I took Polish language classes for 3+ years but never got beyond conjugating verbs in 3 of the 7 cases. Most of what I've learned, I've forgotten, because as they say, "if you don't use it you lose it". I've been told I have excellent pronunciation for a non-native speaker but I still get tongue tied when I come up against some of those long Polish surnames with 8 consonants and 2 vowels. And city and village names? Fagitaboudit!
So when I came across Donna's post about a web site where you can have text converted to audio, in Polish, I clicked on over right away. And then I spent the next hour or so learning how to properly pronounce the surnames way back on my family tree and the villages my ancestors were from. I know what you're thinking... how could I not know that? Well, the surnames of ancestors who were only a generation or two back were no problem because I heard my parents say their names. But farther back than that... they never came up in conversation. Surnames aren't the only problem. How would you pronounce Uncle Wawrzyniec? And no, that's not a surname it's a first name! Here's an easier one for you. Do you know how to pronounce Jasia or my dog, Kaj?
Some of the surnames in my family are pronounced pretty much the way you'd guess, like Furman, Adamski, and Lisowski. But others like Łanucha, Mołecki, and even the first name Anna might surprise you. And in all the many times you've read the surname Lipa on this blog, you probably didn't mentaly pronounce that correctly either.
Expressivo has instantly become one of my favorite web sites. I can see myself making good use of it in blog posts to come! If you're Polish-language challenged like I am, you'll really appreciate Expressivo!
Thanks for pointing me to this wonderful site Donna!
