Learn some Polish tongue twisters
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Intro |
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| Michael: What are some Polish tongue twisters? |
| Igor: And are many Polish words hard to pronounce? |
| Michael: At PolishPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Consider the following situation: Sasha Lee is trying to write a pamphlet with the most popular Polish tongue twisters. She asks all of her friends for suggestions. When she asks Aneta Adamska responds |
| "Król Karol kupił królowej Karolinie korale koloru koralowego." |
| Dialogue |
| Sasza Lee: "Znasz jakiś polski łamaniec językowy?" |
| Aneta Adamska: "Król Karol kupił królowej Karolinie korale koloru koralowego." |
| Once more with the English translation. |
| Sasza Lee: "Znasz jakiś polski łamaniec językowy?" |
| Michael: Do you know any Polish tongue twisters? |
| Aneta Adamska: "Król Karol kupił królowej Karolinie korale koloru koralowego." |
| Michael: "King Karol bought coral-colored beads for Queen Karolina." |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: A tongue-twister is a fun phrase that is designed to be difficult to say, especially when repeated fast. Tongue-twisters were popular in the 19th century. An English example that you probably know is ‘She sells sea shells on the seashore,' published originally in 1850 as a diction exercise. Now, I don't know how good you are at saying that, but, for most of us, it is still tricky after a lifetime of hearing it! |
| So, how do they work in Polish? Tongue-twisters, or |
| Igor: łamańce językowe, |
| Michael: rely on rapid alternation between similar but distinct phonemes. Tongue-twisters often use a combination of alliteration and rhyme. Alliteration is repetition of identical consonants at the beginning of words, which are then repeated in sequence. Our tongues find this very difficult to do! |
| Now, Polish pronunciation already has a reputation for being particularly difficult for foreigners. Can you imagine, then, how hard their tongue-twisters must be? Here are some of the most famous Polish tongue twisters! If you want, try to say them after Igor. We will start with an easier one: |
| Igor: W czasie suszy szosa sucha. |
| Michael: Did you get it right? It means ‘The road is dry during the drought'. Don't worry—alternating between the fricatives |
| Igor: s |
| Michael: and |
| Igor: sz |
| Michael: within a short sentence like this one gives even Poles a headache! |
| Let's listen to it again, |
| Igor: [SLOWLY] W czasie suszy szosa sucha. |
| The earliest recorded Polish tongue twister appeared in the early 14th century—and it's one which could literally have saved your life back then. During a revolt, the Polish king wanted to know which of his citizens were loyal and which were not. Many were of German descent, so he got his soldiers to make all the people say this phrase. As the story goes, those who couldn't pronounce the words correctly had their heads cut off. This is how the phrase sounds: |
| Igor: Soczewica, koło, miele młyn. |
| Michael: The meaning is 'Lentil, wheel, mill grinds.' Did you survive? |
| Igor: [SLOWLY] Soczewica, koło, miele młyn. |
| Michael: Now, if you were a child in Poland, this next tongue twister would be a favorite: |
| Igor: Stół z powyłamywanymi nogami. |
| Michael: This one means 'A table with broken legs'. Adults love to get kids to say it, and I'm sure they sound very cute! But how did you do? |
| Igor: [SLOWLY] Stół z powyłamywanymi nogami. |
| Michael:This one is one of the hardest Polish tongue twisters. Often when people get frustrated after a few tries to pronounce it correctly, they give up just saying |
| Igor: Stół bez nóg. |
| Michael: or literally "table without legs." |
| Next is one that is simple, but tricky: |
| Igor: Lojalna Jola i nielojalna Jola. |
| Michael: It means 'Loyal Jola and disloyal Jola'. This time, you have to get your mouth around a lot of 'L' sounds! Even in English, you have to say it slowly to avoid sounding like you're yodelling. |
| Igor: [SLOWLY] Lojalna Jola i nielojalna Jola. |
| There is another interesting kind of tongue twister, and that is the super long word. Like this one |
| Igor: Konstantynopolitańczykowianeczka, |
| Michael: which means 'a girl who lives in Constantinople'. Actually, this is quite an old-fashioned word, since Constantinople has been called ‘Istanbul' since 1930! So, it's really just used for fun—like the English word 'supercalifragilisticexpialidocious'. |
| Igor: [SLOWLY] Konstantynopolitańczykowianeczka |
| How are you doing? If it seems like Polish tongue-twisters are not that bad, you are going to change your mind soon! Try saying this one: |
| Igor: Wyindywidualizowaliśmy się z rozentuzjazmowanego tłumu. |
| Michael: The meaning is 'We isolated ourselves from an enthusiastic crowd.' |
