A Concise Polish Grammar - Feldstein.pdf

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A Concise Polish Grammar
by Ron F. Feldstein
© SEELRC 2001
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A Concise Polish Grammar
Ronald F. Feldstein
Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1. Polish Sounds and Spelling
Chapter 2. Major Types of Morphophonemic Alternations
Chapter 3. The Polish Noun
Chapter 4. Polish Adjectival Declension and Comparison. Notes on the Adverb.
Chapter 5. The Polish Numeral
Chapter 6. Polish Pronouns
Chapter 7. The Polish Verb: Conjugation and Notes on Aspect
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Acknowledgement
I would like to acknowledge the help of Charles Townsend, of Princeton University, and Frank
Gladney, of the University of Illinois, who patiently read through earlier versions of this grammar and
pointed out many errors and inconsistencies in my exposition. In fact, they provided so many helpful and
valuable suggestions that it would be impossible to offer separate attributions for each instance where
their ideas have made their way into the final version. Therefore, I would like to express my gratitude at
the outset and add that I bear the responsibility for any remaining errors that have not been corrected.
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Introduction
The following grammatical sketch of Polish, designed for use on the Internet, attempts to cover
many of the important points of Polish sounds and spelling and morphology, plus selected points in the
areas of syntax and usage. It is neither complete nor designed for a sophisticated linguistic audience.
Rather than use IPA (International Phonetic Association) or scholarly symbols, standard Polish
orthography has been used wherever possible in discussions of the sound system. Nevertheless, I have
tried to make all statements accurate, while deviating, in some respects, from traditional school grammars.
For example, the morphological discussion of cases according to Roman Jakobson's morphological
studies: nominative, accusative, genitive, locative, dative, instrumental--in preference to the older
ordering of nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental, locative. JakobsonÔs ideas have also
influenced the presentation of the Polish verb, which is based on the notion that the entire verbal paradigm
can be derived from a single stem. Although these Jakobsonian ideas are already found in many scholarly
treatments of Polish and other Slavic languages, they are still somewhat rare in presentations designed for
general audiences. Thus, this grammatical sketch tries to occupy a middle ground, not attempting to be
comprehensive, but aiming at accuracy in its descriptions. While not a substitute for a textbook, it might
provide a useful review of the sound system and Polish inflection.
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Let us now briefly touch on some of the facts about the Polish language of today. Polish, of
course, is the official state language of the Polish Republic ( Rzeczpospolita Polska ), which, according to
the 1994 census, had a population of slightly under 40 million. The vast majority of the population is
ethnically Polish (98.7%). Ukrainians constitute slightly more than half of one percent, while other ethnic
groups make up the rest. Many Poles (referred to as Polonia ) also reside outside the borders of Poland.
Significant numbers can be found in the United States, Canada, and Australia, as well as in the
neighboring countries of Lithuania, Ukraine, and Belarus.
The Polish language belongs to the West Slavic branch of the Slavic language family. Other West
Slavic languages are Czech, Slovak, and Upper and Lower Sorbian. The earliest written records of the
Polish language date back to the end of the 13 th century A.D. Earlier Polish writing exists, but only in the
form of individual Polish words within Latin texts. The very important cultural and religious connection
to Latin is related to the fact that Poland, though geographically in Central Europe, is Roman Catholic.
While the Orthodox Slavs (Russians, Ukrainians, Serbs, Bulgarians, and Macedonians) use the Cyrillic
alphabet of the older Church Slavonic texts, the Roman Catholic Slavs chose the Latin alphabet. The 16 th
century marks the period of the ascendancy of the Polish language as a written language in its own right.
Polish uses the Latin alphabet to this day, but since it has many sounds which were lacking in Latin, many
special symbols and combinations of symbols have had to be devised to render them. In the realm of
grammar, Polish is marked by a complex inflectional morphology: a large inventory of grammatical
forms and a significant number of stem alternations, conditioned by a wide variety of grammatical
endings. While Polish is perhaps the most complex Slavic language in terms of its consonant and vowel
alternations, its accentual system is one of the simplest, with a regular stress on the next-to-last syllable of
the word and no distinction between long and short vowels.
Poland has had a turbulent history, several times losing and then regaining its national autonomy.
The Partitions of 1772, 1793, and 1795 divided Poland among Prussia, Austria, and Russia. Obviously,
the Polish language played a key role in keeping the idea of a Polish nation alive during these periods. In
1918, after World War I, Poland was reconstituted as an independent nation, only to lose it and fall under
both German and Soviet occupation during World War II. After a brief period of true independence
following World War II, Poland entered the Cold War period of domination by the Soviet Union, during
which it languished under Soviet style communism for more than 40 years. The era of Soviet domination
ended at the beginning of 1990, when Poland changed its official name from the Polish PeopleÔs Republic
to the Polish Republic. In 1999, Poland joined the NATO alliance, an act which would have been
unthinkable during its long years of membership in the Soviet-ruled Warsaw Pact.

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