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The West Slavs are Slavic peoples who speak the West Slavic languages. They separated from the common Slavic group around the 7th century, and established independent polities in Central Europe by the 8th to 9th centuries. The West Slavic languages diversified into their historically attested forms over the 10th to 14th centuries.
Słowianie zachodni (Polish) Západní Slované (Czech) Západní Slovania (Slovak) Zôpôdni Słowiónie (Kashubian) Pódwjacorne Słowjany (Lower Sorbian) Zapadni Słowjenjo (Upper Sorbian) Zachodniy Słowjońe (Silesian) | |
|---|---|
 Countries where a West Slavic language is the national language Countries where other Slavic languages are the national language | |
| Total population | |
| see #Population | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Central Europe | |
| Religion | |
| Catholicism (Poles, Slovaks, Silesians, Kashubians, Moravians, and Sorbs and minority among Czechs) Protestantism (minority among Sorbs) Irreligion (majority among Czechs)[citation needed] | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Other Slavs |
Today, groups which speak West Slavic languages include the Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Silesians, Kashubians, and Sorbs. From the ninth century onwards, most West Slavs converted to Roman Catholicism, thus coming under the cultural influence of the Latin Church, adopting the Latin alphabet, and tending to be more closely integrated into cultural and intellectual developments in western Europe than the East Slavs, who converted to Eastern Orthodox Christianity and adopted the Cyrillic alphabet.
Linguistically, the West Slavic group can be divided into three subgroups: Lechitic, including Polish, Silesian, Kashubian, and the extinct Polabian and Pomeranian languages; Sorbian in the region of Lusatia; and Czecho–Slovak in the Czech lands.
History
In the Early Middle Ages, the name "Wends" (probably derived from the Roman-era Veneti) may have applied to Slavic peoples. However, sources such as the Chronicle of Fredegar and Paul the Deacon are neither clear nor consistent in their ethnographic terminology, and whether "Wends" or "Veneti" refer to Slavic people, pre-Slavic people, or to a territory rather than a population, is a matter of scholarly debate.
The early Slavic expansion reached Central Europe in the 7th century, and the West Slavic dialects diverged from common Slavic over the following centuries. The West Slavic tribes settled on the eastern fringes of the Carolingian Empire, along the Limes Saxoniae. Prior to the Magyar invasion of Pannonia in the 890s, the West Slavic polity of Great Moravia spanned much of Central Europe between what is now Eastern Germany and Western Romania. In the high medieval period, the West Slavic tribes were again pushed to the east by the incipient German Ostsiedlung, decisively so following the Wendish Crusade in the 11th century.
The early Slavic expansion began in the 5th century, and by the 6th century the groups that would become the West, East, and South Slavic groups had probably become geographically separated.[citation needed] One of the distinguishing features of the West Slavic tribes was manifested in the structure of the Pagan sanctuaries of the closed (long) type, while the East Slavic sanctuaries had a round (most often open) shape (see also: Peryn). Early modern historiographers such as Penzel (1777) and Palacky (1827) have claimed Samo's Empire to be first independent Slavic state in history by taking Fredegar's Wendish account at face value. Curta (1997) argued that the text is not as straightforward: according to Fredegar, Wends were a gens, Sclavini merely a genus, and there was no "Slavic" gens. He further states that "Wends occur particularly in political contexts: the Wends, not the Slavs, made Samo their king."
Other such alleged early West Slavic states include the Principality of Moravia (8th century–833), the Principality of Nitra (8th century–833), and Great Moravia (833–c. 907).[citation needed] Christiansen (1997) identified the following West Slav tribes in the 11th century from "the coastlands and hinterland from the aby of Kiel to the Vistula, including the islands of Fehmarn, Poel, Rügen, Usedom and Wollin", namely the Wagrians, Obodrites (or Abotrites), the Polabians, the Liutizians or Wilzians, the Rugians or Rani, the Sorbs, the Lusatians, the Poles, and the Pomeranians (later divided into Pomerelians and Cassubians). They came under the domination of the Holy Roman Empire after the Wendish Crusade[citation needed] in the Middle Ages and had been strongly assimilated by Germans at the end of the 19th century.[citation needed] The Polabian language survived until the beginning of the 19th century in what is now the German state of Lower Saxony.
