Editing Polish language (section)

===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.