KathrynT

Showing my ignorance here -- how does one pronounce Krakow?

elizabeth_reed

I was catching some close-captioned TV news last Saturday and burst out laughing when I saw "crack cow" appear in the text.

cmt

Since I have no idea how to pronounce Polish, I cannot tell the correct from the mangled pronunciations of Wojtyla. I would LIKE to know how to pronounce Polish names correctly, though, since Polish names are very common where I live.

elaine

Where do you live? If in North America, sometimes even people with names of European origin adopted North American-ized pronunciations of their names
generations ago. Sometimes it's based on how the immigration officer wrote it down on the papers (my grandfather's name before he left the old country, and his name after he arrived here, were spelled quite differently), sometimes it's just easier to go with local pronunciation rather than correcting people all the time.

Gardyloo

For western pronunciation the "w" in Krakow should be a "v." "W" in German is also pronounced as a "v", while "v" tends to have more of an "f" sound. Haw ju got it?

jahoulih

Correct, except that at the end of a word (like "Krakow&quot, the "w" that is otherwise pronounced like English "v" is devoiced and pronounced like English "f." This phenomenon occurs in German as well and is known as Auslautsverhaertung.

thefareguru

To pronounce Krakow properly, you first have to spell it properly...so we have to introduce another Polish letter - ó - an 'o' with an acute accent over it. It's like an oo as in whoosh. The 'a' is flat and the w is an f. Say it KRAHKOOF. It will sound even better if you can try to trill the r [let your tongue touch the roof of your mouth as you are saying the r.

thefareguru

I got so caught up in the pronounciation that I didn't spell the word - Kraków.

swalter518

Elaine, You are right about the Americanization of many European names, but it wasn't just the immigration people. My grandfather was Bierczychudek and went by Hudek. When I asked him why he shortened it he said he "got sick of all those letters!"

Borealis

Usually the only time that immigration officers "got it wrong" was when surnames were spelled using a different alphabet. I have a friend whose family came from Hong Kong, but since the parents came at different times than the children (and the children came in two groups), all three have different spellings of their surname - and yes - it was the immigration officer who decided what spelling was appropriate.
This wouldn't have been the case for Polish names, the Polish alphabet is the same as the English one, with the addition of accents for a number of letters (eg. - a,e,o,c,l,n,s,and z).

FainaAgain

Did you see that "keeping up appearances" where Rose spelled out her Polish gentelman friend's name and Mrs Bucket tried to say it, then agreed it should be Watsit?

Robespierre

The ONLY time immigration officers got it wrong? Tell me you're kidding.

Any American of Greek lineage can tell you that when anyone whose family name was a patronymic (Papandreou, Papadopoulos) more often than not got it truncated to "Pappas" by the disinterested bureaucrats at Ellis Island.

The irony of this procedure is that they threw away the distinguishing part of the surname and left only the "Father" part.

It's as if all the Swedes and Norwegians were named "Son."

Borealis

Uh - Robespierre - the Greeks use the Greek alphabet - and that was my point exactly.

Robespierre

I'll show you the manifest of the ship that my grandfather came over on. The Greek names (which the INS flunkies worked from) are spelled using the Roman alphabet.

Which was not your point at all.

Borealis

What flag did the ship fly (home port)?? And who wrote up the manifest??

cmt

<<Usually the only time that immigration officers "got it wrong" was when surnames were spelled using a different alphabet.>>

Oh come now! I know of some many instances when the immigration clerks manages to mangle even very simple, fairly short Italian, Irish and German names.

Intrepid1

First it was a geography lecture about the countries which constitute "Eastern Europe" and now this....

Mo_G

Interesting...

So, if I enjoy LAUGHTER, does that mean my little girl is my "DAFTER?" (That's what we call her! And, of course, I always drive in a parkway and park in a driveway, but that's a whole 'nother long story!! Good to know about Krakow,though (bringing it all back around) as I'm headed there soon!