Time Travel Question 26: Ancient History XIV and Earlier

These Questions are the result of suggestions from the previous iteration.

This category may include suggestions made too late to fall into the correct grouping.

Please add new suggestions below if you have them for future consideration. All cultures and time periods welcome.

Languages of the world

Polish (polski)

Basic facts

Number of native speakers: 45 million

Official language: Poland

Recognized minority language: Czech Republic, Hungary, Lithuania, Slovakia, Ukraine

Language of diaspora: Australia, Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand, United Kingdom, United States

Script: Latin, 32 letters

Grammatical cases: 7

Linguistic typology: fusional, SVO

Language family: Indo-European, Balto-Slavic, Slavic, West Slavic, Lechitic

Number of dialects: 4 main groups

History

10th century - Polish begins to emerge as a distinct language

1270 - oldest known sentence written in Polish

Writing system and pronunciation

These are the letters that make up the alphabet: a ą b c ć d e ę f g h i j k l ł m n ń o ó p q r s ś t u v w x y z ź ż.

There are four diacritics: tail (ą, ę), acute accent (ć, ń, ó, ś, ź), bar (ł) and dot (ż). Stress is normally placed on the penultimate syllable.

Grammar

Nouns have three genders (masculine, feminine, and neuter), two numbers (singular and plural), and seven cases (nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental, locative, vocative). Only some nouns have retained the vocative forms.

Polish has a very rich system of prefixes and suffixes, and the latter often cause changes to both consonants and vowels.

Verbs are conjugated for tense, mood (conditional, imperative, and indicative), aspect, person, and number. Verbs of motion are characterized by a complex system of directional and aspect prefixes and suffixes.

Dialects

There are four main dialect groups: Greater Polish, Lesser Polish, Masovian, and Silesian. Silesian is considered to be a separate language by some people.

Greater Polish includes Krajna, Tuchola, Kociewie, Chełmno-Dobrzyń, Cuyavian, and Chojno. Lesser Polish comprises Łowicz, Sieradz-Łęczyca, Holy Cross Mountains, Grębów, Orawa, Spisz, and Podhale. Masovian is made up by the Białystok, Suwałki, Warmia, Kurpie, Masurian, Malbork-Lubawa, Ostróda, Near Mazovian, and Far Mazovian dialects. Silesian can be further subdivided into Cieszyn, Niemodlin, Gliwice, Jabłonków, Kluczbork, Prudnik, Opole, and Sulkovian.

Differences between the dialects are very small, and speakers have no trouble understanding each other.

ETHNIES OF THE WORLD : Slavic ethnies part 2 !

Russians are a East Slavic people inhabitants of the country of Russia. They speak russian, on of the world most spoken language. They are orthodox. There are around 129 millions of them, and around 7 millions in Ukraine.

Ukrainians are a East Slavic people inhabitants of the country of Ukraine. They speak ukrainian. They are orthodox. There are around 37 to 45 millions of them.

Poles or Polish are a East Slavic people inhabitants of the country of Poland. They speak polish. They are catholics. There are around 60 millions of them, with 10 millions in the United States.

Belarusians are a East Slavic people inhabitants of the country of Belarus. They speak belarusian, but most of them speak russian. They are orthodox. There are around 9.5 to 10 millions of them.

Kashubians, Kashubs or Cassubians are a Lechitic Slavic people inhabitants of the region of Kashubia in Poland. They speak kashubian and polish. They are catholic. There are around 500 000 to 570 000 of them.

Rusyns or Rusnaks are a East Slavic people inhabitants of the region of the Carpathian Ruthenia, in Ukraine, Slovakia et Poland. They speak rusyn, and the language of the country they are in. There are around 623 000 of them.

Those aesthetics are part of a serie. I’m covering the biggest ethnies of the world, starting by Europe.

