Slovak language, Slovak Slovenčina, West Slavic language closely related to Czech, Polish, and the Sorbian languages of eastern Germany.
Czech language, formerly Bohemian, Czech Čeština, West Slavic language closely related to Slovak, Polish, and the Sorbian languages of eastern Germany.
Polish language, Polish Język Polski, 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 region, home to a Slavic ethnic minority that calls itself (and its language) Sorbian, relies in part on agriculture and exports of its trademark thick spicy gherkins flavored with mustard, dill or garlic, in addition to tourism, which first blossomed in the late 1880s.
There are two literary languages: Upper Sorbian, used around Bautzen (Budyšin), and Lower Sorbian, used around Cottbus.
The Polabian language bordered the Sorbian dialects, which are still spoken by inhabitants of Lusatia in eastern Germany.
Recognized native minority languages in Germany are Danish, Low German, Sorbian, Romany, and Frisian; they are officially protected by the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.
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.
Languages such as Polish, Czech, and Russian, which have served as a basis for great literatures, have become models for others that are only now being put to literary use (although for such languages as Kashubian and, to some degree, for Sorbian, the folk literature remains much more important as a model than individual literary works and translations of past centuries).
Among the West Slavic languages are Polish, Czech and Slovak, Upper and Lower Sorbian of eastern Germany, and the Kashubian language of northern Poland.
These parameters are used as a basis for dividing the Slavic languages into the western group of Czech, Slovak, Slovene, Sorbian, the eastern group of Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Bulgarian and the transitional zone of Serbo-Croatian and Polish.
