The Polish Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Prof. Piotr Wilczek commented on a recent article in the Times that described the amazing performance of the young Polish Opera star Jakub Józef Orliński. In his remarks, the ambassador called the newspaper to pay attention to Polish grammar regarding the artist’s name. 

As it happens in many English-language articles about Poles the newspaper left Orliński’s name and surname with no diacritical marks, as required by the Polish grammar standards. 

“@thetimes, please include diacritical marks in Jakub Józef Orliński’s name. Given that Polish is the UK’s second most spoken language, respecting diacritics would be greatly appreciated. After all, ó is not o and ń is not n,” the ambassador said in his comment on X. 

The ambassador pointed out the fact that the Polish diacritics are key in the right name pronunciation and that the mentioned letters constitute completely different marks in the Polish alphabet. 

Photo: British Poles

Tomasz Modrzejewski