Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!att!cbnewsj!avr
From: avr@cbnewsj.ATT.COM (adam.v.reed)
Newsgroups: news.groups
Subject: Re: Call for discussion: soc.culture.polish
Summary: Not *only* English, I hope!
Message-ID: <3373@cbnewsj.ATT.COM>
Date: 13 Jan 90 17:42:16 GMT
References: <21137@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 44

In article <21137@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu>, MICHAL@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu (Michal Chmielewski) writes:
> 	Call for discussion:  soc.culture.polish
....
> 	The language used in the discussion will be English and the
> group will be unmoderated.

Why not "English and/or Polish"? Much of the appeal of POLAND-L
comes from the material posted in Polish, and I hope that this
material will be gatewayed to the usenet group. If you don't
know whether the Polish language meterial is worth while, 
please read the following (already posted in POLAND-L and
elsewhere on usenet netnews):

A few days ago, Lucjan Feldman alerted me to the existence of
the Poland-L mailing list. Out of vague interest and idle curiosity
I subscribed, not expecting much, since decades of separation from
Polish language and culture left me with but a faint memory of
its wonders. I am posting this note both to express my gratitude
to Lucjan, and to share with all of you my joy in re-discovering
the Polish language. For just as English is the ideal language
of science, and Italian of music, so Polish is the perfect
medium for wit and satire.

Polish is what linguists call a "productive" language, in which
the fluent speaker or writer is able to craft individual words
precisely for their occasion and purpose. Consider the following
paragraph (from a recent article by Aleksander Wieczorkowski in
Gazeta Wyborcza, posted by Lucjan):

 Geniusz Karpat, znawca klasykow, postanowil wykorzystac
 elektryfikacje.  W Drakulandii przywilej oswietlania i
 ogrzewania elektrycznoscia wyroznial straznikow systemu.

Ah! "w Drakulandii"! How would one ever translate such an
expression into English? Americans do, of course, know of
Dracula. But "Drakulandia", combining Dracula with the ending
of "Grenlandia", with its remoteness, insularity and ice?
"In the isolated and frigid domain of the modern Dracula"
does convey the semantics. But the pragmatics, the sheer
fiendish delight and excitement of seeing all that meaning
in one exact and surprising new word, is untranslatable.
Is anyone out there up to writing "The Joy of Polish?"

			Adam_V_Reed@ATT.com