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About Maciej St. Ziêba
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.

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Polish Language - name "mylesko"

Expert: Maciej St. Ziêba - 10/13/2009

Question
I am trying to find someone I cannot remember how to spell the last name, it is something like mylesko. can you help me with spellings?

Answer
Dear Mary,

It's difficult to answer your question. Are you sure the surname is Polish? the ending -esco or -escu is quite common in Romanian surnames (like Ionesco, Ceausescu), but quite rare in Polish.

Everything depends on how you pronounce the word you have written. English spelling can hardly be called phonetical (contrary to the Polish one).

If you pronounce the first syllable of the word "my-" with y as in "syllable", then
the closest one is written Mileszko, and pronounced [mih-LESH-ko] -ih standing for short i like in "bit".

See: http://www.moikrewni.pl/mapa/index/m_25_17.html - then you can see the repartition of the surname in Poland (and even in Germany).

If you however pronounce the first syllable with y as in the word "my" or "Mycroft" - then the Polish spelling should be "Majles....." and no such name exists in the present day Poland.

See: http://www.moikrewni.pl/mapa/index/m_3_36.html

Best regards

MAciej

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