How to translate a surname into Polish? Hello! My surname is Zhegalova (in Russian Жегалова ). Sound L is hard. If I translate Zhegalova to ŻegaLowa (not Ł) then the letter L and sound will be necessa

Anna

How to translate a surname into Polish? Hello! My surname is Zhegalova (in Russian Жегалова ). Sound L is hard. If I translate Zhegalova to ŻegaLowa (not Ł) then the letter L and sound will be necessarily soft, right? So does it mean if I want to keep L hard sound then I must translate as ŻegaŁowa? Are there any exceptions for letter L sound hard?

Jun 23, 2020 8:24 PM

Answers · 5

OK. I know what you mean. It was soft Ł. Back in the days in 60's and + used this soft Ł. You can listen to Niemen or Fogg songs from that days. It was very popular to sing, read poems or act with this soft Ł. Sometimes you can still hear it from old people living in borderlands. So... people are aware of this sound and you don't have to use hard Ł. Just say it as you regularly say it and it will be perfectly fine. Closer to the east of Poland, more natural it sounds ;)

June 30, 2020

Hello Anna! I am not sure how to read your surname in Russian, but the letter L in Polish is read like in English (e.g. in the word "like" [laɪk]), while the Ł letter is read like the English "W" (e.g. "one" [wʌn]). I believe the Polish letter L is the right notation of the "л" sound.

June 24, 2020