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125-498: Vodka ( Polish : wódka [ˈvutka] ; Russian : водка [ˈvotkə] ; Swedish : vodka [vɔdkɑː] ) is a clear distilled alcoholic beverage . Different varieties originated in Poland , Russia , and Sweden . Vodka is composed mainly of water and ethanol but sometimes with traces of impurities and flavourings. Traditionally, it is made by distilling liquid from fermented cereal grains and potatoes since

250-499: A / (spelled a ), / ɔ / (spelled o ) and / u / (spelled u and ó as separate letters). The nasal vowels are / ɛ w̃ / (spelled ę ) and / ɔ w̃ / (spelled ą ). Unlike Czech or Slovak, Polish does not retain phonemic vowel length — the letter ó , which formerly represented lengthened /ɔː/ in older forms of the language, is now vestigial and instead corresponds to /u/. The Polish consonant system shows more complexity: its characteristic features include

375-759: A dialect of Polish. Many Silesians consider themselves a separate ethnicity and have been advocating for the recognition of Silesian as a regional language in Poland . The law recognizing it as such was passed by the Sejm and Senate in April 2024, but has been vetoed by President Andrzej Duda in late May of 2024. According to the last official census in Poland in 2011, over half a million people declared Silesian as their native language. Many sociolinguists (e.g. Tomasz Kamusella , Agnieszka Pianka, Alfred F. Majewicz, Tomasz Wicherkiewicz ) assume that extralinguistic criteria decide whether

500-656: A few culturally and linguistically related tribes from the basins of the Vistula and Oder before eventually accepting baptism in 966. With Western Christianity , Poland also adopted the Latin alphabet , which made it possible to write down Polish, which until then had existed only as a spoken language . The closest relatives of Polish are the Elbe and Baltic Sea Lechitic dialects ( Polabian and Pomeranian varieties). All of them, except Kashubian , are extinct. The precursor to modern Polish

625-463: A great summe of money. Until the mid-18th century, the drink remained relatively low in alcohol content, not exceeding 40% ABV. Multiple terms for the drink were recorded, sometimes reflecting different levels of quality, alcohol concentration, filtering, and the number of distillations; most commonly, it was referred to as "burning wine", "bread wine", or even in some locations simply "wine". In some locations, grape wine may have been so expensive that it

750-513: A highly toxic chemical—added to the vodka by the illegal traders because of its high alcohol content and low price. Death toll estimates list at least 120 dead and more than 1,000 poisoned. The death toll is expected to rise due to the chronic nature of the cirrhosis that is causing jaundice. Polish language Polish ( endonym : język polski , [ˈjɛ̃zɘk ˈpɔlskʲi] , polszczyzna [pɔlˈʂt͡ʂɘzna] or simply polski , [ˈpɔlskʲi] )

875-537: A history of the production of vodka in Russia, as part of the Soviet case in a trade dispute; this was later published as A History of Vodka . Pokhlebkin wrote that while there is a wealth of publications about the history of consumption and distribution of vodka, virtually nothing had been written about vodka production. One of his assertions was that the word "vodka" was used in popular speech in Russia considerably earlier than

1000-594: A jebentas! – "can't be!" (Lith. negali būti! ) and many more. Samogitian is divided into three major dialects: Northern Samogitian (spoken in Telšiai and Kretinga regions), Western Samogitian (was spoken in the region around Klaipėda , now nearly extinct, – after 1945, many people were expelled and new ones came to this region) and Southern Samogitian (spoken in Varniai , Kelmė , Tauragė and Raseiniai regions). Historically, these are classified by their pronunciation of

1125-459: A key element of government finances in Tsarist Russia, providing at times up to 40% of state revenue. By 1911, vodka comprised 89% of all alcohol consumed in Russia. This level has fluctuated somewhat during the 20th century but remained quite high at all times. The most recent estimates put it at 70% (2001). Vodka remains a major source of state revenue and therefore of power. Seizing control of

1250-511: A large number of branches in all of these areas) offers services available in Polish at all of their cash machines in addition to English and Spanish . According to the 2011 census there are now over 500,000 people in England and Wales who consider Polish to be their "main" language. In Canada , there is a significant Polish Canadian population : There are 242,885 speakers of Polish according to

1375-533: A lect is an independent language or a dialect: speakers of the speech variety or/and political decisions, and this is dynamic (i.e. it changes over time). Also, research organizations such as SIL International and resources for the academic field of linguistics such as Ethnologue , Linguist List and others, for example the Ministry of Administration and Digitization recognized the Silesian language. In July 2007,

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1500-506: A mass product. The first industrial distillery was opened in 1782 in Lwów by J. A. Baczewski . He was soon followed by Jakub Haberfeld, who in 1804 established a factory at Oświęcim , and by Hartwig Kantorowicz, who started producing Wyborowa in 1823 at Poznań . The implementation of new technologies in the latter half of the 19th century, which allowed the production of clear vodkas, contributed to their success. The first rectification distillery

1625-454: A nasal consonant, rather than a nasal vowel. For example, ą in dąb ("oak") is pronounced [ɔm] , and ę in tęcza ("rainbow") is pronounced [ɛn] (the nasal assimilates to the following consonant). When followed by l or ł (for example przyjęli , przyjęły ), ę is pronounced as just e . When ę is at the end of the word it is often pronounced as just [ɛ] . Depending on

1750-405: A post-distillation infusion of flavors. Through the fermentation process, grain mash is transformed into a neutral alcohol beverage that is unflavored. The process of flavoring vodka so that it tastes like fruits, chocolate, and other foods occurs after fermentation and distillation. Various chemicals that reproduce the flavor profiles of foods are added into vodka to give it a specific taste. Vodka

1875-402: A reversed diacritic hook called an ogonek . Polish is a synthetic and fusional language which has seven grammatical cases . It has fixed penultimate stress and an abundance of palatal consonants . Contemporary Polish developed in the 1700s as the successor to the medieval Old Polish (10th–16th centuries) and Middle Polish (16th–18th centuries). Among the major languages, it

