Polish Parasites: Common (But Unnecessary) Words & Phrases
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Polish Parasite-Words, illustration: Olga Illicheva
Polish Parasites: Common (But Unnecessary) Words & Phrases
language & literature
Svetlana Gutkina
Reading time: 14 min
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Every language has its own ‘parasitical words’ – words with no semantic value that are used to fill gaps in conversation. In English, these include ‘like’, ‘so to speak’, ‘basically’, and many others. So, what’s the situation in Polish? Well, anyway, you know… Culture.pl is going to tell you all about Polish ‘parasites’, innit!
‘Parasitical words’ is an official term in Russian and also understood in English. For example, Akhmanova’s Dictionary of Linguistic Terms defines them as ‘words or phrases inserted into speech when the speaker has difficulty selecting words or is unable to express a thought clearly, etc.’, while Rosenthal and Telyonkova’s Dictionary-Handbook of Linguistic Terms notes that the phenomenon may occur ‘due to insufficiently developed spoken culture on the part of the speaker’. Unlike Russian, in Polish the word pasożyt (parasite) can only mean ‘an organism that exists by living off another organism’ or ‘a person living off another person’s labour’, and is never used to describe words. Those words that brighten up our speech have other names. They are often called in Polish 'wata słowna' (fillers). Such words have various functions. They help establish emotional contact with our interlocutors, and these meaningless little words enhance our mimicry and gesticulation. Even though they convey nothing to the listener, such expressions serve to maintain a dialogue and fill in gaps. Whichever term is used, it does not change the essential fact that ‘parasite words’ thrive in numerous languages and can be heard everywhere – in conversations with colleagues, or out of the mouths of politicians…. So, which words and expressions have been most successful in ‘breaking into’ Polish speech?
Wiesz / Wiesz co? / Tak że wiesz…
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Wiesz co... illustration: Olga Illicheva
This is perhaps the most-widespread linguistic parasite that many people unwittingly use to ‘embellish’ their speech. This innocent word (which translates as ‘you know’, ‘know what?’, ‘anyway, you know’) can be deployed at the beginning or end of a sentence. For example, a mother explains to her child: ‘Słoń to takie duże zwierzę, wiesz?’ (An elephant’s a big animal, you know?). A husband tells his wife: ‘Wiesz, dzisiaj wszystkie sklepy były zamknięte, dlatego nic nie kupiłem’ (You know, all the shops were closed today, so I didn’t buy anything). According to the lyrics of a song by the band Pod Budą: ‘Wiesz, wczoraj miałem sen / Całowała mnie dama dziwna dość’ (You know, I had a dream last night / A rather strange lady was kissing me). And Ramses XIII, the hero of Bolesław Prus’s Pharaoh, tells his favourite, the chief of the guards, Tutmosis: ‘Czy wiesz, dzisiaj już jestem pewny tego, że nasi kapłani zawarli z Asyrią jakiś haniebny traktat…’ (Knowest thou, I am today convinced that our priests have concluded an infamous treaty with Assyria…, trans. Jeremiah Curtin)
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Rozumiesz?
You understand, you know, so to speak… – English-speakers aren’t the only ones who trip over their words in such a way. Poles also have their own version of (‘You understand?’, which sounds like Rozumie pan(i)? (You understand, sir/madam) or simply Rozumiesz? (Understand?). Sometimes the question is asked rhetorically, though it might require an answer. For example, in Stanisław Lem’s novel The Invincible :
– ‘[…] A dying man might think of anything. If he had been thinking of his mother, those words would have been quite normal. But his auditory memory bank was absolutely empty. Do you understand?’
– ‘No, I’m afraid I don’t. What do you mean by empty?’ (Trans. from the German by Wendayne Ackerman)
Politicians also love the ubiquitous ‘you understand?’ For instance, a famous Polish political activist and musician once told a female journalist: ‘…ja pieniądze, jakie dostaję w Sejmie, zarabiam w ciągu jednego koncertu, rozumie pani?’ (…I can earn the money I make in Parliament from one concert, you understand, madam?).