| Igor: [SLOWLY] Wyindywidualizowaliśmy się z rozentuzjazmowanego tłumu. |
| Next, here is a phrase that Poles are known for being very fond of. Are you ready? |
| Igor: W Szczebrzeszynie chrząszcz brzmi w trzcinie i Szczebrzeszyn z tego słynie. |
| Michael: It means "In the town of Szczebrzeszyn, a beetle buzzes in the reeds, and this is what Szczebrzeszyn is famous for." Poles are rather proud of this one and have fun saying it to foreigners. It comes from a famous children's poem written by |
| Igor: Jan Brzechwa, |
| Michael: which popularised a real town in southeastern Poland. The town is also famous for an annual festival of Polish language. The combinations of digraph sounds |
| Igor: sz, cz, rz |
| Michael: clustered with these consonants |
| Igor: b, ch, t |
| Michael: make it not only a particularly challenging tongue-twister, but pretty hard on the eye, too! |
| Igor: [SLOWLY] W Szczebrzeszynie chrząszcz brzmi w trzcinie i Szczebrzeszyn z tego słynie. |
| [Recall 1] |
| Michael: Let's take a closer look at the dialogue now. |
| Do you remember how Sasha Lee asks, "Do you know any Polish tongue-twisters?" |
| [PAUSE 4 SEC] |
| Igor: Znasz jakiś polski łamaniec językowy? |
| [Recall 2] |
| Michael: And do you remember how Aneta answers, "King Karol bought coral-colored beads for Queen Karolina?" |
| [PAUSE 4 SEC] |
| Igor: "Król Karol kupił królowej Karolinie korale koloru koralowego." |
| Michael: Did you notice something about this sentence? In Polish, all of the words start with the same letter—'K'. This is called a tautogram, and it's a different way to create a great tongue-twister. Tautograms are mostly used for their visual impact, though, as they look pretty cool—especially in poetry. |
| [Summary] |
| Michael: In this lesson, you learned a number of Polish tongue-twisters and the origins of the more interesting ones. You also had some fun practice attempting to say them. |
| Expansion/Contrast |
| Michael: Polish is one of the most difficult languages on the planet, and even ordinary words can get your tongue in a twist. |
| First, the Polish word for 'happiness' might make you rather unhappy: |
| Igor: [NORMAL] Szczęście [SLOWLY] Szczęście |
| Michael: Next, this word is considered one of the most challenging of all. Can you imagine a word with just one vowel and five consonants? |
| Igor: [NORMAL] Źdźbło [SLOWLY] Źdźbło |
| Michael: It means 'stalk,' as in the main stem of a herbaceous plant, so, luckily, you won't have to use it often! On the other hand, this next word is a very commonly-used item: |
| Igor: [NORMAL] Ołówek [SLOWLY] Ołówek |
| Michael: This one means 'pencil,' so I imagine most small children can say it better than we could! But here is a word that is a nightmare for school kids, so give it your best shot: |
| Igor: [NORMAL] Pszczoła [SLOWLY] Pszczoła. |
| Michael: The meaning is 'bee'. Yes, just a bee—the cute creature that makes honey and can sting. Isn't English easy? Let's continue with our next word, which is |
| Igor: [NORMAL] Bezwzględny [SLOWLY] Bezwzględny |
| Michael: This word means 'ruthless,' which seems apt for a word that has five consonants one after the other. And now for our final difficult Polish word: |
| Igor: [NORMAL] żółć [SLOWLY] żółć |
| Michael: meaning "bile." This isn't only a difficult word, but Polish people also see it as the most Polish word that exists, since it consists entirely of letters only found in the Polish alphabet. |
| Cultural Insight/Expansion |
| Michael: One tongue twister has a special place in Polish culture. It comes from an iconic Polish movie called |
| Igor: Jak rozpętałem drugą wojnę światową |
| Michael: or in English "How I unleashed World War II." In this movie, the main character |
| Igor: Franek Dolas |
| Michael: is convinced that he's the reason why Nazi Germany started a war with Poland, which became what we know as World War II today. At some point in the movie, Franek gets questioned by the Gestapo, who wants to know his Name. Answering the question, Franek gives a fake name, |
| Michael: and a fake address, |
| Igor: Chrząszczyżewoszyce, powiat Łękołody |
| Michael: knowing that the German speaking officer will have problems with recognizing and writing down his personal information. Probably, almost all Polish people know this particular scene out of the movie, |
| Igor: and, when we meet foreigners, we might jokingly use the name to introduce ourselves, in order to see the foreigners' reaction. |
| Michael: So, if you want to impress your Polish friends, you should practice the pronunciation of this name, and, when they want to check if you get lost, you will be able to surprise them by repeating the name perfectly. |
| Let's listen to it one more time, |
| Igor: [SLOWLY] Grzegorz Brzęczyszczykiewicz |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Igor: Do uslyszenia! |
| Michael: See you soon! |
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