Silesian/Lesson 3

Lesson 3 - What is that?

This lesson's goals are to show the third person of verbs' conjugation (in singular and plural) as well as of personal pronouns. Read your first text in Silesian, please.

Note: Read the text and then the vocabulary. There's also the translation, which is available when you click the title of the dialogue, but try not to use it.

TEXT 3.1
To je dům. Důma sům synek a dźouška. Synek mo na mjano Adam a dźouška mo na mjano Ana. Adam a Ana sům důma. Uůńi sům důma. A kaj je tyn dům? Uůn je sam. A tam, co to je? To je šula. Šula tyž je sam? Ńy, šula ńy je sam. Uůna je tam. Ta šula je fest daleko. Co ješče je daleko? Daleko je ješče mjasto, nale uůno ńy je fest daleko. To mjasto je za winklym.

Vocabulary

Word or phrase	IPA pronunciation	Meaning	Notes
to	[tɔ]	This	unidentified, used as a subject or as adjective before the neutral noun
je	[jɛ]	is	3rd sg.; means also (it) "eats"
dům	[dom]	house, home	m
důma	['doma]	in the house, at home	functions as an adverb
sům	[som]	(they) are	3rd pl.
synek	['sɨnɛk]	a boy	m; means also "son"; the diminutive form
a	[a]	and	can be used also at the beginning of a question, not changing the sense
dźouška	['ʥɔwʂka]	a girl	f, diminutive
mo na mjano	['mɔ na 'mʲanɔ]	his/her name is	lit. has as a name, has on name
uůńi	['woɲi]	they	used for a group of men or for a mixed-sex group
kaj	[kaj]	where
tyn	[tɨn]	this	used as an adjective before the masculine nouns
uůn	[won]	he
sam	[sam]	here
co to je?	['ʦɔtɔ je]	what's this?
co	[ʦɔ]	what
šula	['ʂula]	a school	f
tyž	[tɨʂ]	also, too
uůna	['wona]	she
ta	[ta]	this	used as and adjective before the feminine nouns
fest	[fɛst]	very
daleko	da'lɛkɔ]	far away
ješče	['jɛʂtʂ͡ɛ]	more, (what) else
mjasto	['mʲastɔ]	a city	n
nale	['nalɛ]	but
uůno	['wonɔ]	it
za winklym	[za'viŋklɨm]	at the corner	lit. behind the corner

Grammar

Sentence structure

A typical sentence structure is SVO, but any modifications are also possible and do not change the meaning, eg.

Adam je důma.
Adam is at home.
Adam důma je.
Adam at home is.
Důma je Adam.
At home is Adam.
Důma Adam je.
At home Adam is.
Je Adam důma.
Is Adam at home.
Je důma Adam.
Is at home Adam.

At this level learn to construct only SVO sentences. Unlike Polish (which is by the way very similar to Silesian) questions are formed only by adding the question mark at the end (and no inversion!), eg. Adam je důma? (Is Adam at home?). When we ask with an interrogative pronoun (we already know 3 of them - co, jak and kaj) it stands at the beginning, eg. Co to je? (What's that?).

Gender of nouns

Nouns in Silesian are divided into three groups: masculine, feminine and neuter. The generalized rule is that:

• Masculine nouns are ended with a consonant, eg. dům (a house).
• Feminine nouns are ended with -a, eg. dźouška ( a girl).
• Neuter nouns are ended with -o or -e, eg. mjasto (a city).

Unlike in English, speaking e.g. about a school (šula) we use a pronoun uůna (she).

Pay attention that in Silesian there are no articles like a, an, the. So "the school" and "a school" is just šula.

The third person - personal pronouns and conjugation of verb "to be"

Let's sum up the information from the text in this small chart.

English	Silesian	English	Silesian
He is	Uůn je	He isn't	Uůn ńy je
She is	Uůna je	She isn't	Uůna ńy je
It is	Uůno je	It isn't	Uůno ńy je
They (m) are	Uůńi sům	They (m) aren't	Uůńi ńy sům
They (f) are	Uůne sům	They (f) aren't	Uůne ńy sům

The pronoun uůńi is used also for mixed-sex group.

Tyn, ta, to

In this lesson you have learned three demonstrative pronouns: tyn, ta and to. The first one is used only before the masculine nouns and precise the subject. The same thing is with ta, but this pronouns works before the feminine noun. To can function similarly before the neuter noun or... be a subject. Saying To je sam (This is here) we may speak about something masculine, feminine, neutral or even about a group of things.

Exercises

1. Which of these nouns is macsculine, which is feminine and which is neuter?

dům	godka
šula	mjasto
państwo	půn
půńi	winkel
Ślůnsk	čowjek

2. Complete with the demonstrative pronouns.

a) ... synek
b) ... šula
c) ... půńi
d) ... Ślůnsk
e) ... mjasto
f) ... je daleko.
g) ... godka
h) ... państwo

3. Translate into Silesian.

Mr. Nowak is at home and Mrs. Nowak isn't. This house is very far away. It is in a city. And where is this city? It's there. Is there a school? Yes, but the school is also here, at the corner.

Answers to the exercises

Additional vocabulary

Word or phrase	IPA pronunciation	Meaning	Notes
godka	['gɔtka]	a language, a speech	f
państwo	['paɲstfɔ]	a country	n
čowjek	['tʂ͡ɔvʲɛk]	a human	m
we mjeśće	[vɛ 'mʲɛɕʨɛ]	in a city

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