2000-491: A single word. This applies in particular to many combinations of preposition plus a personal pronoun, such as do niej ('to her'), na nas ('on us'), prze ze mnie ('because of me'), all stressed on the bolded syllable. The Polish alphabet derives from the Latin script but includes certain additional letters formed using diacritics . The Polish alphabet was one of three major forms of Latin-based orthography developed for Western and some South Slavic languages,

2125-837: A solution of crystal sugar and yeast. In the European Union , there are talks about the standardization of vodka, and the Vodka Belt countries insist that only spirits produced from grains, potato, and sugar beet molasses be allowed to be branded as "vodka", following the traditional methods of production. In the United States, many vodkas are made from 95% pure grain alcohol produced in large quantities by agricultural-industrial giants Archer Daniels Midland , Grain Processing Corporation, and Midwest Grain Products (MGP). Bottlers purchase

2250-405: A verse by Jan Brzechwa ) is W Szczebrzeszynie chrząszcz brzmi w trzcinie [fʂt͡ʂɛbʐɛˈʂɨɲɛ ˈxʂɔw̃ʂt͡ʂ ˈbʐmi fˈtʂt͡ɕiɲɛ] ('In Szczebrzeszyn a beetle buzzes in the reed'). Unlike languages such as Czech, Polish does not have syllabic consonants – the nucleus of a syllable is always a vowel. The consonant /j/ is restricted to positions adjacent to a vowel. It also cannot precede

2375-601: A very rich system of participles, which are derived from all tenses with distinct active and passive forms, and several gerund forms. Nouns and other declinable words are declined in eight cases: nominative , genitive , dative , accusative , instrumental , locative ( inessive ), vocative and illative . The earliest writings in Samogitian dialect appear in the 19th century. Famous authors writing in Samogitian: There are no written grammar books in Samogitian because it

2500-478: A vowel when it precedes another vowel (it represents /j/ , palatalization of the preceding consonant, or both depending on analysis). Also the letters u and i sometimes represent only semivowels when they follow another vowel, as in autor /ˈawtɔr/ ('author'), mostly in loanwords (so not in native nauka /naˈu.ka/ 'science, the act of learning', for example, nor in nativized Mateusz /maˈte.uʂ/ 'Matthew'). Some loanwords , particularly from

2625-636: Is a West Slavic language of the Lechitic group within the Indo-European language family written in the Latin script . It is primarily spoken in Poland and serves as the official language of the country, as well as the language of the Polish diaspora around the world. In 2024, there were over 39.7 million Polish native speakers. It ranks as the sixth most-spoken among languages of the European Union . Polish

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2750-534: Is a diminutive form of the Slavic word voda (water), interpreted as "waterkin": root vod - [water] + - k - (diminutive suffix , among other functions) + - a ( ending of feminine gender ). In English literature, the word vodka appeared in around the late 18th century. In a book of travels published in English in 1780 (presumably, a translation from German), Johann Gottlieb Georgi correctly explained that " kabak in

2875-475: Is also in use, colloquially and in proverbs ; Latvian : degvīns ; Finnish : paloviina . In Russian during the 17th and 18th centuries, горящѣе вино or горячее вино ( goryashchee vino , "burning wine" or "hot wine") was widely used. Others languages include the German Branntwein , Danish brændevin , Dutch : brandewijn , Swedish : brännvin , and Norwegian : brennevin (although

3000-419: Is also spoken as a second language in eastern Germany , northern Czech Republic and Slovakia , western parts of Belarus and Ukraine as well as in southeast Lithuania and Latvia . Because of the emigration from Poland during different time periods, most notably after World War II , millions of Polish speakers can also be found in countries such as Canada , Argentina , Brazil , Israel , Australia ,

3125-561: Is also the source of Ukrainian horilka ( горілка ). The word written in Cyrillic appeared first in 1533, about a medicinal drink brought from Poland to Russia by the Russian merchants. In these early days, the spirits were used mostly as medicines. Stefan Falimierz asserted in his 1534 works on herbs that vodka could serve "to increase fertility and awaken lust". Wodka lub gorzałka (1614), by Jerzy Potański, contains valuable information on

3250-469: Is also very popular. In Poland and Belarus, the leaves of the local bison grass are added to produce żubrówka (Polish) and zubrovka (Belarusian) vodka, with slightly sweet flavors and light amber colors. In Lithuania and Poland, a famous vodka containing honey is called krupnik . This tradition of flavoring is also prevalent in the Nordic countries , where vodka seasoned with herbs, fruits, and spices

3375-500: Is currently in decline, with limited presence in media and education. Efforts are being made to preserve the language, including local initiatives and cultural societies. The Samogitian language, heavily influenced by Curonian , originated from the East Baltic proto-Samogitian dialect which was close to Aukštaitian dialects . During the 5th century, Proto-Samogitians migrated from the lowlands of central Lithuania, near Kaunas , into

3500-427: Is dated by the decree of Empress Elizabeth of 8 June 1751, which regulated the ownership of vodka distilleries. By the 1860s, a government policy of promoting the consumption of state-manufactured vodka made it the drink of choice for many Russians. In 1863, the government monopoly on vodka production was repealed, causing prices to plummet and making vodka available even to low-income citizens. The taxes on vodka became

3625-745: Is different from standard Lithuanian. Dual is preserved perfectly while in standard Lithuanian it has been completely lost. The differences between nominals are considerable too. The fifth noun declension has almost completely merged with the third declension. The plural and some singular cases of the fourth declension have endings of the first declension (e.g.: singular nominative sūnos , plural nom. sūnā , in standard Lithuanian: sg. nom. sūnus , pl. nom. sūnūs ). The neuter of adjectives has been pushed out by adverbs (except for šėlt 'warm', šalt 'cold', karšt 'hot') in Samogitian. Neuter pronouns were replaced by masculine. The second declension of adjectives has almost merged with

3750-411: Is diluted with water before bottling. While most vodkas are unflavored, many flavored vodkas have been produced in traditional vodka-drinking areas, often as home-made recipes to improve vodka's taste or for medicinal purposes. Flavorings include red pepper, ginger, fruit flavors, vanilla, chocolate (without sweetener), and cinnamon. In Russia, vodka flavored with honey and pepper, pertsovka in Russian,

