian Greek Hebrew Hindi * Hungarian Icelandic Khmer Lao Latvian Lithuanian Macedonian * Mongolian Nepali Pashto Persian (Dari, Farsi, Tajik) Polish
View the Source
6. Ethnologue: Languages of the World
SIL International, 2024
  • ISO 639-3 Code: pl
  • Speaker Count: 40,000,000
  • Status: Living
View the Source
7. Omniglot: Polish language, alphabet and pronunciation
OmniglotWritten Polish
Quote, Written Polish
Polish first appeared in writing in 1136 in the "Gniezno papal bull"
View the Source
8. Wikipedia: Polish Language
Wikipedia
Quote
[ˈpɔlskʲi]
View the Source
Omniglot: The Online Encyclopedia of Writing Systems and Languages
Written In: Latin ScriptView the Source
Encyclopaedia Britannica
In Family: West SlavicView the Source
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