Lechitic languages

Languages

• Polish, used by approximately 38 million native speakers in Poland and several million elsewhere. Polish is considered to have several dialects, including Greater Polish, Lesser Polish and Masovian, among others.
• Kashubian, used today by over 110,000 people in the eastern part of Pomerania. Sometimes it is considered a dialect of Polish;
• Silesian, used today by over 530,000 people in Polish Silesia and by some more people in Czech Silesia. The different varieties of Silesian are generally considered to be dialects of Polish and Czech.
• Slovincian, extinct since the early 20th century, a language formerly spoken in parts of Pomerania, sometimes identified with Kashubian and extinct Western Pomeranian dialects as a single Pomeranian language ;
• Polabian, extinct since the mid 18th century, a language formerly spoken by Slavic peoples in areas around the Elbe river in what is now the northeast of Germany.

  Features

• Preservation of nasal vowels.
• Development of proto-Slavic ě, e, ę into a, o, ǫ before hard alveolar consonants. This gives rise to alternations such as modern Polish lato vs. lecie, pięć vs. piąty.
• Retention of Proto-Slavic *dz as an affricate, rather than a plain fricative z.
• Lack of the g → ɣ transition. Compare Polish góra, Czech hora.
• The so-called fourth palatalization of velars in Polish and Kashubian: /k g/ > before the front vowel /e/.

  Etymology