Prawda
Here is another simple little word that absolutely everyone likes to drop into their speech. Translated literally as ‘truth / true’, it also corresponds to the phrase ‘so to speak’ and can even be heard out of the mouths of Polish literature teachers and especially representatives of other professions. For example, in Things I Didn't Throw Out, Marcin Wicha recalls his basic military training tutor, who:
…entered the classroom, looked around timidly, produced some papers from a cheap briefcase, and dictated: ‘A double, so to speak, continuous signal means, so to speak, chemical contamination from a northerly – so to speak – southerly direction…’ Trans. MB
The Polish Nobel literary laureate, Olga Tokarczuk, also mentions this famous ‘parasite’. One character in her eco-thriller Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead overuses the word ‘prawda’:
‘In truth, the dearly departed’ – at this point he made a gesture, as if trying to cross himself – ‘was a good friend of mine – we had many shared interests. […] In truth, he was a very dececnt man, of broad horizons. He gave people jobs, and in truth, for that alone we should respect his memory.’
Tak / Nie
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Tak? Nie? Co nie? illustration: Olga Illicheva
Both of these words are often tacked onto the end of sentences, which irritates many people. Tak (yeah/right) is frequently used by call-centre employees advertising various goods. Certain people maintain that it’s a manipulative technique taught by special training. Apparently, it’s easier to convince clients by rounding off every question with the word ‘yeah/right?’ – they simply can’t fail to agree. There are other points of view, however. For example, the linguist Artur Czesak feels that ‘yeah/right?’ is sometimes used if the speaker isn’t really sure of what they’re telling the other person. The little word ‘yeah’ has proven so infuriating to Poles that someone even created a Facebook page titled Wkurza mnie słowo TAK na końcu zdania, tak? (The word YEAH at the end of a sentence bugs me, yeah?).
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Roughly the same is true of the word nie (no/right) and its related expressions no nie? and co nie?, which can be stuck onto the end of almost any sentence: ‘ Do twarzy mi w tej sukience, nie?’ (This dress suits me, right?); ‘ Te słowa są bardzo pomocne w nauce języka, no nie?’ (These words are really handy for language-learning, right?); ‘ Nikt nie jest pewien, co nie?’ (Nobody’s sure, right?) … to name but a few examples!
No
No is a handy word that can be used to mean ‘yeah’, ‘well’, and ‘oh, yes’ For example, one Polish Radio Three listener said that, in response to an irritating yeah? at the end of a sentence, he always answers with a protracted nooooooo that confuses the ‘yeah-ers’. No also combines well with other parasitical words. For instance, you can say, ‘ No wiesz co…’ (Well, y’know what…) or ‘ No tak’ (Well, yeah). But beware, linguists warn that no is purely a figure of speech, so if a friend asks, ‘ Czy idziesz z nami?’ (Are you coming with us?), you can reply ‘no’, but in more formal situations, such questions should only be answered with tak (yes) or dobrze (alright).
Yyy/Eee
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Eee... Yyy... illustration: Olga Illicheva
Sounds can be ‘parasites’ as well as words. Mmm, Err and Umm are the arch-enemies of teachers, simultaneous interpreters, lecturers, and anyone who ever speaks in public. Every language has such interjections, and Polish is no exception: the Internet is rife with complaints about bad speakers and advice on how to jettison unnecessary parts of speech. The linguist Maciej Malinowski says that ‘umming and ahing’ is not just due to stress. Sometimes people simply find it hard to keep quiet, because their mouths run like car engines – when braking at pedestrian crossings, they don’t switch off but just keep idling. So, how do you avoid undesirable ‘errs’ and ‘umms’? Specialists advise recording yourself on a dictaphone, for example, or taking a deep breath during a pause.
Jakby
luksusowo
This is the Polish equivalent ‘kinda’ or ‘like’). Jakby was even voted the Polish ‘word of the year’ in 1997 and 1998, and it remains popular to this day. ‘Powstały jakby nowe utwory’ (Some kinda new works have appeared), ‘Wydaje mi się to jakby nieporozumieniem’ (This seems to be some kinda misunderstanding) – there are many such examples in blogs on the Polish language. Take the now-legendary line from Roman Załuski’s comedy Kogel-Mogel (Hotch-Potch): ‘Marian! Tu jest jakby luksusowo!’ (Marian! It’s kinda luxurious here!).
