History Of Polish Orthography

Old Polish (Pre 1500)

Poles began writing in Polish in the 12th century using the Latin alphabet. This alphabet, however, was ill-equipped to deal with Polish phonology, particularly the palatal consonants (now written as '' ś'', '' ź'', '' ć'', '' dź''), the retroflex group (now '' sz'', '' ż'', and '' cz'') as well as the nasal vowels (now written as '' ą'', '' ę''). Consequently, Polish spelling in the Middle Ages was highly inconsistent as writers struggled to adapt the Latin alphabet to the needs of the Polish language. There was no unified system; different writers came up with different systems before the modern Polish orthography was firmly established.

In the earliest documents the letter ''c'' could signify ''c'', ''cz'', or ''k'' while the letter ''z'' was used for ''ś'', ''z'', ''ź'', and ''ż''. Writers soon began to experiment with digraphs (combinations of letters), new letters (''ꟁ'' and ''ſ''), and eventually diacritics.

1440 Reform

Jakub Parkoszowic (Jacobus Parcossii) in 1440 was the first to attempt to introduce an orthographic reform titled ''Traktat o ortografii polskiej'' (Treatise on Polish Orthography) that was ultimately failed and wasn't rediscovered until 1830.

In it he suggests the use of doubling vowels to represent vowel length, a feature of Old and Middle Polish. He also suggests the use of ꟁ for nasal vowels and ÿ for the phoneme , as well as a number of digraphs and trigraphs.

Middle Polish (1500–1750)

Several grammarians attempted to introduce orthographic standards in the Middle Polish period, with varying success.

Stanisław Zaborowski’s Orthography of 1514–1515

Around 1514, Stanisław Zaborowski wrote ''Orthographia seu modus recte scribendi et legendi Polonicum idioma quam utilissimus'' (Orthography, that is the most useful way of correct writing and reading in the Polish language). In it, he attempts to fill the gaps left by the writing system used by Latin by including digraphs and diacritics.

He expresses disdain for the usage of ''g'' for the sound , particularly in native words.

His decisions were informed by Parkoszowic's attempted reform as well as Czech.

He proposed the following letters:
a, á, ạ, ą, b, b̈, c, c̈, ċ, d, ď, d̈, ḋ, e, ē, f, g, g̈, h, i, ī, k k̈, l, ł, m, m̈, n, n̈, o, ō, p, p̈, r, ṙ, s, s̈, ṡ, t, u, v, v̈, w, ẅ, x, ẍ, ẋ, y, z, z̈, ż.

The orthography was not used in many works, however it influenced works such as '' Raj duszny'' printed around 1513 and '' Początek święte Ewanielije podług świętego Jana'' around 1518/1519.

Seklucjan’s grammar of 1549

In 1549 Jan Seklucjan (Joannis Seclvcianus) wrote ''Krótka a prosta nauka czytania i pisania języka polskiego'' (A short and simple study of reading and writing in the Polish language), in which he laments the difficulty of reading Polish.

In this book, he introduced 11 vowel letters, ''a'', ''â'', ''ą'', ''e'', ''ę'', ''i'', ''o'', ''u'', ''ü'', ''w'', ''y''. At this time, the phonemes and were still not often distinguished, and in the work itself one can find examples such as "gdi" (modern gdy).

Murzynowski’s reform of 1551

In response to Seklucjan's grammar, Stanisław Murzynowski wrote Ortografija polská. ''To jest nauka pisániá i czytaniá języka polskié(go), ilé Polákowi potrzebá, niewielem słów dostatecznie wypisaná'' (Polish orthography, that is learning to read and write the Polish language, as much as Poles need, written in sufficient but few words) in 1551. In it, Murzynowski introduced 51 graphemes.

Most notably, the long vowels were distinguished with an acute accent, the so-called slanted (pochylone) vowels (''á'', ''é'', ''ó''), palatalized consonants were distinguished using a diacritic ''b̍'', ''p̍'', and ''v̍'', modern ''bi'', ''pi'', and ''wi'', the character ċ was also introduced to represent (modern ''ć''), which caused some controversy, as the letter was already used mostly in the digraph ''ċz'' (modern ''cz''). A special letter ''ɀ'' was suggested for the sound , and along with it the digraph ''dɀ'' for (modern ''dź'' and ''dzi''). The letter ''s̈'' for the sound . The ligature ''ß'' and the digraphs ''ſſ'' and ''ſs'' (modern ''sz'') were suggested for .

