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.
Question QUESTION: We have some difficult street names here in Hawaii, but surely, one of the names that even long time residents cannot agree on is right here in Mountain View, Hawaii. It is "Pszyk Road"
Some say "Size-zek" some say "Pizz-ek" What is your opinion? Thank you so much!
ANSWER: Dear Donna
Pszyk is a Polish surname.
The word should be pronounced [PSHICK] - one syllable, no vowel between p and sz, Polish sz corresponds to English sh, Polish y corresponds to English short i.
Could you, as a reply to this answer of mine, tell me:
How come it has become a name of one of the streets in Hawaii?
Best regards
MAciej
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FOLLOW UP
The streets around this particular area of Mountain View (formerly called Ola'a "Oh Lah Ah") are named after families who lived in the area circa 1920's. Other street names are also named with family surnames: Oshiro Road for the Japanese family that had a donkey ranch and later a bus business. This family had several sons and I mention it only because it is amusing: When the sons grew up, one son became known as "Bus Oshiro" and the other unfortunately, "Donkey Oshiro." The street down from that is Canney Road, named after a family, just as Pszyk Road is named after a family. The names of the streets were not actual street names, but just told who lived on that street. Most of the street names here are Hawaiian names with meaning, not surnames. My own street name in the area, for example, is Kulani Road but this street is relatively new when compared to Pszyk, Oshiro, and Canney Roads up about a mile from us. Those areas were residential, where Kulani Road is relatively newly developed, having once been thick with sugarcane, and which continues to sprout patches of sugarcane today. In contrast, Pszyk is a heavily forested area, as are Oshiro, and Canney.
It seems that Pszyk is a relatively rare name, even in Poland, so we, here in Mountain View, Hawaii, a still rural community, are lucky to have had this person settle here long enough to establish a road which was identified as the way to his home. Sadly, there is no Pszyk surname listed in the State of Hawaii today.
Thank you so much for clarifying the correct pronunciation of this name. After you explained it, I recalled a young woman who lives on Canney Street telling me that her mother said the correct pronunciation of Pszyk is indeed "Shick." I had forgotten that, since the overwhelming majority call it "Pizzeck" or even "The one that starts with P and is all consonents!"
ANSWER:
Thanks for all the fascinating information about the custom of naming streets in Hawaii, the facts really unknown to me until now. Although I have to admit that this way of naming places (not really streets, but rather hills, small forests, ponds, etc.) after the owner or inhabitant is not unknown to rural Poland as well, although it is not prevailing. It was rather the whole villages that were named after the owner, especially the girl, the daughter of a nobleman, who has obtained the village (with the land and the peasants who lived there and were supposed to work for her) as her wedding portion or dowry.
As far as the pronounciation concerned, letter "y" in Polish is NEVER considered a consonant. It is a vowel (as it is in fact in English, most of the time). I understand that the pronounciation "shick" was due to the English tendency to drop the "p" before a "s"-like sound (like in "psychology"), and that when people do not understand that "sz" is a letter cluster analogous to English "sh", they don't know what to do about it. In Polish we have more such clusters:
sz => English sh (like in ship)
cz => English ch (like in church)
rz => English zh (like in Brezhnev, or like s in leisure)
dz => English j, dg (like in judge)
Thank you also for the nice words of your comment. The only point is that I am "he" not "she" - see http://www.kul.pl/maciej.st.zieba for a picture of mine. But never mind it. If you learn one day who were these Mr and Mrs Pszyk (Pszyk family) after whom the street is named, when did they come to your town, wherefrom, and how did they dispappear (averybody died without children?, emigrated elsewhere - where to?), please let me know by adding a follow-up to this question and the answer (or else use the KONTAKT link at my website). Even after several months or years I will still obtain your answer.
Hoping to hearing from you again,
Best regards
MAciej
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QUESTION: Dr. St. Zieba, my apologies for the error in gender! Your given name is another first for me, how wonderful. Again, thank you so much.
ANSWER: Dear Donna, Polish "Maciej" corresponds to English "Mathias". And it is pronounced [MAH-chay], "ah" as "a" in "father", "ay" as in "May", the first syllable stressed.
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QUESTION: Aloha Dr. St. Zieba- I do like the pronunciation of your given name. I have emailed my friends who live in the area the information you have provided regarding the pronunciation of Pszyk and I have asked them to provide any information they have regarding the original family. Like myself, most people who now live here are not from the "plantation days" and are new to the area, but who knows, someone might be able to shed some light, and that makes me feel happy for the original family, who might have been forgotten, had it not been for this street sign.
I am once again surprised, you are a young man! I pictured a wizened old European looking person, much like Albert Einstein! How funny, the way our minds work! Thank you for directing me to that website. I will definitely contact you if I learn anything new about the Pszyk family. I will stop in at our local drive-in (outdoor greasy eating place) to ask the group known as "The Old Timers Coffee Club" about the street. One of the original sons of the "Oshiro Family" still goes for coffee every morning, and I taught his grand children in our Mountain View Elementary School. I am now retired, and those grand children are in college.
Answer Dzień dobry, Donna.
You are greeting me in Hawaiian, I thought you might want to know how to greet in Polish - pronounce it: [jeng DOH-brih] (with oh and ih I mark short o and i, as in "God" and "ski" respectively).
I am not really that young - born in 1957. But imagine that I pictured you just the opposite way - I have thought of a university or college student (as most of those who ask me questions are most probably students, sometimes even high school ones). But perhaps that's on my other profile with AllExperts - the one on Eastern philosophies. Now that you write me you are a retired teacher I understand the interest as well as the deep knowledge of the facts. And I have realised that apart from those who ask me for a name of a man/lady they have met and have forgotten to ask how to write it (and now remember only the approximate pronunciation), and from those who ask me how to write "I love you deep" etc. - the other questions concern mostly genealogy and related issues (like your question about Pszyk), which means thay are rather asked by elderly people as they are interested in the past, rarely the young ones.