3875-435: Is less likely than other spirits to produce the undesirable aftereffects of heavy consumption (though no less likely to intoxicate) because of its low level of fusel oils and congeners , which are impurities that flavor spirits. Since the year 2000, because of evolving consumer tastes and regulatory changes, several 'artisanal vodka' or even 'ultra premium vodka' brands have appeared. The success of grape -based vodka in

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4000-552: Is mobile but often retracted at the end of words, and is also characterised by pitch accent . Samogitian has a broken tone like the Latvian and Danish languages. The circumflex of standard Lithuanian is replaced by an acute tone in Samogitian. It has five noun and three adjective declensions . Noun declensions are different from standard Lithuanian (see the next section). There are only two verb conjugations. All verbs have present , past , past iterative and future tenses of

4125-427: Is most closely related to Slovak and Czech but differs in terms of pronunciation and general grammar. Additionally, Polish was profoundly influenced by Latin and other Romance languages like Italian and French as well as Germanic languages (most notably German ), which contributed to a large number of loanwords and similar grammatical structures. Extensive usage of nonstandard dialects has also shaped

4250-432: Is no new literature in Samogitian either, as authors prefer standard Lithuanian for its accessibility to a larger audience. Out of those people who speak Samogitian, only a few can understand its written form. Migration of Samogitian speakers to other parts of the country and migration into Samogitia have reduced contact between Samogitian speakers, and therefore the level of fluency of those speakers. There are attempts by

4375-447: Is possible to say ko goście zoba czy li? – here kogo retains its usual stress (first syllable) in spite of the attachment of the clitic. Reanalysis of the endings as inflections when attached to verbs causes the different colloquial stress patterns. These stress patterns are considered part of a "usable" norm of standard Polish - in contrast to the "model" ("high") norm. Some common word combinations are stressed as if they were

4500-406: Is produced from grains such as sorghum , corn , rye , or wheat . Among grain vodkas, rye and wheat vodkas are generally considered superior. Some vodkas are made from potatoes , molasses , soybeans , grapes , rice , sugar beets and sometimes even byproducts of oil refining or wood pulp processing. In some Central European countries, such as Poland, some vodka is produced by just fermenting

4625-595: Is subdivided into regional dialects and maintains strict T–V distinction pronouns, honorifics , and various forms of formalities when addressing individuals. The traditional 32-letter Polish alphabet has nine additions ( ą , ć , ę , ł , ń , ó , ś , ź , ż ) to the letters of the basic 26-letter Latin alphabet , while removing three (x, q, v). Those three letters are at times included in an extended 35-letter alphabet. The traditional set comprises 23 consonants and 9 written vowels , including two nasal vowels ( ę , ą ) defined by

4750-512: Is the Old Polish language . Ultimately, Polish descends from the unattested Proto-Slavic language. The Book of Henryków (Polish: Księga henrykowska , Latin : Liber fundationis claustri Sanctae Mariae Virginis in Heinrichau ), contains the earliest known sentence written in the Polish language: Day, ut ia pobrusa, a ti poziwai (in modern orthography: Daj, uć ja pobrusza, a ti pocziwaj ;

4875-707: Is the appropriate strong drink for several seasonal festivities. Sweden has forty-odd common varieties of herb-flavored vodka ( kryddat brännvin ). In Poland and Ukraine, a separate category ( nalyvka in Ukraine and nalewka in Poland) is used for vodka-based spirits with fruit, root, flower, or herb extracts, which are often home-made or produced by small commercial distilleries. Their alcohol contents vary between 15 and 75%. In Estonia , vodkas are available with barberry, blackcurrant, cherry, green apple, lemon, vanilla, and watermelon flavors. In most cases, vodka flavoring comes from

5000-518: Is the most widely-used minority language in Lithuania's Vilnius County , by 26% of the population, according to the 2001 census results, as Vilnius was part of Poland from 1922 until 1939. Polish is found elsewhere in southeastern Lithuania. In Ukraine, it is most common in the western parts of Lviv and Volyn Oblasts , while in West Belarus it is used by the significant Polish minority, especially in

5125-665: Is the name of the medieval alcoholic beverage aqua vitae ( Latin , literally, "water of life"), which is reflected in Polish okowita , Ukrainian оковита , Belarusian акавіта , and Scandinavian akvavit . Whiskey has a similar etymology, from the Irish and Scottish Gaelic uisce beatha /uisge-beatha. People in the area of vodka's probable origin have names for vodka with roots meaning "to burn": Polish : gorzała ; Ukrainian : горілка , romanized :  horilka ; Belarusian : гарэлка , romanized :  harelka ; Lithuanian : degtinė ; Samogitian : degtėnė

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5250-468: Is traditionally drunk " neat " (not mixed with water, ice, or other mixers ), and it is often served freezer chilled in the vodka belt of Belarus, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and Ukraine. It is also used in cocktails and mixed drinks , such as the vodka martini , Cosmopolitan , vodka tonic , screwdriver , greyhound , Black or White Russian , Moscow mule , Bloody Mary , and Caesar . The name vodka

5375-457: Is usually distilled into some variety of pomace brandy , the lower-quality mash is better turned into neutral-flavored spirits instead. Any vodka not made from either grain or potatoes would have to display the products used in its production. This regulation entered into force in 2008. Under Canadian regulations, vodka is a potable alcoholic distillate obtained from potatoes, cereal grain, or any other material of agricultural origin fermented by

5500-459: Is verb conjugation . The past iterative tense is formed differently from Lithuanian (e.g., in Lithuanian the past iterative tense , meaning that action which was done in the past repeatedly, is made by removing the ending -ti and adding -davo ( mirti – mirdavo , pūti – pūdavo ), while in Samogitian, the word liuob is added instead before the word). The second verb conjugation merged with

5625-464: Is widespread because it can be produced easily and avoids taxation. However, severe poisoning, blindness , or death can occur as a result of dangerous industrial ethanol substitutes being added by black-market producers. In March 2007 in a documentary, BBC News UK sought to find the cause of severe jaundice among imbibers of a "bathtub" vodka in Russia. The cause was suspected to be an industrial disinfectant ( Extrasept )—95% ethanol but also containing

