<HTML>
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-2">

<HEAD>
<TITLE> Polish Language Course - Introduction </TITLE>
</HEAD>

<BODY>
<H5><A HREF="lessidx.htm">Main Page</A>&nbsp&nbsp
<A HREF="new.htm">What's NEW!</A>&nbsp&nbsp<A HREF="lessidx.htm">Lessons</A>&nbsp
&nbsp<A HREF="faq.htm">FAQ</A>&nbsp&nbsp<A HREF="links.htm">Links</A>
&nbsp&nbsp<A HREF="downld.htm">Download</A></H5>

<H1 ALIGN=CENTER><I>Polish Language Course</I></H1>
<H1 ALIGN=CENTER>Introduction</H1>

<P><STRONG>IMPORTANT:</STRONG> Polish contains some special characters.
You should set your browser to read 'ISO-8859-2' documents.
A <A HREF="../lessons/intro1.htm">Windows-1250 version</A> is also available.

<H2>1. Geographic information about Poland.</H2>

<P>Poland lies in central Europe between Germany (to the west),
Czech Republic and Slovak Republic (south),
Ukraine and Belorus (east), Lithuania, Russia and
the Baltic Sea (north). In the area of Poland (312,700 sq km) live about
39 million people.

<P>
Look at the table below to find out more about Poland.
<P>
<TABLE BORDER=5 CELLPADDING=5 CELLSPACING=5 WIDTH=100%>
<TR><TD>Capital<TD ALIGN=CENTER>Warszawa (Warsaw) about 1,600,000 inhabitants
<TR><TD>Other cities<TD><BR><UL>
 <LI>��d� (850,000)
 <LI>Krak�w (Cracow) (750,000)
 <LI>Wroc�aw (650,000)
 <LI>Pozna� (600,000)
 </UL></TR>
<TR><TD>Rivers<TD><BR><UL>
 <LI>Wis�a (Vistula) 1,047 km
 <LI>Odra (Oder) 854 km, 742 km in Poland
 </UL><BR></TR>
<TR><TD>Mountains<TD><BR><UL>
 <LI>Karpaty (Carpathians, including Tatra)
 <LI>Sudety (Sudetes)
 </UL><BR>
</TABLE>

<P>The word 'Poland' comes from the name of one of the tribes living
in the 10th century in the area of west Poland. The tribe had conquered
most of the area of present Poland and the date of its Christianization
(966 AD) is recognized as a beginning of the Polish country.

<H2>2. Informaton about the language</H2>

<P>The Polish language is mostly spoken in Poland (98.6% of inhabitants of Poland
uses Polish as their first language). A large number of Polish-speaking people
live in Lithuania (7.7% of population), Ukraine, Belorus and US (imigrants).

<P>Polish is an Indo-European, Slavonic language, belonging to the West Slavonic
subgroup (see table below).

<P>
<TABLE BORDER=5 CELLPADDING=5 CELLSPACING=5 WIDTH=100%>
<TH COLSPAN=3>Slavonic languages</TH>
<TR VALIGN=TOP><TD><BR><CENTER>West Slavonic</CENTER><UL>
   <LI>Polish
   <LI>Czech
   <LI>Slovak
   <LI>Low Lusatian
   <LI>High Lusatian
   <LI>Polabian (dead)</UL>
 <TD><BR><CENTER>East Slavonic</CENTER><UL>
   <LI>Russian
   <LI>Ukrainian
   <LI>Belorussian</UL>
 <TD><BR><CENTER>South Slavonic</CENTER><UL>
   <LI>Bulgarian
   <LI>Serbo-Croatian
   <LI>Macedonian
   <LI>Slovenian
   <LI>Old Church Slavonic (dead)</UL>
</TABLE>
<BR><BR>
<A HREF="infor1.htm">Go to the next page</A>

<HR>
<P><STRONG>NOTE:</STRONG>
If you have found a mistake or anything that does not work properly please
<A HREF="mailto:[email protected]">send me an e-mail</A>.</P>

<ADDRESS>Piotr Pikuta</ADDRESS>
<ADDRESS><A HREF="mailto:[email protected]">
[email protected]</A></ADDRESS>
<P><I>Last updated: May 13th, 2001</I>
</BODY>
</HTML>