about the Polish language

[pirxowa]

What's doń? I figure it's probably the genitive plural of something, but I don't know what...

"doń" is a shorter form of "do niego/do niej". It sounds a little bit archaic and poetic.

[innate]

Ah...  Thanks as always...

[Miranda]

Which novels use "archaic and poetic" language, which do not? And what is complicated about Golem XIV in detail? The terminology, the structure of the sentences?
Are there passages or books you know where Lem uses very colloquial expressions or language?

[Terminus]

Well, the 'archaic & poetic' style, as you described it, appears in The Tales of the Robots (aka Mortal Engines + Cosmic Carnival). Also, partly, in Cyberiad.

As for Golem XIV, yes, the difficulties lie in the terminology. Mostly because he uses words that may be hard to understand for most people. Also, the logical structure of the language Golem uses may be hard to follow, as it is very complex.

As for colloquialisms, I don't recall to many examples.  

[innate]

Where does the word bohater come from, that is, what is its etymology?

[BTW, Terminus, I just noticed that you mentioned Cosmic Carnival. That book was sort of a Lem 'sampler', short stories and chapters from here and there. I don't think it has anything that we don't have available in some other book.]

[mia]

[ "Czytajcie Lema, lepszego nie ma!". Huh?

Read Lem, Whos better, ehm?

[pirxowa]

Where does the word bohater come from, that is, what is its etymology?

Very ancient and complicated...
http://www.historycy.org/index.php?showtopic=8392&pid=113511&st=45&#entry113511
(I hope you understand their explanations in Polish.)

However http://www.northvegr.org/lore/grimmst/015_01.php claims something a little bit different... (see Endnote 8 ).

Anyway, this word is much older than Polish language and comes from the times when we lived somewhere in Asia :-)

[Pekka]

Latin: Are there places where it is still routinely taught? I always have to skip over the expressions. Speaking of which, I saw that Ritch was recently considering gathering them and coming up with translations. Sounds like a good idea to me.

I can proudly inform you that the Finnish broadcasting company is the only onw on Earth broadcasting news bulletins in Latin!

Pekka