5750-430: The kropka (superior dot) over the letter ż , and the ogonek ("little tail") under the letters ą, ę . The letters q, v, x are used only in foreign words and names. Polish orthography is largely phonemic —there is a consistent correspondence between letters (or digraphs and trigraphs ) and phonemes (for exceptions see below). The letters of the alphabet and their normal phonemic values are listed in

5875-401: The ś in święty ("holy") all represent the sound / ɕ / . The exceptions to the above rule are certain loanwords from Latin, Italian, French, Russian or English—where s before i is pronounced as s , e.g. sinus , sinologia , do re mi fa sol la si do , Saint-Simon i saint-simoniści , Sierioża , Siergiej , Singapur , singiel . In other loanwords

6000-526: The Brest and Grodno regions and in areas along the Lithuanian border. There are significant numbers of Polish speakers among Polish emigrants and their descendants in many other countries. In the United States , Polish Americans number more than 11 million but most of them cannot speak Polish fluently. According to the 2000 United States Census , 667,414 Americans of age five years and over reported Polish as

6125-603: The Dubysa and Jūra basins, as well as into the Samogitian Upland . They displaced or assimilated the local, Curonian-speaking Baltic populations. Further north, they displaced or assimilated the indigenous Semigallian -speaking peoples. Assimilation of Curonians and Semigallians gave birth to the three Samogitian subdialects. In the 13th century, Žemaitija became a part of the Baltic confederation called Lietuva (Lithuania), which

6250-587: The Lithuanian word Duona, "bread". They are referred to as Dounininkai (from Douna ), Donininkai (from Dona ) and Dūnininkai (from Dūna ). The Samogitian language is rapidly declining: it is not used in the local school system and there is only one quarterly magazine and no television broadcasts in Samogitian. There are some radio broadcasts in Samogitian (in Klaipėda and Telšiai ). Local newspapers and broadcast stations use standard Lithuanian instead. There

6375-647: The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth 's influence gave Polish the status of lingua franca in Central and Eastern Europe . The process of standardization began in the 14th century and solidified in the 16th century during the Middle Polish era. Standard Polish was based on various dialectal features, with the Greater Poland dialect group serving as the base. After World War II , Standard Polish became

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6500-470: The Russian invasion of Ukraine , some North American liquor stores and bars expressed symbolic solidarity with Ukraine, and opposition to Russia, by boycotting Russian vodka brands. One critic argued that boycotts of Russian-branded vodka may inadvertently affect U.S. vodka manufacturers and noted that only 1.2 percent of U.S. vodka imports come from Russia. In some countries, black-market or " bathtub " vodka

6625-471: The Samogitian Cultural Society to stem the loss of the dialect. The council of Telšiai city put marks with Samogitian names for the city at the roads leading to the city, while the council of Skuodas claim to use the language during the sessions. A new system for writing Samogitian was created. The first use of a unique writing system for Samogitian was in the interwar period , however it

6750-511: The United Kingdom and the United States . Polish began to emerge as a distinct language around the 10th century, the process largely triggered by the establishment and development of the Polish state. At the time, it was a collection of dialect groups with some mutual features, but much regional variation was present. Mieszko I , ruler of the Polans tribe from the Greater Poland region, united

6875-474: The classical languages , have the stress on the antepenultimate (third-from-last) syllable. For example, fizyka ( /ˈfizɨka/ ) ('physics') is stressed on the first syllable. This may lead to a rare phenomenon of minimal pairs differing only in stress placement, for example muzyka /ˈmuzɨka/ 'music' vs. muzyka /muˈzɨka/ – genitive singular of muzyk 'musician'. When additional syllables are added to such words through inflection or suffixation ,

7000-569: The flight and expulsion of Germans (1944–50) , as well as the expulsion of Ukrainians and Operation Vistula , the 1947 migration of Ukrainian minorities in the Recovered Territories in the west of the country, contributed to the country's linguistic homogeneity. The inhabitants of different regions of Poland still speak Polish somewhat differently, although the differences between modern-day vernacular varieties and standard Polish ( język ogólnopolski ) appear relatively slight. Most of

7125-467: The indicative mood , subjunctive (or conditional ) and imperative moods (both without distinction of tenses) and infinitive . The formation of past iterative is different from standard Lithuanian. There are three numbers in Samogitian: singular , plural and dual . Dual is almost extinct in standard Lithuanian. The third person of all three numbers is common. Samogitian as the standard Lithuanian has

7250-404: The standard language ; considerable colloquialisms and expressions were directly borrowed from German or Yiddish and subsequently adopted into the vernacular of Polish which is in everyday use. Historically, Polish was a lingua franca , important both diplomatically and academically in Central and part of Eastern Europe . In addition to being the official language of Poland, Polish

7375-405: The "heads" and "tails" to remain, giving them their unique flavors. Repeated distillation of vodka will make its ethanol level much higher than is acceptable to most end users, whether legislation determines strength limits or not. Depending on the distillation method and the technique of the still master, the final filtered and distilled vodka may have as much as 95–96% ethanol. As such, most vodka

7500-416: The 16th century, which is also regarded as the " Golden Age of Polish literature". The orthography was modified in the 19th century and in 1936. Tomasz Kamusella notes that "Polish is the oldest, non-ecclesiastical, written Slavic language with a continuous tradition of literacy and official use, which has lasted unbroken from the 16th century to this day." Polish evolved into the main sociolect of

7625-414: The 16th century. In the mid-17th century, the szlachta (nobility of Poland) were granted a monopoly on producing and selling vodka in their territories. This privilege was a source of substantial profits. One of the most famous distilleries of the aristocracy was established by Elżbieta Izabela Lubomirska and later operated by her grandson, Alfred Wojciech Potocki . The Vodka Industry Museum, located at

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7750-526: The 17th and 18th centuries, Polish vodka was known in the Netherlands, Denmark, England, Russia, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Romania , Ukraine , Bulgaria and the Black Sea basin. Early production methods were rudimentary. The beverage was usually low-proof, and the distillation process had to be repeated several times (a three-stage distillation process was common). The first distillate was called brantówka ,

7875-552: The 1950s, vodka was not used as a designation for Swedish distilled beverages, which were instead called brännvin ("burn-wine"), the word having the same etymology as the Dutch Brandewijn , which is the base for the word brandy . This beverage has been produced in Sweden since the late 15th century, although the total production was still small in the 17th century. From the early 18th century, production expanded, although production

