Pronunciation of Polish Names The pronunciations of names provided in this Album are approximate and are meant to serve as a guide for English speaking Marians. They may not be completely accurate, but I hope that they will assist my confreres in pronouncing the often difficult Polish, Lithuanian, and other ethnic names that have so many times tripped us up as English speakers. The “transcriptions” that are listed in the chart below are often followed, but sometimes when there was an ambiguity in how the transcription could be pronounced an alternate spelling was provided. — Br. Jacob Child, MIC The following letters have their usual values in English: b, d, f, k, m, n, p, s, t, z, except when followed by ‘ia, ie, io, iu,’ then pronounced softly as in kielbasa (‘ marks soft pronunciation of the previous consonant). SINGLE LETTERS: Pronunciation: Transcription: a as in half, laugh a ą as in French ‘a nasal’ on, om e as in ten, pen e ę as in French ‘e nasal’ en, em i as in heat, seat, but shorter i o as in November o u, ó as in book) oo y as in Mary, very i c as in Switzerland ts ć soft as in Italian ciao ch’ g as in gas before “e” or “i” gu h as in loch h j as ‘y’ in yeast, year y l soft as in leek, leaf l ł as in wind, water w ń very soft as in needle n’ r is the “rolled” variety r ś very soft hissing as in shirt s’ w always as ‘v’ v ż as in measure, treasure zh ź very soft as in Eugene zh’
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