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 I need the correct Polish pronouncation of the following last name:
"CZERNYSZCZERNIACHOWSKI"
Perhaps you could spell it phonetically for me. Thank you very much.
Mark
Answer Dear Mark
There is no such SINGLE surname in Polish. It is hovewer - if written with a dash Czernysz-Czerniachowski - a compound surname, of the type quite often accepted by women when they get married - the first part (Czernysz) corresponds to her maiden surname, the second one (Czerniachowski)to the surname of her husband. It is also possible that the children of such a couple get such a surname, and this way the compound surnames get propagated. It could also be a surname of the Polish 19th century nobelity, descending from both mother and father. Personally I doubt if this is the case here as there are too few people using that surname now.
Remember however that the name has always to be written with a dash.
CHER-nish cher-nyah-KHOF-ski
(the stresses syllables are written in FULL CAPS)
ch - as in church
er - as in there, with R clearly pronounced (unlike in the British Standard Pronounciation)
ish - as in fish
ny - as French or Italian gn, or Spanish ń (palatalised or softened n)
ah - as a in father
kh - as Scottish or German ch in Loch, Bach
o - as Italian or Spanish short open o, or like in standard English got, Potter
ski - like the word ski
n, f - like ususal
