Editing Polish language (section)

==Phonology==
{{Main|Polish phonology}}
[[File:Pl-Deflegmator-article.ogg|thumb|Spoken Polish in a neutral informative tone]]
[[File:WIKITONGUES- Marta speaking Polish.webm|thumb|A Polish speaker, recorded in Poland]]

===Vowels===
Polish has six oral vowels (seven oral vowels in written form), which are all [[monophthong]]s, and two [[nasal vowel]]s. The oral vowels are {{IPAl-pl|i}} (spelled {{Lang|pl|i}}), {{IPAl-pl|y}} (spelled {{Lang|pl|y}} and also transcribed as /ɘ/ or /ɪ/), {{IPAl-pl|e}} (spelled {{Lang|pl|e}}), {{IPAl-pl|a}} (spelled {{Lang|pl|a}}), {{IPAl-pl|o}} (spelled {{Lang|pl|o}}) and {{IPAl-pl|u}} (spelled {{Lang|pl|u}} and {{Lang|pl|[[ó]]}} as separate letters). The nasal vowels are /[[Open-mid front unrounded vowel|ɛ]][[Nasal labial–velar approximant|w̃]]/ (spelled {{Lang|pl|[[ę]]}}) and /[[Open-mid back rounded vowel|ɔ]][[Nasal labial–velar approximant|w̃]]/ (spelled {{Lang|pl|[[ą]]}}). Unlike Czech or Slovak, Polish does not retain phonemic vowel length — the letter {{Lang|pl|ó}}, which formerly represented lengthened /ɔː/ in older forms of the language, is now vestigial and instead corresponds to /u/.

[[File:Polish vowel chart (with allophones).svg|thumb|right|Polish oral vowels depicted on a vowel chart. Main [[allophones]] (in black) are in broad transcription, whereas positional allophones (in red and green) are in narrow transcription. Allophones with red dots appear in palatal contexts. The central vowel {{IPAblink|ɐ}} is an unstressed allophone of {{IPA|/ɛ, ɔ, a/}} in certain contexts]]

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
!
! [[Front vowel|Front]]
! [[Central vowel|Central]]
! [[Back vowel|Back]]
|-
! [[Close vowel|Close]]
| {{IPA link|i}}
| {{IPA link|ɘ|ɨ}}
| {{IPA link|u}}
|-
! [[Mid vowel|Mid]]
| {{IPA link|ɛ}}
|
| {{IPA link|ɔ}}
|-
! [[Open vowel|Open]]
|
| {{IPA link|ä|a}}
|
|}

===Consonants===
The Polish [[consonant]] system shows more complexity: its characteristic features include the series of [[affricate consonant|affricate]] and [[palatal consonant]]s that resulted from four [[Proto-Slavic]] palatalizations and two further [[Palatalization (sound change)|palatalizations]] that took place in Polish. The full set of consonants, together with their most common spellings, can be presented as follows (although other phonological analyses exist):

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
! colspan="2" |
! [[Labial consonant|Labial]]
! [[Dental consonant|Dental]]/<br/>[[Alveolar consonant|alveolar]]
! [[Retroflex consonant|Retroflex]]
! ([[Alveolo-palatal consonant|Alveolo-]])<br/>[[Palatal consonant|palatal]]
! [[Velar consonant|Velar]]
|-
! colspan="2" | [[Nasal consonant|Nasal]]
| {{IPA link|m}}
| {{IPA link|n̪|n}}
|
| {{IPA link|ɲ}}
|([[Voiced velar nasal|ŋ]])
|-
! rowspan="2" | [[Plosive]]
! {{small|[[voicelessness|voiceless]]}}
| {{IPA link|p}}
| {{IPA link|t̪|t}}
|
|
| {{IPA link|k}}
|-
! {{small|[[voice (phonetics)|voiced]]}}
| {{IPA link|b}}
| {{IPA link|d̪|d}}
|
|
| {{IPA link|ɡ}}
|-
! rowspan="2" | [[Affricate consonant|Affricate]]
! {{small|[[voicelessness|voiceless]]}}
|
| {{IPA link|t̪͡s̪|t͡s}}
| {{IPA link|t͡ʂ}}
| {{IPA link|t͡ɕ}}
|
|-
! {{small|[[voice (phonetics)|voiced]]}}
|
| {{IPA link|d̪͡z̪|d͡z}}
| {{IPA link|d͡ʐ}}
| {{IPA link|d͡ʑ}}
|
|-
! rowspan="2" | [[Fricative consonant|Fricative]]
! {{small|[[voicelessness|voiceless]]}}
| {{IPA link|f}}
| {{IPA link|s̪|s}}
| {{IPA link|ʂ}}
| {{IPA link|ɕ}}
| {{IPA link|x}}
|-
! {{small|[[voice (phonetics)|voiced]]}}
| {{IPA link|v}}
| {{IPA link|z̪|z}}
| {{IPA link|ʐ}}
| {{IPA link|ʑ}}
|([[Voiced velar fricative|ɣ]])
|-
! colspan="2" |[[Tap and flap consonants|Flap]]
|
| [[Voiced dental and alveolar taps and flaps|ɾ]]
|
|
|
|-
! colspan="2" | [[Approximant consonant|Approximant]]
| {{IPA link|w}}
| {{IPA link|l}}
|
| {{IPA link|j}}
| {{IPA link|w}}
|}


