West Slavs

West Slavic ethnic group

The Czechs (, ; singular Czech, masculine: Čech , singular feminine: Češka ), or the Czech people (), are a West Slavic ethnic group and a nation native to the Czech Republic in Central Europe, who share a common ancestry, culture, history, and the Czech language.

The Slovaks ( (historical Sloveni ), singular: Slovák (historical: Sloven ), feminine: Slovenka , plural: Slovenky ) are a West Slavic ethnic group and nation native to Slovakia who share a common ancestry, culture, history and speak the Slovak language.

Sorbs (; ; ; ; ; ; also known as Lusatians, Lusatian Serbs and Wends) are an indigenous West Slavic ethnic group predominantly inhabiting the parts of Lusatia located in the German states of Saxony and Brandenburg. Sorbs traditionally speak the Sorbian languages (also known as "Wendish" and "Lusatian"), which are closely related to Polish (Lechitic languages) and Czech, Slovak. Upper Sorbian and Lower Sorbian are officially recognized minority languages in Germany.

thumb|230px|The Limes Saxoniae border between the [[Saxons and the Lechites Obotrites, established about 810 in present-day Schleswig-Holstein]] right|230px|thumb|Germaniae veteris typus (Old Germany). Aestui, Venedi, Gythones and [[Ingaevones are visible on the right upper corner of the map. Edited by Willem and Joan Blaeu, 1645.]]

group of Slavic peoples speaking the West Slavic languages (Czechs, Poles, Slovaks, Sorbs, Kashubians, Moravians, Silesians), separating from the common Slavic group around the 7th century in Central Europe

The Obotrites (, Abodritorum, Abodritos) or Obodrites, also spelled Abodrites (), were a confederation of medieval West Slavic tribes within the territory of modern Mecklenburg and Holstein in northern Germany (see Polabian Slavs). For decades, they were allies of Charlemagne in his wars against the Germanic Saxons and the Slavic Veleti. The Obotrites under Prince Thrasco defeated the Saxons in the Battle of Bornhöved (798). The still-Pagan Saxons were dispersed by the emperor, and the part of their former land in Holstein north of Elbe was awarded to the Obotrites in 804, as a reward for thei

Samo ( – ) was the founder and sole ruler of the first recorded unified tribal polity of Slavs, later known as ''Samo's realm'', ruling from 623 until his death in 658. According to Fredegar—the earliest source about Samo and the one from which all later ones derive—he was a Frankish merchant from Sens.

thumb|Moravia within the European Union Moravians ( or colloquially , outdated ) are a Czech ethnographic group from the Moravia region of the Czech Republic, who speak the Moravian dialects of Czech or Common Czech or a mixed form of both. They are not a separate ethnicity instead, a subgroup of the ethnic Czech people, as is recognized by most Moravians but a part of the group's population 'ethnically' identifies as 'Moravian', registered in Czech censuses since 1991. The figure has fluctuated and in the 2011 census, 6.01% of the Czech population declared Moravian as their 'ethnicity'. Small

thumb|right|300px|Places and peoples associated with Rugii-like names in different historical periods, including Rogaland, [[Rugiland (5th century); Rügen]]

thumb|Masovians as Mazowszanie around the mid-Vistula River region Masovians, also spelled as Mazovians, and historically known as Masurians, is an ethnographic group of Polish people that originates from the region of Masovia, located mostly within borders of the Masovian Voivodeship, Poland. They speak the Masovian dialect of Polish.

The Masurians or Mazurs (; ; Masurian: Mazurÿ), historically also known as Prussian Masurians (Polish: Mazurzy pruscy), are a Polish ethnic group originating from the region of Masuria, within the modern-day Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, Poland. They number around 5,000 to 15,000 people. In the 2011 Polish census, 1,376 individuals declared themselves to be Masurian as either a first or a secondary identification. Before World War II and its post-war expulsions, Masurians used to be a more numerous ethnic group found in the southern parts of East Prussia for centuries. Today, most Masurians li

human-geographic territorial entity

thumb|170px|right|Girls wearing unmarried women's dresses during a Corpus Christi (feast)|Corpus Christi procession in Jeżyce, a borough of Poznań Bambers, also known as Poznań Bambergians, are Poles who are partly descended from Germans who moved from the area of Bamberg (Upper Franconia, Germany) to villages surrounding Poznań, Poland. They settled in villages which had been destroyed during the Great Northern War and the subsequent epidemic of plague, including: 1719 in Luboń 1730 in Dębiec, Jeżyce, Winiary and Bonin 1746–1747 in Rataje and Wilda 1750–1753 in Jeżyce and Górczyn

Podlachians, also known as Podlachian Masurians, are an ethnographic group of Polish people that inhabit an area of Podlachia in Poland, including Podlaskie and Lublin Voivodeships.

The Chods () are an ethnic group who used to live in western Bohemia. They lived in an arc of villages near the western border of what is today the Czech Republic, including major population centres in Domažlice, Tachov and Přimda (together called the Chod region, , ).

Kuyavians is an ethnographic group of Polish people, that originate from the region of Kuyavia, located within the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship and eastern Greater Poland Voivodeship in Poland. They speak the Kuyavian subdialect of the Greater Poland dialect cluster of Polish language. The group itself been influenced by nearby groups of Pomeranians and Greater Poland people.

thumb|A Lasowiacy cabin from the village of Huta Przedborska, now at the open-air museum in [[Kolbuszowa]]

thumb|upright=1.3|The Lučans on a map of historiographically abandoned Bohemians (tribe)#Hypothesis about the Czech tribes|hypothesis about the Czech tribes.