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.