Speakers of Lechitic West Slavic languages in the region of Poland
Lechites
(
Polish
:
Lechici
,
German
:
Lechiten
),
[1]
also known as the
Lechitic tribes
(
Polish
:
Plemiona lechickie
,
German
:
Lechitische Stamme
), is a name given to certain
West Slavic
tribes
who inhabited modern-day
Poland
and eastern Germany, and were speakers of the
Lechitic languages
. Distinct from the
Czech?Slovak subgroup
, they are the closest ancestors of ethnic
Poles
and of
Pomeranians
,
Lusatians
and
Polabians
.
[2]
[3]
History
[
edit
]
According to Polish legend,
Mieszko I
inherited the ducal throne from his father who probably ruled over two-thirds of the territory inhabited by eastern Lechite tribes. He united the Lechites east of the
Oder
(
Polans
,
Masovians
,
Pomeranians
,
Vistulans
,
Silesians
) into a single country of
Poland
. His son,
Bolesław I the Brave
, founded the bishoprics at
Wrocław
,
Kołobrzeg
, and
Krakow
, and an archbishopric at
Gniezno
. Bolesław carried out successful wars against
Bohemia
,
Moravia
,
Kievan Rus'
and
Lusatia
, and forced the western Pomeranians to pay Poland a tribute. Shortly before his death Bolesław became the first King of Poland in 1025.
Lechitic group
[
edit
]
Lechitic languages
[
edit
]
The
West Slavs
included the ancestors of the peoples known later as
Poles
,
Pomeranians
,
Czechs
,
Slovaks
,
Sorbs
and
Polabians
. The northern so-called Lechitic group includes, along with Polish, endangered
Pomeranian
and
Polabian
, a dead language;
Silesian
, which is variously considered a Polish dialect or a language in its own right, is also part of this group. The
Sorbian languages
of the southern part of the Polabian area, preserved as relics today in Upper and
Lower Lusatia
, occupy a place between the Lechitic and Czech-Slovak groups.
[5]
The name
Lech
[
edit
]
The name
Lech
or
Leszek
, Lestko, Leszko, Lestek, and Lechosław is a very popular name in Poland. Lech was a popular male name among members of
Piast dynasty
like
Lestko
,
Leszek I the White
,
Leszek II the Black
,
Leszek, Duke of Masovia
,
Leszek of Raciborz
.
The oldest part of
Gniezno
, in the center of
Great Poland
, is known as
Wzgorze Lecha
("Lech's Hill") as well as
Gora Krolewska
("Royal Hill").
Lestko
(also Lestek, Leszek), mentioned in the
Gesta principum Polonorum
,
[6]
[7]
[8]
completed between 1112 and 1118 by
Gallus Anonymus
, was the second
legendary
duke of
Poland
and the son of
Siemowit
, born ca. 870?880. The
Res gestae saxonicae sive annalium libri tres
chronicle of 10th-century
Germany
, written by
Widukind of Corvey
, noted that
Mieszko I
(son of
Siemomysł
and grandchild of Lestek), ruled over the tribe called the
Licicaviki
,
[9]
who lived in what is now Poland and were known as "Lestkowici" - the tribe of Lestek identified by the historians with the
Lendians
.
Wincenty Kadłubek
in
Chronica seu originale regum et principum Poloniae
(Chronicles of the Kings and Princes of Poland), written between 1190 and 1208, used the names
Lechitae
(Lechites),
lechiticus
(lechitic) and
Lechia
many times to describe all of medieval Poland.
[10]
[11]
Chronicle of Greater Poland
1273 described
Casimir I the Restorer
as "king of Poles means Lechites".
[12]
Both the names "Poles" and "Lechites" were used in medieval Poland as adequate terms. "Laesir is the
Old Norse
term for the Ljachar, a people near the
Vistula
in Poland".
[13]
Different forms of the name
Lechia
to designate the Polish state persist in several
European languages
and in some languages of
Central Asia
and the
Middle East
: "Lehia" in
Romanian
, "Lahestan/??????" in
Persian
(and via borrowing from Persian: "Lehastan" in
Armenian
, and "Lehistan" in the
Ottoman Turkish
).
Legends
[
edit
]
In Polish literature
Lech
was also the name of the legendary founder of Poland. The legend describes three brothers, Lech, ?ech, and Rus – who founded three Slavic nations:
Poland
(also known as
Lechia
),
Bohemia
(
?echy
, now known as the
Czech Republic
), and
Rus
(
Ruthenia
). In this legend Lech was the founder of
Gniezno
.
