AboutMaciej St. Zięba Expertise I am native Polish and I used to teach Polish to foreigners. I know (passively of actively) more than 15 other languages - so I can answer many questions concerning Polish grammar, pronounciation, spelling, ethymology and usage - as compared to English, French, German, Russian, Dutch, Esperanto or Norwegian. Also questions concerning other Slavic languages, Sanskrit, Chinese, Tibetan, or general linguistics, especially scripts (writing systems and transcriptions) - are welcome.
Experience Teaching English and French to Poles, Polish to foreigners, teaching Sanskrit, Chinese and Tibetan to philosophy students.
Expert: Maciej St. Ziêba Date: 3/19/2008 Subject: Kacprzak and Maciej
Question Hi,
Firstly I want to thank to you for this nice support. How I can read the surname Kacprzak? And also your name Maciej, I think it is something like "Magic"
Thank you again...
Answer Hi, Anarres
Thanks for the nice words. My first name (which corresponds to Mathias or Matthias in English) is pronounced [MAH-chay] - ("ah" as "a" in father, "ay" as in May, the syllable CAPITALISED is the stressed one), if used in it's full or official form: Maciej. If used in the popular deminutive form Maciek, it is pronounced [MAH-check], which is not far from "Magic", and which in fact was the form quite frequently used by my American friends.
The surname Kacprzak is quite a tough bit for English speaker due to a high quantity of consonants coming together. Even the Poles sometimes pronounce it in a simplified way.
It should be pronounced [KAHTS-pshahk] (see above for the symbols used), but it is frequently pronounced [KAHSS-pshahk], ("ss" as in guess) hence the other version of this name frequently met with: Kasprzak.
I think that if you pronounced it [KASS-pshack] it would be quite acceptable for Poles.
Best regards and happy Easter
Maciej
PS. I am glad that SF and fantasy fans, and especially those of Ursula Le Guin, write to me from time to time as well.