8000-481: The 2006 census, with a particular concentration in Toronto (91,810 speakers) and Montreal . The geographical distribution of the Polish language was greatly affected by the territorial changes of Poland immediately after World War II and Polish population transfers (1944–46) . Poles settled in the " Recovered Territories " in the west and north, which had previously been mostly German -speaking. Some Poles remained in

8125-527: The 3rd century, but the description of aqua ardens ("burning water", i.e., alcohol) made by distilling wine with salt appears in Latin works only by the 12th century. The process was well known among European medieval chemists by about 1300. The world's first written mention of the word wódka was in 1405 from Akta Grodzkie recorder of deeds , in the court documents from the Palatinate of Sandomierz in Poland. At

8250-501: The Bulgarian Balkan 176° with 88% ABV, these grain alcohol products are not considered vodka; they have not (yet) gone through the filtration and refining process used to produce vodka. A study conducted on NPR 's Planet Money podcast revealed negligible differences in taste between various brands of vodka, leading to speculation as to how much branding contributes to the concept of "super-premium vodkas". A common property of

8375-578: The Henryków monastery, noted that "Hoc est in polonico" ("This is in Polish"). The earliest treatise on Polish orthography was written by Jakub Parkosz  [ pl ] around 1470. The first printed book in Polish appeared in either 1508 or 1513, while the oldest Polish newspaper was established in 1661. Starting in the 1520s, large numbers of books in the Polish language were published, contributing to increased homogeneity of grammar and orthography. The writing system achieved its overall form in

8500-455: The Russian language signifies a public house for the common people to drink vodka (a sort of brandy) in". In 1799, William Tooke glossed vodka as "rectified corn-spirits", using the traditional English sense of the word "corn" to refer to any grain, not just maize . In 1800, French poet Théophile Gautier glossed it as a "grain liquor" served with meals in Poland ( eau-de-vie de grain ). Another possible connection of vodka with "water"

8625-520: The Samogitian Cultural Society discourages these conventions and recommends using the letters with macrons above instead. The use of double letters is accepted in cases where computer fonts do not have Samogitian letters; in such cases y is used instead of Samogitian ī, the same as in standard Lithuanian, while other long letters are written as double letters. The apostrophe might be used to denote palatalization in some cases; in others i

8750-671: The Silesian language was recognized by ISO , and was attributed an ISO code of szl. Some additional characteristic but less widespread regional dialects include: Polish linguistics has been characterized by a strong strive towards promoting prescriptive ideas of language intervention and usage uniformity, along with normatively-oriented notions of language "correctness" (unusual by Western standards). Polish has six oral vowels (seven oral vowels in written form), which are all monophthongs , and two nasal vowels . The oral vowels are / i / (spelled i ), / ɨ / (spelled y and also transcribed as /ɘ/ or /ɪ/), / ɛ / (spelled e ), /

8875-499: The United States in the early twenty-first century prompted traditional vodka producers in the Vodka Belt countries of Poland , Finland , Estonia , Lithuania , and Sweden to campaign for EU legislation that would define vodka as only spirits made from grain or potatoes. This proposition provoked heavy criticism from South European countries, which often distill used mash from wine-making into spirits; although higher-quality mash

9000-719: The action of yeast or a mixture of yeast and other microorganisms. In 1956, it was put into revenue ruling that sugar not more than 0.2% and trace amounts of citric acid are not considered flavoring agent. The meaning of "trace amounts" of citric acid was clarified as not more than 1,000ppm in 1995. It is no longer defined as "to be without distinctive character, aroma, taste, or color." The law includes other requirements: Vodka cannot be aged in wood; it may or may not be charcoal filtered; and it must meet minimum distillation and bottling proofs. In summer 2013, American LGBT rights activists targeted Russian vodka brands for boycott over Russia's anti-gay policies . In late February 2022, with

9125-479: The base spirits in bulk, then filter, dilute, distribute and market the end product under a variety of vodka brand names. Similar methods are used in other regions such as Europe. This pure grain alcohol, also known as rectified spirit , neutral spirit , or ethyl alcohol of agricultural origin , is also available directly to consumers in some areas, as products such as Everclear , Polmos spirytus rektyfikowany , and others. In contrast to very high ABV vodkas such as

9250-485: The cases mentioned above, the letter i if followed by another vowel in the same word usually represents / j / , yet a palatalization of the previous consonant is always assumed. The reverse case, where the consonant remains unpalatalized but is followed by a palatalized consonant, is written by using j instead of i : for example, zjeść , "to eat up". The letters ą and ę , when followed by plosives and affricates, represent an oral vowel followed by

9375-687: The corresponding sentence in modern Polish: Daj, niech ja pomielę, a ty odpoczywaj or Pozwól, że ja będę mełł, a ty odpocznij ; and in English: Come, let me grind, and you take a rest ), written around 1280. The book is exhibited in the Archdiocesal Museum in Wrocław, and as of 2015 has been added to UNESCO 's " Memory of the World " list. The medieval recorder of this phrase, the Cistercian monk Peter of

9500-541: The creation of various new brands. A type of distilled liquor designated by the Russian word vodka came to Russia in the late 14th century. In 1386, the Genoese ambassadors brought the first aqua vitae ("water of life") to Moscow and presented it to Dmitry Donskoy , the grand prince. The liquid obtained by distillation of grape must was thought to be a concentrate and a "spirit" of wine ( spiritus vini in Latin), whence came to

9625-691: The dialect, in particular phonetics. The earliest writings in the Samogitian language appeared in the 19th century. Samogitian and its subdialects preserved many features of the Curonian language, for example: as well as various other features not listed here. The earliest writings in Samogitian language appeared in the 16th century ( Catechism of Martynas Mažvydas has been written mostly in south Samogtian dialect), more in 18th century (starting with "Ziwatas Pona Yr Diewa Musu Jezusa Christusa" written in 1759 in north Samogitian dialect). ( ɤ ) ė may be retracted in some sub-dialects to form ( ɤ ) represented by