Three brothers Lech, Czech and Rus were exploring the wilderness to find a place to settle. Suddenly they saw a hill with an old oak and an eagle on top. Lech said: this white eagle I will adopt as an emblem of my people, and around this oak I will build my stronghold, and because of the eagle nest (Polish:
gniazdo
) I will call it Gniezdno (modern:
Gniezno
). The other brothers went further on to find a place for their people. Czech went to the South
(to found the
Czech Lands
)
and Rus went to the East
(to create
Rus'
).
[12]
A variant of this legend, involving only two brothers Lech and ?ech, was first written down by
Cosmas of Prague
of
Bohemia
. The legend was described by
Kronika wielkopolska
("Greater Poland Chronicle"),
[14]
written in 1273 in Latin, and
Chronicle of Dalimil
, written in Czech in 1314.
[15]
See also
[
edit
]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to
Lechites
.
Look up
lechites
in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Tadeusz Lehr-Spławi?ski
. J?zyk polski. 1978
- ^
"Laesir is the
Old Norse
term for the Ljachar, a people near the
Vistula
in Poland". [in:] Theodore Murdock Andersson, Kari Ellen Gade Morkinskinna: The Earliest Icelandic Chronicle of the Norwegian Kings (1030?1157).
ISBN
978-0-8014-3694-9
p. 471; "The word here for Poles is "Laesum" ? the dative plural from a nominative plural "Laesir". This clearly is derived from the old name for Pole ? "Lyakh", since in the course of the Slavonic paradigm -
kh
- becomes -
s
-in accordance with the "second palatalization" and the addition of the regular Norse plural ending of -
ir
- [...] [in:] The Ukrainian review. 1963. p. 70; "eastern
Wends
, meaning obviously the Vjatyci/Radimici, Laesir "
Poles
" or "
Western Slavs
" (ef. Old Rus'ian
ljaxy
) [in:] Omeljan Pritsak. Old Scandinavian sources other than the sagas. 1981. p. 300
- ^
"
Vandalis
,
Gothis
,
Longobardis
,
Rugis
et
Gepidis
, quos vacant aliqui
Cimbros
, quos hodie vocamus
Pomeranos
" [in:]
Jan Długosz
. Annales seu cronicae incliti Regni Poloniae. t. I., p. 35
- ^
a
b
Henryk Paszkiewicz.
The making of the Russian nation
. Greenwood Press. 1977. p. 353.
- ^
Bohemia and Poland. Chapter 20.pp 512-513. [in:] Timothy Reuter. The New Cambridge Medieval History: c. 900-c.1024. 2000
- ^
Knoll & Schaer (eds.), Gesta Principum Polonorum: The Deeds of the Princes of the Poles, (Budapest, 2003
- ^
Ljudmila Mikhailovna Popova (ed.), Gall Anonim, Khronika u Deianiia Kniazei ili Pravitelei Polskikh, (Moscow, 1961
- ^
Laurence Mizler de Kolof (ed.), Historiarum Poloniae et Magni Ducatus Lithuaniae Scriptorum Quotquot Ab Initio Reipublicae Polonae Ad Nostra Usque Temporar Extant Omnium Collectio Magna, (Warsaw, 1769
- ^
Wood, Raymond F. (tr.). "The three books of the deeds of the Saxons, by Widukind of Corvey, translated with introduction, notes, and bibliography." Dissertation. University of California, Los Angeles, 1949. English translation
- ^
"Text of "Chronica seu originale regum et principum Poloniae" in Latin"
.
Archived
from the original on 2021-07-12
. Retrieved
2011-01-04
.
- ^
"Monumenta Poloniae historica" T. 2 red.
August Bielowski
, Lwow 1872
- ^
a
b
"Kronika wielkopolska" ("Greater Poland Chronicle"), Kazimierz Abgarowicz, Brygida Kurbisowna, PWN, Warszawa 1965, second edition Krakow 2010,
ISBN
978-83-242-1275-0
- ^
Theodore Murdock Andersson, Kari Ellen Gade Morkinskinna: The Earliest Icelandic Chronicle of the Norwegian Kings (1030?1157).
ISBN
978-0-8014-3694-9
p. 471
- ^
Brygida Kurbisowna, "Studia nad Kronik? wielkopolsk?", Pozna?skie Towarzystwo Przyjacioł Nauk, Pozna? 1952
- ^
Die alttschechische Reimchronik des sogenannten Dalimil, Munich: Sagner, 1981