POLISH TRANSLATIONS
HOW MUCH DO TRANSLATIONS TO POLISH COST?
The cost of translation to Polish is calculated individually for every order. The price varies depending on various parameters of your order, for example, the price of consecutive interpretation and simultaneous interpretation depends on the time length of the service, the place of the event, travel expenses, per diem; regarding consecutive translation, additional expenses are counted for technical support, which depends on the number of participants in the event, etc. Written translation prices vary depending on the content and readability of material, translation deadlines, repetitions in the text, image and graphic complexity and formatting, correction, and other additional services requested by the client.
IS THE PRICE LIST AVAILABLE?
Of course. The price list of written translation, as well as interpretation (consecutive and simultaneous), localisation and adaptation to and from Polish is an integral part in our cooperation agreement with the client. Before placing the translation project order, the translation project managers at Skrivanek Baltic always provide information on the price of the translation. The price offer is prepared within 30 minutes. When calculating the price for written orders, the number of words and repetitions in the original text, graphic element complexity and other parameters are taken into account. For you to receive a price offer, send us your material to our e-mail.
Contact Skrivanek Baltic today for a free quote on Polish translation or any other combination of translation and related business services. Our Polish language services include:
- Polish Document Translation
- Polish Simultaneous Interpretation
- Polish Linguistic Validation
- Polish Consecutive Interpretation
- Polish Transcription
- Polish Typesetting and Graphics
- Polish Voiceovers and Subtitling
- Polish Staffing Solutions
- Polish Multicultural Marketing
- Polish Document Management
- Polish Deposition Services
- Polish Virtual Data Room Services
- Polish E-learning Support
Looking for a language solution in Polish? We will prepare a tailored solution and consult you on your subject of interest.
INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT THE POLISH LANGUAGE
The dialects of the Polish language are divided into two main groups. The first group is the East Lechitic dialect group, which is made up of 4 Polish dialects – Greater Polish, Lesser Polish, Masurian, and Silesian. The second group – the Middle Lechitic (coastal) dialect group, includes Kashubian, which is considered a separate language. In contemporary times, the Silesian dialect is not only alive, but also used, and not only among villagers. The Kashubian dialect has more of a regional language status.
The development of the Polish language according to status and spread:
- the Old Polish language (16th century until the creation of the common Polish language);
- from the 17th century to the middle of 19th century (together with the spread and standardisation of literary Polish);
- the New Polish language (creation of the Polish language culture and spread of language in all social classes);
- contemporary language (after the Second World War and recovery of the state language status).
- Polish as a separate language started forming in the 10th century. Polish has approximately 140,000 words. As with all Slavic languages, Polish is rich with diminutives, which helps in making various expressions.
- Chicago is considered to be the home of the largest Pole minority in the USA.
- The Polish language has a record number of words, for example – szczęście (luck), źdźbło (grass stem), pszczoła (bee) and so on – which is a real challenge for students of the language. If we were to speak of Polish as one of the most complex languages in the world, even the fashion world attests with T-shirts with a phrase ‘I speak POLISH. What’s your superpower?’
- The Polish language has a lot of letter pairs that stand for a single phoneme (Polish: dwuznaki): cz, ch, sz, rz, dz, dż, and dź. That makes words especially hard to pronounce, and that is why Polish is considered one of the hardest languages to learn.
- In truth, Poles pronounce Łódź, a city in Poland, as Vudža and not Lodza, how it is usually pronounced in Latvian.
- Frederick Chopin, one of the most famous Polish and worldwide musicians of all-time, as well as a piano music composer and performer is Poland’s pride. It is said that his heart is buried in the Holy Cross Church in Warsaw. There are some benches built in Warsaw that play fragments from Chopin’s compositions.
- A famous astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus was born in the 16th century, in Toruń.
- If you’re gifting flowers to anyone in Poland, make sure there is an odd number of them and avoid flowers that have cultural significance, especially yellow chrysanthemums, which signify funerals, and red and white flowers, like dianthus and lilies.
- Poland is the biggest amber export country in the world – it is calculated that Poland’s proportional weight in the world market could reach up to 70%.
