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Polish (endonym: język polski, [ˈjɛ̃zɨk ˈpɔlskʲi] ⓘ, polszczyzna [pɔlˈʂt͡ʂɨzna] ⓘ or simply polski, [ˈpɔlskʲi] ⓘ) is a West Slavic language of the Lechitic group within the Indo-European language family written in the Latin script.
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Slavic languages, group of Indo-European languages spoken in most of eastern Europe, much of the Balkans, parts of central Europe, and the northern part of Asia. The Slavic languages, spoken by some 315 million people at the turn of the 21st century, are most closely related to the languages of the Baltic group (Lithuanian, Latvian, and the now-ext...
The Slavic language group is classified into three branches: (1) the South Slavic branch, with its two subgroups Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian-Slovene and Bulgarian-Macedonian, (2) the West Slavic branch, with its three subgroups Czech-Slovak, Sorbian, and Lekhitic (Polish and related tongues), and (3) the East Slavic branch, comprising Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian.
In the spoken Slavic dialects (as opposed to the sharply differentiated literary languages), the linguistic frontiers are not always apparent. There are transitional dialects that connect the different languages, with the exception of the area where the South Slavs are separated from the other Slavs by the non-Slavic Romanians, Hungarians, and German-speaking Austrians. Even in the latter domain, some vestiges of the old dialectal continuity (between Slovene, Serbian, and Croatian on the one hand and Czech and Slovak on the other) can be traced; similar remnants of the old links are seen in comparing Bulgarian and Russian dialects.
Thus, it should be noted that the traditional family tree of the Slavic group with three separate branches is not to be taken as the real model of historical development. It would be more realistic to represent the historical development as a process in which tendencies to differentiate and to reintegrate the dialects have been continuously at work, bringing about a remarkable degree of uniformity throughout the Slavic area.
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Still it would be an exaggeration to suppose that communication between any two Slavs is possible without any linguistic complications. The myriad differences between the dialects and languages in phonetics, grammar, and, above all, vocabulary may cause misunderstandings even in the simplest of conversations; and the difficulties are greater in the language of journalism, technical usage, and belles lettres, even in the case of closely connected languages. Thus, Russian zelënyj ‘green’ is recognizable to all Slavs, but krasnyj ‘red’ means ‘beautiful’ in the other languages. In Serbian and Croatian vrijedan means ‘hard-working,’ but Russian vrednyj means ‘harmful.’ Suknja is ‘skirt’ in Serbian and Croatian, ‘coat’ in Slovene. The month listopad is October in Croatian, November in Polish and Czech.
May 21, 2024 · Polish language, West Slavic language belonging to the Lekhitic subgroup and closely related to Czech, Slovak, and the Sorbian languages of eastern Germany; it is spoken by the majority of the present population of Poland. The modern literary language, written in the Roman (Latin) alphabet, dates.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
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The Slavic languages, also known as the Slavonic languages, are Indo-European languages spoken primarily by the Slavic peoples and their descendants. They are thought to descend from a proto-language called Proto-Slavic, spoken during the Early Middle Ages, which in turn is thought to have descended from the earlier Proto-Balto-Slavic language, linking the Slavic languages to the Baltic ...
Polish ( język polski, polszczyzna) is the official language of Poland. It is the most common Western Slavic language and the second Slavic language, after Russian . Polish has been an important language in Central and Eastern Europe. Polish is now spoken by over 43.5 million people as their first language in Poland.
Polish is a West Slavic language spoken mainly in Poland, and in quite a few other countries, by about 40 million people. ... Polish is a West Slavonic language ...
Poland - Slavic, Germanic, Baltic: The country’s official language, Polish (together with other Lekhitic languages and Czech, Slovak, and Upper and Lower Sorbian), belongs to the West Slavic branch of Slavic languages. It has several dialects that correspond in the main to the old tribal divisions; the most significant of these (in terms of numbers of speakers) are Great Polish (spoken in ...
