Polski w poniedziałki: stycznia 2017

wtorek, 31 stycznia 2017

Bolek i Lolek!

środa, 18 stycznia 2017

Dziesiątka: powiedzenie / saying

Autor: barfisch, Wikimedia Commons.

To jest strzał w dziesiątkę!

= You've hit the bull's eye! (lit.: that shot got 10 points)

wtorek, 17 stycznia 2017

Pechowa Trzynastka? / Unlucky thirteen?

Watch this little film about "unlucky thirteen",
which was the entry in a young people's film-making competition from an after-school film club at a gimnazjum (school for ages 13-16)
in Gorzów Wielkopolski.

pech = bad luck, from German pitch, bad luck

mieć pecha = to have bad luck
Mam pecha. = I have / am having bad luck.

pechowy = (adj.) unlucky

poniedziałek, 16 stycznia 2017

Reification of numbers! / Liczebniki rzeczownikowe!

JEDZIE ÓSEMKA!

"Bunches" (grona, like of grapes) of people hanging off the trams on Warsaw's Poniatowski bridge after the war.

Źródło: Wikimedia Commons, własność publiczna.

REIFIED NUMERALS

We used these reified numerals to refer to the different chocolate samples, instead of calling them by their brand names, since it was supposed to be a blind test. Reification means to make something abstract concrete -- in this case, making a number into a noun referring to a specific thing.

It is like when in English we call buses by their names:"I just missed the 212."

These numbers, when reified, become nouns, and so decline as nouns. This is why we put trójka in the dative in this sentence, since it was the indirect object: "Ile punktów Pani daje trójce?" ("How many points do you give [number] three?"

jedynka = one
dwójka = two
trójka = three
czwórka = four
piątka = five
szóstka = six
siódemka = seven
ósemka = eight
dziewiątka = nine
dziesiątka = ten
jedenastka = eleven

niedziela, 15 stycznia 2017

De gustibus non est dispuntandum!

Autor: proacguy1; Wikimedia Commons

De gustibus non est disputandum

Impress your Polish friends and neighbors

with this indisputably erudite-sounding and ever-relevant Latin maxim!

Meaning:

gust nie podlega dyskusji / taste is not subject to discussion
o upodobaniach się nie dyskutuje / one does not discuss tastes

- Wikdictionary

Compare to Spanish in Spanish-Polish dictionary:

gusto

(1.1) biol. smak, zmysł smaku
(1.2) smak (właściwość smakowa)
(1.3) przen. smak, gust

And for more fun with Latin sayings in the Polish context - see this person's Quizlet set, "Moje ulubione sentencje łacińskie".

wtorek, 10 stycznia 2017

Praca domowa: BMW piosenka!

First, some homework for you. Please listen to this song and do the homework assignment below the lyrics, which I have translated into English.

On occasion, it has been suggested that more modern Polish songs be incorporated into the curriculum of this course - I hope that this will help quench some of those yearnings.

We will discuss some of the cultural context of this song, and of others in this group's repertoire, during the next class. The group performing this song self-identifies as belonging to the "disco polo" genre, which you may have heard of. If not, you can read more about it (in English) here.

Incidentally, this video has 6,497,767 views on Youtube.

IMPORTANT: When you are listening, it might seem to you that the syntax of the lyrics is backwards. You will be absolutely right. As in poetry, the syntax is often turned around, often to aid with the rhyme or rhythm.

The beauty of a highly inflected language is that you can move all the elements in a sentence around and still know what it all means -- thanks to the case endings!

Przyjemnego słuchania! Pleasant listening!

And remember: De gustibus non est disputandum! :-)

Bma

Każdy kupić furę chce, / everyone wants to buy himself a car

Kupię sobie właśnie tę: / I'll buy myself this exact one

Nie opelka, nie audicę,*/ not an Opel, not an Audi

Lecz niebitą beemwicę. / but an unbeatable BMW („beemwica”)

Czy to z Niemiec, Austrii, Chin / whether it’s from Germany, Austria or China

Dwieście lekko lecisz nim. / you can easily go 200 [km an hour] with it

Skóra, lansik przecież jest - / there’s leather [slang for leather], it’s flashy after all

To moja beema. / it’s my beemer

Ref: Trójka, piątka czy też siódema,** / three, five or seven [-hundred series)

Najlepsza maszyna to jest beema. / the best car [slang for car] is a BWM

Betka***-beemka w 'metalik' kolorze. / Tiny-beemer in a metallic color

Nie potrzebny mi jest merc, / I don’t need a Mercedes [slang for mercedes]

Beemą się wożę. / I drive a beemer.