Groupings
Various attempts have been made to group the West Slavs into subgroups according to various criteria, including geography, historical tribes, and linguistics.
Bavarian Geographer grouping
In 845 the Bavarian Geographer made a list of West Slavic tribes who lived in the areas of modern-day Poland, Czech Republic, Germany and Denmark:
| Pos. | Latin name in 845 | English name | no. of gords |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nortabtrezi | North Obotrites | 53 |
| 2 | Uuilci | Veleti | 95 |
| 7 | Hehfeldi | Hevellians | 8 |
| 14 | Osterabtrezi | East Obotrites | 100 |
| 15 | Miloxi | Milceni | 67 |
| 16 | Phesnuzi | Besunzane | 70 |
| 17 | Thadesi | Dadosesani | 200 |
| 18 | Glopeani | Goplans | 400 |
| 33 | Lendizi | Lendians | 98 |
| 34 | Thafnezi | / | 257 |
| 36 | Prissani | Prissani | 70 |
| 37 | Uelunzani | Wolinians | 70 |
| 38 | Bruzi | / | |
| 48 | Uuislane | Vistulans | / |
| 49 | Sleenzane | Silesians | 15 |
| 50 | Lunsizi | Sorbs | 30 |
| 51 | Dadosesani | Thadesi | 20 |
| 52 | Milzane | Milceni | 30 |
| 53 | Besunzane | Phesnuzi | 2 |
| 56 | Lupiglaa | Łupigoła | 30 |
| 57 | Opolini | Opolans | 20 |
| 58 | Golensizi | Golensizi | 5 |
Tribal grouping
- Lechitic group
- Poles
- Masovians
- Polans
- Lendians
- Vistulans
- Silesians
- Pomeranians
- Slovincians
- Kashubians
- Polabians
- Obodrites/Abodrites
- Obotrites proper
- Wagrians
- Warnower
- Polabians proper
- Linonen
- Drevani
- Veleti (Wilzi), succeeded by Lutici (Liutici)
- Kissini (Kessiner, Chizzinen, Kyzziner)
- Circipani (Zirzipanen)
- Tollensians
- Ucri (Ukr(an)i, Ukranen)
- Rani (Rujani)
- Hevelli (Stodorani)
- Volinians (Velunzani)
- Pyritzans (Prissani)
- Obodrites/Abodrites
- Czech–Slovak group
- Czechs
- Moravians
- Slovaks
- Sorbian group
- Milceni (Upper Sorbs)
- Lusatian Sorbs (Lower Sorbs)
Linguistic grouping
- Lechitic group
- Polans
- Lendians
- Silesians
- Wends
- Sorbs
- Vistulans
- Polabians
- Obodrites
- Slovincians
- Kashubians
- Gorals(Highlanders)
- Czech–Slovak group
- Czechs
- Bohemians
- Moravians
- Slovaks
- Czechs
Population
See also
- Slavic peoples
- List of Slavic studies journals
- Czechization
- Polonization
- Slovakization
- East Slavs
- South Slavs
- Outline of Slavic history and culture
References
- Ilya Gavritukhin, Vladimir Petrukhin (2015). Yury Osipov (ed.). Slavs. Great Russian Encyclopedia (in 35 vol.) Vol. 30. pp. 388–389. Archived from the original on 2022-08-03. Retrieved 2022-08-03.
- Gołąb, Zbigniew (1992). The Origins of the Slavs: A Linguist's View. Columbus, Ohio: Slavica Publishers. pp. 12–13.