9750-479: The disappearance of yers . Polish can have word-initial and word-medial clusters of up to four consonants, whereas word-final clusters can have up to five consonants. Examples of such clusters can be found in words such as bezwzględny [bɛzˈvzɡlɛndnɨ] ('absolute' or 'heartless', 'ruthless'), źdźbło [ˈʑd͡ʑbwɔ] ('blade of grass'), wstrząs [ˈfstʂɔw̃s] ('shock'), and krnąbrność [ˈkrnɔmbrnɔɕt͡ɕ] ('disobedience'). A popular Polish tongue-twister (from

9875-410: The distillate contain flavor compounds such as ethyl acetate and ethyl lactate (heads) as well as the fusel oils (tails) that impact the usually desired clean taste of vodka. Through numerous rounds of distillation, or the use of a fractioning still, the taste is modified and clarity is increased. In contrast, the distillery process for liquors such as whiskey , rum , and baijiu allow portions of

10000-430: The distinction between regular penultimate and exceptional antepenultimate stress. Another class of exceptions is verbs with the conditional endings -by, -bym, -byśmy , etc. These endings are not counted in determining the position of the stress; for example, zro biłbym ('I would do') is stressed on the first syllable, and zro bi libyśmy ('we would do') on the second. According to prescriptive authorities ,

10125-520: The eastern parts of the former Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth wrote Polish in the Arabic alphabet. The Cyrillic script is used to a certain extent today by Polish speakers in Western Belarus , especially for religious texts. The diacritics used in the Polish alphabet are the kreska (graphically similar to the acute accent ) over the letters ć, ń, ó, ś, ź and through the letter in ł ;

10250-420: The end of words (where devoicing occurs) and in certain consonant clusters (where assimilation occurs). For details, see Voicing and devoicing in the article on Polish phonology. Most Polish words are paroxytones (that is, the stress falls on the second-to-last syllable of a polysyllabic word), although there are exceptions. Polish permits complex consonant clusters, which historically often arose from

10375-469: The entire country. Polish has traditionally been described as consisting of three to five main regional dialects: Silesian and Kashubian , spoken in Upper Silesia and Pomerania respectively, are thought of as either Polish dialects or distinct languages , depending on the criteria used. Kashubian contains a number of features not found elsewhere in Poland, e.g. nine distinct oral vowels (vs.

10500-486: The first Russian state monopoly on vodka. In 1505, the first exports of distilled Russian vodka arrived in Sweden. By the 16th century, government-run taverns known as kabaks replaced privately-run korchmas . Giles Fletcher , who was the English ambassador in Russia, wrote: In every great towne of his Realme he hath a Caback or drinking house, where is sold aquavitæ (which they call Russewine ) mead , beere , &c. Out of these hee receiveth rent that amounteth to

10625-509: The first Russian vodka. Having a special knowledge and distillation devices, he became the creator of a new, higher quality type of alcoholic beverage. This "bread wine", as it was initially known, was for a long time produced exclusively in the Moscow grand principality and in no other Russian principality (this situation persisted until the era of industrial production). Thus, this beverage was closely associated with Moscow. In 1474, Ivan III created

10750-476: The first declension, with only singular nominative case endings staying separate. The formation of pronominals is also different from standard Lithuanian. Samogitian also has many words and figures of speech that are altogether different from typically Lithuanian ones, e.g., kiuocis – basket (Lith. krepšys , Latvian ķocis ), tevs – thin (Lith. plonas, tęvas , Latvian tievs ), rebas – ribs (Lith. šonkauliai , Latvian ribas ),

10875-404: The first in Samogitian. The plural reflexive ending is -muos instead of expected -mies which is in standard Lithuanian ( -mės ) and other dialects. Samogitian preserved a lot of relics of athematic conjugation which did not survive in standard Lithuanian. The intonation in the future tense third person is the same as in the infinitive, in standard Lithuanian it shifts. The subjunctive conjugation

11000-462: The following table. The following digraphs and trigraphs are used: Voiced consonant letters frequently come to represent voiceless sounds (as shown in the tables); this occurs at the end of words and in certain clusters, due to the neutralization mentioned in the Phonology section above. Occasionally also voiceless consonant letters can represent voiced sounds in clusters. The spelling rule for

11125-538: The language spoken at home, which is about 1.4% of people who speak languages other than English , 0.25% of the US population, and 6% of the Polish-American population. The largest concentrations of Polish speakers reported in the census (over 50%) were found in three states: Illinois (185,749), New York (111,740), and New Jersey (74,663). Enough people in these areas speak Polish that PNC Financial Services (which has

11250-523: The latter terms refer to any strong alcoholic beverage). Scholars debate the beginnings of vodka because there is little historical material available. For many centuries, beverages differed significantly compared to the vodka of today, as the spirit at that time had a different flavor, color, and smell, and was originally used as medicine. It contained little alcohol, an estimated maximum of about 14%. Distillation techniques were developed in Roman Egypt by

11375-453: The latter was introduced in Europe in the 18th century. Some modern brands use corn , sugar cane , fruit , honey , and maple sap as the base. Since the 1890s, standard vodkas have been 40% alcohol by volume (ABV) (80 U.S. proof ). The European Union has established a minimum alcohol content of 37.5% for vodka. Vodka in the United States must have a minimum alcohol content of 40%. Vodka

11500-439: The letter y . The predominant stress pattern in Polish is penultimate stress – in a word of more than one syllable, the next-to-last syllable is stressed. Alternating preceding syllables carry secondary stress, e.g. in a four-syllable word, where the primary stress is on the third syllable, there will be secondary stress on the first. Each vowel represents one syllable, although the letter i normally does not represent

11625-618: The letter õ. Tėkrus → tõkrus, lėngvus → lõngvus, tėn → tõn. The vowel can be realized as close-mid central [ɘ] or close-mid back [ɤ], depending on the speaker. The Samogitian language is highly inflected like standard Lithuanian , in which the relationships between parts of speech and their roles in a sentence are expressed by numerous flexions. There are two grammatical genders in Samogitian – feminine and masculine. Relics of historical neuter are almost fully extinct while in standard Lithuanian some isolated forms remain. Those forms are replaced by masculine ones in Samogitian. Samogitian stress

