Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Poland-related articles

This page lists style and naming conventions that have been adopted for articles on Poland-related subjects. Please discuss proposed significant changes at the talk page, announcing them at the Poland project talk page.

Orthography

For the naming of articles follow the advice in Wikipedia:Naming conventions policy and the Wikipedia:Naming conventions (use English) guideline. For the use within articles follow the advice in the section "Non-English terms" in the Manual of Style. When applying the above, preference should be given to sources specialised in the subject rather than general news articles. Favour the use of Polish spelling and diacritics to ensure accuracy and respect for the subject unless there is established usage in verifiable reliable sources in English. Notice that emigrants may have adopted naturalized spellings of their names, e.g. Stanislaw Ulam (rather than "Stanisław") or Frédéric Chopin, not "Fryderyk".

In rare cases, certain world-famous individuals or places have preferred alternative names in English (Copernicus, Pope John Paul II, Casimir Pulaski, Warsaw – use those, not the Polish ones). In other rare cases when both Polish and English alternative names exist and are roughly as popular, use the Polish variant (so not Cracow, but Kraków).

Pronunciation

The template {{IPA}} can be used to implement the IPA pronunciation. The addition of the parameter "lang" in the template will shorten the displayed text from "Polish pronunciation:" to simply "Polish". The template should be places inside the parenthesizes after the name of the locality. For full details see IPAc-pl and IPA. The example use of the template is:

• '''Nakło nad Notecią''' ({{IPA|pl|ˈnakwɔ ˌnad nɔˈtɛt͡ɕɔ̃}}) or ({{IPA|pl|ˈnakwɔ ˌnad nɔˈtɛt͡ɕɔ̃|lang}}) which will produce:
  • Nakło nad Notecią (Polish pronunciation: [ˈnakwɔ ˌnad nɔˈtɛt͡ɕɔ̃]) or (Polish: [ˈnakwɔ ˌnad nɔˈtɛt͡ɕɔ̃])

The template {{IPAc-pl}} can also be used to generate phonetic transcriptions without the need to type in the IPA symbols. The transcription automatically links to the explanatory page Help:IPA/Polish. To do this, the words should be respell using the Polish letters or digraphs that represent the exact sounds, spaces between words replaced by hyphens, and apostrophes inserted before stressed syllables (commas before secondary stress). In the template, characters or digraphs are separated with pipes. It should be noted, the IPA transcription will be generated without any annotation to it referring specifically to Polish language, as opposed to others, such as English or similarly looking Slavic languages. Note that articles may sometimes also include the common English pronunciations of the name, or the name itself may be represented differently in numerous languages. The example use of the template is:

• '''Nakło nad Notecią''' ({{IPAc-pl|'|n|a|k|ł|o|-|,|n|a|d|-|n|o|'|t|e|ć|ą}}) which will produce:
  • Nakło nad Notecią ([ˈnakwɔ ˌnad nɔˈtɛt͡ɕɔ̃])

If an audio file is available, use the following syntax (adding "AUD" and the filename):

• '''Szczecin''' ({{IPA|pl|ˈʂt͡ʂɛt͡ɕin|Pl-Szczecin-2.ogg}}) will produce:
  • Szczecin (Polish pronunciation: [ˈʂt͡ʂɛt͡ɕin])
• '''Szczecin''' ({{IPAc-pl|AUD|Pl-Szczecin-2.ogg|'|sz|cz|e|ci|n}}) will produce
  • Szczecin ([ˈʂt͡ʂɛt͡ɕin] ^ⓘ)

Places

Main guideline Wikipedia:Naming conventions (geographic names)

English usage for places within the present borders of Poland is usually the present official name of the place in Polish, but there are exceptions, such as Warsaw, the Vistula and Silesia. When a city or other place is mentioned in a historical context, if there is no common English name for it in that historical period and context, use the appropriate historical name with the current Polish name in parentheses (if it is not the same word) the first time the place is mentioned.