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Generalnie
This is another word that literally harasses the Poles, and it can be translated as ‘basically’ or ‘generally’. Some people are so fed up with it that they even lose all desire to carry on a conversation with anyone who overuses it. ‘Generalnie jest dobrze‘ (Generally things are good), ‘Generalnie ma pan rację’ (Generally you’re right), and even the caricatural, ‘To jest moja generalnie jakby praca, tak?’ (Generally it’s kinda my job, right?) – such examples abound in the Polish media and online. Andrzej Markowski’s Polish Dictionary advises replacing this noxious word with the expressions ogólnie, całkowicie or zupełnie, which have the same meaning.
Że tak powiem / Powiem tak
Both of these expressions can, let’s say, be translated as ‘let’s say’. Public figures are fond of using them in speeches: ‘Wszystko ma, że tak powiem, dwa medale’ (Everything has, let’s say, double edges), to quote a Polish National Electoral Commission spokeswoman. A political activist clarified her position by saying, ‘Jestem, że tak powiem, członkiem tej partii’ (Let’s say, I’m a member of that party). A member of parliament attempted to prove his point of view, saying ‘ Powiem tak: wiz do USA nie udawało się znieść przez 30 lat…’ (Let’s say, we haven’t managed to get US visas waived for thirty years…). Why warn that you’re about to say something if you’re already saying it, linguists fume.
Powiem szczerze
'Prawda' alone turns out to be insufficient. In order to persuade their interlocutors that they are genuinely telling the truth, some people like to insert the expression ‘Powiem szczerze’ (to be honest) at the start of a sentence. ‘Powiem szczerze’,’ nie mogę się doczekać tego filmu’ (To be honest, I can’t wait till that film comes out), ‘Powiem szczerze, że jestem wzruszona’ (To be honest, I’m touched), and similar phrases that many find confusing. If you emphasise that you’re speaking honestly, does it mean you were lying before? Anyone who’s really speaking honestly shouldn’t need to keep repeating it, so philologists recommend giving up ‘szczerze mówiąc’ (speaking honestly) for good.
Tak naprawdę / W rzeczywistości
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Tak naprawdę... illustration: Olga Illicheva
Here we go again with prawda! These expressions may seem unfamiliar to you, but just think how often ‘ actually’ gets used in English. Well, these are its Polish counterparts. As with ‘to be honest’, this is illogical; if we precede our words with the clarification ‘actually’, it implies that what was said previously wasn’t ‘actual’, but made-up. ‘ Tak naprawdę nie mamy tu u nas dużych firm’ (Actually we don’t have any large companies here), said the mayor of one Polish municipality, as if justifying himself to someone or denying what he had said before. It isn’t a justification, of course, but simply a misused expression, since the meaning stays unchanged if it is omitted.
Drodzy państwo
From a linguistic point of view, there is nothing wrong or unpleasant about greeting a gathering with the words ‘Dear ladies and gentlemen’ or even ‘My dears’. Yet if you repeat ‘my dear’ and ‘dearest’ every other sentence, your ladies and gentlemen will probably just stop listening. This means that even polite forms should not be overused.
W każdym bądź razie
Besides the fact that this expression (which translates as ‘in any case’) is all too common, it is also grammatically incorrect, because it shouldn’t contain the word bądź. The famous Polish linguist Jerzy Bralczyk claims that this linguistic monstrosity emerged as a mixture of two expressions – ‘ bądź co bądź’ (whatever will be, will be) and ‘ w każdym razie’ (in any case) – then went on to become such a fixture in spoken Polish that many consider it perfectly natural.
These are surely not all the parasitical words in Polish. The language is evolving, and fashionable expressions are forever coming and going. Perhaps in a few years’ time nobody will even remember szczerze mówiąc and prawda. Meanwhile, it’s worth recalling this short list of words – after all, sometimes it’s nice to shine not only with your knowledge of high style, right?
Originally written in Russian, translated by Mark Bence, Oct 2021
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Published: Aug 21 2022
Last updated: Aug 25 2022
Author: Svetlana Gutkina
Sveta is a graduate of Slavic and Western European philology at the Moscow Pedagogical State University and of Applied Linguistics at the University of Warsaw. She is an editor for the Russian section of Culture.pl. In her free time, she travels the world.
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