- The heavier animals of Europe live in Poland. The wisent is the heaviest terrestrial animal in Europe, which weighs more than 600 kg on average. They can be found roaming around in 150,000 hectares of the big Białowieża Forest in Poland – the last primary forest in Europe, which spreads over the whole continent.
- Marie Curie, a woman who discovered polonium (the name given in honour to Marie Curie’s birthplace – Poland) and radium, wasn’t French, but Polish. Before she got married to a Frenchman Pierre Curie, her name was Marie Salomea Skłodowska. She was the first woman to receive the Nobel Prize twice, in two different branches of science.
- In Poland it is still popular to kiss ladies’ hands. Polish men up to this day like to abide by the ‘code of chivalry’.
THE POLISH ALPHABET
The Polish alphabet is based on the Latin alphabet. There are 32 letters in Contemporary Polish: Aa, Ąą, Bb, Cc, Ćć, Dd, Ee, Ęę, Ff, Gg, Hh, Ii, Jj, Kk, Ll, Łł, Mm, Nn, Ńń, Oo, Óó, Pp, Rr, Ss, Śś, Tt, Uu, Ww, Yy, Zz, Źź, Żż and Qq, Vv and Xx in international words. Literary Polish language has eight vowels – a, o, u (orthographically ó), e, i, y, ę (nasal e), ą (nasal o) without length differentiations – and consonants: b, c, cz, ć, d, dz, dź, dż, f, g, h (orthographically ch), j, k, l, ł, m, n, ń, p, r, s, sz, ś, t, w, z, ż (orthographically rz), ź.
HOW COMPLEX IS THE POLISH LANGUAGE?
The Polish language is one of the most difficult languages in the world, placing only fifth after Mandarin, Arabic, Telugu, and Japanese. Even though written Polish uses a derivation of the Latin alphabet, the alphabet has additional letters to mark Polish phonetic writing, grammatical features, consonants, and diphthong chains in words, which is not characteristic in other languages. To acquire a simple spoken level of Polish, you will need 44 weeks or 1,100 learning hours at minimum.
Now, the first real challenge of learning Polish will be pronunciation, especially of those words that have diphthong chains, for example: bezwzględny (ruthless). In Polish, one phoneme is usually marked by a pair of two letters, but pairs of three letters are used too. Various grammatical features like three gender categories, 7 cases and conjugations make learning Polish a little bit more difficult.
WHERE AND HOW MANY PEOPLE SPEAK POLISH?
Polish is the native language of about 50 million speakers worldwide – 38 million people in Poland, 12 million in European countries, and 8 million people elsewhere in the world – the USA, Canada, Australia. Polish is mainly used in Poland, and it is the native language of Poles. Additionally, Polish is the official language of Poland, and it is also the language of the diaspora in Central and East Europe, European countries as well as the USA, Australia, and South Africa. Roughly 20 million people of Polish descent live outside of Poland, making the Polish diaspora one of the biggest diasporas in the world. The biggest Polish minorities are in Belarus, Ukraine, and Lithuania. Comparably, a lot of Poles live and use Polish in Latvia, the United Kingdom, Romania, the Czechia, Russia, Brazil, Argentina, the United States of America, Canada, Germany, France, Australia, Ireland, and Israel too.
INTERPRETERS AND TRANSLATORS OF POLISH
The Skrivanek Baltic team of interpreters and translators of Polish work with standard document translations, as well as more complex technical translations and notarially certified translations. The Skrivanek translation office also ensures editing and stylistic correction of Polish texts and SEO content creation in accordance with Poland’s market and the Polish mentality. Our language specialists will be happy to tell you about cultural differences, business etiquette, history and traditions. For our business clients we usually do website and e-commerce content translations, advertisement slogan adaptation, cooperation agreement, legislative act, court decision and business documentation translations to and from Polish. We also offer consecutive interpretation of business and other types of conversation, conferences, and other events on Zoom and other online platforms. For legal persons we offer identity document, marriage certificate, child birth certificate, education document, passport, medical document, and other type of document translation.