The present-day Slavic peoples are usually divided into the three following groups: West Slavic, East Slavic, and South Slavic. This division has both linguistic and historico-geographical justification, in the sense that on the one hand the respective Slavic languages show some old features which unite them into the above three groups, and on the other hand the pre- and early historical migrations of the respective Slavic peoples distributed them geographically in just this way.
- Sergey Skorvid (2015). Yury Osipov (ed.). Slavic languages. Great Russian Encyclopedia (in 35 vol.) Vol. 30. pp. 396–397–389. Archived from the original on 2019-09-04. Retrieved 2022-08-03.
- Butcher, Charity (2019). The handbook of cross-border ethnic and religious affinities. London. p. 90. ISBN 9781442250222.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Vico, Giambattista (2004). Statecraft : the deeds of Antonio Carafa = (De rebus gestis Antonj Caraphaei). New York: P. Lang. p. 374. ISBN 9780820468280.
- Hart, Anne (2003). The beginner's guide to interpreting ethnic DNA origins for family history : how Ashkenazi, Sephardi, Mizrahi & Europeans are related to everyone else. New York, N.Y.: iUniverse. p. 57. ISBN 9780595283064.
- Wiarda, Howard J. (2013). Culture and foreign policy : the neglected factor in international relations. Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate. p. 39. ISBN 9781317156048.
- Dunn, Dennis J. (2017). The Catholic Church and Soviet Russia, 1917-39. New York. pp. 8–9. ISBN 9781315408859.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Bohemia and Poland. Chapter 20.pp 512-513. [in:] Timothy Reuter. The New Cambridge Medieval History: c. 900 – c. 1024. 2000
- Curta 1997, p. 141–144, 152–153.
- Sedov 1953, p. 94.
- Curta 1997, p. 143.
- Curta 1997, p. 152–153.
- Curta 1997, p. 152.
- Christiansen, Erik (1997). The Northern Crusades Archived 2023-10-06 at the Wayback Machine. London: Penguin Books. p. 41. ISBN 0-14-026653-4.
- "Polabian language". Archived from the original on 2020-02-24. Retrieved 2009-01-05.
- Krzysztof Tomasz Witczak (2013). "Poselstwo ruskie w państwie niemieckim w roku 839: Kulisy śledztwa w świetle danych Geografa Bawarskiego". Slavia Orientalis (in Polish and English). 62 (1): 25–43. Archived from the original on 2022-03-11. Retrieved 2017-12-04.
- Jerzy Strzelczyk. Bohemia and Poland: two examples of successful western Slavonic state-formation. In: Timothy Reuter ed. The New Cambridge Medieval History: c. 900-c. 1024. Cambridge University Press. 1995. p. 514.
Bibliography
- Gołąb, Zbigniew (1992). The Origins of the Slavs: A Linguist's View. Columbus, Ohio: Slavica Publishers. pp. 12–13.
- Curta, Florin (1997). "Slavs in Fredegar and Paul the Deacon: medieval gens or 'scourge of God'?" (PDF). Early Medieval Europe. 6 (2). Blackwell Publishers: 141–167. doi:10.1111/1468-0254.00009. S2CID 162269231. Retrieved 17 August 2022.
While being traditionally regarded, at least in Polish historiography, as forefathers of the western Slavs, and therefore successors of the Veneti mentioned by Pliny, Tacitus, or Claudius Ptolemaeus, recent studies argue that the name may have not been a self-designation. By calling the Slavs 'Wends', German-speaking groups may have alluded to a pre-Slavic population. It is, however, not clear how an ancient terminology came to be used in the case of the early medieval Slavs. (...) [There may be] a meaning behind Fredegar's presumably inconsistent ethnic vocabulary. Perhaps 'Wends' and 'Sclavenes' are meant to denote a specific social and political configuration, in which such concepts as 'state' or 'ethnicity' are relevant, while 'Slavs' is a more general term, used in a territorial rather than an ethnic sense; Samo as a merchant went in Sclauos to do business...
