page_title: Dialects of Polish
hierarchical_section_title: Dialects of Polish
caption_attribution_description: Polski: Zasięgi dialektów polskich wg S. Urbańczyka (zmodyfikowane), na podstawie Gwary polskie. Przewodnik multimedialny pod redakcją H. Karaś
context_page_description: Modern sources on Slavic languages normally describe the Polish language as consisting of four major dialect groups, each primarily associated with a particular geographical region, and often further subdivided into subdialectal groups. They are:
  Greater Polish, spoken in the west
  Lesser Polish, spoken in the south and southeast
  Masovian, spoken throughout the central and eastern parts of the country
  Silesian spoken in the southwest
  The regional differences correspond mainly to old ethnic or tribal divisions from around a thousand years ago. As a result of 19th century measures taken by occupying powers, of expulsions plus other displacements of Poles during and after World War II, as well as language policy in the People's Republic of Poland, supplemented by broadcast media, the Polish language has become more homogenised than ever before in the second half of the 20th century.
  Traditional spoken Polish includes three more distinct dialect groups, adding to a total of eight.
  The remaining dialects have been put at risk of extinction due to historic geopolitical population movements. They are:
  Northern Kresy, spoken along the border between Lithuania and Belarus
context_section_description: Modern sources on Slavic languages normally describe the Polish language as consisting of four major dialect groups, each primarily associated with a particular geographical region, and often further subdivided into subdialectal groups (termed gwara in Polish). They are:
  Greater Polish, spoken in the west
  Lesser Polish, spoken in the south and southeast
  Masovian, spoken throughout the central and eastern parts of the country
  Silesian spoken in the southwest (sometimes also considered a separate language, see comment below)
  The regional differences correspond mainly to old ethnic or tribal divisions from around a thousand years ago. As a result of 19th century measures taken by occupying powers, of expulsions plus other displacements of Poles during and after World War II, as well as language policy in the People's Republic of Poland, supplemented by broadcast media, the Polish language has become more homogenised than ever before in the second half of the 20th century.
  Traditional spoken Polish includes three more distinct dialect groups, adding to a total of eight.
  The remaining dialects have been put at risk of extinction due to historic geopolitical population movements. They are: 
  Northern Kresy, spoken along the border between Lithuania and Belarus
  Southern Kresy, spoken in isolated pockets in Ukraine
  The distinctive Podhale dialect (Góralski) that occurs in the mountainous area bordering the Czech and Slovak Republics. The Gorals highlanders have a distinct culture and dialect. It exhibits some cultural influences from Vlach shepherds who migrated from Wallachia (southern Romania) in the 14th-17th centuries. The language of the coextensive Eastern Slavic people, the Lemkos, which demonstrates significant lexical and grammatical commonality with the Góralski dialect and Ukrainian, bears no significant Vlach or other Romanian influences. Some urban Poles find this very distinct dialect difficult to understand.
caption: A map showing the major Polish dialects: Lesser Polish, Greater Polish, Mazovian, Silesian, and the new mixed dialects in Recovered Territories of western Poland (areas resettled by Polish speakers after World War II). The Kashubian language is also shown.
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