How to pronounce 'Przemek Kaszubski'?


Polish users, of course, do not find the name hard. Nor will anybody else as long as he/she remembers that:

  • HOWEVER,

    in Polish sounds are devoiced when word-final and also when following or preceding a voiceless consonant. In 'Przemek', 'rz' follows voiceless 'p' and is therefore realised more like voiceless 'sh' than 'zh'.

  • Given the above, the English approximation of the name should sound more or less as 'pshemek kashupsky', with the word stresses falling (as is the rule in Polish, by the way) on the last but one syllable.

    Lastly, it should be said that 'Przemek' is a shortened, rather diminutive form of the full three-syllable 'Przemysław' / 'PRZEMYSŁAW' (pronounced more or less as 'pshemyswaf'). The letter 'ł' there is the is an l with a short, diagonal, rising bar (ASCII codes 136 and 157 in the Latin II table).


     

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