How many people speak Polish natively?
As of 2024, there were over 39.7 million native speakers of Polish. Polish ranks as the sixth-most-spoken language among the languages of the European Union.
Questions about Polish language
Short answers, pulled from the story.
What is the oldest known sentence written in Polish?
The oldest known sentence in Polish was written around 1280 in the Book of Henryków. The sentence translates in modern English as "Come, let me grind, and you take a rest." The book is exhibited in the Archdiocesal Museum in Wroclaw and has been on UNESCO's Memory of the World list since 2015.
How many Nobel Prize in Literature winners wrote in Polish?
Five writers in the Polish language have won the Nobel Prize in Literature: Henryk Sienkiewicz in 1905, Władysław Reymont in 1924, Czesław Miłosz in 1980, Wisława Szymborska in 1996, and Olga Tokarczuk in 2018.
What percentage of Polish vocabulary comes from loanwords?
Loanwords make up 26.2% of Polish vocabulary. The largest share comes from Latin at 36.3% of all loanwords, followed by German at 19.7% and French at 15.9%. English is currently the fastest-growing source of new borrowings.
What is the Silesian language status in Poland?
Silesian is spoken by over half a million people according to Poland's 2011 census. A law recognizing it as a regional language was passed by the Sejm and Senate in April 2024, but was vetoed by President Andrzej Duda in late May 2024, leaving its official status unresolved.
How did Italian words enter the Polish language?
In 1518, the Polish king Sigismund I the Old married Bona Sforza, niece of the Holy Roman emperor Maximilian, who introduced Italian cuisine to Poland. This brought Italian words including pomidor (tomato), kalafior (cauliflower), and pomarańcza (orange) into Polish.