- Sergey Skorvid (2015). Yury Osipov (ed.). Slavic languages. Great Russian Encyclopedia (in 35 vol.) Vol. 30. pp. 396–397–389. Archived from the original on 2019-09-04. Retrieved 2022-08-03.
- Ilya Gavritukhin, Vladimir Petrukhin (2015). Yury Osipov (ed.). Slavs. Great Russian Encyclopedia (in 35 vol.) Vol. 30. pp. 388–389. Archived from the original on 2022-08-03. Retrieved 2022-08-03.
- Sedov, Vasili (1953). "Drevneslavănskoe yazyčeskoe svătilişe v Peryni". Kratkie Soobşeniă Instituta Istorii Materialnoy Kultury (in Russian) (50): 92–103.
This article needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources West Slavs news newspapers books scholar JSTOR June 2022 Learn how and when to remove this message The West Slavs are Slavic peoples who speak the West Slavic languages They separated from the common Slavic group around the 7th century and established independent polities in Central Europe by the 8th to 9th centuries The West Slavic languages diversified into their historically attested forms over the 10th to 14th centuries West SlavsSlowianie zachodni Polish Zapadni Slovane Czech Zapadni Slovania Slovak Zopodni Slowionie Kashubian Podwjacorne Slowjany Lower Sorbian Zapadni Slowjenjo Upper Sorbian Zachodniy Slowjone Silesian Countries where a West Slavic language is the national language Countries where other Slavic languages are the national languageTotal populationsee PopulationRegions with significant populationsCentral EuropeReligionCatholicism Poles Slovaks Silesians Kashubians Moravians and Sorbs and minority among Czechs Protestantism minority among Sorbs Irreligion majority among Czechs citation needed Related ethnic groupsOther Slavs Today groups which speak West Slavic languages include the Poles Czechs Slovaks Silesians Kashubians and Sorbs From the ninth century onwards most West Slavs converted to Roman Catholicism thus coming under the cultural influence of the Latin Church adopting the Latin alphabet and tending to be more closely integrated into cultural and intellectual developments in western Europe than the East Slavs who converted to Eastern Orthodox Christianity and adopted the Cyrillic alphabet Linguistically the West Slavic group can be divided into three subgroups Lechitic including Polish Silesian Kashubian and the extinct Polabian and Pomeranian languages Sorbian in the region of Lusatia and Czecho Slovak in the Czech lands HistoryReconstruction of the Slavic temple in Gross RadenSlavic tribes from the 7th to 9th centuries AD in Europe In the Early Middle Ages the name Wends probably derived from the Roman era Veneti may have applied to Slavic peoples However sources such as the Chronicle of Fredegar and Paul the Deacon are neither clear nor consistent in their ethnographic terminology and whether Wends or Veneti refer to Slavic people pre Slavic people or to a territory rather than a population is a matter of scholarly debate The early Slavic expansion reached Central Europe in the 7th century and the West Slavic dialects diverged from common Slavic over the following centuries The West Slavic tribes settled on the eastern fringes of the Carolingian Empire along the Limes Saxoniae Prior to the Magyar invasion of Pannonia in the 890s the West Slavic polity of Great Moravia spanned much of Central Europe between what is now Eastern Germany and Western Romania In the high medieval period the West Slavic tribes were again pushed to the east by the incipient German Ostsiedlung decisively so following the Wendish Crusade in the 11th century The early Slavic expansion began in the 5th century and by the 6th century the groups that would become the West East and South Slavic groups had probably become geographically separated citation needed One of the distinguishing features of the West Slavic tribes was manifested in the structure of the Pagan sanctuaries of the closed long type