Hm I understand better Croatian than Polish. I have thought thats because Croats in tourist areas have learnt little Czech, but observing dictionary and wiki articles in these languages, Czech and Slovak seem closer to Slovenian and Croatian than to Polish.
Hovorte po slovensky! - Slovakia's New Language Law Draws Hungarian Ire
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TheLastOne36
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that may be true, but culturally and linguisticaly they aren't far away from us unlike you czechs.For the last time - Slovakia is in all aspects much closer to Czechia than to Poland. Boasting about the infamous policy of polonization of Slavic and Baltic peoples in the fringes of the polish empire isn't really helpful either
I understand Slovenian very easily, almost like Polish except the words have different meanings
Slovakian even more so, except this time, they don't change the meaning of words. Linguistically there isn't much difference between us and Slovaks.I can't understand Croatian or Serbian (from what i heard from my girl).
Czech to a Polish perspective sounds like Polish with a ****ed up accent. Almost like you are speaking Polish but trying to twist accents and sounds.
Winner
Diverse in Unity
Polish is hard to read due to all the Ws, SZs, RZs, CZs, germanisms and their archaic word order. Once you get used to it, you can understand most Polish texts.
As for spoken Polish, it sounds as if they all had a lisp
Winner
Diverse in Unity
I beg to differ.
EDIT:
Translate this to polish:
"Nemyslím si, že slovenština je jazykově bližší polštině." (in Czech)
"Nemyslím si, že slovenčina je jazykovo bližšia pol'štine." (in Slovak)
("I don't think that Slovak is linguistically closer to Polish." in English)
Sorry, but it's not our fault your language is like a tongue twister
We like to keep our pronunciation clear 
TheLastOne36
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Polish is hard to read due to all the Ws, SZs, RZs, CZs, germanisms and their archaic word order. Once you get used to it, you can understand most Polish texts.
As for spoken Polish, it sounds as if they all had a lisp
It`s the same as Czech.
W = V
SZ = SH or Š in czech
CZ = CH or Č in Czech
RZ = ... rzzz in english or Ř in Czech
Our word order isn`t archaic, and your language is much more germanized than ours.
Nie sądzę, że Słowacki jest językowo bliżej do Polski.
Almost the same.
Nie sądzę
Nemy Slim
The only real difference,
Ze and Ze, We have different names for every country so that doesn`t count, je and jest is the same thing, Jazykovo and jezykowo are the same thing, blizej and blizsia are the same thing, and appearentally czech and slovak have a ******** name for polish.
Tongue twister? Your language is the tongue twister! Our pronounciation is much clearer!Sorry, but it's not our fault your language is like a tongue twister
We have to get an english in this discussion, and give him sentences and a pronounciation key and let him decide.
Winner
Diverse in Unity
We introduced "š", "č" etc. to make written texts look better, I think it was in... 15th century
You sticked to the old system and that's why written polish looks so ugly today.Actually, Czech is gramatically closer to the original West Slavic languages. Also, during the national revival we introduced a lot of Slavic words to replace German/French/English terms, which have survived in Polish (example: group - In Czech: skupina, in Polish: grupa).
It's not rocket science to determine which two languages are closer to each other
The point is that spoken and written Slovak looks more like Czech than Polish. But I found an interesting blog article about it, read it if you wish (in Slovak).
Czech TV news in Polish (see how good and enlighted are we?
)Link to video. And this:
Link to video.
Polish is full of soft consonants that sound like a lisp to us
Prepare something, I'll tell you if I approve and we can proceed
TheLastOne36
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I never said that Polish was closer to Slovak than czech was. Maybe you misunderstood me.
To make your writing look less ugly? I think you made it more ugly with having every second letter have a little line on top of it.
May i ask what a lisp is?
To make your writing look less ugly? I think you made it more ugly with having every second letter have a little line on top of it.
May i ask what a lisp is?
Winner
Diverse in Unity
I never said that Polish was closer to Slovak than czech was. Maybe you misunderstood me.
I think you once said it, in another thread. Never mind.
What's ugly about it? At least our words are shorter - you know, our language is efficient
And why the hell do you use "w" everywhere? It's so weird
This.
When a Czech speaks with a lisp, it sounds a bit like Polish
TheLastOne36
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I think you once said it, in another thread. Never mind.
What's ugly about it? At least our words are shorter - you know, our language is efficient
And why the hell do you use "w" everywhere? It's so weird
This.
When a Czech speaks with a lisp, it sounds a bit like Polish
We use W everywhere because we say the sound v alot. Czech says V alot to. W just looks like a wierder letter.
1. a speech defect consisting in pronouncing s and z like or nearly like the th-sounds of thin and this, respectively.
