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[Surname] Polish Surnames........
How do you pronounce...
Mikolajczak
Adamczak
Adamczyk
Czekaj
Czajka
Fujarczuk
Madajczyk
Majczyk
Niedojadlo

This message was edited 4/10/2007, 10:15 PM

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Polish "a" is always pronunced like "ah" - doctor says open your mouth and say ahhhhh.
Polish "e" is always pronounced like "eh" - the sound of e in let.
Polish "i" is always pronounded like "ee" - the sound of e in be.
Polish "o" is usually pronounced like "oh" - the sound of o in go, but there are some regional pronounciations that sound like "aw" - the sound of ou in ought.
Polish "u" is always pronounced like "oo" - the sound of oo in hoop, but never like the sound yu in unit.
Letter "y" is always pronounced like soft i - the sound of i in it.
Polish "cz" is the equivalent of ch in English.
Polish "sz" is the equivalent of sh in English.
Polish "j" is the equivalent of y in English - the sound of y in yet, not the y sound in my.
Polish "l" sounds the same as English l, but there is a Polish l with a cross bar on it (³), and it has the sound of English w. In the 2 names above, even though it is not spelled with the crossed l, it is that letter, and pronounced as w. If the letter comes out properly here, it looks like: ³, and capital: £
The stress in Polish is always on the second from the last syllable.
mee-koh-WHY-chock
ah-DAHM-chock
ah-DAHM-chick
CHEH-keye
CHEYE-kah
foo-YARR-chook
mah-DIE-chick
MY-chick
nyeh-doe-YAHD-wo
Most European languages only have one sound for each letter, unlike English which may have 4 or more!
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by the way, those 2 Polish crossed Ls did not show the proper Polish character which I typed. This site does not support them. Sorry.
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All Polish surnames, in fact all Polish words, are stressed on the next-to-last syllable, If they have more than one syllable.mee-cow-Eye-chick
a-DAM-chack
a-DAM-chick
CHECK-eye
chEYE-ka
foo-YAR-choock
mad-EYE-chick
MY-chick
nyeh-do-LAD-woAll approximate. Letter O is open, as in got, not as in go.
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Sorry, mistake in spelling of last name - should be nyeh-do-YAD-wo
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Gregorek
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