Live data from Hacker News

Drzymała's wagon

en.wikipedia.org

1–10 of 26 posts

Re: Drzymała's wagon

#3
In case anyone wants to pronounce the name:

"drz" is unpronouncable in English, but probably closest to /j/ in "journalist", but with a /d/ in front of it (actually /dʐ/.) "y" is a slightly darker Schwa /ə/ (actually /ɨ/) and "ł" is the same as English /w/.

I'd render it in English as something like: djeh-MAW-uh.

Also worth reading is the Wikipedia article on spite houses in General: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spite_house Lots of cool examples of malicious compliance and plain disobedience.

Re: Drzymała's wagon

#4

In case anyone wants to pronounce the name: "drz" is unpronouncable in English, but probably closest to /j/ in "journalist", but with a /d/ in front of it (actually /dʐ/.) "y" is a slightly darker Schwa /ə/ (actually /ɨ/) and "ł" is the same as English /w/. I'd render it in English as something like: djeh-MAW-uh. Also worth reading is the Wikipedia article on spite houses in General: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spi…

“George” is probably a better example for English speakers than “journalist”, I think. The ‘g’ in George is typically a ‘drz’ sound.

Re: Drzymała's wagon

#5

In case anyone wants to pronounce the name: "drz" is unpronouncable in English, but probably closest to /j/ in "journalist", but with a /d/ in front of it (actually /dʐ/.) "y" is a slightly darker Schwa /ə/ (actually /ɨ/) and "ł" is the same as English /w/. I'd render it in English as something like: djeh-MAW-uh. Also worth reading is the Wikipedia article on spite houses in General: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spi…

Apperantly Google Translate got new voice for Polish pronounciation; here [1] are few examples of how "rz" and "ż" sounds like (the pronunciation is same but origin of each is different)

[1]: https://translate.google.com/#pl/en/Drzymała%3B%20potrzask%3...

Re: Drzymała's wagon

#6

In case anyone wants to pronounce the name: "drz" is unpronouncable in English, but probably closest to /j/ in "journalist", but with a /d/ in front of it (actually /dʐ/.) "y" is a slightly darker Schwa /ə/ (actually /ɨ/) and "ł" is the same as English /w/. I'd render it in English as something like: djeh-MAW-uh. Also worth reading is the Wikipedia article on spite houses in General: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spi…

“George” is probably a better example for English speakers than “journalist”, I think. The ‘g’ in George is typically a ‘drz’ sound.

George actually begins with more of a 'dż'.

Re: Drzymała's wagon

#7
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“George” is probably a better example for English speakers than “journalist”, I think. The ‘g’ in George is typically a ‘drz’ sound.

George actually begins with more of a 'dż'.

I’m still learning Polish, but aren’t ‘rz’ and ‘ż’ pronounced exactly the same?

Re: Drzymała's wagon

#8

In case anyone wants to pronounce the name: "drz" is unpronouncable in English, but probably closest to /j/ in "journalist", but with a /d/ in front of it (actually /dʐ/.) "y" is a slightly darker Schwa /ə/ (actually /ɨ/) and "ł" is the same as English /w/. I'd render it in English as something like: djeh-MAW-uh. Also worth reading is the Wikipedia article on spite houses in General: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spi…

“George” is probably a better example for English speakers than “journalist”, I think. The ‘g’ in George is typically a ‘drz’ sound.

Both of these should be /d͡ʒ/, which is an affricate. In some Polish dialects, "drz" is pronounced basically like that. But it seems to me (I'm not a native speaker, merely an observing linguist) that standard Polish does not in fact form an affricate here, but two separate consonants. Compare "dżem" (with an affricate) and "drzem" (with two separate consonants.)

That's what's so hard to pronounce for English native speakers, who have trouble with word initial consonant clusters (compare the English pronunciation of "Dvorak" as "Duhvorak.")

An added difficulty is that the fricative part here isn't alveolar as in either George or journalist, but retroflex (not /j/ but /ʐ/.)

My favorite Polish word in this regard is drzwi (door.) A word initial triple consonant cluster with an alveolar, retroflex and labio-dental sound, all voiced. Fun times.

Re: Drzymała's wagon

#10
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

George actually begins with more of a 'dż'.

I’m still learning Polish, but aren’t ‘rz’ and ‘ż’ pronounced exactly the same?

No, at least not in Standard Polish.

There are three voiced sibilant affricates in Polish: d͡z, (alveolar) d͡ʐ, (retroflex) and d͡ʑ (palatal.)

The sound of rz and ż is indeed always a voiced (laminar) retroflex sibilant, but and here's the important distinction, following a consonant, ż forms an affricate (the middle one above) but rz does not; instead they remain as 2 separate phonemes (again, dialectal variations may apply.)

The other affricates are dz (alveolar) and dzi and dź respectively (palatal.)

I recommend the Polish phonology Wikipedia page, it seems to me to be relatively well sourced, though maybe a bit difficult to read for beginners: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_phonology#Consonants

EDIT: I think I wasn't clear: there is no difference between ż and rz, except when they follow a consonant. Then Xż is pronounced "in tandem" as an affricate, and Xrz is pronounced as two separate phonemes.

Post reply on HN