while the East Slavic sanctuaries had a round most often open shape see also Peryn Early modern historiographers such as Penzel 1777 and Palacky 1827 have claimed Samo s Empire to be first independent Slavic state in history by taking Fredegar s Wendish account at face value Curta 1997 argued that the text is not as straightforward according to Fredegar Wends were a gens Sclavini merely a genus and there was no Slavic gens He further states that Wends occur particularly in political contexts the Wends not the Slavs made Samo their king Other such alleged early West Slavic states include the Principality of Moravia 8th century 833 the Principality of Nitra 8th century 833 and Great Moravia 833 c 907 citation needed Christiansen 1997 identified the following West Slav tribes in the 11th century from the coastlands and hinterland from the aby of Kiel to the Vistula including the islands of Fehmarn Poel Rugen Usedom and Wollin namely the Wagrians Obodrites or Abotrites the Polabians the Liutizians or Wilzians the Rugians or Rani the Sorbs the Lusatians the Poles and the Pomeranians later divided into Pomerelians and Cassubians They came under the domination of the Holy Roman Empire after the Wendish Crusade citation needed in the Middle Ages and had been strongly assimilated by Germans at the end of the 19th century citation needed The Polabian language survived until the beginning of the 19th century in what is now the German state of Lower Saxony GroupingsLatin Wikisource has original text related to this article Geographus Bavarus Various attempts have been made to group the West Slavs into subgroups according to various criteria including geography historical tribes and linguistics Bavarian Geographer grouping In 845 the Bavarian Geographer made a list of West Slavic tribes who lived in the areas of modern day Poland Czech Republic Germany and Denmark Pos Latin name in 845 English name no of gords1 Nortabtrezi North Obotrites 532 Uuilci Veleti 957 Hehfeldi Hevellians 814 Osterabtrezi East Obotrites 10015 Miloxi Milceni 6716 Phesnuzi Besunzane 7017 Thadesi Dadosesani 20018 Glopeani Goplans 40033 Lendizi Lendians 9834 Thafnezi 25736 Prissani Prissani 7037 Uelunzani Wolinians 7038 Bruzi 48 Uuislane Vistulans 49 Sleenzane Silesians 1550 Lunsizi Sorbs 3051 Dadosesani Thadesi 2052 Milzane Milceni 3053 Besunzane Phesnuzi 256 Lupiglaa Lupigola 3057 Opolini Opolans 2058 Golensizi Golensizi 5Tribal grouping West Slav tribes in the 9th and 10th centuriesLechitic groupPoles Masovians Polans Lendians Vistulans Silesians PomeraniansSlovincians Kashubians PolabiansObodrites Abodrites Obotrites proper Wagrians Warnower Polabians proper Linonen Drevani Veleti Wilzi succeeded by Lutici Liutici Kissini Kessiner Chizzinen Kyzziner Circipani Zirzipanen Tollensians Ucri Ukr an i Ukranen Rani Rujani Hevelli Stodorani Volinians Velunzani Pyritzans Prissani Czech Slovak group Czechs Moravians Slovaks Sorbian groupMilceni Upper Sorbs Lusatian Sorbs Lower Sorbs Linguistic grouping West Slavic languagesLechitic group Polans Lendians Silesians Wends Sorbs Vistulans Polabians Obodrites Slovincians Kashubians Gorals Highlanders Czech Slovak groupCzechs Bohemians Moravians SlovaksPopulationSee alsoSlavic peoples List of Slavic studies journals Czechization Polonization Slovakization East Slavs South Slavs Outline of Slavic history and cultureReferencesIlya Gavritukhin Vladimir Petrukhin 2015 Yury Osipov ed Slavs Great Russian Encyclopedia in 35 vol Vol 30 pp 388 389 Archived from the original on 2022 08 03 Retrieved 2022 08 03 Golab Zbigniew 1992 The Origins of the Slavs A Linguist s View Columbus Ohio Slavica Publishers pp 12 13 The present day Slavic peoples are usually divided into the three following groups West Slavic East Slavic and South Slavic This division has both linguistic and historico geographical justification in the sense that on the