consonant, as in wet). This pronunciation first appeared among Polish lower classes in the 16th century. It was considered an uncultured accent by the upper classes (who pronounced as ) until the mid-20th century when this distinction gradually began to fade. The shift from to in Polish has affected all instances of dark L, even word-initially or intervocalically, e.g. ładny ("pretty, nice") is pronounced , słowo ("word") is , and ciało ("body") is . Ł often alternates with clear L, such as the plural forms of adjectives and verbs in the past tense that are associated with masculine personal nouns, e.g. mały → mali ( → ). Alternation is also common in declension of nouns, e.g. from nominative to locative, tło → na tle ( → ). Polish final Ł also often corresponds to Ukrainian word-final Ve (Cyrillic) and Belarusian Short U (Cyrillic). Thus, "he gave" is "dał" in Polish, "дав" in Ukrainian, "даў" in Belarusian (all pronounced ), but "дал" in Russian. Examples Notable figures Marie Skłodowska Curie, a scientist awarded the Nobel prize in both physics and chemistry, who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. Karol Józef Wojtyła (), John Paul II, Pope of the Catholic Church from 1978 to 2005 Kazimierz Pułaski (), known in English as Casimir Pulaski, a Polish soldier and commander, a brigadier general in the Continental Army cavalry during American Revolutionary War Ignacy Łukasiewicz (), the inventor of the modern paraffin lamp Jan Łukasiewicz (), the inventor of Polish notation Lech Wałęsa (), Polish labor leader and former president Stanisław Lem ( or ), Polish writer of science fiction, philosophy, and satire, and a trained physician Wisława Szymborska (), a Polish poet and recipient of the 1996 Nobel Prize in Literature Witold Lutosławski, Polish composer Wacław Sierpiński (), Polish mathematician Some examples of words with 'ł': Władysław Wisła (Vistula) Łódź Łukasz (Lucas / Luke) Michał (Michael) Złoty (zloty / golden) In contexts where Ł is not readily available as a glyph, basic L is used instead. Thus, the surname Małecki would be spelled Malecki in a foreign country. Similarly, the stroke is sometimes omitted on the internet, as may happen with all diacritic-enhanced letters. Leaving out the diacritic does not impede communication for native speakers. In the 1980s, when some computers available in Poland lacked Polish diacritics, it was common practice to use a pound sterling sign (£) for Ł. This practice ceased as