JOS. F. BALUTA, B. A. . PRACTICAL HANDBOOK OF THE LANGUAGE POLISH CONTAINING: THE ALPHABET-PRONUNCIATION FLUENCY EXERCISES-RULES OP GRAMMAR VARIOUS CONVERSATIONS COMPREHENSIVE VOCABULARY OF WORDS IN DAILY USE NEW YORK POLISH BOOK IMPORTING CO., INC. Copyright, 1915 By The Polish Book Importing: Co., Inc. PREFACE. The fact that there is quite a demand fofr a prac- tical book of the Polish language, has induced the author to prepare the present volume. There are some three million Poles in the United States. They may be found in all walks of life. Many of them speak English, but a great number do not. Per- sons dealing with the latter experience difficulty in making themselves understood. The design of the present volume is to furnish for the use of English- speaking people a handy means for putting them- selves in communication with their Polish fellow- citizens* With the help of this manual the author hope? it will be possible to issue necessary instruc- tions to workmen, servants, etc., to carry on buy- ing and selling transactions, and also to carry on simple conversations on such matters as health, time, weather, war, etc. The bo'ok is divided into five parts. The first part deals with the alphabet and the rules for ac- cent. The attempt has been made to represent each sound as truly and phonetically as possible in En- glish. All use of diacritical marks has been avoided for the sake of simplicity. The greatest difficulty will be experienced in establishing the correct pro- nunciation of the nasal vowels a, , the consonants ii, 1, r, z, and the compound consonants cz, dz, dz, sz, rz;, and szcz. This difficulty may be somewhat over- come by asking a native Pole to produce the sounds slowly and then carefully imitating him. 328358 iv The secodid part deals with the so-called Fluency Exercises. The scheme is explained in detail in the introduction to the series The author believes that . a complete and thorough mastery of this section will help the learner to establish a correct pronuncia- tion and accent of Polish words, and at the same time acquaint him with some of the grammar in a practical way. Grammar is the subject of the next division. Here no attempt has been made to give an exhaust- ive treatise on Polish grammar, but rather some condensed information about the principal points of it. This part may be well used in conjunction with the Fluency Exercises. Perhaps the most useful section of the manual A may be found in the fourth part. glance at the table of contents will shcftv the number of practical phrases and conversations which have been em- bodied here. Care has been exercised to include nothing but practical subjects. The language used is the language of everyday life. It is true that all the possible subjects were not included, the limits of the book did not permit of that, yet there will be found here entfugh material to meet all ordinary occasions . The vocabulary at the end of the book contains a comprehensive list of words in daily use. J. F. B. Brooklyn, N. Y., January, 1915.