Murzynowski also suggested that the letter ''x'' be used to represent the sounds and in loanwords.

Before, the sounds and were often written using only the grapheme ''i'', as in Latin; however, they were at times distinguished, namely in the Polish translation of the New Testament using the letters ''i'' and ''y'' respectively. Murzynowski was the first to suggest the two sounds be systematically distinguished and introduced the letter ''j'', and the usage of ''g'' to represent dropped. He also suggested the use of ''yj'' for the sound , as is the case in modern Polish, as it was previously unwritten.

Onufry Kopczyński

Onufry Kopczyński wrote his grammars on the commission of Towarzystwo do Ksiąg Elementarnych, a department of Towarzystwo do Ksiąg Elementarnych. He spent several chapters in ''Grammatyka dla szkół narodowych na klassę 1'' and ''Grammatyka dla szkół narodowych na klassę 2'' on what correct punctuation should be, which was not usually discussed in previous orthography books.

Modern Polish (1750–present)

Many of the standards introduced in the previous centuries ultimately fell out of use, leading to the reforms of the 19th century.

19th century

In 1816 Alojzy Feliński published ''Przyczyny używanej przeze mnie pisowni'' in ''Pisma własne i przekładania wiérszem Aloizego Felińskiego''. In it, he suggested the following changes:

# Removal of ''á'' in favor of ''a''.
# The usage of ''j'' for instead of ''i'' and ''y'', except in foreign words: kray ⟶ kraj, iayko ⟶ jajko, moie ⟶ moje.
# The usage of ''-ć'', ''-c'', ''-dz'' in infinitives: być, piec, módc (modern móc).

Then in 1830 the Warsaw Society of Friends of Learning published ''Rozprawy i wnioski o ortografii polskiej'', but it did not reach a wider audience.

In 1890, the committee Academy of Learning was established and composed of linguists and other academics. A year later, they published their resolutions, to which Jan Baudouin de Courtenay, Aleksander Brückner, Antoni Kalina, Jan Karłowicz, and protested. The two groups attempted to reach an agreement through discussions in 1906 led by Jan Baudouin de Courtenay. The following changes were suggested:
# ''ja'' instead of ''ia'', ''ya'' in final syllables.
# ''gie'' instead of ''ge.''
# ''-im'', ''-ym'' as well as ''-imi'', ''-ymi'' alongside ''-emi'' in masculine adjectives in instrumental and locative.
# ''-c'' instead of ''-dz'' for some infinitives, for example ''móc.''
# Anterior adverbial participles without internal ''ł'': ''rzekszy'', ''zjadszy.''

The Provisional Council of State requested in 1916 that the following changes be implemented, but the Lwów Scientific Society voiced opposition, and yet more compromise was to be found in more committees organized in 1917. Finally, in 1918, the following changes were accepted and adopted.
# The usage of ''j'' in non-initial syllables was accepted.
# ''-em'', ''-emi'' were to be differentiated from ''-ym'', ''-ymi'' for instrumental and locative according to an adjective's nominative ending.
# ''ke'' and ''ge'' were to be written in loan words, and ''kie'' and ''gie'' were to be written in native and nativized words.
# ''-c'' for some infinitives was kept.
# Anterior adverbial participles were to be written with an internal ''ł'': ''zjadłszy.''

However, despite all this, the proposed orthographic changes were not widely accepted, which led to the final reform, which took place in 1936.

1936 Reform

In 1935, the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences initiated the final major orthographic reform. The following changes were proposed and implemented:

# Strings of consonants + ''ja'' (e.g. ''Marja'') would now be written with ''i'' instead of ''j'', except after ''c'', ''s'', ''z'' (e.g. ''Francja'', ''pasja'', ''diecezja'').
# Removal of the distinction of ''-ym'', ''-ymi'' and ''-em'', ''-emi'' in adjectives, leaving only ''-ym'' and ''-ymi''.
# Foreign ''ke'' would be written ''kie'', but foreign ''ge'' as ''ge.''
# A preference for writing adverbialized prepositional phrases separately (e.g. ''na razie'').

