History of Polish orthography - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Poles adopted the Latin alphabet

Latin alphabet

The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most recognized alphabet used in the world today. It evolved from a western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, which was adopted and modified by the Etruscans who ruled early Rome...

in the 12th century. This alphabet, however, was ill-equipped to deal with Polish phonology

Polish phonology

The phonological system of the Polish language is similar in many ways to those of other Slavic languages, although there are some characteristic features found in only a few other languages of the family, such as contrasting retroflex and palatal fricatives and affricates, and nasal vowels...

, particularly the palatal consonant

Palatal consonant

Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate...

s (now written as ś

S is the nineteenth letter in the ISO basic Latin alphabet.-History: Semitic Šîn represented a voiceless postalveolar fricative . Greek did not have this sound, so the Greek sigma came to represent...

, ź

Z is the twenty-sixth and final letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet.-Name and pronunciation:In most dialects of English, the letter's name is zed , reflecting its derivation from the Greek zeta but in American English, its name is zee , deriving from a late 17th century English dialectal...

, ć

Ĉ or ĉ is a consonant in Esperanto orthography, representing the sound .Esperanto orthography uses a diacritic for all four of its postalveolar consonants, as do the Latin-based Slavic alphabets...

, dź

Dz (digraph)

Dz is a digraph of the Latin alphabet, used in Polish, Kashubian, Macedonian, Slovak, and Hungarian to represent . In Dene Suline and Cantonese Pinyin it represents .-In Polish:dz generally represents...

), the retroflex

Retroflex consonant

A retroflex consonant is a coronal consonant where the tongue has a flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is articulated between the alveolar ridge and the hard palate. They are sometimes referred to as cerebral consonants, especially in Indology...

group (now sz, ż

, and cz) as well as the nasal vowels (now written as ą

A is the first letter and a vowel in the basic modern Latin alphabet. It is similar to the Ancient Greek letter Alpha, from which it derives.- Origins :...

, ę

E is the fifth letter and a vowel in the basic modern Latin alphabet. It is the most commonly used letter in the Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Hungarian, Latin, Norwegian, Spanish, and Swedish languages.-History:...

). Consequently, Polish spelling in the Middle Ages

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

was highly inconsistent as writers struggled to adapt the Latin alphabet to the needs of the Polish language. There was no unified system; different writers came up with different systems before the modern Polish orthography

Polish orthography

Polish orthography is the system of writing the Polish language. The language is written using the Polish alphabet, which derives from the Latin alphabet, but includes some additional letters with diacritics...

was firmly established.

In the earliest documents the letter c could signify c, cz, or k while the letter z was used for ś, z, ź, and ż. Writers soon began to experiment with digraph

Digraph (orthography)

A digraph or digram is a pair of characters used to write one phoneme or a sequence of phonemes that does not correspond to the normal values of the two characters combined...

s (combinations of letters), new letters (φ and ſ), and eventually diacritic

Diacritic

A diacritic is a glyph added to a letter, or basic glyph. The term derives from the Greek διακριτικός . Diacritic is both an adjective and a noun, whereas diacritical is only an adjective. Some diacritical marks, such as the acute and grave are often called accents...

s.

Some examples from the Bull of Gniezno

Bull of Gniezno

The Bull of Gniezno was a papal bull issued on July 7, 1136 by Pope Innocent II. The bull split Archbishop of Magdeburg from the rest of the Polish church. From a historical perspective, the bull is especially important as it contains the earliest written record of the Polish language...

(1136) and the Holy Cross Sermons

Holy Cross Sermons

The Holy Cross Sermons are the oldest extant manuscripts of fine prose in the Polish language dating from the early 14th century. The documents are named after the place where they had originally been housed—the Holy Cross Monastery in Poland's Holy Cross Mountains .-Description and history:The...

(13th-14th centuries):

Modern	Middle Ages	Examples (with modern orthography in brackets)
Nasal vowels (ą A A is the first letter and a vowel in the basic modern Latin alphabet. It is similar to the Ancient Greek letter Alpha, from which it derives.- Origins :... , ę E E is the fifth letter and a vowel in the basic modern Latin alphabet. It is the most commonly used letter in the Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Hungarian, Latin, Norwegian, Spanish, and Swedish languages.-History:... )	am, an, e, em, en, o, um, un, φ	Dambnizia (=Dębnica), Chrustov (=Chrząstów), sφ (=się), sa (=są)
ć C Ĉ or ĉ is a consonant in Esperanto orthography, representing the sound .Esperanto orthography uses a diacritic for all four of its postalveolar consonants, as do the Latin-based Slavic alphabets...	c, ch, cz, t	Chotan (=Chocian), cynich (=czynić), czyalo (=ciało)
cz	c, ch, che	Lunciz (=Łęczyca), Bichek (=Byczek), rech (=rzecz), uciny (=uczyni)
dz Dz (digraph) Dz is a digraph of the Latin alphabet, used in Polish, Kashubian, Macedonian, Slovak, and Hungarian to represent . In Dene Suline and Cantonese Pinyin it represents .-In Polish:dz generally represents...	c, cz, dz, z	Zeraz (=Sieradz), drudzi (=drudzy), doracy (=doradzi), pyenyącz (=pieniądz)
i	i, y	faly (=chwali), ubogy (=ubogi)
j	g, i, j, y	ienze, iaco (=jako), Voibor
k	c, ck, k	Cochan (=Kochan), Curassek (=Kurasek), ktore (=które), taco (=tako), peckle (=piekle)
rz	r, rz	np. Krisan (=Krzyżan), przichodzi (=przychodzi), grzechow (=grzechów)
s	s, ss, z	gloz (=głos), gest, sstokrocz (=stokroć)
ś S S is the nineteenth letter in the ISO basic Latin alphabet.-History: Semitic Šîn represented a voiceless postalveolar fricative . Greek did not have this sound, so the Greek sigma came to represent...	s, sch, ssy, sy	swyata (=świata), swyeczską (=świeczką), prossycz (=prosić), syadl (=siadł)
sz	s, sch, ss, sz	Calis (=Kalisz), Gneuos (=Gniewosz), schuka (=szuka), napelnysz (=napełnisz), masch (=masz)
t	t, th	themu (=temu), thu (=tu)
u	u, v	trvdnem, uznaie (=uznaje), vczil (=uczył), Bogvmil (=Bogumił)
w	u, v	Vsemir, vmoch (=w moc), pouaba
y	i, y	gdi (=gdy), przigani (=przygani), cynili (=czynili)
ź Z Z is the twenty-sixth and final letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet.-Name and pronunciation:In most dialects of English, the letter's name is zed , reflecting its derivation from the Greek zeta but in American English, its name is zee , deriving from a late 17th century English dialectal...	sy, z, zy	zyemya (=ziemia), priiazny (=przyjaźń)
ż Z Z is the twenty-sixth and final letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet.-Name and pronunciation:In most dialects of English, the letter's name is zed , reflecting its derivation from the Greek zeta but in American English, its name is zee , deriving from a late 17th century English dialectal...	s, z	yze (=iże), urazonego (=urażonego)

Literature

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See also

Literature