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Słowianie zachodni (Polish) Západní Slované (Czech) Západní Slovania (Slovak) Западни Слованя (Pannonian Rusyn) Zôpôdni Słowiónie (Kashubian) Pódwjacorne Słowjany (Lower Sorbian) Zapadni Słowjenjo (Upper Sorbian) Zachodniy Słowjońe (Silesian) | |
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 Countries where aWest Slavic language is the national language Countries where other Slavic languages are the national language | |
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| OtherSlavs |
TheWest Slavs areSlavic peoples who speak theWest Slavic languages.[1][2] They separated from thecommon Slavic group around the 7th century, and established independent polities inCentral Europe by the 8th to 9th centuries.[1] The West Slavic languages diversified into their historically attested forms over the 10th to 14th centuries.[3]
Today, groups which speak West Slavic languages include thePoles,Czechs,Slovaks,Silesians,Kashubians, andSorbs.[4][5][6] From the ninth century onwards, most West Slavs converted toRoman Catholicism, thus coming under the cultural influence of theLatin Church, adopting theLatin alphabet, and tending to be more closely integrated into cultural and intellectual developments inwestern Europe than theEast Slavs, who converted toEastern Orthodox Christianity and adopted theCyrillic alphabet.[7][8]
Linguistically, the West Slavic group can be divided into three subgroups:Lechitic, includingPolish,Silesian,Kashubian, and the extinctPolabian andPomeranian languages;Sorbian in the region ofLusatia; andCzecho–Slovak in theCzech lands.[9]
In theEarly Middle Ages, the name "Wends" (probably derived from the Roman-eraVeneti) may have applied to Slavic peoples.[1] However, sources such as theChronicle of Fredegar andPaul 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.[10]
Theearly 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 theCarolingian Empire, along theLimes Saxoniae. Prior to theMagyar invasion of Pannonia in the 890s, the West Slavic polity ofGreat 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 GermanOstsiedlung, decisively so following theWendish Crusade in the 11th century.
Theearly Slavic expansion began in the 5th century, and by the 6th century the groups that would become the West,East, andSouth 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 thePagan sanctuaries of the closed (long) type, while the East Slavic sanctuaries had a round (most often open) shape (see also:Peryn).[11] Early modern historiographers such as Penzel (1777) and Palacky (1827) have claimedSamo's Empire to be first independent Slavic state in history by taking Fredegar's Wendish account at face value.[12] Curta (1997) argued that the text is not as straightforward: according to Fredegar, Wends were agens,Sclavini merely agenus, and there was no "Slavic"gens.[13] He further states that "Wends occur particularly in political contexts: the Wends, not the Slavs, madeSamo their king."[14]
Other such alleged early West Slavic states include thePrincipality of Moravia (8th century–833), thePrincipality of Nitra (8th century–833), andGreat 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 theWagrians,Obodrites (or Abotrites), thePolabians, the Liutizians or Wilzians, the Rugians or Rani, the Sorbs, the Lusatians, the Poles, and the Pomeranians (later divided into Pomerelians and Cassubians).[15] They came under the domination of theHoly Roman Empire after theWendish Crusade[citation needed] in the Middle Ages and had been stronglyassimilated byGermans at the end of the 19th century.[citation needed] ThePolabian language survived until the beginning of the 19th century in what is now the German state ofLower Saxony.[16]
Various attempts have been made to group the West Slavs into subgroups according to various criteria, including geography, historical tribes, and linguistics.
In 845 theBavarian Geographer made a list of West Slavic tribes who lived in the areas of modern-dayPoland,Czech Republic,Germany andDenmark:[17]
| Pos. | Latin name in 845 | English name | no. ofgords |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nortabtrezi | NorthObotrites | 53 |
| 2 | Uuilci | Veleti | 95 |
| 7 | Hehfeldi | Hevellians | 8 |
| 14 | Osterabtrezi | EastObotrites | 100 |
| 15 | Miloxi | Milceni[17] | 67 |
| 16 | Phesnuzi | Besunzane[17] | 70 |
| 17 | Thadesi | Dadosesani[17] | 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[17] | 20 |
| 52 | Milzane | Milceni | 30 |
| 53 | Besunzane | Phesnuzi[17] | 2 |
| 56 | Lupiglaa | Łupigoła[17] | 30 |
| 57 | Opolini | Opolans | 20 |
| 58 | Golensizi | Golensizi | 5 |
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.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)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 wentin Sclauos to do business...
| East Slavs | .svg) | |
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| West Slavs | ||
| South Slavs | ||