11750-431: The middle aged and young speak vernaculars close to standard Polish, while the traditional dialects are preserved among older people in rural areas. First-language speakers of Polish have no trouble understanding each other, and non-native speakers may have difficulty recognizing the regional and social differences. The modern standard dialect , often termed as "correct Polish", is spoken or at least understood throughout

11875-644: The middle of the 18th century, but the word did not appear in print until the 1860s. Pokhlebkin's sources were challenged by David Christian in the Slavic Review in 1994, who criticized the lack of valid references in Pokhlebkin's works and its pro-Russian bias. Pokhlebkin is also known for his Pan-Slavic sympathies under the leadership of Russia and sentiments that, in David Christian's opinion, discredit most of his work, especially his History of Vodka . Up until

12000-460: The most widely spoken variant of Polish across the country, and most dialects stopped being the form of Polish spoken in villages. Poland is one of the most linguistically homogeneous European countries; nearly 97% of Poland's citizens declare Polish as their first language . Elsewhere, Poles constitute large minorities in areas which were once administered or occupied by Poland, notably in neighboring Lithuania , Belarus , and Ukraine . Polish

12125-488: The name Tarzan . Samogitian language It has preserved many features of the extinct Curonian language , such as specific phonological traits and vocabulary. Samogitian differs significantly from standard Lithuanian in phonetics, morphology, syntax, and lexis, with unique archaic features not found in other Lithuanian dialects. This difference often causes speakers of Aukštaitian dialects to not be able to understand speakers of Samogitian. The use of Samogitian

12250-429: The name of this substance in many European languages (like English spirit , or Russian спирт , spirt ). Perhaps one of the earliest terms linked to vodka production was varenoe vino ("distilled wine") which appears in a 1399 document. Another term used was perevara , a precursor to vodka, which last appears in official documents in 1495. The term korchma is one of the oldest official terms used for vodka, which

12375-631: The nobles in Poland–Lithuania in the 15th century. The history of Polish as a language of state governance begins in the 16th century in the Kingdom of Poland . Over the later centuries, Polish served as the official language in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania , Congress Poland , the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria , and as the administrative language in the Russian Empire 's Western Krai . The growth of

12500-659: The others being Czech orthography and Croatian orthography , the last of these being a 19th-century invention trying to make a compromise between the first two. Kashubian uses a Polish-based system, Slovak uses a Czech-based system, and Slovene follows the Croatian one; the Sorbian languages blend the Polish and the Czech ones. Historically, Poland's once diverse and multi-ethnic population utilized many forms of scripture to write Polish. For instance, Lipka Tatars and Muslims inhabiting

12625-401: The palatal sounds / ɕ / , / ʑ / , / tɕ / , / dʑ / and / ɲ / is as follows: before the vowel i the plain letters s, z, c, dz, n are used; before other vowels the combinations si, zi, ci, dzi, ni are used; when not followed by a vowel the diacritic forms ś, ź, ć, dź, ń are used. For example, the s in siwy ("grey-haired"), the si in siarka ("sulfur") and

12750-539: The park of the Potocki country estate has an original document attesting that the distillery already existed in 1784. Today, it operates as " Polmos Łańcut ". Vodka production on a much larger scale began in Poland at the end of the 16th century, initially at Kraków , whence spirits were exported to Silesia before 1550. Silesian cities also bought vodka from Poznań , a city that in 1580 had 498 working spirits distilleries. Soon, however, Gdańsk outpaced both these cities. In

12875-511: The previously Polish-ruled territories in the east that were annexed by the USSR , resulting in the present-day Polish-speaking communities in Lithuania, Belarus, and Ukraine, although many Poles were expelled from those areas to areas within Poland's new borders. To the east of Poland, the most significant Polish minority lives in a long strip along either side of the Lithuania - Belarus border. Meanwhile,

13000-411: The production of vodka from various unusual substances including even the carrot . Though there was a substantial vodka cottage industry in Poland back to the 16th century, the end of the 18th century marked the start of real industrial production of vodka in Poland ( Kresy , the eastern part of Poland was controlled by the Russian empire at that time). Vodkas produced by the nobility and clergy became

13125-438: The production of vodka. Jakub Kazimierz Haur, in his book Skład albo skarbiec znakomitych sekretów ekonomii ziemiańskiej ( A Treasury of Excellent Secrets about Landed Gentry's Economy , Kraków, 1693), gave detailed recipes for making vodka from rye . Some Polish vodka blends go back centuries. Most notable are Żubrówka , from about the 16th century; Goldwasser , from the early 17th century; and aged Starka vodka, from

13250-434: The regulations were changed so that privately owned companies could produce Vodka. Vodka has become popular among young people, with a flourishing black market . In 2013, the organizers of the so-called "vodka car" were jailed for two and a half years for having illegally provided thousands of liters to young people, some as young as 13. Vodka may be distilled from any starch - or sugar -rich plant matter; most vodka today

13375-540: The same applies to the first and second person plural past tense endings -śmy, -ście , although this rule is often ignored in colloquial speech (so zro bi liśmy 'we did' should be prescriptively stressed on the second syllable, although in practice it is commonly stressed on the third as zrobi li śmy ). These irregular stress patterns are explained by the fact that these endings are detachable clitics rather than true verbal inflections: for example, instead of ko go zoba czy liście? ('whom did you see?') it

13500-401: The second was szumówka , and the third was okowita (from aqua vitae ), which generally contained 70–80% ABV. Then the beverage was watered down, yielding a simple vodka (30–35% ABV), or a stronger one if the watering was done using an alembic . The exact production methods were described in 1768 by Jan Paweł Biretowski and in 1774 by Jan Chryzostom Pasek . The late 18th century inaugurated

13625-410: The series of affricate and palatal consonants that resulted from four Proto-Slavic palatalizations and two further palatalizations that took place in Polish. The full set of consonants, together with their most common spellings, can be presented as follows (although other phonological analyses exist): Neutralization occurs between voiced – voiceless consonant pairs in certain environments, at

13750-500: The six of standard Polish) and (in the northern dialects) phonemic word stress, an archaic feature preserved from Common Slavic times and not found anywhere else among the West Slavic languages . However, it was described by some linguists as lacking most of the linguistic and social determinants of language-hood. Many linguistic sources categorize Silesian as a regional language separate from Polish, while some consider Silesian to be

