Polish Alphabet
(moving across from left to right)

"s" is sometimes written like a "f" in old cursive style found in church records
Morofki = Moroski
town of Sasfów = Sassów

When looking at English or other non-Polish documents, you may find the following occurrences.

The Polish letter "ł" (which sounds like the English "w") is transcribed into English like an "l" or like a "w".  You may find it as a "t" because a non-Polish speaking clerk mistook the "ł" to be a "t".

The Polish nasal vowels "ą" and "ę" may be transcribed into English simply as "a" and "e".  Or because of the sound heard by a non-Polish speaking person, "ą" may be transcribed as "an", "on" or "am", "om".  And then "ę" may be transcribed as "en" or "em".

Examples:

Lech Wałęsa is pronounced in English as "Va-wen-sa"
The last name Bąkowski may have been changed to Bankowski or Bonkowski or Bakowski in English.  The -an /-on  would show that the Polish nasal vowel sound has been retained.
 

Ukrainian Alphabet
(moving across from left to right)

It’s written in the Cyrillic alphabet. (Although there was a movement in the 19^th century to use the Polish alphabet and spelling rules as the basis.)

If you know the Russian alphabet, note the following important differences:

• Ukrainian I is Russian И
   
• Ukrainian И is Russian Ы
   
• the Ukrainian letters i,  ї  (i-with two dots) and  є (ye) are not found in Russian
   
• the Russian letters ы,   э,   ё,   ъ (hard sign) are not found in Ukrainian
   
• the Ukrainian г is always pronounced as a voiced h, and not like a g  sound as in Russian
   

• the Ukrainian ґ was popularly used in Soviet times for the g  sound in foreign words
   

• the "hard sign" is denoted in Ukrainian as an apostrophe ('), whereas in Russian it's the letter "ъ"
   
• the Ukrainian e is not iotated, meaning it does not have the slight "y" sound in front of it as does the Russian e.  The Ukrainian e is more like the Polish e.
   
• Ukrainians use є for the iotated "ye" sound.

   

For more language tricks played on Polish and Ukrainian spelling, visit my page on Passenger Lists.  There I describe some various spellings one could use when searching for relatives in Passenger Lists (or any other English language resource).