POLISH LANGUAGE IN BUSINESS
Communication, arguably, is the most important aspect in business; yet, when doing business in our own country, we usually consider it to be common sense, because we deal with people from our own culture. To start a business in a foreign country we must bear in mind not only the appropriate language and culture of the country, but also communication and etiquette peculiarities. Poland is strategically placed in the centre of Europe, which makes it an ideal place for businesses that want to export their production to the East as well as the West to invest in. Poland is one of the most economically stable and fastest growing countries in the world. Poland places 15th in the world as a country that is auspicious for starting a business. The economic situation in the country is stable and continues to be so. Currently, the demand and high interest for new businesses is in the restaurant business, the consultation service sphere, especially in business consultation, internet shops, event organisation, IT services, and social help spheres. What are Polish business conversations like? Polish businesspeople usually are formal and taciturn. That is why the first meeting will most likely be reserved. They usually say what they think and talk about cooperation opportunities and the future right away. At the first meeting they will not make jokes; jokes are for more social events. Poles usually speak in a low voice, but they are determined and decisive. They possess high qualifications, are well educated and very competent businesspeople. The Polish language is the official state language, but since Poland borders many other countries, most Poles are multilingual – Russian, German, and English are the most popular foreign languages used by Polish businesses. Many Poles speak good English, but it is worth learning a few phrases and words in Polish to make a good impression of yourself. That will surely guarantee a signed cooperation agreement and the start of business in Poland. It is important to remember that Poles find family very important and are reluctant to talk about work-related things outside of the usual work time. The workday in Poland usually starts at 8 a.m. and ends at 4 p.m. Poland is a very bureaucratic country, where a person’s status still holds significance.
Since most Polish language experts live in the country, Polish is not widely used for business purposes outside of it.
POLES IN LATVIA
The Polish minority in Latvia consists of about 45,584 Poles and (according to Latvia’s data from 2017) makes up 2.3% of Latvia’s population. A number of Poles live in the cities of Daugavpils, Riga, and Jelgava, as well as Daugavpils and Krāslava Municipality. Since the 17th century, ethnic Poles have been living in the current territory of Latvia. In Krišjānis Barons’ ‘Latvju dainās’ (‘Songs of Latvians’) there are 173 folksong variants with the lexeme ‘poļi’ (Poles), and in the Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art of the University of Latvia’s Archive of Latvian Folklore one can find 205 folksong variants with Poles as the subject, and, additionally, most of the songs came from Latgalia (43%) and Courland (26%). Some of Latvian’s folksongs about Poles were created as memories of the Polish-Russian
soldiers or as satirical folk songs. Currently, Latvians and Poles have developed firm contacts in all spheres on all levels. The most active cooperation is in areas of protection, home affairs, regional development, local government, as well as education and culture. Establishment of market and economic contact is one of the priorities, as it has high potential. Latvia is interested in continuing to develop these contacts and strengthening them bilaterally in the Baltic Sea region, the European Union, NATO and international organisation, including the UN, frameworks. Latvia and Poland’s cooperation in education and culture is wide and multifaceted. The Polish diaspora in Latvia has a significant role in strengthening cooperation between both countries. About 46 thousand Poles live in Latvia, which makes 2.3% of the country’s population. The Latvian Union of Poles and the Polish Culture Centre in Daugavpils are actively working and unite community representatives of Poles living in Latvia and fans of Polish culture. Latvia and Poland’s culture and cooperation programme foresees bilateral grants for studies, research and participation in summer schools, cooperation on questions regarding the Pole national minority, as well as experts of the Polish language and literature, and Latvian language, culture, and literature exchange. Various education institutes in Latvia that ensure minority education programmes help learn about Polish language and culture in the universal education sphere:
- Krāslava Polish Elementary School, named after the Count Plāteris family;
- Riga Ita Kozakēviča Polish Secondary School;
- J. Pilsudksi Daugavpils Rural Municipality Polish Gymnasium;
- Rēzekne Rural Municipality Polish Gymnasium.
