Language

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 3

Speaker Count

40,000,000 3

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 3

Attested From (Year)

from 1136 4

Region

Poland (official); minority communities in Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine; diaspora in Canada, Argentina, Brazil, Israel, Australia, United Kingdom, United States 5

Classification

Language Kind

Safe 1

Official Status

Official Language 2

Connections

Associated With

Latin

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

Slavic

Source The Cambridge Encyclopedia of LanguageDavid Crystal (editor)

West Slavic

Source Encyclopaedia Britannica

Written In

Latin Script

Source Omniglot: The Online Encyclopedia of Writing Systems and Languages

In the Other Atlases

Original Language Of

A Year of the Quiet Sun

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

Ashes and Diamonds

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

Cold War (2018 film)

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

Ida (2013 film)

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

Knife in the Water

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

Man of Iron

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

Second Life

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

Adam Mickiewicz