The Epistle of Barnabas, usually included in the works of the Apostolic Fathers, is an anonymous text written in koiné Greek. It was probably composed between the end of the First and the beginning of the Second Century in an Egyptian or Syro-Palestinian setting. The text is made up of two parts: the first one has an anti-Judaic apologetic nature; the second one is instructive and paraenetical. The Latin version of the Epistle (L), which is useful in the constitutio textus of the original too, concerns the first of the two parts. An analysis of the language and of the technique of translation allows asserting that L was probably compiled in Rome between the end of the Second and the beginning of the Third Century. Moreover, its main features may be identified in the literality and in the linguistic and stylistic popularity. The literality is both quantitative and distributional: the changes are usually narrow (except expressions which introduce Biblical quotations) and concern parts which may be considered accessory by a semantic point of view. The popular style is due to the attention the translator pays to the needs of the sociocultural situation of the readers and is confirmed by the presence of rhetorical figures as alliteration. These two characteristics, which are typical of Latin translations of Greek Patristic texts compiled between the end of the Second and the beginning of the Third Century, are due to stylistic choices which are homogeneously and congruently applied. Moreover, in L these characteristics are strictly bound, because the sermo humilis characterizes the Greek text too.

The article investigates the level of language awareness manifested by the advanced learners of Polish as a FL (146 students of the Polish Language Course attending the School of Polish Language and Culture at the University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland). The exact focus is on learning outcomes (areas of language progress and regress), and perception of the Polish language material learnt (including grammar, vocabulary and phonology), an emphasis being put on most problematic issues. Having presented learners’ opinions and reflections on language, implications for teachers including teaching materials raising language awareness are offered.

The subject of this review article is the monograph of the academician Zuzanna Topolińska Polski ~ macedoński: konfrontacja (nie tylko) gramatyczna. 10: Spirala ewolucji (Wrocław: Wrocławskie Towarzystwo Naukowe, 2015), dedicated to the history and typology of Polish, Macedonian and other Slavic languages, refl ecting the many years of fruitful experience of Zuzanna Topolińska in research in this area, as well as in linguistic theory. The author of the review article emphasizes the novelty of this monograph, and the relevance of the issues considered in it, as well as the great importance of the book for Slavic and General linguistics.

Two types of names for ‘Turkish delight’ are known in the Slavic languages: rahat-lokum ~ ratluk, and lokum. Even though most etymological dictionaries derive them from the same Arabo-Turkish etymon, their different structures are not discussed and the phonetic differences not explained. The aim of this paper is to establish the relative chronology of changes made to the original phrase, as well as to point out some problems which still remain more or less obscure.

This paper is aimed at presentation and analysis of different approaches to the phenomenon of "feeling for language". The purpose is to demonstrate that this term, although controversial, is of great importance in language acquisition and in the evaluation of language expressions. The topic is discussed in the article with the help of definitions from Kainz, Knobloch, Lewandowski, Juhász, Olt/Disselkamp, and Trad. In the definitions, various facets of language feeling are taken up, such as its relation to intuition, reference to mother tongue and foreign language and individual or collective implications.

Common spoken and written Polish (literary language) belongs to the European languages which have been sufficiently influenced by biblical writings (language). Relationships between literary language and the language of the biblical translations can be described as mutual influence of various intensity as far as the direction, time, intensification, endurance and level of the language are concerned. The article deals with the examples of the influence of the biblical translations on the literary language as for its intellectualisation, lexical and phraseological enrichment as well as stylistic development.

In the article the author discusses the practice associated with name-giving among the residents of Łódź (only Catholics of Polish origin) during the period from the beginning of the seventeenth century to the first half of the nineteenth century. The material was collected from official documents. Habits associated with the first names were treated as a kind of linguistic behaviour that implements a specific communication need of the given community. Observations of these habits show that they oscillate — like any linguistic behaviour — between automatism (and convention) and spontaneity. Conventional measures that should be considered: the use of a limited collection of names that indicate a high degree of stability in subsequent periods and against the background of habits of name-giving in the region and other territories of the former Poland (especially the most popular names of women, e.g. Marianna, Katarzyna, Agnieszka and names of men, e.g. Józef, Jan, Franciszek) and inheritance of names. In contrast, a large number of rare names (names of women, e.g. Idalia, Jokasta, Kasylda, and of men, e.g. Bonawentura, Wit, Witalis) and a visible preference in some families for the usage of rare names, e.g. Damazy, Feliks, Lubomira (including Slavic first names, e.g. Bolesław, Władysław, Bronisław) were included as spontaneous factors. Analysis of the material reveals a tendency to differentiate names depending on the social status of the inhabitants (the representatives of the noble families often used rare names). The author also draws attention to the problem of the diversity of names in Łódź (both in the context of different collections of names and different practices) depending on parameters such as the religion (Catholics, Protestants, Jews) and nationality (Poles, Germans, Czechs) of residents of the city.

Asst. Prof. Piotr Osęka from the PAS Institute of Political Studies explains what groups are being depicted as enemies in the eyes of the Poles and what purposes such propaganda serves.

Dr. Michał Németh of the Jagiellonian University explains how a peek inside someone’s closets can help stop a culture from disappearing and how altruism can facilitate the development of a niche branch of science.

Etymologies demonstrate complexity of semantic changes that the Maltese words underwent as well as reflect the local history and lifestyle of peasants dwelling in rural areas of Malta and Gozo. In such way the words may be considered as a reservoir of the collective memory of Maltese people. Strikingly, the Maltese language, though Semitic in its grammar, semantically seems to be attached more to the Romance word. It is manifested not only in the preponderance of Sicilian words in Maltese dictionaries, but also in the transposition of some semantic structures mirroring the internal development of Romance languages. In the article the following Maltese terms were discussed: mgħażqa, zappun, minġel, xatba, rixtellu, minġla, ranċila, romblu tad-dris, midra, luħ, mannara, lexxuna.

The article is concerned with methods of translating V. Shukshin’s occasionalisms into English. The study material has been extracted from translations done by A. Bromfield, K.M. Cook, R. Daglish, W.G. Fiedorow, J. Givens, G. Gutsche, G.A. Hosking, D. Illiffe, L. Michael, H. Smith, N. Ward. Based on the analysis of the material the following means of conveying V. Shukshin’s occasionalisms can be distinguished: translation by substitution, translation by means modifying idiomatic expressions, applying semantic calquing, using a descriptive method to recreate occasionalisms, as well as lexical and grammatical transformations. Two of them can be considered fully equivalent ways of recreating the writer’s occasionalisms (translation by means modifying idiomatic expressions, semantic calquing), the rest, however, should be regarded as only partially accurate.