one hand the respective Slavic languages show some old features which unite them into the above three groups and on the other hand the pre and early historical migrations of the respective Slavic peoples distributed them geographically in just this way Sergey Skorvid 2015 Yury Osipov ed Slavic languages Great Russian Encyclopedia in 35 vol Vol 30 pp 396 397 389 Archived from the original on 2019 09 04 Retrieved 2022 08 03 Butcher Charity 2019 The handbook of cross border ethnic and religious affinities London p 90 ISBN 9781442250222 a href wiki Template Cite book title Template Cite book cite book a CS1 maint location missing publisher link Vico Giambattista 2004 Statecraft the deeds of Antonio Carafa De rebus gestis Antonj Caraphaei New York P Lang p 374 ISBN 9780820468280 Hart Anne 2003 The beginner s guide to interpreting ethnic DNA origins for family history how Ashkenazi Sephardi Mizrahi amp Europeans are related to everyone else New York N Y iUniverse p 57 ISBN 9780595283064 Wiarda Howard J 2013 Culture and foreign policy the neglected factor in international relations Burlington Vt Ashgate p 39 ISBN 9781317156048 Dunn Dennis J 2017 The Catholic Church and Soviet Russia 1917 39 New York pp 8 9 ISBN 9781315408859 a href wiki Template Cite book title Template Cite book cite book a CS1 maint location missing publisher link Bohemia and Poland Chapter 20 pp 512 513 in Timothy Reuter The New Cambridge Medieval History c 900 c 1024 2000 Curta 1997 p 141 144 152 153 Sedov 1953 p 94 Curta 1997 p 143 Curta 1997 p 152 153 Curta 1997 p 152 Christiansen Erik 1997 The Northern Crusades Archived 2023 10 06 at the Wayback Machine London Penguin Books p 41 ISBN 0 14 026653 4 Polabian language Archived from the original on 2020 02 24 Retrieved 2009 01 05 Krzysztof Tomasz Witczak 2013 Poselstwo ruskie w panstwie niemieckim w roku 839 Kulisy sledztwa w swietle danych Geografa Bawarskiego Slavia Orientalis in Polish and English 62 1 25 43 Archived from the original on 2022 03 11 Retrieved 2017 12 04 Jerzy Strzelczyk Bohemia and Poland two examples of successful western Slavonic state formation In Timothy Reuter ed The New Cambridge Medieval History c 900 c 1024 Cambridge University Press 1995 p 514 BibliographyGolab Zbigniew 1992 The Origins of the Slavs A Linguist s View Columbus Ohio Slavica Publishers pp 12 13 Curta Florin 1997 Slavs in Fredegar and Paul the Deacon medieval gens or scourge of God PDF Early Medieval Europe 6 2 Blackwell Publishers 141 167 doi 10 1111 1468 0254 00009 S2CID 162269231 Retrieved 17 August 2022 While being traditionally regarded at least in Polish historiography as forefathers of the western Slavs and therefore successors of the Veneti mentioned by Pliny Tacitus or Claudius Ptolemaeus recent studies argue that the name may have not been a self designation By calling the Slavs Wends German speaking groups may have alluded to a pre Slavic population It is however not clear how an ancient terminology came to be used in the case of the early medieval Slavs There may be a meaning behind Fredegar s presumably inconsistent ethnic vocabulary Perhaps Wends and Sclavenes are meant to denote a specific social and political configuration in which such concepts as state or ethnicity are relevant while Slavs is a more general term used in a territorial rather than an ethnic sense Samo as a merchant went in Sclauos to do business Sergey Skorvid 2015 Yury Osipov ed Slavic languages Great Russian Encyclopedia in 35 vol Vol 30 pp 396 397 389 Archived from the original on 2019 09 04 Retrieved 2022 08 03 Ilya Gavritukhin Vladimir Petrukhin 2015 Yury Osipov ed Slavs Great Russian Encyclopedia in 35 vol Vol 30 pp 388 389 Archived from the original on 2022 08 03 Retrieved 2022 08 03 Sedov Vasili 1953 Drevneslavănskoe yazyceskoe svătilise v Peryni Kratkie Soobseniă Instituta Istorii Materialnoy Kultury in Russian 50 92 103
