Hi Joe, In this case we distinguish 'nazwisko niewiadomy/niewiadoma' according to gender. The ending -ego is masculine and the ending -ej is the feminine counterpart. The entry does have correct grammar and refers to an unknown 'female' surname. Cheers, Roman On 9/22/2012 12:15 AM, Joe Armata wrote: > > > A grammatical question for Polish speakers: it says "wdowiec po zmarlej > zonie Jozefie z nazwiska niewiadomej" - shouldn't that be niewiadomego, > to modify nazwiska (of unknown maiden name)? The way it's written, it > has to modify Jozefie, and would read something like "a widower after > his wife Jozefa, unknown of maiden name", which doesn't make much sense. > I rarely see grammatical errors like that in these records, all those > endings that are so complicated for us are second nature and effortless > to native speakers. > > Joe > >

Thanks Roman! So in this case, the adjective agrees with the biological gender of the person, rather than the grammatical gender of the noun nazwisko. Kind of like "ten dentysta" (this dentist), where ten is masculine because the dentist is male, even though the noun dentysta is grammatically feminine. Interesting to learn! Joe > Hi Joe, > > In this case we distinguish 'nazwisko niewiadomy/niewiadoma' according > to gender. The ending -ego is masculine and the ending -ej is the > feminine counterpart. The entry does have correct grammar and refers to > an unknown 'female' surname. > > Cheers, > > Roman > > On 9/22/2012 12:15 AM, Joe Armata wrote: >>> >> A grammatical question for Polish speakers: it says "wdowiec po zmarlej >> zonie Jozefie z nazwiska niewiadomej" - shouldn't that be niewiadomego, >> to modify nazwiska (of unknown maiden name)? The way it's written, it >> has to modify Jozefie, and would read something like "a widower after >> his wife Jozefa, unknown of maiden name", which doesn't make much sense. >> I rarely see grammatical errors like that in these records, all those >> endings that are so complicated for us are second nature and effortless >> to native speakers. >> >> Joe >> >> > ********************************* > Need to contact the list manager? Write to Marie at Poland-Roots-admin@rootsweb.com > ---------------------------------- > Discussion of Polish food, culture, and customs are welcome on the list as long as the discussion stays pertinent to the topic of this list: researching our Polish roots. > ---------------------------------- > Browse the list's archives here: > http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index?list=poland-roots > Search the list's archives here: > http://archiver.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/search?aop=1 > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to POLAND-ROOTS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message >

Thank you very much for your help, Joe and Roman, it is appreciated. KD -----Original Message----- From: poland-roots-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:poland-roots-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Roman Sent: Saturday, September 22, 2012 2:09 AM To: poland-roots@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [POLAND] Translation Hi Joe, In this case we distinguish 'nazwisko niewiadomy/niewiadoma' according to gender. The ending -ego is masculine and the ending -ej is the feminine counterpart. The entry does have correct grammar and refers to an unknown 'female' surname. Cheers, Roman On 9/22/2012 12:15 AM, Joe Armata wrote: > > > A grammatical question for Polish speakers: it says "wdowiec po > zmarlej zonie Jozefie z nazwiska niewiadomej" - shouldn't that be > niewiadomego, to modify nazwiska (of unknown maiden name)? The way > it's written, it has to modify Jozefie, and would read something like > "a widower after his wife Jozefa, unknown of maiden name", which doesn't make much sense. > I rarely see grammatical errors like that in these records, all those > endings that are so complicated for us are second nature and > effortless to native speakers. > > Joe > > ********************************* Need to contact the list manager? Write to Marie at Poland-Roots-admin@rootsweb.com ---------------------------------- Discussion of Polish food, culture, and customs are welcome on the list as long as the discussion stays pertinent to the topic of this list: researching our Polish roots. ---------------------------------- Browse the list's archives here: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index?list=poland-roots Search the list's archives here: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/search?aop=1 ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to POLAND-ROOTS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message