Polish phonology

[2][3] Spelling ię*, ję* ią*, ją* ió, jó The vowels /ɨ/ and /i/ have largely complementary distribution.

Phonetically, they consist of an oral vowel followed by a nasal semivowel [w̃] or [j̃] (są is pronounced [sɔw̃], which sounds closer to Portuguese são [sɐ̃w̃] than French sont [sɔ̃] – all three words mean '(they) are').

In more recent descriptions the orthographic nasal vowels ą, ę are analyzed as two phonemes in all contexts e.g. Sawicka (1995), Wiśniewski (2007).

Before a fricative and in word-final position (in the case of ą) they are transcribed as an oral vowel /ɔ, ɛ/ followed by a nasal consonant /ɲ, ŋ/[24] or /j̃, w̃/.

For example, kąt ('angle', 'corner') is /kɔnt/, gęba ('mouth') is /ˈɡɛmba/, pięć ('five') is /pjɛɲt͡ɕ/ and bąk ('bumble bee') is /bɔŋk/,[26] as if they were spelled *kont, *gemba, *pieńć and *bonk.

Additional vowel lengths were introduced in Proto-Polish (as in other West Slavic languages) as a result of compensatory lengthening when a yer in the next syllable disappeared according to Havlík's law.

The vowel shift may thus be presented as follows:[31][32][33] The /u/ that was once a long /oː/ is still distinguished in script as ó, except in some words which were later respelled, such as bruzda, dłuto, pruć (instead of etymological brózda, dłóto, próć).

In most circumstances, consonants were palatalized when followed by an original front vowel, including the soft yer (ь) that was often later lost.

Overall: The historical shifts are the reason for the alternations o:ó and ę:ą commonly encountered in Polish morphology: *rogъ ('horn') became róg due to the loss of the following yer (originally pronounced with a long o, now with /u/), and the instrumental case of the same word went from *rogъmъ to rogiem (with no lengthening of the o).

[42][43] Both realizations of stop-fricative clusters are considered correct and typically respelled as tsz, d-ż and czsz, dżż respectively in normative descriptions of Polish pronunciation.

[46] The distinction is lost in colloquial pronunciation in south-eastern Poland both being realized as simple affricates as in some Lesser Polish dialects.

According to Sawicka (1995:150), Dunaj (2006:170), such a simplification is allowed in the standard language variety only before another consonant or before a juncture, e.g. trzmiel /tʂmjɛl/ or /t͡ʂmjɛl/ ('bumblebee'), patrz /patʂ/ or /pat͡ʂ/ ('look', imper.

Polish, like other Slavic languages, permits complex consonant clusters, which often arose from the disappearance of yers (see § Historical development above).

A popular Polish tongue-twister (from a verse by Jan Brzechwa) is W Szczebrzeszynie chrząszcz brzmi w trzcinieⓘ /fʂt͡ʂɛbʐɛˈʂɨɲɛ xʂɔŋʂt͡ʂ bʐmi ˈftʂt͡ɕiɲɛ/ ('In Szczebrzeszyn a beetle buzzes in the reeds').

[85] Some examples follow (click the words to hear them spoken): In some dialects of Wielkopolska and the eastern borderlands, /v/ remains voiced after voiceless consonants.

This rule does not apply to prepositional clitics w, z, bez, przez, nad, pod, od, przed which are always voiced before sonorants.

[86][87] Multiple palatalizations and some depalatalizations that took place in the history of Proto-Slavic and Polish have created quite a complex system of what are often called "soft" and "hard" consonants.

These terms are useful in describing some inflection patterns and other morphological processes, but exact definitions of "soft" and "hard" may differ somewhat.

The palatalization of labials has resulted (according to the main phonological analysis given in the sections above) in the addition of /j/, as in the example pies just given.

In some phonological descriptions of Polish,[88] however, consonants, including especially the labials m, p, b, f, w, are regarded as occurring in "hard" and "soft" pairs.

For example, the word for "carp" has the inflected forms karpia, karpie etc., with soft /pʲ/ (or /pj/, depending on the analysis), but the nominative singular is karp, with a hard /p/.

In Sawicka (1995:146–47), all three palatalized velars are given phonological status on the grounds of their distribution and minimal contrasts between [c̱e], [ɟ̱e], [ç̱e] and [c̱je], [ɟ̱je], [ç̱je] e.g. giełda /ˈɡʲɛwda/ [ˈɟ̱ewda] ('stock market'), magiel /maɡʲɛl/ [maɟ̱el] ('laundry press ') but giętki /ˈɡʲjɛntkʲi/ [ˈɟ̱jentc̱i] ('flexible'), higiena /xʲiɡʲjɛna/ [ç̱iɟ̱jena] ('hygiene').

In more contemporary Polish, a phonetic glottal stop may appear as the onset of a vowel-initial word (e.g. Ala [ʔala]).

This intervocalic glottal stop may also break up a vowel hiatus, even when one appears morpheme-internally, as in poeta ('poet') [pɔʔɛta] or Ukraina ('Ukraine') [ʔukraʔina].

[92] In some Polish dialects (found in the eastern borderlands and in Upper Silesia) there is an additional voiced velar fricative /ɣ/, represented by the letter ⟨h⟩.

Some eastern dialects also preserve the velarized dental lateral approximant, [ɫ̪], which corresponds to [w] in most varieties of Polish.

Rocławski (1976) notes that students of Polish philology were hostile towards the lateral variant of ⟨ł⟩, saying that it sounded "unnatural" and "awful".

[95] On the other hand, some Poles view the lateral variant with nostalgia, associating it with the elegant culture of interwar Poland.