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Polish phonology


The phonological system of the Polish language is similar in many ways to those of other Slavic languages, although there are some characteristic features found in only a few other languages of the family, such as contrasting retroflex and palatal fricatives and affricates, and nasal vowels. The vowel system is relatively simple, with just six oral monophthongs and two nasals, while the consonant system is more complex.

The Polish vowel system consists of six oral monophthongs and two nasal diphthongs. Vowel nasality in Polish is preserved from Proto-Slavic, having been lost in most other modern Slavic languages.

The nasal vowels do not feature uniform nasality over their duration. Phonetically, they consist of an oral vowel followed by a nasal semivowel (so that is pronounced [sɔw̃], which sounds closer to Portuguese são [sɐ̃w̃] than French sont [sɔ̃] – all three words mean "[they] are"). Therefore, they are phonetically diphthongs. (For nasality following other vowel nuclei, see under Consonant allophony below.) /ɛ ɨ ɔ ɛ̃ ɔ̃/ are also less commonly transcribed /e ɪ o ẽ õ/ respectively, for example by PWN-Oxford Polish-English Dictionary.


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