TOPONYMIC GUIDELINES OF POLAND - KSNG Nazwy geograficzne

Ethnic minorities in Poland do not exceed 3% of the totalpopulation. Germans live in southwestern and northeastern parts ofPoland (Śląskie and Opolskie Voivodships). Slovaks live in southernpart (Małopolskie Voivodship). The Ukrainians live in thesoutheastern, northern and western part of the country; Belorussians inthe east (Podlaskie Voivodship), and Lithuanians and Russians also inthe eastern part of the country. Their languages, as well as thelanguages of other dispersed ethnic minorities (Romanies, Tartars,Armenians, Greeks, Czechs, and French), as well as the languages ofethnic groups (Kashubians, Lemkos) are not used as officiallanguages. Some of the minorities have their own organizations,schools, theaters and similar establishments in which they use theirnational languages. The ‘Ustawa o urzędowych nazwachmiejscowości i obiektów fizjograficznych’ (Act on Official Names ofLocalities and Physiographic Objects) which is currently beinglegislated provides that an additional official name in the language ofan ethnic minority can be established.The Polish Alphabet2. Polish Literary LanguagePoles use Latin alphabet, to which a number of diacritical markswere added. Also, the letters q, v, x were omitted (they are used onlyin words of foreign origin). In international publications the APIPhonetic Alphabet is used as a rule. The Slavic phonetic transcriptionis used much less often.The Polish alphabet has 32 letters:aA ąĄ bB cC ćĆ dD eE ęĘ fF gG hHiI jJ kK lL łŁ mM nN ńŃ oO óÓ pPrR sS śŚ tT uU wW yY zZ źŹ żŻ13