2. Dzisiaj właśnie taką mam, / today that’s exactly the kind I have

Gumę palę tu i tam, / I burn rubber here and there

Kiedy wrzucę wyższy bieg / when I throw it in high gear

Opon pisk usłyszysz też. / you’ll hear the squeal of tires, too

Basik daje głośno tu, / The bass is on loud here

Każdy słyszy bmw. / everyone will hear the BMW

Skóra, lansik przecież jest - / there’s leather, it’s flashy after all

To moja beema. / It’s my BMW

Ref: Trójka, piątka czy też siódema, / three, five or seven [-hundred series)

Najlepsza maszyna to jest beema. / the best car [slang for car] is a BMW

Betka-beemka w 'metalik' kolorze. / Tiny-beemer in a metallic color

Nie potrzebny mi jest merc, / I don’t need a Mercedes [slang for mercedes]

Beemą się wożę. / I drive a beemer.

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UWAGI / COMMENTS:

*Nie opelka, nie audicę - should be "Nie opelka, nie audicY", in genitive because it is negated, but to make it rhyme, they have it in accusative.

** siódema - Here, siódema is used instead of siódemka primarily so that it rhymes perfectly with beemka in the next line.

In siódema, the lack of the K perhaps also implies the large size of the car (the 700 models are the biggest).

Pan Szczepan, our linguistic consultant in Warsaw, has this to say about the matter:

Of course siódema is not only because of the rhyme. Words like siódema, dwója, etc., are supposed to give the impression that something is big, important and serious. The car models are arranged in order -- so we know that the biggest number is the best.

***betka, betki - "something that is not very important (from the word bedłka- a type of small mushroom that is not particularly prized, which are sold at markets by volume, measured by little bowls or cups)." (Translation of an entry from an interesting web page on Łódź slang.)

Autor: James Lindsey; Wikimedia Commons.

Although there is some discussion among Poles as to what kind of mushroom betka actually refers to, some say that it is one from this group -- Russula.

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Praca domowa cz. 1 / Homework, part 1:

Listen to the song and study the words and translation. Try to identify what grammar you can.
Then answer these questions:

1) Skąd pochodzą beemki? Where are the beemki from?

2) Find the reified numerals.

3) Jaka jest najlepsza maszyna?

4) Explain the grammar in this sentence: "Beemą się wożę."
(wozić się = to drive [oneself around]

poniedziałek, 9 stycznia 2017

Degustacja

Listen! Many of the same words from our own degustacja!

W poniedziałek odbyła się degustacja czekolad świata.

On Monday, we tasted chocolates from around the world.

(Literally: On Monday, a tasting of chocolates of the world took place.)

Oto słownictwo dotyczące degustacji:

Here is vocabulary related to the degustacja:

(adjectives are feminine because we are referring to chocolate in this list)

czekolada = chocolate

gorzka = dark, bittersweet (literally: bitter)

mleczna = milk

śmietankowa = cream

słodka = sweet

owocowa = fruit (adj.)

orzechy = nuts

z orzechami = with nuts (instrumental)

smak = taste

wyraźny smak = distinctive taste

niewyraźny smak = not distinctive taste

ciekawy smak = interesting taste

gorycz = bitterness

Lubię gorycz. = I like bitterness.

Nie lubię goryczy. = I don't like bitterness.

zapach = smell

pachnąć = to smell (nicely of something)

Ładnie pachnie. = It smells nice.

Nie ma zapachu. = It doesn't have a smell.

Ma ciekawy zapach. = It has an interesting smell.

smakować = to taste (good), or to taste like something

Smakuje mi. = It tastes good.

Nie smakuje mi. = It doesn't taste good.

Ma dobry / wyraźny smak. = It has a good / distinctive taste.

Nie ma zbyt wyraźnego smaku. = It doesn't have a very distinctive taste.

Ma więcej kakao. = It has more cocoa. (kakao is indeclinable, as a foreign word)
Ma mniej kakao. = It has less cocoa.
Ma dużo kakao. = It has a lot of cocoa.