[[Neutralization (linguistics)|Neutralization]] occurs between [[Voice (phonetics)|voiced]]–[[voicelessness|voiceless]] consonant pairs in certain environments, at the end of words (where devoicing occurs) and in certain consonant clusters (where [[Assimilation (phonology)|assimilation]] occurs). For details, see ''[[Polish phonology#Voicing and devoicing|Voicing and devoicing]]'' in the article on Polish phonology.

Most Polish words are [[paroxytone]]s (that is, the [[Stress (linguistics)|stress]] falls on the second-to-last syllable of a polysyllabic word), although there are exceptions.

===Consonant distribution===
Polish permits complex consonant clusters, which historically often arose from the disappearance of [[yer]]s. Polish can have word-initial and word-medial clusters of up to four consonants, whereas word-final clusters can have up to five consonants.<ref>{{cite web|title=Polish|url=http://www.phonetics.ucla.edu/appendix/languages/polish/polish.html|website=UCLA Phonetics Lab data|publisher=UCLA Phonetics Laboratory, [[University of California, Los Angeles]]|access-date=26 April 2018|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170920090539/http://phonetics.ucla.edu/appendix/languages/polish/polish.html|archive-date=20 September 2017}}</ref> Examples of such clusters can be found in words such as ''bezwzględny'' {{IPA|[bɛzˈvzɡlɛndnɨ]}} ('absolute' or 'heartless', 'ruthless'), ''źdźbło'' {{IPA|[ˈʑd͡ʑbwɔ]}} ('blade of grass'), {{Audio|Pl-wstrząs.ogg|''wstrząs''|help=no}} {{IPA|[ˈfstʂɔw̃s]}} ('shock'), and ''krnąbrność'' {{IPA|[ˈkrnɔmbrnɔɕt͡ɕ]}} ('disobedience'). A popular Polish [[tongue-twister]] (from a verse by [[Jan Brzechwa]]) is {{Audio|Polish Tongue twister - Chrząszcz - 2.ogg|''W Szczebrzeszynie chrząszcz brzmi w trzcinie''|help=no}} {{IPA|[fʂt͡ʂɛbʐɛˈʂɨɲɛ ˈxʂɔw̃ʂt͡ʂ ˈbʐmi fˈtʂt͡ɕiɲɛ]}} ('In [[Szczebrzeszyn]] a beetle buzzes in the reed').

Unlike languages such as Czech, Polish does not have [[syllabic consonant]]s – the nucleus of a [[syllable]] is always a vowel.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Nonsyllabic Analysis of Voice Assimilation in Polish|first=Jerzy|last=Rubach|date=28 November 1996|journal=Linguistic Inquiry|volume=27|issue=1|pages=69–110|jstor = 4178926}}</ref>

The consonant {{IPA|/j/}} is restricted to positions adjacent to a vowel. It also cannot precede the letter {{Lang|pl|y}}.

===Prosody===

The predominant [[stress (linguistics)|stress]] pattern in Polish is penultimate stress – in a word of more than one syllable, the next-to-last syllable is stressed. Alternating preceding syllables carry secondary stress, e.g. in a four-syllable word, where the primary stress is on the third syllable, there will be secondary stress on the first.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Gussmann|2007|p=8}}, deferring to {{Harvcoltxt|Rubach|Booij|1985}} for further discussion.</ref>

Each vowel represents one syllable, although the letter {{Lang|pl|i}} normally does not represent a vowel when it precedes another vowel (it represents {{IPA|/j/}}, palatalization of the preceding consonant, or both depending on analysis). Also the letters {{Lang|pl|u}} and {{Lang|pl|i}} sometimes represent only semivowels when they follow another vowel, as in {{Lang|pl|autor}} {{IPA|/ˈawtɔr/}} ('author'), mostly in loanwords (so not in native {{Lang|pl|nauka}} {{IPA|/naˈu.ka/}} 'science, the act of learning', for example, nor in nativized {{Lang|pl|Mateusz}} {{IPA|/maˈte.uʂ/}}  'Matthew').

