2001-01-27

Hello and Greetings from Paul Krzyzanowski,

On your home page, you indicate that the two possible pronunications for Krzyzanowski are kriz-a-now-skee or shiz-enuf-skee. I suggest to you that the former is the more proper english translation.

Your first pronunciation of kriz-a-now-skee is much easier for non-polish speaking people, and is much better explained as just drop the first z. ie. Krzyzanowski becomes Kryzanowski.

With this new spelling any english speaking person can phoenetically sound the surname, and does not have to endure explanation of the pronunciation of a dotted polish z. The pronunciation shiz-enuf-skee must be obviously spelt differently, and therefore the name Krzyzanowski must be rearranged more severely than a simple Kry-zan-owski spelling and pronunciation. Furthermore, shiz-enuf-skee does not have a K preceding it, and Krzyzanowski, strictly speaking, does not have a sh sound.

After enduring many years of people butchering my last name; shiz-enuf-skee does not help me one bit. It sounds like a sloppy mish-mash of english syllables which do not do honour unto the polish language. I have learned that it is easier to anglicize polish than it is to polishize english.

So next time someone asks you how do you pronounce your last name? Just tell them to drop the first z and they'll never have trouble again. :-)

hope this makes every Krzyzanowski's life easier,
Paul Krzyzanowski.