THANK YOU, what a great explanation and one I really appreciate. Barbara ----- Original Message ----- From: Gerald Cierpilowski<mailto:[email protected]> To: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, January 04, 2009 7:38 AM Subject: Re: [PBS] name --Mieczyslaw, a bit more On Jan 4, 2009, at 12:55 AM, the cohens wrote: > Nope, it's a dumb question from someone who really doesn't know and > whose available email software does not display the diacritical marks. > I asked because I did not know there really is a Michael in Polish > that looks like Micha__, a much closer fit. Remember, folks, there are no dumb questions on this list or in life. As for answers? Sometimes that's another story. Since your machine does not show the diacriticals you won't have seen that the Polish form of Michael has a form of the letter "l" at the end. It would be the accented letter with a stroke through or above it and pretty much gives the pronunciation: "MEEhow". It's worth noting that Polish is a highly "inflected" language; and the spellings, especially the endings, of the words are often changed depending on their use in a sentence (the change of "case", as we learned long ago in our grammar lessons). So Michal could be seen as Michala or Michalem, Michalowi, etc. Same name, different case. Further, for those who might not be familiar with the Polish alphabet it's worth noting that the language uses the same Roman alphabet as other languages but there are several "accented" letters which change the sounds as well as the spellings. There are two forms each of a, c, e, l, n, o, s; and three forms of z. Polish spelling does not use the letter v, but it's in there to be used as non-polish words are incorporated. And lastly: If you are looking up something that uses the Polish spellings, such as telephone book, or in a Polish-English dictionary, the letters are alphabetized separately-- treated as separate letters. For instance, if a you are looking for a name that might start with either a plain S or an accented one, all the listings with the "plain" S will come first, then a new list of the words using the accented S. This is also true with letters "inside" the words, the same as any other letter in any alphabetization system. Hope this is helpful. I share from my very limited knowledge of linguistics. Jerry Lock Haven, PA (Originally from Detroit, MI) ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message