Many of the standards introduced in the previous centuries ultimately fell out of use, leading to the reforms of the 19th century.
19th century In 1816 Alojzy Feliński published
Przyczyny używanej przeze mnie pisowni in
Pisma własne i przekładania wiérszem Aloizego Felińskiego. In it, he suggested the following changes: • Removal of
á in favor of
a. • The usage of
j for instead of
i and
y, except in foreign words: kray ⟶ kraj, iayko ⟶ jajko, moie ⟶ moje. • The usage of
-ć,
-c,
-dz in infinitives: być, piec, módz (modern móc). Then in 1830 the
Warsaw Society of Friends of Learning published
Rozprawy i wnioski o ortografii polskiej, but it did not reach a wider audience. In 1890, the committee
Academy of Learning was established and composed of linguists and other academics. A year later, they published their resolutions, to which
Jan Baudouin de Courtenay,
Aleksander Brückner,
Antoni Kalina,
Jan Karłowicz, and protested. The two groups attempted to reach an agreement through discussions in 1906 led by Jan Baudouin de Courtenay. The following changes were suggested: •
ja instead of
ia,
ya in final syllables. •
gie instead of
ge. •
-im,
-ym as well as
-imi,
-ymi alongside
-emi in masculine adjectives in
instrumental and
locative. •
-c instead of
-dz for some infinitives, for example
móc. • Anterior adverbial participles without internal
ł:
rzekszy,
zjadszy. The
Provisional Council of State requested in 1916 that the following changes be implemented, but the
Lwów Scientific Society voiced opposition, and yet more compromise was to be found in more committees organized in 1917. Finally, in 1918, the following changes were accepted and adopted. • The usage of
j in non-initial syllables was accepted. •
-em,
-emi were to be differentiated from
-ym,
-ymi for instrumental and locative according to an adjective's nominative ending. •
ke and
ge were to be written in loan words, and
kie and
gie were to be written in native and nativized words. •
-c for some infinitives was kept. • Anterior adverbial participles were to be written with an internal
ł:
zjadłszy. However, despite all this, the proposed orthographic changes were not widely accepted, which led to the final reform, which took place in 1936.
1936 reform In 1935, the
Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences initiated a major orthographic reform. The following changes were proposed and implemented: • Strings of consonants +
ja (e.g.
Marja) would now be written with
i instead of
j, except after
c,
s,
z (e.g.
Francja,
pasja,
diecezja). • Removal of the distinction of
-ym,
-ymi and
-em,
-emi in adjectives, leaving only
-ym and
-ymi. • Foreign
ke would be written
kie, but foreign
ge as
ge. • A preference for writing adverbialized prepositional phrases separately (e.g.
na razie). The article also concerns capitalization and punctuation. The changes were met with disapproval. However, through government regulation and implementation in schools, the changes eventually became standard. Since then, only minor changes regarding the spelling of foreign words have been implemented.
2026 reform In May 2024, the
Polish Language Council announced that there will be changes implemented to the Polish orthography. Namely: • Capitalization of
demonyms but allowing alternative case spellings of unofficial ethnic names, mostly colloquial synonyms, e.g.
Warszawianin; but:
kitajec or
Kitajec. • Capitalization of the names of companies and brands of industrial products, but also products of these companies and brands, e.g.
samochód marki Ford (
a car made by the Ford company) and
pod oknem zaparkował czerwony Ford (
a red Ford parked under the window). • Conjunctions and the particles
-bym,
-byś,
-by,
-byśmy,
-byście spelled with a space, e.g.
Zastanawiam się, czy by nie pojechać w góry. • Exceptionless spaceless spelling of
nie- + participles/gerunds, e.g.
niegotowany,
niegotujący. • Lower-case spelling of adjectives ending in
-owski derived from personal names, regardless of meaning (i.e. either belonging to the person as a possession or having characteristics associated with that person), e.g.
utwór mickiewiczowski (meaning either
a work written by Mickiewicz or
a work in the style of Mickiewicz but written by someone else). Those formed with
-ów,
-owy,
-in, and
-yn may be spelled with either an upper-case letter or a lower-case letter, e.g.
jacków dom or
Jacków dom. • Spaceless spelling for the prefix
pół-, e.g.
półzabawa,
półnauka,
półżartem,
półserio,
półspał,
półczuwał, except with proper nouns referring to a single person, e.g.
pół-Polka,
pół-Francuzka. • Terms that sound similar or identical, usually appearing together, now allow for three spelling versions: with a hyphen, e.g.
tuż-tuż,
trzask-prask,
bij-zabij; with a comma, e.g.
tuż, tuż,
trzask, prask,
bij, zabij; or with a space, e.g.
tuż tuż,
trzask prask,
bij zabij. • Changes in the use of capital letters in proper names include: • capital letters for all parts of comet names, e.g.
Kometa Halleya; • (this point was removed in November 2025); • capital letters in the names of public spaces, including the terms
aleja,
brama,
bulwar,
osiedle,
plac,
park,
kopiec,
kościół,
klasztor,
pałac,
willa,
zamek,
most,
molo,
pomnik,
cmentarz, but not
ulica, e.g.
ulica Józefa Piłsudskiego,
Aleja Róż,
Brama Warszawska,
Plac Zbawiciela,
Park Kościuszki,
Kopiec Wandy,
Kościół Mariacki,
Pałac Staszica,
Zamek Książ,
Most Poniatowskiego,
Pomnik Ofiar Getta,
Cmentarz Rakowicki; • capital letters for all elements except prepositions and conjunctions in multi-word names of service and catering establishments, e.g.
Hotel pod Różą,
Zajazd u Kmicica; • capital letters of all elements except prepositions, conjuctions, and the word
imienia (or its abbreviation
im.) in the names of orders, medals, decorations, awards, and honorary titles, e.g.
Nagroda Rektora za Wybitne Osiągnięcia Naukowe,
Nagroda Newsweeka im. Teresy Torańskiej. • Changes in the writing of prefixes include: • prefixed words, of native or foreign origin alike, should be written together, except if the base word is capitalized, in which case a hyphen is added after the prefix, e.g.
superbohater but
super-Polak; • alternative spellings either with or without a space for mostly foreign prefixes, e.g.:
super-,
ekstra-,
eko-,
wege-,
mini-,
maksi-,
midi-,
mega-,
makro-, which can also appear as independent words, e.g.
miniwieża or
mini wieża (as
mini can also function as an invariable adjective as in
wieża mini); • words modified with
niby- and
quasi- should be written together, unless they start with a capital letter, e.g.
quasicząstka but
niby-Anglik. • Adjectives and adjectival adverbs, regardless of
degree, prefixed with
nie- should be written without a space, e.g.
niegorszy and
nienajlepszy. ==See also==