We say Ssss, shhh, zeee, zyeee, zhuuuu so it can`t be that.
2. Phonetics. any unconventional articulation of the sibilants, as the pronunciation of s and z with the tongue between the teeth (lingual protrusion lisp), close to or touching the upper front teeth (dental lisp), or raised so that the breath is emitted laterally (lateral lisp).
Seeeee no... shhhhh no... zeee well kinda but more like between the upper and lower teeth... zyee ... like before zhuuuu... no completely different.
Our language may have longer words, but it doesn`t make things hard. Polish language is actually fairly easy to pronounce once you look at the guide.
We introduced "š", "č" etc. to make written texts look better, I think it was in... 15th century
It looks "better" to you, because you're accustomed to it. For Poles, polish looks better, and all those signs look silly. There's no objective way to judge "beauty" of a script.
Yes, that's one of the reasons your language seems silly to Poles. It's like if someone didn't know a proper word and tried to make a fake-word to fill the gap.
it could be also said "nie myślę, że słowacczyzna jest językowo bliższa polszczyźnie",
although "sądzę" is more correct, because "myśleć" is usually associated with act of thinking per se, while "sądzić" is expressing a thought, having an opinion. Yet, "myśleć" is commonly used for "having an opinion" as well.
It could've worked out in the end of XIX century, nowdays probably not.
And I believe Poles would try too hard, probably. The best way to assimilate some similar language is a soft pressure.
Winner
Diverse in Unity
Hypocrisy - you have them too (from your sentence: "ś" + "ę" + "ą" + "ć" + "ż") and IN ADDITION to them, you use all the CZs, SZs, RZs etc. Written Polish looks like a mess, just compare your translated sentence with the same sentence written in Czech or Polish: Czech/Slovak are shorter, more compact, don't use so many crazy letters and are much easier to read for non-Polish.
What I consider funny is that Poles are generally more nationalistic and obsessed with their own culture, but they happily use tons of foreign words which look silly in a Slavic language. Explains why spoken Polish is so wierd - a lot of soft syllables combined with foreign words which simply don't fit in.
Slovaks were closer to Czechs even at the beginning of the XX century...
Lisp is the closest translation to Czech "šišlat" I could find. In Czech, people with a lisp say "š" instead of "s", "č" instead of "c" etc. - they soften the speech.
This is why Polish seems to me like this, you use a lot more soft syllables
TheLastOne36
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I think your the mistaken one.
In Polish Language, the letters C, S, Z are pronounced the same as in Czech, but when they are before the letter I, they get changed to Ć, Ś, Ź. They however don't change their symbols when before an I. This might be the lisp you were talking about, it isn't actually a lisp, it is on purpose.
The letters Ą, Ę, Ń, Ó are basically letters, just our own unique sounds that the Roman Alphabet didn't have, so we put little squigly's on them.
Ł is a full blown letter. Ż is basically a letter. Imo it should be a full blown letter in Polish. It's used more than some other actual letters.
In Polish Language, the letters C, S, Z are pronounced the same as in Czech, but when they are before the letter I, they get changed to Ć, Ś, Ź. They however don't change their symbols when before an I. This might be the lisp you were talking about, it isn't actually a lisp, it is on purpose.
The letters Ą, Ę, Ń, Ó are basically letters, just our own unique sounds that the Roman Alphabet didn't have, so we put little squigly's on them.
Ł is a full blown letter. Ż is basically a letter. Imo it should be a full blown letter in Polish. It's used more than some other actual letters.
It's not fair to accuse everyone who doesn't agree with you of being ignorant to the situation. If the same laws were passed in my country regarding English, I would consider them completely out of line.
when it comes to the last one.
Ó is not a specific sound. It's historical "o" which changed its pronounciation to "u".
Ć exists also separately from i, for example in words like ćma (a moth), ćpać (to use drugs), etc.
But they are for another sounds, such, which don't exist in czech anymore (nasal ę, ą. I don't know if you guys have ć or ź, they are distinct sounds.
Also, ś looks nicer than
You don't use so many "crazy letters" simply because you don't have so many sounds as we do. Czech script is shorter? Perhaps. I don't see it as a great advantage.
I'm not sure if czech is easier to read for non-polish. Perhaps if they use the same diacritic signs. Again, polish is simply more complicated than czech.
it proves that Czechs are in fact more nationalistic than Poles. Poles weren't so insecure that they had to make up silly words to boost our national self-confidence.
they don't fit for you, for me or for foreigners they do. And it actually means polish would be easier to read for a foreigner.
then, probably, you Czechs must suffer from a dialectal change of speach, called mazurzenie, which is pronouncing s instead of sz, c instead of cz etc...
In fact, slovakian / czech seems harsh because of it.