The article also concerns capitalization and punctuation. The changes were met with disapproval. However, through government regulation and implementation in schools, the changes eventually became standard. Since then, only minor changes regarding the spelling of foreign words have been implemented.

2026 Reform

In May 2024, the Polish Language Council announced that there will be changes implemented to the Polish orthography.

Namely:
# Capitalization of demonyms but allowing alternative case spellings of unofficial ethnic names, mostly colloquial synonyms, e.g. ''Warszawianin''; ''kitajec'' or ''Kitajec''.
# Capitalization of the names of companies and brands of industrial products, but also products of these companies and brands.
# Conjunctions and the particles -bym, -byś, -by, -byśmy, -byście spelled with a space, e.g. ''Zastanawiam się, czy by nie pojechać w góry''.
# Exceptionless spaceless spelling of ''nie-'' + participles/gerunds, e.g. ''niegotujący'', ''niegotowanie''.
# Lower case spelling of adjectives ending in ''-owski'' derived from personal names, regardless of meaning, e.g. ''miłoszowski''. Those formed with ''-ów'', ''-owy'', ''-in'', and ''-yn'' may be spelled with either an uppercase letter or lowercase letter, e.g. ''jacków dom'' or ''Jacków dom''.
# Spaceless spelling for the prefix ''pół-'', e.g. ''półzabawa'', ''półnauka'', ''półżartem'', ''półserio'', ''półspał'', ''półczuwał'', except with proper nouns referring to a single person, e.g. ''pół-Polka'', ''pół-Francuzka''.
# Terms that sound similar or identical, usually appearing together now allow for three spelling versions: with a hyphen, e.g. ''tuż-tuż''; ''trzask-prask''; ''bij-zabij'', with a comma, e.g. ''tuż, tuż''; ''trzask, prask''; ''bij, zabij'', or with a space, e.g. ''tuż tuż''; ''trzask prask''; ''bij zabij''.
# Change in the use of capital letters in proper names include:
## Writing all elements with a capital letter in the names of committees.
## Capital letters for all parts of multi-word geographical and place names whose second part is a noun in the nominative case, e.g. ''Morze Marmara''.
## Capital letters in the names of public spaces, including the terms ''aleja, brama, bulwar, osiedle, plac, park, kopiec, kościół, klasztor, pałac, willa, zamek, most, molo, pomnik, cmentarz'', but not ''ulica'', e.g. ''ulica Józefa Piłsudskiego, Aleja Róż, Brama Warszawska, Plac Zbawiciela, Park Kościuszki, Kopiec Wandy, Kościół Mariacki, Pałac Staszica, Zamek Książ, Most Poniatowskiego, Pomnik Ofiar Getta, Cmentarz Rakowicki''.
## Capital letters for all elements except prepositions and conjunctions in multi-word names of service and catering establishments.
## Capital letters of all elements in the names of orders, medals, decorations, awards and honorary titles.
# Change in the writing of prefixes include:
## Prefixed words, of native or foreign origin alike, should be written together, except if the base word is capitalized, in which case a hyphen is added after the prefix.
## Allowing of spellings either with a space or together for the terms ''super-, extra-, eco-, wege- mini-, maxi, midi-, mega-, macro-'', which can also appear as independent words, e.g. ''miniwieża'' or ''mini wieża''.
## Words modified with ''niby-'' and ''quasi-'' should be written together, unless they start with a capital letter.
# Adjectives and adjectival adverbs, regardless of degree, prefixed with ''nie-'' should be written without a space.

See also

* Polish orthography
* Cyrillization of Polish under the Russian Empire
* Old Polish language
* Middle Polish
* History of Polish language
* Polish phonology
* Help:IPA/Polish

Further reading

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Notes

References

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{{DEFAULTSORT:History Of Polish Orthography
Polish orthography
Orthography