West Slavs
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Słowianie Zachodni ( Slavs |
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The West Slavs are
Today, groups which speak West Slavic languages include the
Linguistically, the West Slavic group can be divided into three subgroups: Lechitic, including Polish, Kashubian, and the extinct Polabian and Pomeranian languages; Sorbian in the region of Lusatia; and Czecho–Slovak in the Czech lands.[9]
History
In the Early Middle Ages, the name "Wends" (probably derived from the Roman-era Veneti) may have applied to Slavic peoples.[1] 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.[10]
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).[11] 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.[12] 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.[13] He further states that "Wends occur particularly in political contexts: the Wends, not the Slavs, made Samo their king."[14]
Other such alleged early West Slavic states include the
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:[17]
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[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 |
Tribal grouping
- Lechitic group[18]
- Poles
- Masovians
- Polans
- Lendians
- Vistulans
- Silesians
- Pomeranians[18]
- Polabians[18]
- Obodrites/Abodrites
- Obotrites proper
- Wagrians
- Warnower
- Polabians proper
- Linonen
- Travnjane
- Drevani
- Veleti (Wilzi), succeeded by Lutici (Liutici)
- Kissini(Kessiner, Chizzinen, Kyzziner)
- Circipani(Zirzipanen)
- Tollensians
- Redarier
- Ucri(Ukr(an)i, Ukranen)
- Rani (Rujani)
- Hevelli (Stodorani)
- Volinians(Velunzani)
- Pyritzans(Prissani)
- Czech–Slovak group
- Sorbian group[18]
- 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[18]
Population
See also
- Slavic peoples
- List of Slavic studies journals
- Czechization
- Polonization
- Slovakization
- East Slavs
- South Slavs
- Outline of Slavic history and culture
References
- ^ a b c 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.
- ISBN 9781442250222.)
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: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link - ISBN 9780820468280.
- ISBN 9780595283064.
- ISBN 9781317156048.
- ISBN 9781315408859.)
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: 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.
- ISBN 0-14-026653-4.
- ^ "Polabian language". Archived from the original on 2020-02-24. Retrieved 2009-01-05.
- ^ a b c d e f g 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.
- ^ a b c d e 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. S2CID 162269231. Retrieved 17 August 2022.as a merchant went in Sclauos to do business...
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
- 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.