# pronunciation of ę



## bendeakins

hello there,I am a new poster here, as I could not find anything on the topic I need help with in these forums. I am currently trying to teach myself Polish in my free time, and am stuck on the pronunciation of ę, as I am currently trying to learn the alphabet and phonics before tackling grammar and vocabulary.I was wondering if anyone had any insight on how exactly the letter is pronounced, (I only know it is not as a regular 'e') and could explain it to me please, Many thanks in advance


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## kknd

bendeakins said:


> hello there,I am a new poster here, as I could not find anything on the topic I need help with in these forums. I am currently trying to teach myself Polish in my free time, and am stuck on the pronunciation of ę, as I am currently trying to learn the alphabet and phonics before tackling grammar and vocabulary.I was wondering if anyone had any insight on how exactly the letter is pronounced, (I only know it is not as a regular 'e') and could explain it to me please, Many thanks in advance


greets! welcome on the forum! for a starter i'd recommend you to read few articles on wiki for example: about _ę_ (so we have generally three variants of articulation: 'ew', 'en' and pure 'e'; depends on the position, also relative to other sounds) and audio examples in this article; if you want you might read more about polish phonology in general (both on wiki), but you can probably find more detailed description—i'd recommend swan's grammar (you can find it in materials of this forum). don't hesitate to ask more questions after reading those!  check also page of grzegorz jagodziński (which i think i can recommend as a whole) to see extensive explanation of polish sounds (among others).


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## Ben Jamin

kknd said:


> greets! welcome on the forum! for a starter i'd recommend you to read few articles on wiki for example: about _ę_ (so we have generally three variants of articulation: 'ew', 'en' and pure 'e'; depends on the position, also relative to other sounds) and audio examples in this article; if you want you might read more about polish phonology in general (both on wiki), but you can probably find more detailed description—i'd recommend swan's grammar (you can find it in materials of this forum). don't hesitate to ask more questions after reading those!  check also page of grzegorz jagodziński (which i think i can recommend as a whole) to see extensive explanation of polish sounds (among others).



Why didn’t you list pronunciation as genuine ‘ę’ among the others?


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## dreamlike

Probably because it simply escaped his notice, Ben Jamin. No need to be harsh. If you consider kknd's input incomplete, you can provide the learner with additional information yourself.


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## Ben Jamin

dreamlike said:


> Probably because it simply escaped his notice, Ben Jamin. No need to be harsh. If you consider kknd's input incomplete, you can provide the learner with additional information yourself.



There was nothing harsh in my question. I was just curious of the reason. I have met opinions that the “genuine” ’ę’ does not exist in Polish any longer, so I was interested in the reason of the omission.


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## dreamlike

That's fine, Ben Jamin, I probably just overreacted. You're question struck me as a bit harsh, as if you resented the omission of "genuine "ę".


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## bendeakins

many many thanks for the links and help, I certainly have enough information now, thanks


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## majlo

Dreamlike, it's not being harsh, it's being grumpy.


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## Ben Jamin

majlo said:


> Dreamlike, it's not being harsh, it's being grumpy.



If this was grumpy then your comments at the forum are grumpy in 90% of instances.


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## kknd

Ben Jamin said:


> Why didn’t you list pronunciation as genuine ‘ę’ among the others?


i'm not sure what you have on mind writing «genuine 'ę'» but in my list it was approximated by 'ew'—you say i should have write 4 readings of this sound? (give us all examples of it if i can ask you for sake of completeness of this explanation!) i must confess that i don't have feeling for such approximations of polish sounds…


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## Ben Jamin

Cytat z Twojego postu: “(so we have generally three variants of articulation: 'ew', 'en' and pure 'e'”
Na Twojej liście nie ma żadnego dźwięku nosowego. Jak Ty wymawiasz na przykład słowo kęs? Kełs, kens czy kes?


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