[[File:Styl urzedowy - Polish sign.jpg|thumb|right|A formal-tone informative sign in Polish, with a composition of vowels and consonants and a mixture of long, medium and short [[syllables]]]]

Some [[loanword]]s, particularly from the [[classical language]]s, have the stress on the antepenultimate (third-from-last) syllable. For example, {{lang|pl|fizyka}} ({{IPA|/ˈfizɨka/}}) ('physics') is stressed on the first syllable. This may lead to a rare phenomenon of minimal pairs differing only in stress placement, for example {{lang|pl|muzyka}} {{IPA|/ˈmuzɨka/}} 'music' vs. {{lang|pl|muzyka}} {{IPA|/muˈzɨka/}} – genitive singular of {{lang|pl|muzyk}} 'musician'. When additional syllables are added to such words through [[inflection]] or [[suffix]]ation, the stress normally becomes regular. For example, {{lang|pl|uniwersytet}} ({{IPA|/uɲiˈvɛrsɨtɛt/}}, 'university') has irregular stress on the third (or antepenultimate) syllable, but the genitive {{lang|pl|uniwersytetu}} ({{IPA|/uɲivɛrsɨˈtɛtu/}}) and derived adjective {{lang|pl|uniwersytecki}} ({{IPA|/uɲivɛrsɨˈtɛt͡skʲi/}}) have regular stress on the penultimate syllables. Loanwords generally become nativized to have penultimate stress.{{sfnp|Gussmann|2007|p=9}} In psycholinguistic experiments, speakers of Polish have been demonstrated to be sensitive to the distinction between regular penultimate and exceptional antepenultimate stress.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Domahs |first1=Ulrike |last2=Knaus |first2=Johannes |last3=Orzechowska |first3=Paula |last4=Wiese |first4=Richard |date=2012 |title=Stress 'deafness' in a language with fixed word stress: an ERP study on Polish |journal=Frontiers in Psychology |volume=3 |page=439 |doi=10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00439 |pmid=23125839 |pmc=3485581 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

Another class of exceptions is verbs with the conditional endings {{lang|pl|-by, -bym, -byśmy}}, etc. These endings are not counted in determining the position of the stress; for example, {{lang|pl|'''zro'''biłbym}} ('I would do') is stressed on the first syllable, and {{lang|pl|zro'''bi'''libyśmy}} ('we would do') on the second. According to [[linguistic prescription|prescriptive authorities]], the same applies to the first and second person plural past tense endings {{lang|pl|-śmy, -ście}}, although this rule is often ignored in [[colloquialism|colloquial speech]] (so {{lang|pl|zro'''bi'''liśmy}} 'we did' should be prescriptively stressed on the second syllable, although in [[usus|practice]] it is commonly stressed on the third as {{lang|pl|zrobi'''li'''śmy}}).<ref>[http://phonetik.phil-fak.uni-koeln.de/uploads/tx_sibibtex/Oliver_Grice_ICPhS2003-1_01.pdf Phonetics and Phonology of lexical stress in Polish verbs]{{Dead link|date=May 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, Dominika Oliver, Martine Grice, Institute of Phonetics, Saarland University, Germany</ref> These irregular stress patterns are explained by the fact that these endings are detachable [[clitic]]s rather than true verbal inflections: for example, instead of {{lang|pl|'''ko'''go zoba'''czy'''liście?}} ('whom did you see?') it is possible to say {{lang|pl|'''ko'''goście zoba'''czy'''li?}} – here {{lang|pl|kogo}} retains its usual stress (first syllable) in spite of the attachment of the clitic. Reanalysis of the endings as inflections when attached to verbs causes the different colloquial stress patterns. These stress patterns are considered part of a "usable" norm of standard Polish - in contrast to the "model" ("high") norm.<ref>{{Cite web|author=Andrzej Markowski|title=Norma wzorcowa|url=http://www.rjp.pan.pl/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1354&Itemid=50|work=Konferencje i dyskusje naukowe|publisher=[[Rada Języka Polskiego]]|access-date=2019-01-30|archive-date=24 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190424171021/http://www.rjp.pan.pl/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1354&Itemid=50|url-status=live}}</ref>

Some common word combinations are stressed as if they were a single word. This applies in particular to many combinations of preposition plus a personal pronoun, such as {{lang|pl|'''do''' niej}} ('to her'), {{lang|pl|'''na''' nas}} ('on us'), {{lang|pl|prze'''ze''' mnie}} ('because of me'), all stressed on the bolded syllable.