Random Polish Thought: I see what you did there

Languages are more or less 'defined' nowadays. Some are evolving and some perhaps will remain the same for some centuries. But if you think about it, how does one language begin to exist?

That is one hell of a question right? Hmm, I start to think that Philology is one interesting study. Now, Let's talk about Polish.

I would say that Polish is one unique language. One of my lecturer said that it is very logical, another said that it's just like math. Yes, compared to other languages I know (Bahasa Indonesia, English, and Sundanese - I could read Arabic, but I don't understand it, so goes off the list), Polish is very grammatical; there are a lot of rules, and to speak it you really need to think. When one wants to say "I had bread with jam in the cafe", this is what happens in their mind more or less:

I am a man, so I need to use jeść with Ja and masculine case, so it's jadłem. Oh wait, I don't do this regularly, so I need to use dokonane case for that verb, zjadłem it is! Bread is chleb, easy peasy. Hmm, but I eat it with the jam. I need to apply narzędnik (instrumental) case for the jam. Jam in Polish is dzem, it's masculine, the narzednik case is dzemem. So bread with jam is chleb z dzemem. Cafe is kawiarnia in Polish. But it's locative case, I need to apply miejscownik. Hmm, it ends with n, that's a relief! There's no need to think if it's masculine, feminine, or neutral! So, in cafe is w kawiarnie! Let's recap, zjadłem chleb z dzemem w kawiarnie. Hmm, I hope this is correct. Let's tell the mouth to say it!

And finally you got that sentence out of your mouth. I don't know how much time I need to be able to speak it without thinking like that and let my mouth do the work :)

And you should know that Poles are really proud of the complexity of the Polish grammar. If they learn Bahasa Indonesia, they will probably raise their eyebrows knowing how simple it is (They probably find it hard to apply though as we don't really use formal language in everyday conversation). And I am really proud of Bahasa Indonesia too. It's so simple and yet we never feel that we're out of words or way to tell something. Well, I am talking about the general aspect of a language. Of course there are some words in other languages that would need a lot of explanation in other languages. Such example is with Sundanese, e.g there are some different single words to describe how you fall down - based on your position, how you fall, from where you fall, or how you sound when you fall (tijengkang, tigebruk, tikusruk, tikosewad, tijalikeuh, tigulitik, tigebrus, etc). Beautiful, no?

As we were talking about grammar, I believe that the ancient Poles don't really 'define' it. It's just how they sound. And then some Vikings wanted to learn it and they forced the ancient Poles to define the rules for them or else they will take the Poles to Uppsala and forced them to convert their faith. Sorry, I watched The Vikings too much! :)

Enough with grammar, let's talk about Polish vocabularies.

I couldn't remember how many times I said "Aaah, I see what you did there!" when I learned some new words. See how some Polish words are derived.

Days in Polish

Monday - Poniedziałek (Po = after)
Tuesday - Wtorek (Wtóry = the second)
Thursday - Środa (Srodek = middle)
Friday - Piątek (Pięc = Five)
Saturday - Sobota
Sunday - Niedziela (Nie dzialać. Nie = No, dzialać = to work)

Sobota is very obvious from the sabbath jewish day and many languages use it too.

Now some random words

Blue and Heaven

Blue is Niebieski and Heaven is Niebie, what?? Let's assume that Poles 'invented' the color first before religion or faith. This is probably how they invented it:

A: "Hey you know what would happen after we die?"

B: "We probably go to that blue sky if we do good in this land (yes they probably only refer to what they live as land). That blue sky looks peaceful!"

C: "Taak, bardzo niebieski"

A: "Niebie!"

B and C: "Haaa niebie"

D: "Hey what's up? What are you guys talking about, niebie?"

Sunrise and Sunset

West is Zachód, East is Wschód, and Sun is słońce. Guess what sunrise and sunset are in Polish? Sunrise is Wschód Słońca and Sunset is Zachód Słońca. I bet they are too lazy to define new words ah?

Tree and Door

Tree is Drzewo and Door is Drzwy. Yeah I guess no one used plastic doors back in the old days here.

Room and Peace

Pokój in Polish could mean 2 things: Room and Peace. Yeah makes sense, we're looking for some peace when we go back to our room.

This is TLDR already. The list could go on and on. What I could say is, Poles really like to play with prefixes, suffixes, literal meaning, or some associations. So far, it's fun to learn it!