# two locatives, w Coudersporcie, w Pittsburgu



## mateo19

Hello,

I just wanted to confirm three locatives in Polish.  I will put the English spellings in parenthesis.

- Teraz jestem w Coudersporcie (Coudersport).

- Jutro będę w Pittsburgu (Pittsburgh).

- Mieskam w Punxsutawnii (Punsxutawnez).

I know that some languages, like Serbian, respell foreign names so that they are phonetic.  Does that ever happen in Polish?  For example, Coudersport sounds like "Kaudersport", Punxsutawney like "Punksatauni".  Thank you for your input.


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## .Jordi.

Cześć!


mateo19 said:


> - Teraz jestem w Coudersporcie.
> 
> - Jutro będę w Pittsburghu.
> 
> - Mieskam w Punxsutawnii. Mieszkam w Punxsutawney.


Pozdrawiam,

- J.


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## mcibor

Polonization of the town name happens only if the name is well known.
And is not done after proper pronounciation, but after what Poles think.
You can use apostrophes if you don't know how to write sth

So before polonization you would write:
Teraz jestem w Coudersporcie
Jutro będę w Pittsburgh'u
Mieszkam w Punxsutawnez


After polonization it would probably be

Teraz jestem w Kaudersporcie (if not Kałdersporcie)
Jutro będę w Pitsburgu
Mieszkam w Punksutawni

Punksutawni, cause the city would be Punksutawne, not Punksutawnia


PS. About polonization, I haven't seen it yet, but soon Carefour could be spelled Kerfur (We take Care after English  )

I can think of at least one more locative:
Murzasichle would change to Mieszkam w Murzasichlach
Also, but this is first form you provided: Siadło changes to Mieszkam w Siadle


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## slavian1

mcibor said:


> You can use apostrophes if you don't know how to write sth


 
Well, if you don't know how to write something, you can write anything you want! I recommend checking some language resources before giving such advice.
In case of the apostropes there are very clear rules in Polish punctuation and ortography. General rule is to use the apostrophe in a foreign word after a not pronounced vowel. 
For instance _alfabet Morse’a _but w Pittsburghu (without apostrophe).


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## mcibor

Thanks for correcting me.
I knew there was a rule for it but didn't know it.

We are here to learn.


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## .Jordi.

mcibor said:


> I can think of at least one more locative:
> Murzasichle would change to Mieszkam w Murzasichlach


The proper form is: _Mieszkam w Murzasichlu_.


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## Thomas1

> Teraz jestem w Coudersporcie.


I think many a Pole might also say:
_Teraz jestem w Coudersport._




> Mies*z*kam w Punxsutawnii. Mieszkam w Punxsutawney.


I prefer the latter option. Perhaps it's just my impression but _Mieszkam w Punxsutawnii._ makes me think that Punxsutawney is a province, a land or something of this sort but not a (small) town.

Tom


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## Juuuergen

I really don't think these cities have to be declined. When I was in Poland I mentioned that I lived in Detroit, the Poles would say "w Detroit" and "o Detroit." Only the BIG cities must be declined -

e.g. w Nowym Jorku 
e.g. w Paryzu 

Also, there is a lot of Polonia in my area and when referring to an American town in Polish they don't decline.


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## Piotr_WRF

It's not so much a matter of big cities but whether there's a Polish name for it. For _London_, _Paris_, _New York_ there is so you have to decline it just like any other Polish noun. But you're right that the bigger and better known the city the higher the probability that there is a Polish name for it, especially when it was already known in Poland in the past.


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## JakubikF

I guess the rule whether we decline or not is random sometimes. For instance, "Mieszkam w Massachusetts" but "Jadę do Oklahomy" - in my opinion both states are not so well known like for example New York or Texas.


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## mateo19

Dzeń dobry and hello everyone:

Thank you very much for all of your answers.  It was very interesting to learn about the "Polonization" of these locations.  I appreciated your examples and explanations.  Have a great day, all of you! 

      Dziękuję!


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