Celebrates 100 years of Polish Independence Sale

11 bit studios launch a huge sale on Steam for Linux, Mac and Windows. While announcing hundreds of Polish made games with huge discounts. Including select titles from 11 bit studios, CD Projekt Red, Techland, The Astronauts, and more. But first, journey through history and read a little about our past… Poland is a Slavic country originally formed as a collective of Lechitic tribes. Doing so around the Vistula river in the Middle Ages. These tribes worshipped pagan gods like Perun and Swaróg until the year of 966. Where Christianity also baptised the country in a hack’n’slash kind of way, one might say. A little bit of trivia here. Many elements in The Witcher series take heavily inspiration from these Slavic pagan mythologies. While now several centuries and invasions later. With an assortment of armies including even the Mongols. Who also came from quite a distant land. The country establishing itself as a Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. At that time, the state became famous for the introduction of the Winged Hussars into their cavalry. With a design for smashing enemies in one hit. They are now found in some strategy games that utilise historical units.

11 bit studios games on sale (Linux, Mac, Windows)

Anomaly 2 - 85% discount

Anomaly Defenders - 85% discount

Anomaly Korea - 85% discount

Anomaly Warzone Earth Mobile Campaign - 85% discount

Beat Cop - 75% discount

Frostpunk - 27% discount

Spacecom - 85% discount

This War of Mine - 70% discount

This War of Mine - The Little Ones DLC - 60% discount

Following several more centuries and invasions. The country vanished from the world map in 1795. So the people of Poland worked tirelessly on secret plans to reestablish the state. And eventually they did. So in November 1918 Poland regained its independence after 123 years of not existing on the map. Another invasion later, there are still plotting a different kind of secret plan. Invading the world with brilliant and thought-provoking video games. This War of Mine, The Witcher, Dying Light, Superhot, Frostpunk, Dead Island, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, Shadow Warrior 2, Bulletstorm, Gears of War: Judgement, and many others. All of these are the creation of Polish game developers. And we’re just starting! Head on over to Steam and pick up Polish games with a huge discount, the sale ends November 9th. But also includes a huge discount for Linux, Mac and Windows.

🇩🇪 #internationalfolkfestival In Germany, Upper and Lower Sorbian are officially recognized and protected as minority languages. In the home areas of the Sorbs, both languages are recognized as second official language next to German. The city of Bautzen in Upper Lusatia is the centre of Upper Sorbian culture. Bilingual signs can be seen around the city, including the name of the city, "Bautzen/Budyšin". The city of Cottbus (Chóśebuz) is considered the cultural centre of Lower Sorbian; here too bilingual signs are found. Sorbian has also been spoken in the small Sorbian ("Wendish") settlement of Serbin in Lee County, Texas, and it is possible that a few speakers still remain there. Until recently newspapers were published in Sorbian there. The local dialect has been heavily influenced by surrounding speakers of German and English. While the old German-derived labels "Wend" and "Wendish", which once denoted "Slav(ic)" generally, have been retained in American and Australian communities, they are today mostly unusual in place of "Sorb" and "Sorbian" with reference to Sorbian communities in Germany, because many Sorbs consider such words to be offensive. The Sorbian languages (Upper Sorbian: Serbsce; Lower Sorbian: Serbski) are two closely related languages spoken by the Sorbs, a Slavic minority in the Lusatia region of eastern Germany. They are classified under the West Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages and are therefore closely related to the other two West Slavic subgroups: Lechitic and Czech–Slovak. Historically the languages have also been known as Wendish (named after the Wends, earliest Slavic people in modern Poland and Germany) or Lusatian.There are two literary languages: Upper Sorbian (hornjoserbsce), spoken by about 40,000 people in Saxony, and Lower Sorbian (dolnoserbski) spoken by about 10,000 people in Brandenburg. The area where the two languages are spoken is known as Lusatia (Łužica in Upper Sorbian, Łužyca in Lower Sorbian, or Lausitz in German). (hier: Burgas, Bulgaria)