Lach Silesian dialect and Cieszyn Silesian dialect

The Lach dialects, also known as Lachian dialects (, , ), are a group of West Slavic

dialect A dialect is a Variety (linguistics), variety of language spoken by a particular group of people. This may include dominant and standard language, standardized varieties as well as Vernacular language, vernacular, unwritten, or non-standardize ...

s that form a transition between the

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...

and

Czech language Czech ( ; ), historically known as Bohemian ( ; ), is a West Slavic language of the Czech–Slovak group, written in Latin script. Spoken by over 12 million people including second language speakers, it serves as the official language of the ...

. They are spoken in parts of

Czech Silesia Czech Silesia (; ) is the part of the historical region of Silesia now in the Czech Republic. While it currently has no formal boundaries, in a narrow geographic sense, it encompasses most or all of the territory of the Czech Republic within the ...

, the

Hlučín Region Hlučín Region (, , ) is a historically significant part of Czech Silesia, now part of the Moravian-Silesian Region in the Czech Republic. It is named after its largest town, Hlučín. Its area is , and in 2021, it had 66,750 inhabitants. Munici ...

, and northeastern

Moravia Moravia ( ; ) is a historical region in the eastern Czech Republic, roughly encompassing its territory within the Danube River's drainage basin. It is one of three historical Czech lands, with Bohemia and Czech Silesia. The medieval and early ...

, as well as in some adjacent villages in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. Most Czech researchers consider Lach a dialect of Czech, whereas Polish dialectologists tend to ascribe Polish origins to Lach. Lachian is divided into numerous subdialects (Western, Eastern and Southern), it can therefore also be regarded as a

dialect continuum A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of Variety (linguistics), language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are Mutual intelligibility, mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulat ...

, with limited

mutual intelligibility In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between different but related language varieties in which speakers of the different varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. Mutual intelli ...

between the eastern and western dialects. This dialectal differentiation is not typical for the Czech Republic, where there is a good deal of

dialect leveling Dialect levelling (or leveling in American English) is an overall reduction in the variation or diversity of a dialect's features when in contact with one or more other dialects. This can come about through assimilation, mixture, and merging o ...

, especially in the west of the republic. Most Lachs, especially younger speakers, now speak standard Czech, and use it as a written language, while Lach remains the language of everyday speech. Lachian contains many

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

loanword A loanword (also a loan word, loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language (the recipient or target language), through the process of borrowing. Borrowing is a metaphorical term t ...

s, according to some sources, up to 8% of the vocabulary. The poet

Óndra Łysohorsky Óndra Łysohorsky was the pseudonym of Ervín Goj (6 July 1905 – 19 December 1989), a Czech poet of Silesian origin and awareness. He is known for his works written in Lach language (intermediate between Czech and Polish) which was syst ...

is probably the best-known writer in Lachian. Łysohorsky was notable for refusing to write in Standard Czech, instead writing in the local dialect of Upper Silesia. In doing so, he contributed significantly to the development of the Lach literary language.Hannan 1996, 726.

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* Czech dialects Polish dialects Languages of the Czech Republic Languages of Poland {{Slavic-lang-stub

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