"Wieś"

Translation: A village

[Pete357534]

To a native speaker: Does this audio sound odd at all?

[Jellei]

A bit. The sounds are okay, the intonation is a bit off.

I also looked in the Incubator, and there are three reports saying that it sounds like "wiesz". I am sorry, but to a native speaker it does not sound like that at all. Ś and SZ are totally different sounds. Yeah, I know that foreigners have quite a problem even noticing the difference sometimes, but for us it's weird that one can not notice the difference.

[JerryMcCarthy99]

According to my "Teach yourself Polish" book, "sz" is like "sh" in a word such as "shoe", and "ś" is more of a "hissing" sound. It would be good to have a sound file somewhere with the two words "wiesz" and "wieś" for comparison purposes.

[immery]

https://www.ivona.com/pl/ "Maja" is voice used in the course, but you might try others too.

[JerryMcCarthy99]

Now, that is way neat!

[Swietlan]

Yes. I hear colloquial (more rural) word "wieleś".

[DanHallswo]

How do you pronouce it different to "you know" wiesz?

[immery]

with much practice.

Unfortunately I'm just a native speaker.

What I can tell you is that I put my lips together (like to whistle) when I say "sz", but I'm "smiling" for "s"

[mihxal]

You can read this thread or look at chapter one of this PDF.

[Ash473779]

The subtle differences between 'ś' and 'sz' sounds are comparable to the subtle differences between the dental factive sounds 'th' in 'this' and 'th' in 'the'.

[Argimak]

What is the difference between "the" and "this"? I've never heard this before

[JerryMcCarthy99]

There isn't really a difference; probably something like "think" and "this" is what was meant.

Thinking about it, I've never heard of "dental factive"; I guess "dental fricative" is meant here. The difference between the two types of "th" has to do with the voiced/unvoiced nature of the pronunciation.

[Argimak]

Yeah, that must have been what was meant. "the" and "this" are both voiced, so I didn't understand what they meant.

[obado]

They are both voiced, but they are different because of the following vowel. Sz has the sides of the mouth closer than ś.

[Kliphph]

A villager is a wieśniak, which can also be used to refer to an uncultured person as well.

[JerryMcCarthy99]

An equivalent is also used in British Eng, where the word "peasant" can be used as a mild insult.

[Jellei]

'wieśniak' seems to me indeed more like a 'peasant'. Is there something offensive in 'villager'? A 'neutral' way to say 'villager' would be 'mieszkaniec wsi', so just "a person living in a village".

[Olga961307]

Why not wieś = a countryside?

[alik1989]

I believe that countryside is uncountable, so you need a definite article.