Poland gives regular financial and technical support to the running of Polish schools, provides them with guest teachers from Poland, as well as arrange professional exchange opportunities to teachers from Latvia. Cooperation between Latvia and Poland in the higher education sphere is active. Several universities in Latvia, like the University of Latvia, Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies, and the Art Academy of Latvia have signed cooperation agreements and student/teacher exchange agreements with universities in Poland. Latvia and Poland’s cooperation is active in the sphere of culture too. Artists regularly participate in both countries’ organised festivals and concerts; Latvia’s music collectives collaborate with Polish conductors. The International Writers and Translators’ Houses have established strong cooperation with Poland – they are regularly visited by Polish writers, poets, and translators. The National Library of Warsaw, the Polish Sejm Library, and the Pomeranian Library in Szczecin are all long-term cooperation partners with the National Library of Latvia. The Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art, the Ethnographic Open-Air Museum of Latvia, the Association of Memorial Museums, and the National History Museum of Latvia realise regular projects with Poland’s representatives. Latvia also gets noticeable support from Poland for culture inheritance upkeep purposes. Poland has offered support for the reconstruction of Pasiene Abbey, which, together with Pasiene St. Dominic’s Roman Catholic Church, is one of the most beautiful and prominent sacred Polish or Eastern European baroque style buildings in Latgalia and the whole of Latvia. The church is on the list of Europe’s Cultural Heritage Objects since 1999. The restoration of Krāslava St. Louis Roman Catholic Church’s mural took several years, and the practical work was done by restoration experts from Poland. The Polish government had funded the restauration of the Krāslava Roman Catholic church and restored the side altar. The Polish government also funded the restoration of the Piedruja Roman Catholic church’s altar paintings. The Embassy of Poland in Latvia was opened on 12 November 1991. Eighteen years ago, the current ambassador of Poland in Latvia, Monika Michaliszyn worked in the Latvian Academy of Culture, while at the same time ran the study programme of Latvia-Poland’s intercultural relations; when she came back to her homeland, she gave lectures about the Latvian language and culture at the University of Warsaw.
OUR MOST POPULAR POLISH LANGUAGE SOLUTIONS:
- general and specialised translations in Polish;
- notary-certified translation;
- localisation;
- neural machine translation;
- DTP – desktop publishing;
- text adaptation and copywriting;
- interpreting in Polish language;
- Polish language courses;
- linguistic audit.
LANGUAGE COMBINATIONS:
Latvian to Polish; Polish to Latvian; Estonian to Polish; Polish to Estonian; Lithuanian to Polish; Polish to Lithuanian; Russian to Polish; Polish to Russian; Czech to Polish; Polish to Czech; Ukrainian to Polish; Polish to Ukrainian; English to Polish; Polish to English; Polish to Spanish; Spanish to Polish; German to Polish; Polish to German; Italian to Polish; Polish to Italian; French to Polish; Polish to French; Danish to Polish; Polish to Danish; Norwegian to Polish; Polish to Norwegian; Swedish to Polish; Polish to Swedish; Finnish to Polish; Polish to Finnish and others.
OUR MOST POPULAR POLISH LANGUAGE SOLUTIONS:
- general and specialised translations in Polish;
- notary-certified translation;
- localisation;
- neural machine translation;
- DTP – desktop publishing;
- text adaptation and copywriting;
- interpreting in Polish language;
- Polish language courses;
- linguistic audit.
LANGUAGE COMBINATIONS:
Latvian to Polish; Polish to Latvian; Estonian to Polish; Polish to Estonian; Lithuanian to Polish; Polish to Lithuanian; Russian to Polish; Polish to Russian; Czech to Polish; Polish to Czech; Ukrainian to Polish; Polish to Ukrainian; English to Polish; Polish to English; Polish to Spanish; Spanish to Polish; German to Polish; Polish to German; Italian to Polish; Polish to Italian; French to Polish; Polish to French; Danish to Polish; Polish to Danish; Norwegian to Polish; Polish to Norwegian; Swedish to Polish; Polish to Swedish; Finnish to Polish; Polish to Finnish and others.