The following treatise on the expressiveness of the Polish language was submitted by my Polish correspondent, Zbigniew Lechniak, in Warsaw. What better word to chose as an example when explaining the "subtlety" of a language!! Everything Zbyszek wrote is in blue. My comments are in red. If you don't see the "special" Polish letters, take a look HERE.
"I would like to express some general remarks on the Polish language. As everyone knows, people speak to provide information but also to express our emotions. There are plenty of ways to do so. In Polish, we have uncountable substitutes, diminutives or augmentative forms of the original words. Let us take such a simple word as kobieta (woman):
kobietka - a small girl pretending to be a woman
baba - a funny word meaning many things. It is often more or less derogatory
and then:
głupia baba - a stupid woman. It is quite impolite to tell it to your
girlfriend!
niegłupia baba - is often said among men with the implied admiration but
also implying: you see she is a woman but in spite of this she is so wise.
babka - is much softer and then
babka - means also the same as babcia.
babeczka - is just caressing and then:
zgrabna babeczka - a good looking woman
niczego sobie babeczka - not-so-easy-to-translate expression softly
implying positive sexual asessment (but 'baba do niczego' is quite opposite
and rough)
babunia - a nice word replacing babcia or just any old woman
babina (or even babulina, babuleńka, kobiecina, kobiecinka) - the same as above, but said with the implied compassion.
babsko is unacceptably rough and impolite , vide stare babsko (old woman)
Surely, we have also plenty of the indirect substitutes of this word, giving
sexual flavour: lalunia, laleczka,
This is live Polish language!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
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