13875-464: The state spirits monopoly Rosspirtprom and its Kristall distillery was instrumental for Vladimir Putin to consolidate his power as prime minister and president. Under his rule, the " Putinka " ("little Putin") brand of vodka became a bestseller, partly to Putin's financial benefit. Other popular Russian vodka producers or brands include Stolichnaya and Russian Standard . During the late 1970s, Russian culinary author William Pokhlebkin compiled

14000-494: The stress normally becomes regular. For example, uniwersytet ( /uɲiˈvɛrsɨtɛt/ , 'university') has irregular stress on the third (or antepenultimate) syllable, but the genitive uniwersytetu ( /uɲivɛrsɨˈtɛtu/ ) and derived adjective uniwersytecki ( /uɲivɛrsɨˈtɛt͡skʲi/ ) have regular stress on the penultimate syllables. Loanwords generally become nativized to have penultimate stress. In psycholinguistic experiments, speakers of Polish have been demonstrated to be sensitive to

14125-412: The time, the word wódka referred to chemical compounds such as medicines and cosmetics ' cleansers. The production of liquor begins in the mid-15th century, with varied local traditions emerging throughout Europe, in Poland as vodka ( Polish : wódka or gorzałka ). In the 16th century, the Polish word for the beverage was gorzałka (from the Old Polish verb gorzeć meaning "to burn"), which

14250-441: The vodka. However, this is not the case in the traditional vodka-producing nations, so many distillers from these countries prefer to use very accurate distillation but minimal filtering, thus preserving the unique flavors and characteristics of their products. The master distiller is in charge of distilling the vodka and directing its filtration, which includes the removal of the "fore-shots", "heads" and "tails". These components of

14375-404: The vodkas produced in the United States and Europe is the extensive use of filtration before any additional processing including the addition of flavorants . Filtering is sometimes done in the still during distillation , as well as afterward, where the distilled vodka is filtered through activated charcoal and other media to absorb trace amounts of substances that alter or impart off-flavors to

14500-563: The vowel i is changed to y , e.g. Syria , Sybir , synchronizacja , Syrakuzy . The following table shows the correspondence between the sounds and spelling: Digraphs and trigraphs are used: Similar principles apply to / kʲ / , / ɡʲ / , / xʲ / and /lʲ/ , except that these can only occur before vowels, so the spellings are k, g, (c)h, l before i , and ki, gi, (c)hi, li otherwise. Most Polish speakers, however, do not consider palatalization of k, g, (c)h or l as creating new sounds. Except in

14625-443: The word, the phoneme / x / can be spelt h or ch , the phoneme / ʐ / can be spelt ż or rz , and / u / can be spelt u or ó . In several cases it determines the meaning, for example: może ("maybe") and morze ("sea"). In occasional words, letters that normally form a digraph are pronounced separately. For example, rz represents /rz/ , not / ʐ / , in words like zamarzać ("freeze") and in

14750-457: Was Explorer Vodka , which was created in 1958 and initially was intended for the American export market. Although it ultimately failed in that market, it remains one of the most popular vodka brands in Sweden today. In 1979, Absolut Vodka was launched, reusing the name of the old Absolut Rent Brännvin ("absolutely pure brännvin ") created in 1879. After Sweden joined the European Union in 1995,

14875-442: Was a drink only for aristocrats. Burning wine was usually diluted with water to 24% ABV or less before drinking. It was mostly sold in taverns and was quite expensive. At the same time, the word vodka was already in use, but it described herbal tinctures (similar to Nalewka ), containing up to 75% ABV, and made for medicinal purposes. The first written usage of the word vodka in an official Russian document in its modern meaning

15000-789: Was considered to be a dialect of Lithuanian , but there were some attempts to standardise its written form. Among those who have tried are Stasys Anglickis  [ lt ] , Pranas Genys  [ lt ] , Sofija Kymantaitė-Čiurlionienė , B. Jurgutis , Juozas Pabrėža  [ lt ] . Today, Samogitian has a standardised writing system but it still remains a spoken language, as nearly everyone writes in their native speech. Samogitian differs from Standard Lithuanian in phonetics , lexicon , syntax and morphology . Phonetic differences from standard Lithuanian are varied, each Samogitian subdialect (West, North and South) has different reflections. Standard Lithuanian → Samogitian The main difference between Samogitian and standard Lithuanian

15125-547: Was established in 1871. In 1925, the production of clear vodkas was made a Polish government monopoly. After World War II , all vodka distilleries were taken over by Poland's Marxist–Leninist government . During the martial law of the 1980s, the sale of vodka was rationed. Following the success of the Solidarity movement and the abolition of single-party rule in Poland , many distilleries began struggling financially. Some filed for bankruptcy, but many were privatized, leading to

15250-524: Was formed by Mindaugas . Lithuania conquered the coast of the Baltic Sea from the Livonian order . The coast was populated by Curonians , but became a part of Samogitia . From the 13th century onwards, Samogitians settled within the former Curonian lands, and intermarried with the population over the next three hundred years. The Curonians were assimilated by the 16th century. Its dying language has influenced

15375-522: Was neglected during the Soviet period, so only elderly people knew how to write in Samogitian at the time Lithuania regained independence. The Samogitian Cultural Society renewed the system to make it more usable. The writing system uses similar letters to standard Lithuanian, but with the following differences: As previously it was difficult to add these new characters to typesets, some older Samogitian texts use double letters instead of macrons to indicate long vowels, for example aa for ā and ee for ē; now

15500-400: Was prohibited several times, during grain shortages. Although initially a grain product, potatoes started to be used in production in the late 18th century and became dominant from the early 19th century. From the early 1870s, distillery equipment was improved. Progressively from the 1960s, unflavoured Swedish brännvin also came to be called vodka. The first Swedish product to use this term

15625-516: Was used alongside varenoe vino , but later came to denote illegally produced vodka by the 16th century. Other terms that referred to vodka included goriachee vino ("burning wine"), zhzhenoe vino ("burnt wine"), and khlebnoe vino ("bread wine"). According to William Pokhlyobkin , in around 1430, a monk named Isidore from the Chudov Monastery inside the Moscow Kremlin made a recipe of

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