Ó is not a specific sound. It's historical "o" which changed its pronounciation to "u".
Ć exists also separately from i, for example in words like ćma (a moth), ćpać (to use drugs), etc.
But they are for another sounds, such, which don't exist in czech anymore (nasal ę, ą
. I don't know if you guys have ć or ź, they are distinct sounds.Also, ś looks nicer than
You don't use so many "crazy letters" simply because you don't have so many sounds as we do. Czech script is shorter? Perhaps. I don't see it as a great advantage.
I'm not sure if czech is easier to read for non-polish. Perhaps if they use the same diacritic signs. Again, polish is simply more complicated than czech.
it proves that Czechs are in fact more nationalistic than Poles. Poles weren't so insecure that they had to make up silly words to boost our national self-confidence.
they don't fit for you, for me or for foreigners they do. And it actually means polish would be easier to read for a foreigner.
But of course, at least the dialects that became the base for slovak language, but it doesn't change the fact that it's close enough to polish to get polonised easily.
This is why Polish seems to me like this, you use a lot more soft syllables
then, probably, you Czechs must suffer from a dialectal change of speach, called mazurzenie, which is pronouncing s instead of sz, c instead of cz etc...
In fact, slovakian / czech seems harsh because of it.
Winner
Diverse in Unity
Here we go again "you call me names because I don't agree with you!"
No. When someone doesn't know all the facts, he should try to avoid making any premature judgements. I know I sometimes do the same mistake, but I am trying to restrict myself.
How many of you people do have any real knowledge of Slovak politics, domestic situation, minority issues etc.? Be honest. I dare to guess that only few people actually know something about these things, so forgive me that I call you ignorant when you're so quick to denounce Slovakia based on some stupid article on BBC, probably written by someone who has even less knowledge about the subject.
One of the few things me and Gelion can agree on is that Anglo-Saxon media often have absolutely no clue whatsoever of what's happening in post-commie countries. Their reporting is subjected to heavy bias, misconceptions crop out all over, false or very distorted information are given and balance in the story is not maintained. So when some random guy from Western Europe, the US or Canada reads one or two such articles and comes to a thread here on CFC convinced he knows all he needs to start spouting judgements, I tend to get annoyed.
Winner
Diverse in Unity
Yeah, thanks for proving me right
We just wanted to avoid being hypocritical. Czech is a Slavic language, so why the heck should we use strange and weird foreign words? It certainly doesn't help people to understand their language.
So we borrowed alternative words from other languages (Russian, Serbian, even Polish, occasionaly) to create a modern codified form of Czech which would retain it's Slavic character.
Meh, the few ugly words won't make it easier for them, since you completely confuse them with the rest of your vocabulary and the weird looking writing. Come on, it's just marginally better than Greek script
Poles are just like any other bigger nation - expansionistic and culturally ignorant. Is there any minority you didn't try to polonize? Funny that you blame the Czechs for (allegedly) doing the same with Poles in Czech Silesia, but during the course of your history, you'd done this on faaaar larger scale. Hypocrisy again?
Funny, Slovak is considered to be euphonious here in the Czech Rep. Especially when girls speak it
Polish is just weird.TheLastOne36
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yah i'm aware of that...
@Winner, to be honest, Czech is just Polish with a ****ed up accent!
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The kind of disputes are ones which are not acceptable in any way in the European Union, and should not be tolerated at all.
Here we go again "you call me names because I don't agree with you!"
No. When someone doesn't know all the facts, he should try to avoid making any premature judgements. I know I sometimes do the same mistake, but I am trying to restrict myself.
How many of you people do have any real knowledge of Slovak politics, domestic situation, minority issues etc.? Be honest. I dare to guess that only few people actually know something about these things, so forgive me that I call you ignorant when you're so quick to denounce Slovakia based on some stupid article on BBC, probably written by someone who has even less knowledge about the subject.
One of the few things me and Gelion can agree on is that Anglo-Saxon media often have absolutely no clue whatsoever of what's happening in post-commie countries. Their reporting is subjected to heavy bias, misconceptions crop out all over, false or very distorted information are given and balance in the story is not maintained. So when some random guy from Western Europe, the US or Canada reads one or two such articles and comes to a thread here on CFC convinced he knows all he needs to start spouting judgements, I tend to get annoyed.
So why don't you explain which pieces of knowledge of Slovak politics, domestic situation or minority issues make this an acceptable situation? You know, instead of simply telling people they don't understand the situation, and that their sources are biased.
Thus far, nothing posted in this thread has convinced me this is a good idea, or for that matter, how it differs from comparable laws regading English being enacted in my country.
Czech is clearly superior to polish as I am using parts of the czech alphabet for my language. 
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