Administrative divisions

Województwo is generally translated "voivodeship". The names of voivodeships are the common name in English. Most voivodeships use their English name, except for a few such as Podkarpackie, after a June 2026 discussion determined the common name is Podkarpackie, as oppose to Subcarpathian. If a link is required for "voivodeship", it is normally appropriate to make a piped link to Voivodeships of Poland rather than the less specific article Voivodeship.

Powiat is generally translated "county" (except where more precise language is needed). Names of counties are translated into English (Poznań County, Łódź East County, Tatra County and so on).

Gmina is not translated, but should be explained in article text. Names of gminas take their original Polish form, and are disambiguated (if necessary) in the same way as villages (see below). They are however capitalized ("Gmina Suchy Las" rather than "gmina Suchy Las") in line with English convention.

Sołectwo is not usually translated, but should be explained or linked when it appears. Dzielnica is often translated as "district", and smaller subdivisions of towns as "neighbourhood", but links to the articles dzielnica and osiedle may be useful. If plurals are needed for such words, English plurals (in -s) are preferred.

Towns and villages

It should never be implied that there is any formal distinction between towns and cities in Poland. Smaller miasta may be referred to as towns, larger ones as cities; when referring to them collectively it may be clearer to write "cities and towns".

In article titles, any disambiguating tags use commas rather than parentheses, e.g. Głęboczek, Greater Poland Voivodeship, except as stated below. The following rules apply:

• If the name is unique among Wikipedia topics or the settlement is the primary topic for that name, no tag is used. A town or city is considered primary with respect to Polish villages of the same name (unless there is a compelling reason to do otherwise).
• If the settlement is unique or primary within Poland, but not within Wikipedia as a whole, use "Poland" as the tag (e.g. Hel, Poland).
• If disambiguation within Poland is required, use the name of the voivodeship or, if that is not sufficient, the name of the county (powiat) or, if even that is not sufficient, the name of the gmina. If there are two places of the same name within a gmina, use neighbouring villages as disambiguating tags, but place them in parentheses.
• In rare cases where the above methods are inadequate, use generic tags in parentheses (e.g. Wolin (town), to distinguish from the better-known island on which it lies).

Parts of cities or towns are named using a similar scheme, with the city's name after a comma, as in Grunwald, Poznań. If disambiguation is not required, then the district's name appears on its own, as in Winogrady.

Rivers

The great majority of rivers in Poland are best known under their Polish names (e.g. Noteć, Warta), although the Wisła is known in English as the Vistula. The Odra and Nysa Łużycka are better known in English as the Oder and Neisse (their articles are titled Oder and Lusatian Neisse), but their Polish names should also be given where relevant to the context.

When naming articles on rivers, if the name of the river alone is ambiguous, add "(river)" after it, as in Pilica (river). See also the general river naming rules. Check existing article names when making links to them, as some have additional disambiguators.

Similar rules apply to lakes and other natural features.

Stations

Main page: Wikipedia:Naming conventions (Polish stations)

Names of stations should be in their Polish language name, followed by "railway station" for railway stations, "metro station" for Warsaw Metro stations, and "bus station" for bus stations. If multiple of these suffixes apply, then it should be simply "station", although splitting should be considered if the article gets too large.

Railways

Typically, the titles of railway lines in Poland should use the names of the two termini stations or end points followed by "railway", rather than the line number. For example, Miłkowice–Jasień railway should be used instead of Railway line 282. The line number should be included in the infobox, and a redirect from the line number may also be created, subject to any potential naming or disambiguation conflicts with other railways.

There are exceptions to what would be considered historical railways, such as the Upper Silesian Railway, which now forms the Wrocław–Bytom, Kędzierzyn Koźle–Opole Groszowice, Katowice–Legnica, and Oświęcim–Katowice railways. In this case of historical railways, the common name policy applies, or a translation from the native name, Oberschlesische Eisenbahn.

Railway lines that terminate at main railway stations, such as the Wrocław Główny–Poznań Główny railway, should be shortened to the names of just the station, which would create Wrocław–Poznań railway, albeit a redirect is created for the longer name.

See also

• Wikipedia:Naming conventions (geographic names)
• Wikipedia:Naming conventions (use English)