Polish Alphabet

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Polish Alphabet

Since the Polish alphabet has many peculiar phonetic combinations which are difficult to one who does not know the language, it was decided to transliterate the names of persons and places in which such combinations occur in this book. The following are the letters and combinations which are met with most frequently:⁠—

Polish Letters

English Sounds

c

ts

cz

ch in “chief”

sz

sh in “ship”

szcz

shch

rz

r followed by the French j

w

v

ż

j in French

In this transliteration ch retains its ordinary English sound. Kh is used as the German ch, or the Gaelic ch in “loch;” so is h, as in Hmelnitski, and a few names in which it is used at the beginning and preceding a consonant, where it has the power of the German ch. J is the French j; the vowels e, i, u, are, respectively, ai in “bait,” ee in “beet,” oo in “pool,” when long; when short, “bet,” “bit,” “put” would represent their values.

The following names will illustrate the method of this transliteration:⁠—

Polish Form of Name

Form in Transliteration

Potocki

Pototski

Chudzynski

Hudzynski

Czarnkowski

Charnkovski

Rzendzian

Jendzian

Bleszynski

Bleshyuski

Szandarowski

Shandarovski

Wlostowski

Vlostovski

Żyromski

Jyromski

In Jendzian and Jechytsa⁠—the only names, as I believe, beginning in Polish with rz in this work⁠—the initial r has been omitted in the transliteration on account of the extreme difficulty, for anyone not a Pole, of pronouncing r followed by the French j.