What will the RJP changes give us? First “shock and disbelief”, then the voice of reason [KOMENTARZ]

First impressions after visiting the website of the Polish Language Council? Shock and disbelief, crying and gnashing of teeth. Okay, I’m hyperbolizing a bit, but the fact remains that the changes announced by RJP are really big. The linguistic equivalent of a proper tsunami. On the one hand, they are supposed to sort out the chaos, but on the other, they are upending the order to which we have been attached for several decades.

The changes are listed in eleven points, all of which can be read and . A very detailed justification of the changes and a description of the spelling rules was published by RJP, which I encourage you to read, because it is worth it!

Lots of changes, fewer mistakes

Which changes do I think are most beneficial for language users? The fourth point comes to the fore, i.e. “Establishing exception-free combined spelling ‘not-‘ with inflected participles (regardless of the meaning interpretation: verb or adjectival), i.e. abolishing the exception allowing conscious separate spelling.” There will no longer be a problem with wondering, for example, whether someone is a “non-smoker” or “non-smoker”, you will no longer have to decide on modern or slightly archaic spelling. The problem will solve itself – we will write everything together.

The second point will undoubtedly also be beneficial, i.e. “capitalizing not only the names of companies and brands of industrial products, but also individual items of these products.” From January 1, 2026, we will write “Opel car” and “I drove a white Opel” (for now, we have to write “Opel car”, “I drove a white Opel”). I can confidently say that over 90 percent of the authors I work with today make this mistake; this is a sign that the principle is dead.

Point 11 gave me a small heart attack, i.e. “Introduction of the joint spelling ‘not-‘ with adjectives and adverbial adverbs regardless of the degree category, i.e. also in the comparative and superlative degrees.” However, I quickly decided that it had arms and legs; thanks to this, the school rule that “no” and adjectives are written together will finally make 100% sense.

Local patriots will certainly enjoy the first point, i.e. “capitalizing the names of the inhabitants of cities and their districts, housing estates and villages, e.g. ‘Warszawianin’, ‘Ochocianka’, ‘Mokotowianin’, ‘Nowohucianin’, ‘Łęczyczanin’, ‘Chochołowianin’ “. It must be admitted that the current rule, i.e. “Pole”, but “inhabitant of Koszalin”, is not intuitive. From January 1, 2026, this problem will no longer exist.

LOOK:

Colossal changes are also introduced by point eight, which concerns the use of capital letters in proper names. From 2026, it will be correct to write “Plac Zbawiciela” (now we write the “plac” part with a lowercase letter), and, for example, “Nobel Prize” will also be capitalized in both parts. This will make life easier and writing more enjoyable. It is also a slight nod to the influence of the English language on . Accustomed to “Nobel Prize”, we instinctively write “” instead of “Nobel Prize”.

RJP rose to the challenge

I admit that when I saw the announcement of the new rules, I was not thrilled (euphemism!). I thought that years of correcting, monitoring and teaching myself and others had gone to waste. After a while, however, I calmed down and looked at it all much more favorably. Language is alive. And that’s how it should be. By announcing the latest changes, RJP has proven that it is ready to follow us, the users of the language, and not the ossified rules.

In a statement, RJP justifies the changes with “benefits in the form of simplification and standardization of words and connections, elimination of exceptions, and elimination of provisions whose application is problematic for various reasons, e.g. requiring the writer to analyze the meaning of the text too minutely.” This is intended to make Poles make fewer mistakes. I’m sure this will actually happen.

However, it cannot be denied that the changes involve numerous problems. Dictionaries and textbooks for the Polish language will have to be updated, pupils, students, teachers and lecturers will have to adapt to the new features. But what is not done for the mother tongue?

I am curious whether RJP will introduce further changes in the coming years. If so, I hope that they will concern participle equivalents of sentences, which pose a lot of difficulties for Polish users. Or maybe a language campaign instead of changes? Participle sentence equivalents on billboards – that would be something!